Last year we saw the importance of visual content, such as video, emphasized by the changes that took place across almost every major social network such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Most notable were the launch of Facebook and Instagram’s live feature, Facebook’s pre-roll video ads, and Instagram stories. We have all experienced it by now. It’s obvious that videos have become powerful tools for brands looking to communicate efficiently with their target audience. With more than 60% of marketers and small business owners saying that they plan to increase investment in video marketing in 2017, you’re going to have to keep up. If you’re not including video marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy, you’re likely missing out on some serious leads.

Here are some key reasons to include video in your marketing strategies:

Higher Retention Rates

By creating quality videos you can increase overall viewer retention. According to Animoto, 1 in 4 consumers actually loses interest in a company if it doesn’t have video content. That means a quarter of all possible leads will be lost, simply because you don’t have a video. Furthermore,  BrainShark suggests that the information retained in one minute of online video is equal to about 1.8 million written words. That’s a lot of information relayed in a small amount of time considering the average human can only read about 300 words per minute, It’s important to take advantage of that opportunity.

Higher Engagement

Animoto says that four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. And according to Syndacast 74% of all internet traffic in 2017 will be video. We must give them what they want. We must give them video.

Google Loves Video

SEO is an important factor when trying to stand out among your competitors. Adding a video to your website can increase the chance of a front page Google result by 53 times. Of course, that’s when you do it right. Check out these tips from Moz CEO Rand Fishkin to learn more about how to properly optimize your videos for search. You’ll notice that he has a video at the top of the page.

Increased conversions

Video converts more customers than traditional methods. Four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it, and 85% of customers are more likely to make a purchase after watching a product video.

Hopefully, you have been convinced to use more video to increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Here are some tips on how to get the best possible quality with what you’ve got:

1. Use a good quality camera

With displays becoming higher and higher in resolution It’s important to shoot at the highest possible quality so your video looks crisp and clear on any screen. A video camera works best but high-quality smartphone cameras will do the trick it used properly.

2. Shoot in landscape

In order to get the best shot and help maintain your viewer’s attention, make sure you shoot your videos in landscape orientation. By shooting in portrait orientation (or upright) you are not only missing out on the background of the subject which can help provide context but you are losing out on valuable real estate which can be used to display supporting content such as text, pictures, and other information. Shooting in portrait orientation will also make video appear small on wide screens such as computers and TV’s, and leave the viewer looking at large, distracting black bars on the sides of the video and contribute to a very amateur feel.

3. Good lighting

There are a lot of cameras that do well in low light, and there’s some that don’t do so well. Try to locate a light source to light up your subject and make sure your subject isn’t backlit or lit so much that they are forced to squint. Wistia has an excellent guide on how to create a great, low-cost lighting kit.

4. Keep them short

According to Hyperfine Media, 5% of viewers will stop watching after 1 minute and 60% will stop watching after 2 minutes. Keep you videos short and to the point to ensure you are getting any important information across before your viewer loses interest.

5. Include text or subtitles

When 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound (Digiday), you’re going to want to ensure viewers are taking in information while watching your video. By including the option for subtitles or adding engaging text, you not only are lending a hand to those who are hard of hearing but you are getting your information to those who either, choose not to listen to your video, or are in the middle of class scrolling through their Facebook feed with the sound off. It’s not your responsibility to know if someone is on Facebook in class, however, it is your responsibility to make sure they are receiving that information.

Conclusion

You can’t escape the year of the video, so embrace it. There’s still plenty of time left in the year to get in on the video marketing game. But remember, poor production quality may have the reverse effect on a consumer and actually drive away prospective business. However, with these tips, you should be you on your way to creating great videos, whether it’s an interview, or a how-to video to share with your readers. You just have to get started.

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One of the most important aspects in marketing is content marketing.

