Today, a business or brand has to understand that video marketing is incredibly effective. Video consistently returns the best metrics for engagement and conversion across platforms; people can’t get enough.
Video has always been a highly effective marketing tool, although it could be argued that previous limitations, such as colossal production costs, might have been a barrier to entry. Now, however, it’s never been easier or more accessible for brands and businesses across sectors and industries to join the video bandwagon.
From non-profit video production to the back-to-basic customer and product interactions, video marketing no longer needs to be a costly and exclusionary exercise.
As always, however, it’s all about the execution. And what better way to get some tips for your business and brand marketing than through the lessons of brands that have already hosted successful video marketing campaigns? Let’s take a closer look.
Lesson 1 – Incorporate User-Generated Content
In the world of action cameras, GoPro is the most recognizable brand. However, the company’s success has been largely attributed to video marketing.
One of the essential aspects of GoPro’s video marketing strategy is its approach to user-generated content. As a result, customers capture a lot of video footage daily due to the brand’s cameras, which allows the brand to repurpose and reshare these videos on its accounts.
GoPro encourages the posting and sharing of these videos from the onset, typically of people engaging in high-adrenaline activities, like action sports. As well as its high quality, this footage is easy to use, which is a significant selling point.
Here’s the lesson: your existing customers are your most significant opportunities. So rather than starting from scratch and creating your production plan, look around to see whether content already exists or ask your existing customers for input.
Lesson 2 – Master the Long-Form Video
Patagonia is next, and they use video marketing in an entirely different way. Patagonia’s online videos typically last 10 to 20 minutes as part of its long-form video strategy.
Generally, audiences and use cases prefer videos less than two minutes long, but this company realizes it can follow a different strategy than the competition. Despite breaking the video length rules, Patagonia’s strategy has proved highly successful.
For Patagonia, length is one of its key differentiators. Another is the need for a clear product focus in most videos. As a result, they will focus on critical conservation and environmental issues the brand knows are of great importance to their audience.
The style and intention of these pieces of content are more like documentaries than marketing videos. A section of the Patagonia website is even dedicated to films, which isn’t exactly a typical video marketing strategy, but it’s working for them!
The lesson here is to find what works for your brand, and run with it! This may or may not be what’s working for your competitors.
Lesson 3 – Create Engaging Video Ads
Several things stand out in Bulb’s video ads that highlight the brand. In terms of tone, they’re laid back, simple, vibrant, and quirky.
Bulb’s mission is to make switching energy providers easier and less stressful so that you can understand the appeal of calm, lighthearted, and entertaining video advertisements. If your message is that you make life easier, why would you need fast-paced, overly sales-focused videos?
Aside from the vibrancy of the colors used (as always set against neon hot pink backgrounds), this brand also stands out as a ‘little different’ from the competition, which often uses conservative colors and graphic styles.
Being different is not a bad thing. Think about the MOST different thing you can do based on your competitors’ latest ad campaigns. If you want your audience to recognize that you stand out from the competition, how do you make it completely clear that you are different from them?
Lesson 4 – Focus on Informational Content and Webinars
Slack and its users are committed to delivering value to one another. As a result, various webinars are available on their website for users to answer pertinent questions.
Webinars can be a great way to reach new audiences and establish yourself as a trusted thought leader in your field, even though it’s a heavy-duty piece of content to produce.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could run a webinar as one of your marketing tactics? Your company blog might be a great source of high-performing topics that have demonstrated cut-through for your audience, and you can dig into them. As a result, you can reuse and recycle this piece of content for literally years to come, adding value to your business every time you use it.
Video might be the king of content, but optimizing it for your brand is up to you. Hopefully, you’ll take inspiration from these success stories and incorporate them into your highly effective video marketing strategy!