In 2022 there were 21.45 million social media users in Australia, who, on average, watched 19 hours of online video per week, a huge jump from 2018’s average of 10.5 hours, due to the shift in content trends since the Pandemic.
With all of this activity, videos are also twice as likely to be shared than any other type of content, so it’s no surprise that over 86 per cent of businesses now use video as a marketing tool.
While claims around consumers’ attention spans vary, if you are trying to catch (and keep!) someone’s attention online, it’s reported that you have a maximum of 8 seconds to do it. What’s more, you’re more likely to do it successfully via the moving image.
Whether it’s for customers, or for your team and staff, video content is the most engaging and therefore effective medium for advertising and communications, layering both audible and visual elements to enhance the power of storytelling. Video is better at optimising search engine results for brands and provides viewers with a more immersive brand experience.
So for those of you who want to get stuck but aren’t sure where or how to start, here are my considerations for creating engaging video content for your business.
Top 7 tips for creating engaging video content
Start with the end in sight. Have an idea of what it is you want to achieve and drill down on your objectives before you start, do you want to generate brand awareness? Email signups? Convert sales? Producing video content takes time and requires an end goal so you don’t waste resources just to make a video for video’s sake.
Understand and define your audience. Social media is ‘king of content’, so consider a social-first approach. How will your content behave/translate on social media? Is your audience even on social media? For mature audiences, for example, cinema or TV might be more appropriate.
Zero in on your first 3 seconds. For a younger demographic, start with a bright, poppy editing pace to hook them in. This Virgin Money ad series is a great example of a highly-targeted campaign for a younger market.
Subtitles, always. Subtitles are non-negotiable on social media with so much of what we consume now without audio. Make sure you review closely and edit them for quality before you go live!
Consider a series. Rather than a one-off video, consider one overarching idea rolled out in chapters or episodes, or creating bespoke edits for different social platforms or distribution channels. The more touch points over a period of time, the more recognisable and effective your messaging.
Reuse and recycle. A versatile ‘bank’ of content with consistent brand handwriting can be re-harvested down the track. For example, in 2022 we travelled to Milan with Space Furniture for Salone del Mobile (Design Week) and shot a heap of content that we are now reutilising to create an ad series to promote their 2023 trend forecasting e-newsletters in advance of the April 2023 event.
We can only achieve that because we engaged a strategic lens across the project and future opportunities with this client.
All budgets are great and small. Irrespective of budget, with video production, you can always find a solution. What do you already have that you can re-cut? What can you do in-house without needing to outsource? Graphics and animation cost less than talent and full days on-set.
I’m a huge believer in the democratisation of video content. I’m passionate about finding solutions for current and prospective clients even when they have a limited budget because I believe in the power, value, and importance of the medium and because it works.
We had a client recently who, on their first foray into the video on LinkedIn, racked up over half a million impressions and over 5,000 viewing minutes from the content we produced for them!
Every video that you produce, be it to connect with a customer, other businesses, or even internally, should focus on connecting with people on an emotional level and taking the viewer on a journey, even if it’s only 15 seconds long.
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