Video marketing has quickly grown to become one of the most popular forms of online content – and by extension, a must for brand marketing strategies.

As brands vie for the attention of consumers who are bombarded with online content day in and day out – combined with rapidly decreasing attention spans – video offers a quick and effective way to deliver information that keeps them focused on the message and ensures they remember it long after.

How can you create videos that stand out and hold the viewer’s attention? Here are some tips:

Consider Why You’re Making the Video

Every video should have a purpose, such as:

Solving a Problem

Most people turn to the internet when they have a problem to solve. Whether big or small, they’re likely to find a range of possible solutions and answers, as well as products or services, to help.

If you create a video that highlights a problem that’s common in your industry or among your customer base, that’s an opportunity to capture their attention. Then, if you can highlight how your product or service solves it, you’ve now turned their interest to your brand.

For example, if your customers struggle with business software and how to integrate it with their existing tech stack, you could provide a video on integrations, setup tutorials, or other resources that can ease your audience’s stress and show your service’s value.

Keep in mind that some topics are still technical and dry, so you may need to go a little further to make the video engaging. Use screenshots, infographics, and other visual aids to simplify the information and make it easier to understand.

Demonstrating a Product

Video product demos are popular ways to show what a product can do and the value it has in a real-world context. This also helps to make your product stand out if you have a lot of competitors with similar offerings.

For example, if you have a brand that sells home organization products, a demo that shows the product features and examples of how it can be used in a bedroom, closet, or utility space can help customers see its value in their home. The same is true of cooking products, musical instruments and supplies, children’s toys, and much more. Get creative!

Telling a Brand Story

Not all video marketing is strictly promotional. In fact, you want a lot of your videos to be for brand awareness, rather than directly selling a product. This is a chance to humanize your brand and give customers information about why you created your business and what problems you’re hoping to solve.

Customers are spoiled for choice in today’s competitive market. They want to support brands they believe in and that share their values. Your brand story helps you build these meaningful connections.

For example, you can create a brand story like Starbucks that talks about how your business grew from humble origins. Or you may have a touching story about overcoming adversity to get your business started. These types of stories resonate with customers and establish credibility.

Provide Value

Customers are always looking for value. Videos provide instant value by capturing their attention instantly and giving them useful, relevant information. There are plenty of ways to provide value in a video, including offering tips and actionable advice, asking a provocative question, or entertaining them with a story.

You shouldn’t cover all these bases in just a few seconds, or even in just one video, but you do need to have an attention-grabbing opener and a targeted, engaging concept. Those few seconds can mean the difference between a customer watching your video or scrolling by.

For example, a car dealership could post a video with a sales representative talking about the latest promotions and flashing by a few select cars on the showroom floor, but that’s not nearly as engaging as a video that showcases these cars in action with a voiceover talking about them. If they were already considering a car, this is a much more persuasive ad and may be the push they need to stop in.

Use Interactive Elements

Interactive elements can elevate your video by turning the viewer into an active participant, rather than a passive observer. According to data from Magna, viewers spend about 47% more time engaging with interactive video ads compared to passive ones.

There are plenty of ways to include interactive elements:

• Embedded polls: These elements use embedded questions that viewers need to answer, boosting their involvement and giving you useful data.
• Hotspot videos: These elements are clickable and give viewers a chance to click and learn more about a product that captures their interest.
• Branched videos: These elements use a “choose your own adventure” feature that lets viewers control the outcome of the story based on their decisions.

Interactive elements are the icing on a good video, but you still need to make sure you have a solid video to start with. Don’t forget to include call-to-action phrases like a shop or subscribe button to tell your viewers the action you want them to take.

Use Captions

Music, sound effects, and other audio features can help your video hold interest, but it’s just as important to make sure that your video can still be viewed on silent. Some people enjoy videos when they’re on their morning commute, sitting in a waiting room, or relaxing in the evening with family, and they watch on silent. If you don’t have captions, they’re not going to watch your video the whole way through.

Along with making your videos more enjoyable for people who prefer silent viewing, captions make your video more accessible for people with hearing impairments.

Track Results

Video marketing should be treated like other marketing campaigns. You need to have a goal in mind and key performance indicators (KPIs) to track your results. To start, you should track your engagement, play rate, click-through rate, likes, shares, comments, view count, and watch time. This data can be used to see what’s working for your audience and how you can improve your future campaigns.

Elevate Your Video Marketing

Videos are a great way to capture the ever-shrinking attention span of the average internet user and ensure that your message gets out there. If you’re not including videos in your marketing campaigns yet, now is a great time to start. 

Marketing is an ever-evolving industry, and company directors who do not understand that will get left in the dust in 2024.

Marketing strategies and tactics are the only way to set your product or service apart from your competition.

