A successful video marketing campaign takes two things: A great story, and a great plan. Here are four things you should be thinking about before a single word is written on that killer script.

1) What is the goal?

All things point toward the goal

Everything in your video and overall campaign must have purpose. Sounds pretty obvious, right? Well, you can get lost in the weeds pretty quick when you get into the thick of making your video marketing campaign. 

A video marketing is powerful because it offers a visual and immersive experience that can grab and hold an audience’s attention.

So what’s your goal? Are you guiding customers toward a purchase? Having them sign up for a newsletter? Informing them on how a product or service works? Keeping the goal in mind should be guiding every decision you make while creating your videos.

You’ve heard about the messaging in your videos a million times. Here are some things that we’ve noticed a lot of brands may not think about, but certainly helps with that goal.

Design

Yes, even the design in your videos needs to have a big, fat arrow guiding your customers toward that goal. Think ahead and talk with your designer and/or video producer about what colors, overlays and graphics to use in your videos to really solidify what your audience’s eyes and ears should be paying attention to. By the time they get further down the funnel, you can use that expectation of design to really make those Call-To-Action buttons pop!

Action / Movement

This is where video takes the cake from any other type of content used in your marketing strategy. Having brightly colored CTAs in your headers, overlays, and graphics are great, but taking advantage of what video can do by adding animation and movement will really draw the eye and encourage your customers to take the next step in your funnel. Take advantage of those frames!

Rhythm and Timing

Are you writing scripts? You should be.

I want you to think about your videos like the delivery of a great joke. Every good joke has a beat to it, just like music. A rat-a-tat-tat and BOOM. That boom is the punchline of a joke and should be the call-to-action for your video. More times than I care to see, videos are pumped out without much thought toward the script and that is a big mistake.

2) What’s your approach for engagement and shareability?

Make no mistake, the tone of your business has major potential for power. Often times, tone is largely ignored or under utilized. You see it manifest a lot of times as a guiding principle in your PR, your website, infographics, and other things, but rarely is it front and center.

Well, guess what? Company tone in your videos isn’t just a guide tool, it’s a power tool.

Here are a few approaches to boost your videos for maximum impact.

Emotional

Emotion is powerful and if it’s right for your business’ tone, then you have the potential for a powerhouse of a video for your campaign. I can’t tell you how many times a commercial video shows up in my social media feed because it made a family member feel compelled to share it. Hope is powerful. Use it.

Example:

Social Service / Charity

Have you thought about putting that marketing campaign toward making the world a better place?

We as a society love to see when a business takes a stand and does a solid for humanity.

And bonus points, if you really demonstrate a powerful and hopeful message, you didn’t just market your brand, you may have just restored a little bit of faith back into humanity.

Example:

WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT

Education / Information

By and large, this has been the biggest focus for businesses that use video in their marketing strategies. And why shouldn’t it be? It’s easy to talk about what you know and if anyone knows your product or service, it’s you.

But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be entertaining. In fact, there’s a term for that; infotainment and it should be considered every step of the way. In fact, there is a good chance another brand has already covered an explanation of what your business does in some general way. Pest control? Someone has a video explaining the process. Selling shoes? Yes, we know about the patented design made by an astronaut.

So what’s your angle? Well, look above this section. Entertainment and along with it, production value. Your audience is more likely to watch and share a video with higher production quality and is more entertaining, even if the info is the same. 

Example:

Humor

This is a tricky one and takes the right brand and the right people to pull off. Done right, a humorous video has gigantic potential. You know what I’m going to mention; the viral video. It is the gold nugget of the marketing world but it is as rare and elusive as a leprechaun riding a unicorn through Atlantis. 

Now should that deter you from trying? No!

Even if you don’t hit that viral status, if done well, your funny video will more likely be shared than a generic one. Everyone loves a good laugh.

Example:

Why are we sharing that old, overused viral video example you’ve seen over and over? Because in the first 48 hours after the video debuted on YouTube, some 12,000 people signed up for the service. Cost of production? $4,500.

Ask us how we can do the same for you.

A note about using Actors

If it’s more of a commercial and in the budget, use an actor. Period.

Yes, there are a few exceptions like vlogs or we need to see a real person within the company giving a testimonial, but if it makes sense to use and actor, do it. 

