In the past decade, video marketing has seen a surge in popularity.
Videos are much cheaper to produce now (thanks to advances in camera technology and video software) and with a lower barrier to entry, video marketing has become a viable option for brands and businesses of all sizes.
Videos are a powerful marketing tool. It’s a content format that’s easy to consume and keeps your customers engaged at every stage of the buying journey.
Once seen as a single piece of the puzzle, videos have now become the central focus of entire marketing campaigns. According to a study by HubSpot, 54% of consumers surveyed prefer video over other content types, including emails, images and blog articles.
As with any large scale project, starting a video production is a daunting task. It’s important to have a proper video marketing strategy that allows you to maximise your video’s potential.
In this article, we’ll be giving you some tips on how to optimise your video marketing strategy.
“Begin with the end in mind … with a clear understanding of your destination”.
- Stephen R. Covey
Before you even start planning, make sure you’re clear on what you want to achieve from your video. Your marketing objectives will greatly influence the type of video that you should be producing.
Broadly speaking, there are 3 types of objectives in video marketing: awareness, consideration and conversion.
As its name suggests, the goal of the video is to attract potential customers that are new to your brand. Videos with this objective usually focus on highlighting a problem that the viewer may have, followed by how the advertiser’s product or service can rectify the problem.
This type of video is targeted at more informed viewers who are already looking for a solution to a problem that your brand can help fix.
Aimed at viewers who are ready to convert. Your video should make viewers remember your brand favourably, present your prospects with proof of customer satisfaction and also set you apart from your competitors.
You might be wondering: why is this stage needed for video strategy?
Your video needs to resonate with your target audience, so you need to produce a video that caters to their demographic.
For example, if your target audience is in Singapore, you’re probably not going to shoot a video in a cold, winter setting (unless perhaps you’re an air-conditioning brand). Likewise, if you’re targeting the boomer generation, then casting a TikTok star like Bella Poarch is probably a bad choice.
How about casting Mark Lee and Gurmit Singh in a Shopee ad targeting Singaporeans who grew up watching them on national television?
Jackpot.
There are many ways you can segment your target audience but, generally speaking, you can use the following:
As mentioned above, your marketing goals will determine the type of video you’re producing.
Consider the key message the key message you’re trying to convey. How do you want your audience to feel about your brand, and what’s the one thing your want them to remember from your video?
Depending on your answer, you may be better off producing one particular type of video over the other. In general, there’re 2 types of videos you can produce; live action and animation.
Live action is what people usually associate with videos - basically referring to any form of cinematography or videography that uses photography, which usually involves a film crew and a post-production crew.
Live action videos are commonly used in commercials, product features and customer testimonials. Since you’re shoot real people in a real setting, live action is great for capturing more human elements like character and emotions.
Check out this live action commercial we produced for POSB:
Animation refers to the process of creating a series of images to create an illusion of movement when the film is shown as a sequence. This process usually involves a team of animators and a post-production crew.
Since (theoretically) anything is possible with animation, it gives you the creative flexibility to deliver more complex messages and communicate more abstract ideas/concepts. This makes it an ideal choice for commercials and explainer videos.
Check out this animation we produced for MOE, which outlines the process for their Early Admissions Exercise (EAE):
Lastly, but certainly most importantly, there’s the logistically planning.
Your video production company will most likely cover the technical side of this, so your only real concern here is the budget and timeline.
For obvious reasons, the scale of your video production is limited by these two factors. Don’t expect a blockbuster-level video commercial if your budget only allows for a simple studio shoot. Likewise, if you’re planning for a Christmas commercial that requires 3 months of production time, then starting in September is cutting it close (to put it mildly).
Your video marketing strategy is the guiding force behind all the decisions you’ll be making during the video production. As such, it’s important to make sure your hired video production company factors this into the planning process so that you can get the most out of your video production.
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