In order to have a great content marketing strategy, we have to write – and write LOTS! As marketers, we have a natural tendency to want to grow our business fast and write in every outlet possible. This means getting in front of as many outlets as possible. Not only does this involve spending lots of money, (remember, this article is about doing more with less) you don’t want to risk losing the real voice of your company by outsourcing too soon or having too many staff writers. It is wise to save money by building your audience organically. This way, your audience will be truly aligned with what you are selling. Although it may take time to build the audience, it is safer in the long run. Plan to spend your budget on high quality content. That way, when you are ready to outsource and have many staff members, your audience will appreciate the content because they are aligned with your voice, your product, and who you really are.

Wait a minute – what happens if I don’t even have content – a voice, or even anywhere to start?

That is an easy fix – segment your content off of one piece of content. For example this whitepaper is based off of this webinar. Let’s look at other popular marketing websites that do the same thing – Hubspot (Leading inbound marketing and sales platform) has an email marketing webinar and an email marketing infographic with most of the same information. All they did was repurpose their webinar information and make it into a delightful infographic. Take BuzzFeed for example, many of their popularvideos are based off their posts. Creating content can be very simple! It just takes one piece and from there you can produce up to 20 pieces of content if done wisely.

Lets break it down: One webinar = enough content for 5 blogs, 5 white papers, 1 podcast, 1 how-to-guide, eventually turned into promoted content, social media feed (live tweets throughout the webinar) and that webinar can be translated into SEO (search engine optimization) content (we use a system that picks up and captions the audio.)

Another form of marketing that is very popular is video marketing. When creating videos for marketing,it is important to have high quality videos (are we starting to notice a trend here?) So, how little can you spend on video marketing?

Well there are different teirs of camera’s and depending on the amount and the type of video work you are doing the cost of your camera may vary but you can start off with a good quality HDvideo camera or DLSR for about $1000, or you could buy a less expensive camera with DSLR quality like the Canon Powershot G7X for around $500. If that’s still out of your budget then you can always set up a newer smartphone like the iPhone 6 on a tripod and film your videos with that. Another way to not break the bank on a video marketing tool is a Go-Pro camera. They come with many attachments and product quality videos, and the new Go Pro Hero 4 Black has an improved microphone. One thing to keep in mind is the Go Pro does shoot at a wider angle.

Lighting and sound are important aspects you have to also take into consideration when producing videos – listen to our webinar (see what we did here) for more information on how to not break the bank on lighting and sound. So, you have your tools and are ready to produce a high quality B2B video: What happens if I don’t know anything about video marketing? Well, this is ironic, but, check out YouTube! There are many “how-to” videos on how to produce videos.We come across many prospects that are afraid to produce their own videos because they don’t have editing skills or music. A tip and trick: subscribe to a music service. These services let you download music royalty free and also give you tons of audio effects for editing purposes. They are very user friendly, you will be able to pick them up in no time – probably without even reading the instructions. Once you have your music head over to YouTube and watch some tutorials on how to use editing software; understanding the basics of sequencing isn’t very difficult and give you the ability to create your own video content.

What NOT to DO:

• rely on a webcam
• rely on a shaky iPhone (we suggest always having a stand)
• rely on YouTube*

*YouTube is great for search engine purposes – not for embedding purposes. We suggest checking out Vimeo, or Wistia, as well as uploading on YouTube (for branding/SEO purposes)

Graphic Design

As a business, you know it is important to look good! You also know good-looking content is an important aspect as well. Everything from blogs, whitepapers, videos, infographics (pretty much everything we have talked about here) should be visually appealing to the reader. Not only will it keep your buyer engaged throughout their journey, it makes you and your brand look reputable and good.

If you are an advanced graphic designer keep doing what you are doing! If you consider yourself beginner to intermediate with Photoshop, keep doing what you’re doing, outsource if necessary. If you have never opened the Photoshop application or just are not comfortable enough in it we suggest outsourcing your graphics. If you choose to outsource your graphics you can simply go online and bid for services. It’s as simple as that! Another way to save your dollars is to work with students. Many eager students will work for experience.

To summarize, it is possible to do more with less. Whether you’re reading this because you are starting your marketing strategy, developing or just interested in how to save more money, we hope this was helpful. Let us know. Leave some comments. We would love to hear from you.

The post How Little Can you Spend on a Campaign – and still get results? appeared first on Virtual Causeway.