It seems that most businesses these days are fully aware of what video marketing can do and the benefits of using video to promote themselves across the whole digital spectrum.  Blogs such as this one about why video is great are popping up everywhere and the message is definitely getting through.  A few years ago we used to have to convince people why they should use video, what the benefits were and how it could be used; these days that job doesn’t need doing any more.

Now it seems that there is a different message to convey when it comes to video marketing – how to use it effectively. One of the issues that we come across now is that video marketing is a ‘thing’ in its own right, its a separate entity and needs to be treated as such by a ‘video marketing expert’.  We don’t think it is.  We say this at the presentations and seminars that we are invited to talk at but we genuinely believe it – its just marketing…….with video.

There’s no mystery around it, video is just another tool to achieve your marketing goals like an advert in a magazine might be or a leaflet or a poster campaign.  All of these are tools that you might select to convey your message but they will be chosen specifically to communicate to your desired target audience.  Video is exactly the same – it might work for some demographics but not others, it might be great to communicate certain key messages but it might not be appropriate for other brands and their aims and objectives.  What it does need though is to be incorporated into your marketing plan at the very beginning.  When you are considering your audience, what channels to approach them through, what messages you have, what aims and objectives you have and how you want to talk to them, video needs to be there as a consideration.  We’re not saying it fits in to every campaign but it needs to be up there as an option.

Once you’ve decided that some of your marketing plan requires a video marketing element you then need to ensure that brand consistency flows through everything you do.  We’ve seen companies before who haven’t considered fonts, brand, colours or logo design on their video.  You might not think its necessary but if your video has opening titles, captions, graphics then they all need to fall under your brand guidelines.  You wouldn’t put a leaflet out that didn’t reflect the company’s brand so why dismiss it for a video?

Once you have the look and the feel right and you know where video marketing sits in your overall plan then you need to start thinking about the content, how and where you’re going to use the videos and how it integrates and compliments with your other marketing activity.  More about this to follow in our next blog.