By Rachel Sharpe, Graphic Designer and Chloe Young, Digital Marketing Executive
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so what can be said about the power of video content for telling a business’s story?
With YouTube here to stay, TikTok the Gen-Z lockdown hero and Instagram incentivising creators to post videos over stills – video content offers businesses the power to engage, inspire, inform and, ultimately, convert.
To help make sense of the value of video, Rachel, our in-house graphic designer and Chloe, White Label’s digital marketing executive, detail some of the key ingredients they implement together to create compelling video content for our clients.
Know your purpose
“It’s important to know the reason why you’re creating the video. Video for video’s sake, without an objective in mind, is unlikely to create the same impact,” says Rachel.
“Before we create a video, we work with the client, alongside our marketing and comms team, to define the video’s purpose. Do we want to build awareness of a product, service or event? Is the video reporting on the success of a campaign? Do we want to gain more views and drive traffic to somewhere? Is the piece promotional? These elements must all be considered at the briefing stage to ensure a video meets its objectives.”
Considering the lifecycle of the video is also key says Rachel: “the longevity of the video must be taken into consideration early. If you intend the video to be used for years to come, you need to ensure the content isn’t going to date.”
Defining your audience
Whether it’s industry leaders or policy makers, knowing who you want to see the video is key: “Know the audience you want to reach, and the purpose will also become clearer,” says Rachel.
“If you know who you are talking to, you’ll also know what you want them to achieve by watching the video.”
Crafting the message
With research suggesting that viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text, making sure the messaging is clearly crafted will be crucial in getting your purpose across to your intended audience.
“Just like a story, a video needs a narrative hook. Our client’s videos always include a beginning, middle and end,” Rachel explains.
“Crafting a video’s message means you need to ask yourself several questions: what is the backstory? What challenges or facts do the audience need help understanding and how does the video allow them to take action?”
Rachel also suggests that adding in facts and data about your product or service, as well as a clear call to action at the end, will help to further amplify the impact of the video.
Social (media) value
Posting high-quality, optimised video content on social media can catapult a company’s message, delivering huge ROI if executed correctly.
“Over half of social media managers in the UK say that social media video is the most effective type of content that there is for gaining conversions and engagement,” Chloe remarks.
“Optimised video content is also great for social SEO. Social SEO is all about getting seen when people are actively searching for content, rather than scrolling their feeds. Ensuring videos are correctly tagged, have strong keywords in the title and include closed captions, can really improve the visibility and ranking of a video.”
Optimal length and format
If social media is great for video, then formatting videos with a ‘social first’ approach in mind, will also save time and money later.
Rachel advises that creating versions according to the channel’s optimal specifications, is an important consideration from the start: “There is no magic button to convert a video into the optimised formats for the different channels. Creating a version of your video for each channel from the start will ensure it formats correctly when uploaded, allowing the audience to view it with ease.”
When it comes to the length of your video, Chloe suggests the following as optimal for engagement:
“Ensure your video is less than a minute, unless it is part of a mini-series. In this instance, longer form content of two to five minutes will still resonate.”
“Should be one minute maximum; with stories no longer than 15 seconds and Reels 15-17 seconds on a loop.”
“A video on Twitter should be no longer than 15-44 seconds.”
“For baseline goals such as brand awareness on LinkedIn, a video will need to be 15-30 seconds maximum in length.”
Chloe suggests that, as a general rule, 15 seconds is where you’ll see most engagement – grabbing users’ attention quickly before they continue scrolling.
If you’d like support with designing video content, along with a social media strategy to optimise it’s reach, contact us at: info@wlcreative.org.uk
