Over the last few months, COVID19 has presented many challenges for entrepreneurs and start-ups. For some, it has meant adapting and pivoting, for others it’s been about getting more creative in their strategies and operations, like leveraging on marketing videos. There has been a dramatic shift to conducting business online, where arguably it’s even harder to cut through and differentiate.
The online world is one most customers are extremely familiar with. In lockdown time spent on social media has risen, and video consumption has increased around 60%. It’s also proven that video is the most persuasive and engaging form of content today across customer segments on both mobile and web. Undoubtedly video presents an opportunity for businesses to promote their brand, engage customers and drive sales. While video as a business, marketing, and sales tool has traditionally been the preserve of big business and big budgets, the door is now open for individuals and startups to take a piece of the pie.
Technology has advanced so that individuals and start-ups can easily create high quality engaging marketing videos without needing specialist technology, expertise, equipment, software or a stash of cash. Online video creation platforms, like Videobolt, believe that high-quality video creation should be accessible to all. They are democratising video so that businesses can focus on being creative.
Whether you’re a one-man-band, Instagram business, or someone setting up on your own, video can help reach and engage audiences like no other medium. So how is it done?
Here are five top considerations to creating effective video content:
1. Platform
Choosing the right platform can be tricky. For startups, the best place to start is finding an online (cloud-based) video platform that removes all of the complexity of video making, allowing you to focus on making creative, compelling content. Choose a platform that has end-to-end functionality – that means it is able to deliver everything from idea to design, creation, review, editing, rendering and publishing – with no hidden costs or extras. Platforms like Videobolt are easy to use and you can go through the process whichever way makes sense to you – and it is super fast.
2. Choosing a template
For simplicity, online video platforms offer hundreds of templates designed for a range of different purposes from announcing a new promotion or sale to running a competition. While templates can sound limiting, each can be personalised for example by using your own logo, brand colours or adding your own photos. A single template used by two companies will end up looking completely different as they hope to sell fashion items, promote an online course, announce a new health app, or boost a special deal.
3. Design
Video content is ideal for social media marketing, service explainers, special deals and sales on the website, teaser campaigns, new product launches, competitions and more. There are lots of tips and tricks about how to create viral business videos available online, but our rules of thumb are: choose a template that works for your purpose; keep the video short; messaging should be simple and to the point; use your logo so it is instantly recognisable and there is consistency across all of your content.
4. Create for different channels
It’s important to think about who your audience is and where they hang out online – then tailor your video for those people and those channels. For example, YouTube is the most popular video-sharing platform and videos are often longer than those posted on Facebook or Instagram where attention spans are much, much shorter. Videos that will be embedded into web- and microsites, emails and other marketing collateral may vary depending on the desired engagement and outcome.
5. Licensing
Licensing for copyright can be an expensive headache for startups, which is why many stay away from creating videos in-house. Traditionally, licences are purchased for specific use cases or a number of plays – but selecting which can be a minefield, and often hard to predict at the point of creation. Now, some online video creation platforms (like Videobolt) ensure that you can license the entire video for unlimited use across all and any channels. Also look out for access to extensive photo libraries, which can add different visuals to a finished product – but make sure that the photos are covered by the documentation and licencing provided by the platform too. Packaged licencing covering the entire video – from template to music and images – not only maximises budgets and time, but it also gives creators peace of mind.