Harness The Power Of Video

Did you know that approximately 93% of views of video occur on mobile devices – not unsurprising really with today’s mobile lifestyles and 4G connections. But did you know that they also get 2.5 times more replies and 2.8 times more retweets!

With video content engagement set to increase you can’t afford not to consider the benefits of promoting your business with video.

1. Increase brand awareness

Video provides a great platform on to which you can introduce your product/service, reach prospective customers and increase brand awareness.

2. Increase brand loyalty

Get your audience to believe in the brand and it’s values by connecting with your audience. You could start to do this by:

• Explaining why your product/service is the best

• How your product/service could help customers

• What positive steps your business is taking to be socially and environmentally responsible.

3. Increase customer purchase

Videos on Twitter increase the average lift in purchasing intent by approximately 34%. So whether you’re launching a new product or just building interest in an existing product or service video is all about driving conversions (sales). Videos can grab your audience’s attention (more so than just 140 characters) but more importantly it can encourage them to make a purchase.

So, what are the formats available to you to promote your businesses product/service using video? Well, we can break these down into the following categories:

‘How to’ content

For certain business types, this can be a perfect solution – florist, plumber, gardener, baker etc you can offer your audience shareable ‘how to’ content like a demonstration, or recipe instruction. Consider a speeded up 30sec video of the process, a series of GIFs or something more professionally created with music and/or voice overs.

‘Storytelling’ content

Focus on getting your audience to have an emotional response to your product/service. Tell a story, evoke an emotion and encourage engagement. Strong visual and audio will help achieve this in addition to clever directing, whether it’s a simple short 30secs or a longer promotional video – or even just an animated GIF or boomerang.

‘Live’ Broadcasts

These should offer the audience something extra that they wouldn’t normally have access to. So maybe behind the scenes or a preview of a launch product/service. It’s important to try to plan these though and have an end goal in mind – but remember they are live so people don’t expect a polished video.

So what forms of ‘video’ content could you use to achieve any one of the above?

Obviously, there’s video – whether it’s live or previously edited content but there’s also animated GIFs. Often used for silly animations of cats playing pianos or such like, GIFs can in fact, be used to create powerful marketing content. Tell a story or pose a question and evoke the audience to engage with you! More subtle options are Boomerangs or Hyperlapse videos which I’ve talked about previously.

Summary

There’s no reason not to start creating and publishing impactful video content that could increase audience engagement, loyalty and in the end push sales up. You don’t necessarily need professional camera equipment – your smartphone, an App and creativity would be a good starting point.