Maybe I’m a bit biased because I’m married to an actor but it goes back to the quality equals trust formula. The more quality your audience sees, the more they are going trust your brand and the more likely they will choose you over the next business. To put it bluntly, bad acting leaves a bad taste in your mouth and that is not the impression you want to give.

3) Strategy and Tech before Script

Chances are, your video is not going to be a juicy steak thrown into a lion’s den. It is not going to be eaten up as soon as it lands. You need a strategy and even better, you need strategy and tech to make sure your video is leveraged to the max.

Technology

Have you thought about creating an interactive video? It doesn’t have to have a million bells and whistles, maybe just a signup form at the end or an email capture to proceed. Taking advantage of interactive videos this day and age is a no-brainer and psst still only a handful of brands are using them.

You know what else is easier in this day an age? Live broadcasting or as we in the future call it, live streaming. This will take a bit more know-how to get set up, manage and even more planning but maybe it makes sense for your brand to air a live show or event. Live events and streaming has a monumental advantage for getting name recognition and making your brand more human and relatable. Bonus: Social Media sites are in love with them and at the moment, it’s a quick way to the top of a feed.

Keywords

Yes, keywords are a thing for videos. As with any keyword research, you need to plan your videos around them or at least keep them in mind during the writing process. More than that, you need to consider what questions are being asked by your audience and answer them accordingly. Buzzwords just don’t cut it in this day and age.

Planning and writing a SMART script ahead of time and coaching your actors, interviewees or narrator to use those keywords or answers will do wonders. That research isn’t just for the video but for the title, the description, hashtags, keywords and transcript for every platform you upload to.

Analytics

Analytics shouldn’t only come into play after the video is released. You should be making plans with analytics in mind from the very beginning.

You can make decisions now, in the planning phase of your videos, on what you’re going to do based on the analytics of your videos. Create your strategy, maybe a decision tree of how you’ll react based on analytical results during a the life of a campaign so you won’t lose any time or opportunities while that video is live and being seen.

This really is where A/B or split testing videos can make a big difference. Based on analytics, one of your split videos will do better at guiding your audience further down the funnel and lead toward more conversions. But what is that threshold? A discrepancy of 50%? 30%? 10%?

Plan ahead on how you’re going to use your video’s analytics before you launch your campaign and you will move quick and fast and not lose any conversions.

Ask us about our SMART videos. It’s a great option for getting your video produced, and just as important, seen.

4) The Funnel

Long or short, your campaign should be using some form of a funnel. Guiding your audience through the decision making process is crucial to meet your needs. Videos, if done right, can be like steroids for your funnel.

The question is, how are you going to use videos in your funnel? Are you only going to make a rabbit hole or top-of-funnel video? Or will you also use video to help engage and navigate your customers step by step, all the way through? If you can, you should be doing the latter.

The Top of Funnel or the Tent Pole or the Rabbit Hole

Every great funnel has a wide opening to gain as much interest from a demographic as possible, which then narrows to the point of asking the audience to make a decision. Every part of the funnel is crucial, especially the top of the funnel which requires the ability to create intrigue and interest in your business, product or service. So it’s incredibly important that your top-of-funnel content is strong, eye-catching and engaging in every way.

To borrow a term from Hollywood, this is your Tent Pole video, or in transmedia terms, your Rabbit Hole video. You want that video to really hit the nail on the head with mass appeal, be enticing, and shareable. A lot of times, this is your well-polished “commercial” video with a strong story, great acting and high production value.

Guiding through the Funnel Videos

Now not every video needs to be a full commercial production. Videos can and should be used throughout the funnel process and you can find a lot more information about this here.

Generally speaking, you want to help your audience make a decision whether or not your product or service is right for them. Using videos are proven to be incredibly successful for conversion in showcasing testimonials, product demonstrations, case studies and more.

End of Funnel

The end of the funnel is arguably just as important as the top. Extra consideration should be taken when deciding on the video that will help your audience make that final decision. While production value might not be as important as a video at the top of the funnel, choosing your call to action messaging and interactivity at the end of the funnel is crucial.

Don’t forget that A/B testing!

To Consider

There are no hard and fast rules for when and where a video should be used, but we do know that a video is four times as likely to be watched over content being read. In this day and age of limited market share and aggressive competition, finding that edge is more important than ever. Using video just makes sense, so having a plan before you launch that video marketing campaign will make all the difference in the world. Good luck!