During the pandemic, e-Commerce businesses have added an estimated $318B to the US economy alone (digitalcommerce360.com, 2022).

Their secret weapon? Video marketing.

According to HubSpot (2022), at online businesses:

• Up to 86% of marketing professionals say video has been the most effective medium for generating leads
• 81% of marketing managers feel video has a direct and supremely positive impact on sales, and
• 94% of marketers agree that videos alone have assisted in increasing user understanding of the product or service they are selling/launching

While it’s clear that video marketing works, it pays dividends to understand the layers of content strategy that sit behind these stats. Luckily, as a corporate video production company well-versed in the art of effective content, we can help you get ahead of your competitors!

Here’s 5 of our Top Tips for untold video marketing success – and, trust us… they’re all within your reach!

1. Make your video tell a story – don’t pitch for a sale

The latest research (The Drum 2022) suggests that around 80% of people want brands to tell better stories.

In other words, no-one is looking to be sold to. Instead, people want to see real content that tells real human stories, without having a product or service shoved in front of them.

Telling a great story is vital to great video marketing. But how do video production companies do it? Here are our top tips on what to consider during the planning and storytelling process:

• Firstly, know your audience: who wants to hear your story and what kinds of narratives, values and messages do they value?
• It’s time to define your message: what message or idea do you want audiences to ‘take home’ with them?
• Decide on the kind of story you want to tell: is it funny? Sad? Emotional? Inspiring? Defining the emotion will help you make creative decisions are talent, script and content
• Define your video marketing Call to Action (CTA): what do you want audiences to do after watching your video?
• Develop your video marketing script and/or storyboard: pour time and effort into developing and road-testing the script on members of your intended audience

Is your video marketing content enough to stop the scroll in its tracks?

2. Make the first 4 seconds of your video marketing count

The research consistently demonstrates that we only have up to 4 seconds of a prospective client/audience’s attention to make an impact.

So – how are you using the first 4 seconds of your video marketing content? Here are some of our top tips for best utilising that precious video marketing real estate:

• Start with a hook – a joke, a statement, or even a question posed to the audience is a great way to start (you can answer it as the video goes on!)
• Bring out your big guns – although great-quality video marketing content is unlikely to lose the interest of your audience, the research shows us that after 4 seconds, drop-off is more likely – so, don’t forget to show your logo, brand colours, and key messaging all within the first few frames, if possible
• Use humour – in the darkest of times, humour is always appreciated! Consider how you might use wit to carefully shape an introduction to your video that is considered, impactful and memorable

One of the best openers to an excerpt of video marketing? Check out Dollar Shave Club below:

3. Include captions in your marketing video

Better late than never, 2022 is all about content inclusivity. 

Not only do closed captions help you engage a wider audience (as much as 80% of an audience are more likely to watch a video if it’s close captioned – Verizon Media and Publicis Media (2019)) but these also make your videos more accessible to those who are Deaf, non-Hearing, Hard-of-Hearing, or otherwise.

In fact, as many marketing teams now realise, the less inclusive your videos, the more sales you’re losing out on. Inclusivity in video marketing is all about opening your content – and business, by default – to a wider-than-ever-before catchment of potential customers.

4. End your marketing video with a Call To Action (CTA)

One other surefire way of helping your content boost ROI to a greater extent is to end your video with a distinct, clarified CTA.

What is a CTA, you ask? Well, for those who need a little revision, a CTA is essentially a marketing term for any design element (text, visual, or otherwise) created in order to prompt an immediate response or sale in an audience. A CTA can be a message, a click button, an email address, or otherwise. Put simply, it’s the content that encourages your audience undertake the desired action after they’ve engaged with your content.

So – how can you add a CTA to your video? Treat your content like an important cog in the sales funnel. Exactly what do you what your content to achieve?

We suggest to our clients that you begin here: consider exactly what it is that you want to achieve (e.g. customers signing up to an email list, or customers buying a monthly subscription) then work backwards from there – what is the best way to achieve that via a CTA, and what does that look like? Then, speak with you video production company about how best to elicit this – it could be by adding contact details to your video, by scripting in a CTA for talent to speak out/discuss, or otherwise.

How might you use emotion to elicit stronger action by your audience? 

5. Put more time and effort into the development of your video marketing content strategy

The one thing we encourage all marketing teams to do is consider weighting more time towards the strategic planning and developing of their video marketing. 

At Pickle Pictures, we love sitting down with our clients – either in-person, or online – to shape a tailored, comprehensive and 100% innovative content strategy fit for your mission, goals and aims.

When you pour more time into development, you ensure longer-lasting, more sustainable content that works harder for you in the long-run.

Are you ready? We can’t wait to meet you.