There’s just something about a good piece of video. It catches the eye, pulls the viewer in, and gives them a sense of participating in the action on the screen. It can convey a tremendous amount of information in just a few seconds. And it’s absolutely, hands-down, the best way to engage an audience.
Whether your audience is scrolling through their social feeds, browsing your website, or looking for a how-to video on YouTube, your video marketing can catch them where they are and hold their attention for long enough to get your message across.
But how to catch their attention? With video now pervasive in almost every communication channel we use daily, how do you make your marketing video stand out above the rest?
This week, we’ll start our discussion of video marketing by looking at some best practices for creating compelling, attention-grabbing videos to share your message.
Keep Your Marketing Videos Short
People are busy, and their time is valuable to them. When you put a video in front of them, you ask them to give you their mostly undivided attention for however long your video runs. Even asking for thirty seconds can feel like a tall order. Keeping someone’s eyes on the screen for a full minute is even more challenging. And asking for three minutes? You might as well ask them to give up an entire Saturday, especially since clicking away from a video is incredibly easy!
People’s attention spans are short, and regardless of how good your video is, you’re more likely to lose viewers the longer it goes. So, make sure that your videos don’t drag on. Make your point quickly and succinctly, and let your audience move on to the next thing – hopefully, a visit to your site to complete a purchase.
To boost enrollment, Wesleyan College chose M&R to create a 30-second commercial. See how much information can be conveyed in 30 short seconds:
Video Marketing in the Reel World
Carrying the “keep it short” principle to its logical extreme leads to one of the newer trends in video advertising – reels. Social platforms like Instagram and Facebook have leaned into the short-form video format first popularized by Vine and TikTok, and companies worldwide are now using these short, informal videos to engage their audiences.
Reels aren’t the place for detailed ads – they’re where you show your audience your company’s human side, throw out a single quick value proposition, briefly announce a new product, or share a brief testimonial. They should be informal and not over-produced to highlight the sense of authenticity common to social reels.
Make Your Marketing Videos Funny
Think of your five favorite TV commercials. Now, think about your five favorite online videos. How many of those ten videos are humorous?
Humor is a powerful sales tool. When your marketing videos are funny, they’re more engaging, memorable, and more likely to get shared around as a social phenomenon, providing you with all kinds of free publicity.
Just remember that humor can cut both ways. Pay special attention to your audiences when crafting a funny video for marketing purposes. Humor in marketing can easily be taken the wrong way if it’s not done carefully. Make sure to think about how your jokes may play in front of different audience members and then how they will play in front of people who might not be in your target audience. When in doubt, leave it out.
Humorous video content also requires careful and honest evaluation. What’s funny to you may be less funny to someone else – not necessarily offensive or troubling, just not funny. Test your content on various people before you go into production. If reading the content on the page makes them laugh, you can bet the video will, too.
To help encourage enrollment, Mount de Sales Academy in Macon used their mascot and some students with great timing to make their promotional video funny:
Make Your Marketing Videos Beautiful
Nobody wants to watch a marketing video that features one of your employees standing still in front of a dull white wall, talking about your products. One compelling part of video marketing is that it can carry the audience on a journey to new and exciting places. Show your audience what the good life looks like – once they’ve purchased your products or services.
Your visuals are a massive part of what makes your ads compelling, so make sure they’re appealing. When possible, spend the extra money for a professional videographer and editor – they’ll know how to get the most appeal out of your offerings, use lighting to its best effect, catch the best angles, and combine it into a unified, compelling narrative.
And if your products aren’t necessarily attractive (does anyone like how an air conditioning unit or lawnmower looks?), don’t dwell on it. Focus instead on outcomes, people enjoying their cool, comfortable homes and lush, freshly mowed lawns.
You wouldn’t think of fuel and oil distribution as a service that lends itself to beautiful video, but to celebrate their 70th Anniversary, Walthall Oil trusted M&R to create their celebration video. With long, sweeping landscape shots and dramatic videography, even oil tankers can be made visually appealing:
Make Your Marketing Videos Touching
Emotion can be another great marketing tool. Those heartwarming videos that make people go “Awww” are incredibly engaging. People like it when a company makes them feel good, and a healthy dose of sentimentality can go a long way toward achieving the desired effect.
Again, though, there’s a caveat for swinging that particular club: it has to be genuine. People can sense fake sentiment a mile away, and a company that fails at making an authentic emotional appeal will be subject to ridicule and worse. In other words, don’t force it. Let the story deliver the emotional payload. You don’t have to hit your audience over the head with it – if you tell the story well, the emotions will follow.
Another note on touching and heartwarming videos – the temptation to rely on small children and furry pets may be strong. Again, those only work if they’re genuine and not awkwardly trying to shoehorn “cute” into something that shouldn’t be “cute.”
In their efforts to raise money for the Beverly Knight Olson Children’s Hospital, Navicent Health partnered with M&R to create this video:
Make Your Marketing Videos With the Pros
Of course, you’re not an expert in video marketing. Fortunately, you know someone who is. You want to know the easiest way to make your marketing videos captivating? Let us help!
At M&R Marketing, we have years of experience creating compelling, engaging videos for our clients. Our videos have helped companies in dozens of markets grow and thrive – from fuel and oil distributors to inground pool contractors, schools, and healthcare providers. Our team can help you find your audience and connect to them with effective video ads for use on social media, YouTube, your website, and other platforms.
Ready to Put Video to Work for You? Let M&R Marketing Manage Your Video Marketing From Strategy to Completion – Call and Speak to a Friendly Sales Team Member Today: 478-621-4491.
Whether you’re looking to build an engaged audience through social media reels, want a 30-second commercial for TV and streaming services, or are trying to establish a multi-platform video strategy to help meet your overall goals for the year, our team can help with every step of the process:
- Video strategy development
- Individual video concepting, scripting, and storyboarding
- Videography
- Post-production, including editing, titles, effects, and more
- Posting to online platforms and broadcast/streaming placement
Related Articles: