Basic Tips to Win the Video Marketing Game

You know that video is important to the grand scheme of your marketing plan, but you've struggled to get it off your list and executed. Last week, I touched on why video marketing is important and gave you some statistics to support it. This post is going to be a bit more instructional in that I want to give you some tips and ideas that will (hopefully) spur your creativity and get you and your team going!

1. Just Do It - I know that seems so simple a concept, but it's really true. The biggest hurdle most of us ever face in anything we do is just getting started with it. This is especially true with video. A lot of people assume you need a fancy camera and a deep understanding of video editing, but that's simply not the case. Most of us are carrying everything we need to get started in the palm of our hands—a smartphone. Really, it's just that simple. Grab it, hit record, and stop thinking about it so much. You'll get better with time and practice, I promise! I'll cover basic apps you can use in the editing process soon!
2. Keep it Short - There is a time and a place to have a long-winded approach, and that is NOT in the video that will be targeting your social media audience. I'm not saying to never produce long content, just not if you're planning on using it primarily on social media sites. My recommendation is to make your video between 90 - 120 seconds. More than 2 minutes, and you'll start losing viewers, and your engagement will go down. Here is how long each social media site allows per video:
   1. Facebook: 2 hours or 4GB
   2. YouTube: Unlimited
   3. Twitter: 30 seconds
   4. Instagram: 60 seconds
   5. Snapchat: 10 seconds (you can string them together to get more story in)
   6. Tumblr: 5 minutes or 100MB per file
   7. LinkedIn: Note: it will have to be a link to the video.
3. Offer Value - I know you're thinking "well, of course," but you'd be surprised how many businesses get this wrong. If you're going to go through the time and effort of making a video, you want that content to be meaningful. Think about your own experiences:  how many times have you watched a video (or read an article) and came away thinking "I'd really like to have that piece of my day back?"  I know that I certainly have. Offer a tip, a how-to, a professional opinion on something that pertains to your industry. This is what will keep people tuned in.
4. Let Your Personality Shine Through - Don't be afraid to let the more "fun" side of your personality (or that of whoever is starring in the video) come out. Like anything else, people want to do business with people they like, and this is a great opportunity to let them see "you" in your marketing that they may not otherwise get a chance to see. Most likely, you're not the only person doing or selling what you do, so you need to stand out from everyone else!
5. Start off Strong - It's estimated that you have about 7 seconds to capture someone's attention in a video, so make sure your video starts off strong and that you don't wait until halfway through to get to the good stuff. One idea is to tell your viewers what you're going to cover in the video as soon as the video starts. Here's a good structure to keep in mind: 5-second intro, title slide, main video content, exit slide.
6. Optimize for SEO - By now you're pretty comfortable (or should be) with optimizing your blog posts and web content for SEO, so keep it going when you're uploading your videos to YouTube, Facebook, etc. Choose trending keywords, topics, and so on when you're filling out the descriptions and titles for each site you're posting your video to.
7. Upload Videos Directly to Facebook - While your first instinct may be to upload to YouTube and then copy the link over to your Facebook page, this is exactly what you don't want to do. Facebook decided to go head-to-head with YouTube a couple of years ago and gives preference to videos that are "native" to Facebook as opposed to links.

Feeling inspired and ready to start shooting video? Are you feeling a little bit more confident that you can take this on? In the next post, I'll give you some ideas on videos that you can create that won't take much time at all!