In an increasingly demanding world, consumers and customers want more – for less. That is the nature of consumerism, and the only way to give your business the upper hand is to embrace the notion of selling.

To guarantee the success of a new product or service entering the market in 2024, you need to think creatively and prioritize intuitive strategies. Follow these five simple steps below for the most effective rollout strategy:

1. Create Hype

There is something uniquely magical about a product launch that employs a hype-generating element.

Getting consumers and customers excited about your product long before they even know what it is, is such a powerful moment for any marketing team.

Timing is everything with this specific tactic, so thoroughly research your market before launching your concept.

• Customer-Generated Content

In the modern world, trust is not given freely.

So many product launches are over-promised and grossly under-deliver, leaving customers disappointed and even feeling scammed.

By implementing a strategy of using customer-generated content in your marketing plan, you can show the world (and potential customers) that your product is worth their time and money, generating new leads.

• Offer Exemplary Service

With the world literally at your customer’s fingertips, there is a good chance that they have seen and heard it all by now.

There are likely multiple products or services already on the market that are similar to yours – your job is to set yours apart from the rest.

An effective way to do that is to offer an exemplary customer experience for all new and existing customers. Product marketing is only roughly 50% product; the rest is experience-based.

To learn more about product marketing, click here.

• Discount Codes

When launching a new product or service, your main goal should be to generate brand awareness. Do not expect much at first, particularly if you are a new brand.

To entice customers into making a purchase, offer discount codes to new buyers or coupon codes for repeat business. These costs should all get built into your product pricing models so you never run the risk of losing profit.

• Embrace Multi-Platform Marketing

A few decades ago, product marketing strategies involved three main platforms: television, radio, and print media. If you had something to sell, all you needed to do was buy the proportionate ad space for your product.

Life is not so simple anymore, and there are multiple platforms where a company can advertise a new product or service – but it will take a bit more work from the marketing team.

Find your customers online, and advertise where they are commonly found – on social media platforms. Adopt a multi-platform marketing strategy and you will likely hit the bull’s eye.

To End

Product marketing is far from rocket science, but it is a science. The science behind the psychology of marketing is an awe-inspiring one – and when it is right, and works better than you could ever have imagined, that feeling never gets old.

Cast your mind back to the last purchase you made. Did you see an advertisement and then decide to buy? Or did you research the business/product and then make your purchase? Either way, over 51% of sales professionals admitted that lead generation was one of the most challenging aspects of their jobs.

However, new ways to generate leads are being discovered daily, and popular techniques used by marketing teams today might not be used in a year or so. Therefore, your team must constantly devise and trial new ways to generate leads so that you can evolve your strategy.

From using webchat software to asking satisfied consumers for testimonials, you can use many ways to update your practices. To help you, we’ve outlined several strategies your company and marketing team should implement below.

Implement A Live Receptionist Service

Between providing personalized customer experiences, gathering customer data, and juggling many more day-to-day tasks, receptionists often have a lot on their plate. So much so, that more and more businesses are turning to an external live receptionist service to help balance the workload.

These live receptionists can answer calls straight away, and help keep your leads intact. With certain live receptionist services, you will be able to set up your own preferences, allowing you to receive immediate notifications if you so wished.

For more information about a live receptionist service, consider visiting providers’ websites like Signpost. Using their live receptionist service, your business can delight customers with local receptionists, answer queries, and much more. Visit their website or contact them directly for more information today.

Create A Social Media Presence

With over 302.25 million American users on social media, in today’s digital age, businesses need to have an excellent social media presence to market their products/services, engage with consumers, post-marketing campaigns, and much more. Due to this, social media can be a valuable tool for generating leads and one that your marketing team should take advantage of.

You can do this by engaging with the right focus groups, connecting with like-minded professionals, creating engaging content, creating polls that customers can engage with, commenting on third-party posts, and much more – all of which can tempt leads to engage with your posts and potentially make a purchase. A new trend has been TikTok and Instagram reels marketing. If an account has a substantial following, you can ask them to promote your content in a creative and engaging way. If you want to promote your content from your own , say for example, TikTok account, and don’t have a large following, you can first try to increase your follower count. You can either grow your followers organically or you can buy TikTok followers with VIP service.

Ask Repeat Customers For Testimonials

Another way that your company and marketing team can generate leads is directly from your loyal customers themselves. Collectively Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, and Yelp are home to 88% of all customer reviews, and due to this, it is easier than ever for customers to research companies and their products/services.

Therefore, it would be a wasted opportunity for businesses not to use their customers as a lead generation technique by asking them to leave testimonials. Whether it’s a written review or a short clip of them talking about your products/services – don’t hesitate to ask your loyal customers for testimonials. You can publish these on your social media pages and company website, as these will resonate with your prospects and turn leads into prospective customers.