20 Tips for Creating Eye-Catching Marketing Videos
Video is taking over as the most engaging content marketing type out there. In fact, 92% of marketers said that video was an integral part of their digital marketing approach.
With so much success coming from video content marketing, you simply can't afford to leave this technique out of your digital marketing approach. Of course, throwing together a video and uploading it to your website isn't enough to make an impact.
If you're looking to get the most out of your marketing videos, you need a content marketing strategy that will impress. Follow along to discover 20 fool-proof tips for creating amazing videos that capture and convert your audience!
1. Plan Ahead
First things first, never jump into production without a well-thought-out plan. While you don't necessarily need a full-blown storyboard for every video, you should know your video's goal and purpose before ever picking up the camera.
Once you've got your message and objective sorted, you can create a compelling clip sequence to capture and engage your audience. Adopting this one simple step into your content marketing approach can be the difference between creating viral videos and boring, unmemorable clips.
2. Tell a Story
Your viewers are more likely to stick around for the entire duration of your video if they are on the edge of their seat to find out 'what happens'. For this reason, telling stories instead of offering up information at random is a great way to up your watch time.
If your story is too long for one video, consider breaking your message up into shorter clips and deeming it a 'series'. This cheeky technique will keep your viewers coming back to watch each new release and encourage those who just discovered you to engage with older content too.
3. Capture Them Early
According to marketing research, you only have about 8 seconds to capture your audience's attention before they move on to something else.
This means the first 8 seconds of your video need to be compelling enough to capture their attention and keep it! With this in mind, you likely don't want to waste your opening moments with empty frames or logo placement.
Make your video irresistible first, then keep them there with your storytelling.
4. Incorporate Motion
We already know consumers have a short attention span, but their busy minds may impact your video's success more than you think.
Because consumers are so used to constant stimulation and entertainment, you'll need to incorporate elements that feed into this stimulation. How? By keeping it moving!
Instead of filming a still clip, keep movement a top priority. With continually moving frames, even sit-down chats can be interesting and engaging.
5. Double Up Angles
Struggling with movement? Try incorporating multiple angles for that same mind-stimulating change your audience is craving.
For each clip, try shooting 2-3 different angles and transitioning between them to add dimension. If possible, set up multiple cameras to capture the same moment from each angle for seamless frame cuts.
If you're struggling to line these live clips up, start your video with a clap or loud noise before calling action. This will create a sound spike on your track that will make syncing up in the editing process much easier.
6. Customize for Each Platform
Each platform you share your videos to has a different size and format that works well in the feed. Just like your images are square on Instagram, so are your videos. Flash to stories and Facebook ads and a long, mobile screen shape is the perfect choice.
Create your videos to fit each of these formats to ensure you get the most out of each post/platform.
The more you customize your videos, the better your user experience will be. This in turn can help your videos appeal to each algorithm to draw even more traffic and eyes.
7. Include Captions or 'Hot' Words
According to experts, 85% of social videos are watched without the sound on. If your video relies on people 'hearing' what you're saying, you'll need to find a way to make your message heard without audio.
Luckily, captions make this easy to keep your audience engaged even without sound.
If captions aren't right for your specific video type, consider including key phrases in text throughout your video to subtly tell the story.
8. Keep It Short and Sweet
No matter what you're looking to promote, marketers across the board will agree that short videos are key to successful video content marketing.
Of course, this doesn't just apply to your video length, but also to each individual clip length. To keep recapturing attention, you'll need to keep each clip under about 5 seconds. In 30-second marketing videos, this means you'll need at least 6 different clips/frames.
9. Play with Tempo
Wondering how you'll fit your story into 5-second pockets of time? Leave it to tempo!
Speed up and slow down your videos to ensure your entire story is told in an interesting and captivating way. By varying the video speed on each clip, you can accentuate different parts of your message for a deeper impact.
Besides keeping viewers engaged, this technique can go a long way to creating an emotional buy-in from your watchers.
10. Prioritize Branding
Having a great video is one thing but without a clear connection between your brand and your content, your video isn't contributing much to your digital marketing success.
Each video you create should be in line with your brand's unique image and include key colors and symbols that cause consumers to remember you. Perhaps the easiest way to keep your brand incorporated in your video content is to place your logo in the corner of the screen.
This makes it so any shares of your content still route right back to your brand and can be used to further your reach.
