One of the biggest barriers that we face at CMA Video is what the perception of a marketing video for business actually is. What’s it for, how should it be used?
A lot of the time a well crafted corporate video production is seen as a luxury item, something that is a ‘nice to have’ when all of the main actions in the marketing plan have been undertaken.
This attitude often is as a result of preconceptions of price or actual usability of the video i.e. “We’ve got a video done because we felt like we should but what are we going to do with it now?” or “We’ve got some budget left, what shall we spend it on?”
Its completely understandable and there is a lot of mystery around video production – lack of knowledge about the filming process, the post production and the cost are just three things that we encounter with clients and creates a nervousness from them. But it shouldn’t be a scary or mysterious thing, it can be a powerful marketing tool and it should be treated as such.
Firstly, we at CMA Video don’t believe that video is the be all and end all of marketing communications. We don’t think that video should be a sole marketing asset, it should be one element of an overall marketing campaign. Like any other part of a marketing strategy, video should be complemented by online and offline activity and it should slot into the campaign with its own aims and objectives along with specific calls to action and performance measures.
The video needs to be used in the right channels to get the maximum impact and be aimed at the right target audience in order to really hit the spot in terms of communicating the key messages effectively.
This all sounds like pretty basic stuff but its surprising how many companies don’t think like this about their marketing video. An advertising flyer or leaflet will have set distribution channels that are aimed at the target market, a newspaper advert will be placed to get to the right people at the right time but a video will not necessarily have had so much thought put into it. There is often an attitude of “put the video on You Tube and we’ll see if people watch it” or “the video is on the website where people can see it if they want” which is a real lottery of an approach for such a valuable marketing asset.
Depending on what channel you intend to use, this can dictate the style of video that is created. Short and sharp videos are great for social media and sharing videos but a longer more detailed video would be useful for a prospect that has already shown an interest in your business and wants to find out more. Video is a great way for keeping website visitors on a site for longer so providing key information is always important but in a manner that holds the viewer’s interest.
There also needs to be a measurement process in place to ascertain whether the video has achieved its targets. Looking at what you want the video to achieve is important – is there a call to action? If so have viewers acted on it, has it produced the required results. Are you simply looking for views and likes on You Tube or do you want viewers to interact with comments and shares?
To put it simply video should be a marketing tool just like any other, integrated at the planning stage of any marketing campaign as a viable media to communicate to the relevant target market. As soon as its treated in this way then the mystery surrounding video can start to disappear and marketers can start to see a real ROI from their marketing video.
If you are looking for advice on your corporate video production or are thinking about a marketing video contact us now on 0121 551 2079 or email us here.
