Video is getting bigger and bigger. It’s no longer just a part of your inbound marketing plan but it’s central to your outreach and campaign efforts… especially your social strategy.
Most marketers now understand how important video is to their inbound marketing strategy. But there’s still a lot of brands out there that aren’t using video...I know we can’t believe it either.
So we thought we’d dive into how we, Six & Flow, use video alongside the benefits and misconceptions so you have no more excuses!
How Six & Flow use Video Marketing
At Six & Flow, we use video on a daily basis. If you follow us on Instagram, then you will have seen the ‘Inside Six’ series on our stories where we use video to give our followers an insight into everyday life at Six & Flow. We like to show our followers what we get up to in the office on a daily basis, whether it’s talking about a new tool that we use, sharing an office discussion or disclosing a new strategy.
We also use a tool called Animoto, this is a great tool for creating your own videos easily. All you have to do is combine your photos and video clips with music to make powerful, professional videos that'll increase your engagement.
Video is also an important feature of our events. We hold events regularly in Manchester, Leeds and London (pre-covid of course) and use video to document the event and live stream/record the discussions for those who couldn’t make it.
How could we talk about video without talking about Zoom? We use zoom calls daily to communicate with other members of the team and to our clients. Zoom is a great platform to stay connected but it’s also user friendly. Since the start of lockdown, we’ve hosted a number of webinars on Zoom (catch up with them here if you missed out). This has allowed us to continue to share helpful information and add value to our audience despite the new remote setting.
Find out how we moved to online events.
Another video platform that we’d suggest you jump on straight away is Vidyard. Vidyard is an online video platform for business which allows you to increase leads, accelerate your pipeline and delight your customers. If you’re not comfortable with video then this is a great platform to ease yourself into it. You can record as many takes as you like until you’re happy… let’s be honest take 10 is going to be better than take 1, practice makes perfect.
Benefits of video
Some people still doubt the power of video, they’d prefer to send an email even though the stats tell us that 59% of senior executives would choose video if both text and video are available. Furthermore, the average user watches around 206 videos per month. So why are people still hesitant?
Here are some reasons to convince you that video is the perfect tool to implement in your marketing strategy:
- Video content is easy to create - Pretty much everyone has a smartphone these days which means there’s no need for a fancy and expensive camera...you can create content straight from your phone.
- Video content is rich - The brain can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text meaning you can provide deeper information in a 2-minute video than text content can in a 2-minute read.
- Video content is engaging to your audience - Videos are more powerful and have a higher chance of catching your viewer’s attention and engaging them.
- Video content is memorable - Most people need visual aids to learn, which could be the main reason why video is better than text.
Misconceptions about video
There are many misconceptions about video marketing; it’s too expensive, it has to be a certain length, it has to be produced on professional cameras. The list goes on. But this is just someone’s opinion when they don’t understand the power of video.
Creating high-quality videos on a regular basis can definitely become expensive, but only if you let it! There are tons of ways to keep your video marketing costs down and not spend more than you can afford.
When it comes to video length, it all depends on the use of the video. A 10-second video would go down great on social but so would a 2-5 minute explainer video. Video planning, shooting and editing can take a lot of time to organise, but there are a lot of tools available to help you simplify the process.
People expect to see video from brands on their feeds. If you’ve managed to get this far without video, there’s a high chance you’ll disappear into the ether if you don’t update your marketing initiatives to reflect consumer trends.
Social channels are updating their algorithms to prioritise video content, and users themselves are creating more live video content than ever before. So make sure you aren't getting left behind!
If this is something you need help with, get in touch with a member of the Six & Flow team or check out these top tips for getting started with video.
We know it’s hard but look… we’ve all been there.
