Intro to advertising with Videos
Contributor Gustavo Simões. Digital Marketing Specialist
Videos are one of the most important tools in any marketer’s repertoire. Veedyou Media has put together a fascinating study on video citing the usefulness and effectiveness of video as a marketing tool, including that ¾ of respondents claimed that a video convinced them to buy a product or service. Don’t miss out on this crucial market! Advertising with videos is one of the best things you can do as a business.
Are videos really that important?
YES! Nearly every business that has taken the time to do video advertising believes that it has a positive ROI. There are several video formats that you can mix and match depending on what type of business you have, your technical knowledge, and your growth goals.
Vlogging
Vlogging is a fancy way of saying blogging with video. Instead of writing out the blog–like this one here–you talk about your topic in a short video. Usually a few minutes will suffice, unless you have a complicated issue to address. For the majority of topics, aim for approximately 1-2 minutes long so that you can quickly grab someone’s attention and hold it.
Live Videos
All of the major social media networks now allow for live video streaming. All you need is to setup a streaming time, a smartphone with decent video quality, and an internet connection and you’re good to go! However, many people are a bit hesitant to do live videos because of the whole liveness of it all. But remember, the people tuning in want to know what you have to say!
It’s often best to go in with some sort of plan that you want to discuss, but don’t do be afraid of going off script if the conversation naturally flows that way. Most platforms allow for real-time commenting. And when possible, it’s good to have a dedicated responder on hand or to set aside some time periodically to respond. Being able to communicate with your audience in real time lets you know what people care about and gives you a chance to address these issues immediately.
YouTube Ads
YouTube reaches more adults in prime viewing time than any other network. The ads on YouTube allows for a wide range of targeting, much like Facebook Advertising; you can target demographics with specific interests. This can also be a disadvantage though. It takes more training and understanding of the advertising platform in order to be effective. But when your ads appear on relevant videos, they can significantly drive up views and conversions to your own site.
Quality counts!
If you’re planning on doing video advertising, make sure to take the time to do it well. Most major marketers agree that bad video is worse than no video because it can make you look sloppy or unprofessional. Unedited videos are one of the worst offenders, and it’s crucial to do proper editing and often multiple takes for portions of your vlogs.
Depending on how much time you can invest into editing, there are paid professional programs like Adobe Premiere with all the bells and whistles. But there are dozens of free programs that can handle the basics. Of course, you could always let a tech-savvy marketing team like us handle your video editing and distribution to help give your videos that extra oomph and pizzazz and all that good stuff too if you’d rather! Take a look at our videography service for more details about how we can help you by advertising with videos.
