No matter where we may be on the entrepreneurial scale – whether freshly-minted start-up or seasoned, big-name business – we will never lose our need for effective marketing. Blowing up your brand name, gaining considerable growth, and expanding your market reach can only be done through a successful marketing campaign.
2 I’s, 1 E
Marketing campaigns have always relied heavily on the holy trinity of imagery, engage, impact. You catch the consumers attention through clever imagery, you engage them using great content, and then you leave an impact on them that has them searching for more.
The question is; what exactly is the most resource-efficient and equally-as-effective way to achieve this? The short answer is video. Explainer videos, whiteboard videos, Kickstarter videos – you name it, it works. The audio-visual combination delivers a one-two punch that has proven its mettle against the test of time and ever-changing, ever-progressing technology.
But what about images, you say? The good ol’ fashioned print advert or its evolved cousin, the infographic?
STILL FRAMES vs. DYNAMIC MOTION
There’s nothing wrong with images, and certainly a well-crafted infographic or two can really brighten up a boring article, but when it comes to comparing convenience and cost-efficiency, video wins the debate hands-down.
Compare two-minute explainer videos to campaign posters. A campaign poster, although definitely eye-catching when done well (ticking off imagery), can only hold a limited amount of information regarding your company. You’re restricted by white balance, element placement, and all the other technical, artsy chunks of creating a good graphic.
In a two-minute explainer video, you can cram quite a bit of crucial info about who you are, what you do, and where to contact you all without breaking stride. Even just a minute of video can give the consumers more information than an ad can.
On the financial side of things, an explainer video – when done right – can save you all the money that you would have spent on reprinting campaign posters. Reproducing video is as simple as posting it on social media.
THREE MUST-NOT-MISS FACTORS
SCRIPT
Doesn’t matter if it’s a whiteboard video or a commercial production. You need to have an excellent script. This is going to dictate a good chunk of the video like the flow of information, the way it’s presented, and the opening and closing lines – always important. A good script can make an effective video, a crappy script can utterly destroy one.
No matter how good your host or model is at delivery, no amount of speech training or fronting can save a lousy script. The saying you can’t polish a turd really encompasses the point here.
LENGTH
An effective video does not mean a lengthy one. In fact, lengthier videos are more likely to turn a consumer off from watching all the way to the end. Given that everything nowadays is instant and bite-sized, people won’t be impressed with an introduction video half an hour long.
It’s not that much different from classic TV commercials. While video commercial production can take quite a while to complete, the actual finished product is short, concise and to the point. Anything longer and you risk losing viewer interest. As with Twitter, keep your videos to 140 seconds or less, and you should be all set.
MOOD
First impressions are everything. If you’re not excited, the viewer isn’t excited. If you barely pass the mark for presentable, the viewer can tell that you put virtually no effort into it. If you’re overenthusiastic, chances are the viewer will get annoyed.
Setting the right mood for your video is one of the trickier factors to master, and not everyone gets it right right away. You need to balance casual comfort with experience and authority. You need to keep your target audience in mind. You need to pick the right music to set your stage or else the scene is shot. You master this factor, you master video production.
Bottom line: use a video in your marketing campaign. There’s a reason so many people are writing about it. It’s tried. It’s tested. It works.
