8 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Marketing Video

So you’ve decided to take the jump and add video to your marketing strategy. Good work—that’s the first step! Video content helps users understand your product or service by placing it in a visual setting. This allows viewers to see it in action and have a more relatable understanding of the intended use or scenario.

But what actually makes a good marketing video? How do you keep viewers engaged, and what will help them actually click through and learn more about your product or service? Here are our best tips for creating and optimizing your marketing videos.

1) Focus more on the story and less on the service / product

Storytelling is huge, no matter how short the video spot is. How does the video make viewers feel? Connecting those emotions and story to the product will have more impact than an overt explanation or demonstration of the product. Brands like Salomon, Sitka, and Dove have mastered the art of storytelling and community through their products without rote explanations.

2) Optimize the video for all devices

If you take a look at your site or social media traffic, chances are at least half of the views are coming from a mobile device. We see about 40% from desktop, 55% from mobile, and just 5% on average from tablets. This means optimizing your video and captions for a mobile device is just as important as making sure it looks good on a desktop or other larger screen.

3) Sometimes shorter is better

Editing is hard… both regarding technical skills as well as knowing what to cut. But the less you say, the more people will pay attention and not lose interest. This is about packing as much of a punch as possible into a short amount of time, and getting your message across cleanly and concisely. We like 10-30-second spots on social media, and 30-second or one-minute spots on YouTube or television. Think of it as a fun challenge! What are the most important things you want to say, and how do you get them across as fast as possible without losing the message?

4) Sound quality matters

Yes, video is a visual medium. But it’s also audio, and good audio matters. This means professional-quality sound, mixing, and editing for crisp, clear messaging. Even if you have a visually appealing, clean video, low-quality audio will take away from the professionalism of the spot. If you’re doing this yourself, consider investing in a lav mic and boom mic for your recording device so you aren’t relying on the video recorder’s sound capturing. This can eliminate background noise and will ensure your dialogue and on-screen capture sounds as good as possible. Recording into a high-quality device for voiceover is important as well. If you’re hiring a professional team, they’ll take care of this for you.

5) Get to the point!

This might seem obvious, but delivery and flow is critically important, no matter how short the spot is. Don’t dodge around the subject—plan your flow and storyboard the video if you need to. Why is the viewer watching this video? What will they take away from it, and how does it make them feel? Deliver on these right off the bat and you’ll keep the viewer engaged and not clicking out or skipping ahead.

6) What do you want from this video?

These are the actionables, or what you want the viewers to do after watching the video. Views are great, engagement is better. Do you want them to click the like button? Comment? Share the video? Thanks to the omnipresent algorithm, likes, shares, and comments will get the video to spread to more viewers. Even better? Asking people to follow your page or subscribe to your channel. This ensures each new video or piece of content winds up in their inbox, which can help increase visibility. We recommend signing off with a “call to action” at the end of each video, which can mean asking viewers to follow the page or subscribe. The more visibility your video gets, the more likely you are to see increased conversion.

7) Know which platform your video belongs on

There are plenty of options for sharing and publishing your video. It can live on the homepage of your website or another landing page. It can be published and promoted through Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. YouTube and Vimeo are video-specific platforms. But each one has a specific style and length that works best, so know your target platform before creating and producing the video. Showcasing a professional product with a high-level edited video works great on YouTube or Vimeo, while something shorter and more conversational will do well on social media. Tutorials and explanations work well on social media, while brand messaging and storytelling will be best on your own website.

8) Hire a video marketing team: There are a lot of things you can do in-house, but something as complex as video is best handled by professionals. While it might be hard to justify the cost up front, the return on a well-designed, produced, and edited video will make the expense worth it in the long run.