If you’ve ever acquired a video or animation from us (or, indeed, any other video production company) you will know that they can be costly things.
All that manpower, all that filming or animating, all those cups of tea…none of it comes cheap, even if sometimes we wish it did.
With this in mind, we think it’s fair to say that it’s in your interest for you to get the absolute most out of your video.
But how the heck do you do that?
Well, in this blog entry, we want to give you a few pointers as to how you can use your video to its absolute maximum once it’s safely in your lap.
Now how’s that for service?
It’s an obvious place to start, but an important one nonetheless.
Your website is your number one promotional tool online – the beating heart of your digital presence. Of course your shiny new video should go on your website!
There’s a bit more to it than just sticking your video on your homepage, however.
If the video is showcasing a particular product or service of yours, it should be embedded onto its specialist webpage.
If it’s an interview with a figure in your organisation, you can of course put it on your “About” page, but how about writing a blog post on that person as well and including it there? (two ideas for the price of one, we’re on fire!)
Finally for this section – have you ever considered landing pages? These are specialist pages, hidden from general view on your website, which you can direct people to with a link.
If you’ve created a marketing campaign with a specialist landing page, your video could be just the thing to keep your target audience on your page and engaged with it.
Remember when social media was just being “friends” with Tom on ‘Myspace’ and trying to find that girl from school you had a crush on 27 years ago on ‘Friends Reunited’?
Here in 2019 it’s now, well, slightly bigger than that, and if your company doesn’t have at least a presence on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook then we’re afraid you’re being left behind!
The great news is that it’s really easy to get a presence on social media platforms, and videos are the perfect things to accompany this presence.
There are all manner of videos you can put on social media, and they generate engagement too.
Did you know that – according to 2016 research by the social media management company Buffer – posts with embedded videos get (considerably) more engagements on Facebook than any other type of post?
We bet you didn’t know that. If you did – please, get out more.
You might be surprised at how many social media platforms are compatible with videos too.
Alongside the obvious (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) videos are becoming more prevalent on Instagram than ever before, and they’ve even started having an impact on Google My Business listings – as we explained in this blog post a few months ago.
Video too long to upload on social media? Don’t worry, we’ve got that covered as well – “snippet” versions of full length videos are becoming increasingly popular.
Can your videographer (great word) of choice also make a 30 second version of your video production for you just for social media purposes?
Do you recall when we said that social media has evolved quite a fair bit over the past few years? (you should do, it was only about 10 sentences ago)
A large part of that evolution has been the prevalence of paid advertising on social media platforms – e.g. promoted tweets or Facebook adverts.
As we’ve already seen that videos generate more engagements on social media than anything else, why wouldn’t you use them in your adverts on those platforms?
Online adverts aren’t just confined to social media platforms however – a statement you’ll know is true if you’ve ever opened a webpage only to find it immediately swallowed up by a massive autoplaying advert. Don’t worry – we find that annoying too.
Some adverts can even be targeted directly at people as well, based on the amount of data companies have on us.
This means that the video in your targeted advert could be specific to an individual. How cool/terrifying (delete as appropriate) is that?!
Palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.
If you’re a music lover, you’ll recognise those words as being from Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ – an autobiographical song detailing his feelings before he gave a key presentation to stakeholders at a conference in Kettering.
If you’re ever in the same position as the real Slim Shady, why not use a video production as a part of your presentation? After all, everyone – even scary business people in suits – would rather watch an entertaining yet informative video than suffer through another bullet pointed PowerPoint slide.
Seen a tasty RfQ which you think your company should go for?
If so, you’ll need to write a bid to try and win the contract at stake. Why not get creative with your bid, and embed a video within it?
This could be a testimonial video from one of your clients, a showreel of your company’s previous endeavours, a “Meet the Team” introductory video, or a showcasing of your organisation’s commitment to CSR – the possibilities are literally* endless!
You could of course use your video in your own video brochure – the marketing tool which is gaining more and more prominence across the world.
Want to know more about video brochures? If so, you’re in luck – check out our blog post on these little beauties right here!
So there you have it – six ways you can use your video production to good effect once it’s been handed over to you.
Can you think of any we’ve missed? If so, why not let us know on our social media platforms?
* Not literally