We’re big fans of video content and sharing companies like Buffer to leverage the efficiencies now possible.  So this article below highlights both how to get started with video content by the experts at Buffer.  If we can assist you in any way, simply contact us here. Enjoy!

Source article: Buffer Blog by Matt Aunger

If you find yourself intimidated by the concept of creating video content, you’re not alone.

Every minute of the day, YouTube users alone upload 72 hours of new video content, not to mention uploads to Facebook, Vimeo, Daily Motion or Wistia.

With all that noise, making your video stand out, increasing engagement and finding ways to add value is a mammoth task; which makes doing it right even sweeter.

Fortunately, there are tons of great blueprints for creating valuable, meaningful video content.

I’ve taken a closer look at some of these strategies and have condensed the advice here, in a “delightfully short” guide to adding value with your video content. I’ve included the latest research on video content, the best expert tips, and some great examples of video content done right. If you’ve got any more tips or examples of great brand videos, I’d love to hear them in the comments.

The Stats Behind Valuable Video Content

At first glance, taking on the challenge of adding video to your content marketing mix might seem enormous to say the least.

So why would you want to take on such a mammoth task?

1. Video generates 3x as many monthly visitors to a website as other content

2. Visitors spend 88% more time on a website that includes video

3. Organic traffic from search engines increases by 157%

4. Consumers are 46% more likely to seek information about a product or service after seeing in an online video

5. Consumers are 85% more likely to buy after watching a product video

6. 52% more confidence in their online purchase

Online video presents a huge opportunity for you to add tremendous value to your brand, whether you overall goal is increasing conversions, improving brand confidence or simply to #ShowUCare.

With the advent of social streaming platforms such as Meerkat and Periscope, and in a world where the majority of marketers already have some way of recording HD video and access to easy-to-use editing software, it’s clear that no matter your budget or ability, you can create valuable video content.

The 3 E’s of Valuable Video Content

There are some excellent examples of brand videos scattered across landing pages, blogs and social channels. You don’t have to look far on YouTube or Facebook to find something valuable and engaging that ticks all the right boxes.

I’ve handpicked three of my favourites. Each one provides great value for their audience and illustrates different ways you might use video, add value and connect with your audience.

1. Educate

Video hosting platform Wistia offer an incredible series of videos that aims to educate their audience and inspire them to make better video content.

The brand goal is simple; highlight Wistia’s expertise while educating existing and potential customers, helping improve the video content their audience produce.

2. Entertain

Although uploaded in 2012, so in no way new to the video content market, Dollar Shave Club’s viral commercial continues to set a high standard for entertaining and amusing content.

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the goal of the video was to drive awareness of the Dollar Shave Club brand, highlighting the key benefits to their audience, in a fun and entertaining way.

3. Engage

In her recent Emoji post Courtney highlighted the great use of video content from PETA, using Emojis to communicate their powerful message and engage a very specific audience.

With their sights firmly set, PETA took a brave and unconventional approach, engaging the target audience in relatable terms yet still delivering the brand’s disturbing message in a simple yet effective manner.

The three examples are a tiny drop in the ocean of incredible brand video content. Each video indicates that by simply understanding the audience they are targeting, brands can create a more rich, valuable and meaningful content.

If you’ve experienced some engaging and valuable video content, let me know in the comments.

5 Steps Toward Valuable Video Content

User guides on making rich and engaging video content seem to be a dime-a-dozen.

I’ve gone through some and highlighted a few of the key steps that experts are suggesting you consider when adding value with video.

Here is a quick rundown of my 5 steps toward more valuable video:

1. Listen and understand your audience

2. Align with your brand goals

3. Create the content and make it resonate

4. Share. Share. Share again!

5. Measure. Analyse. Understand.

1. Listen and understand your audience

Listening to your audience seems to be the most important consideration when it comes to adding value with video.

Before settling on an idea for your video, spend some time getting to know your audience, looking at what your they want to know about your brand and what they are talking about in the industry.

Earlier in the year, Kevan’s post covered some really useful tools that can help you understand and get to know your audience.

If asking your audience directly is out of the question, try looking to your inbox or your support team’s inboxes and pick out a few FAQs. Maybe you could use some of your social listening insights to find out what people are talking about in your industry.

No matter how you do it, making the effort to understand what your audience wants can add a huge amount of value to your video.

2. Align with your brand goals

After you’ve taken time to understand your audience, Katherine Hipwell of Red Bee Media suggests looking toward your brand goals and seeing how these align with the needs of the audience.

“What is a brand’s objective? What is the audience interested in? And how can this be done in real time?”

The most effective online video sits between the overlap of three questions.

If it becomes a struggle to align brand objectives with audience wants and needs, consider shelving the idea for the time being.

It is a tough thing to do, but will help you focus on the most valuable ideas for both the brand and audience.

3. Create the content and make it resonate

Once you’ve figured out your audience and how you’re going to get their attention, spend time thinking about what sort of response you want to get from your audience before after you’ve created the content.

What change in thinking, motivation or behaviour do you want your video to affect?

To make your video more interesting and shareable, consider the following:

1. Make it emotional – Try to get a strong emotional response from your audience. Focus on personal triumphs, positivity and inspiration.

2. Make it positive – According to Unruly there are 18 specific psychological responses you should aim to achieve from your videos , with positive emotions being most effective at driving shares.

3. Make it exciting – Next to happiness, excitement and exhilaration are key emotions for driving sharing of your video.

4. Share. Share. Share again!

Once you’ve made your awesome and engaging video, you’ll be set to upload and share it, ready to watch the views roll in.

To get the most effective results, approach sharing your video in the same way as any other content and spread your social posts out over a long period of time.

Think about how often you should post to different networks, and if you’re on the forever free plan at Buffer, you can connect a profile from each network (one from Facebook, one from Twitter, etc.) and schedule ahead 10 posts for each network.

You could be sharing your video and adding value consistently for days!

5. Measure and attribute success

One of the most frustrating and confusing parts of making video content is knowing what success is and how to measure ROI.

After you’ve spent hours successfully creating this amazing content that is tailored toward your audience while aligning with your brand objectives, how do you even know if it worked? You might already know you need to set some KPIs, but which metrics even matter?

Carla Marshall of ReelSEO suggests focussing on 2 or 3 key areas, such as audience, expression and participation.

When it comes to metrics, it’s always seemed that there was a lot of pressure to get ‘views’. In fact experts are now considering ‘view count’ as a secondary metric, with the majority suggesting shares and view time to be more important than views themselves.

My favourite tip for measuring the value and success of your video comes from TheMediaOctopus (from their really interesting infographic):

Summary

Hopefully this helps show that creating valuable, engaging and meaningful video is well within your grasp. And by taking a step back and aligning your business goals with your audience wants and needs, you can add tremendous value to your brand.

If we can assist you in injecting video and multimedia content into your overall marketing strategy please let us know more about your needs. Click here to contact us Thanks for reading and sharing our work. 

​