By Joe Forte
Editor’s Note: Yesterday we talked about the types of videos every organization should produce. Today we bring you more great tips!
In today’s global economy, one medium of marketing has transcended all others because of its affect across every industry: Video marketing.
Video marketing refers to the promotional strategies of companies through the use of short, engaging visuals. From changing the game of traditional news releases to understanding viral trends, the use of video marketing can benefit any company through visual storytelling.
Integrating visuals with text and audio as appropriate, video marketing allows people to simply push play and, if done well, the product speaks for itself.
Typically easy to understand and even easier to share, video marketing has reshaped the marketer’s job as it promotes ingenuity, engagement, and accessibility.
Video Marketing Tips
Here are four tips for PR pros to be successful with video marketing.
- Live Event Video. In PR, engaging your audience is the key to success. The best way to engage people is to capture them in a raw state with a live event video. These videos can show the true emotions of the people at the event and can go a long way to represent your product or service. Live event videos can present a first person perspective in real-time that attracts and influences potential clients and generates immediate traffic. People are more inclined to hire you when they can see firsthand what it is you have to offer and how you can benefit them. A good example is how NBTC highlighted event attendance in a concise and interesting way.
- News Releases. Sixty-five percent of human beings are visual learners, which makes video a great way to market your wares and enhance your news releases. A news release accompanied with a video of your executives, demos of your product, or even something funny helps engage influencers in a new and meaningful way.
- Email Video. It’s highly likely you’ve received plenty of video links via email. While they’re not always part of an email marketing program, companies such as Wistia are making video more accessible in your lead generation efforts. Provide a video of how your product works or have your sales team answer questions they know are coming. Statistics show that for retail and brand sites, 40 percent of their video sharing occurs through email, with nearly half of that sharing coming directly from emails being passed around and shared.
- Viral Trends and Keeping Up. The Harlem Shake, twerking, and every other viral video represents a massive marketing idea that can be integrated into a video marketing strategy. Videos go viral because of their popularity, but also because of their creativity. While it’s very difficult to create a viral video, if you are quick on the draw and create a video that mimics a popular trend, it’s likely you’ll garner some attention. For example, Steve LeVine has a great Harlem Shake video taken during their staff meeting.
It’s fairly easy to create videos with your laptop’s camera and a creative idea. Once you get comfortable with creation, you can graduate to professional video services. Until then, think about how you can use video in your communications programs!