11. Create a Loop Effect
Looking to keep viewers around for longer? Consider transforming your short video clips into loops by making your outro flow seamlessly into your intro.
Since repetition is key for a memorable experience, encouraging your users to watch your video a few times over is a great way to burn your brand into their brains.
Beyond this, multiple views are great for your engagement rate and encourage AI platforms to promote you to more users!
12. Leverage Trending Topics and Formats
Just like other digital marketing avenues, trends are always changing and adapting in the online world. To ensure you stay relevant and interesting, keep up with these trends and leverage their popularity.
Use the trending topics in your video titles, play with trending editing styles, and get onboard the trendy train! If you pull off a trend well, it could even become a viral video or a part of your branding style.
13. Keep It Fresh
Consistency is key when it comes to digital marketing, however, your video content should be anything but repetitive.
When it comes to video, audiences love variety. Fortunately, this is easy to achieve with a good mix of styles, content ideas, and formats. Mix it up between promotional marketing videos, behind-the-scenes clips, and any other style that tells your brand's story and engages users.
Once you discover what your audience likes best, rotate between your most popular video styles to create dimension in your marketing approach.
14. Go Au Natural
With your lighting that is!
At the end of the day, you could invest thousands of dollars in production equipment to master the art of a great marketing video. Fortunately, this isn't necessary for impactful clips.
Instead of creating an artificial experience for each video, leverage natural lighting to make your videos more budget-friendly and personable all in one. Schedule your filming times in key natural lighting hours to get beautiful lighting effects for free.
15. Up Your Audio
While you save on lighting, consider investing your video production budget into quality audio.
This is especially important if your videos include talking or live audio. The microphone on your camera is only built to handle so much. Even if you have an expensive camera, this poor audio quality can leave your videos looking cheap and 'home-made'.
To send a truly professional image, prioritize audio and ensure your voice is crisp, clear, and easy to understand in every clip.
16. Manage Your Music
Speaking of audio - be sure to choose your music clips carefully to ensure you don't wind up on the naughty list.
Music is regulated for online use and without the proper permissions and disclaimers, your video could wind up banned from key platforms. After all, putting all the time and effort into a video that gets taken down due to music violations would be a massive waste of energy.
Take the risk out of the equation by using royalty-free music for your promotions and ensuring each platform accepts your soundtrack.
17. Include Video SEO
Having amazing videos only benefits your brand if your audience can find them. To ensure your videos are visible on whichever platform you choose to promote from, always include SEO techniques for improved targeting and reach.
Ensuring your video includes keyword tags, an optimized title, and a quality description can go a long way to boosting your rank.
Check out these key video SEO tips and tricks to ensure your videos reach as many interested viewers as possible.
18. Choose a Great Video Host
Uploading your raw video files to your website is never a good idea. You'll miss out on the social proof of a view count and make it much harder for your media to rank.
Instead, choose a hosting platform that is compatible with your needs. If you plan to post your marketing videos to your website, avoid popular platforms such as YouTube that lag when embedded.
Platforms like Swarmify are specifically built for digital marketing purposes and make sharing your content to your website and other channels easy and reliable.
19. Be Genuine and Authentic
No matter what avenue you choose to take with your video marketing strategy, always be sure to keep your videos genuine and authentic.
Audiences can tell when your content is fake and see right through promotional smoke. In order to earn their trust and establish a great customer-business relationship, always put your genuine brand values first. This will ensure you gather your audience's respect along with their view.
20. End With a CTA
Just like a blog post or paid ad, your videos should always end with one clear and concise CTA. You can never assume that users will do what you want just by giving them the information. Even after learning about the undeniable reasons they need your products or services, they won't reach out unless you prompt them to.
For best results, make your call to action simple and provide the means to follow through on the spot. If you're sending them to watch another video, include the link to that video in your description. The same goes for web navigation.
If you'd like them to reach out to you, ask for the connection and leave a button or form on the page to take away any obstacle that may get in the way between the ask and the action.
Maximize Your Marketing Videos
Now that you know these 20 top tips for making the most of your marketing videos it's time to put your knowledge to the test. From creative filming and production to visibility boosting techniques, you'll love the results you see with your new and improved video content marketing strategy.
Ready to maximize your reach with great video marketing services? Get started with Swarmify today and experience the difference this video marketing platform can hold for your eye-catching videos.
