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1.) Invest Some Time in Writing the Script**
With 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, you’ve got to be ready to put a lil’ extra spice into your content if you want to get it noticed. The best place to start? With the very first step - the script.
Take some time to come up with compelling stories, interesting situations and engaging dialogue. Video isn’t going anywhere so there’s no hurry to get it right. Have a clear outline of what you want your video to do and how you want it to look, keeping it original and fresh along the way.
The beauty of online video is that you can - quite literally - reach the world. So don’t hold back!
2.) Understand the Industry
The ideal length for a video is under three minutes - and most certainly under five! This is should be in your mind when planning storyboards and scripts. Your video should also provide a clear narrative with a beginning, middle and end. It’s also got to be engaging.
It’s crucial to understand online viewing habits, too. People are more often than not multitasking when browsing the web, so your video has to be as compelling as possible to compete with tweets, likes, and whatever else is going on the background.
Think about how habits change between lone and group audiences.Most people watch web videos when on their own and the sharing is often done through social media and e-mail. Think about the ‘shareability’ of your video.
3.) Quality of Production Matters
We’re not talking Hollywood blockbuster here, but it’s important to at least get the basics right with your video - simple things like getting the lighting right (your video won’t be much use if noone can see what’s happening...), making sure all the dialogue can be heard, and ensuring the room tone (making sure everything sounds the same when switching from shot to shot within one setting) matches. Poor quality in these areas could cause viewers to switch off and damage your video’s success.
Take a more engaging approach. It’s a longer route, but the payout is far greater because you'll ultimately be talking to people who care.
If you're producing a comedy series, don't use the related Twitter account to only broadcast when new episodes are up. Between videos, use it as an outlet for news jokes or a free source of silly gags.
And if you are trying to share your content with specific people, take care to avoid hitting them with the same message from multiple angles. The more e-mails, Facebook messages, and Twitter DMs one gets about the same thing, the less likely she'll be to naturally discover and enjoy it.
4.) Take your Marketing Back to Basics
Don’t think that creating a Twitter/Facebook/Whatever account and rambling on about your brand will be enough to fulfill your grassroot marketing need - it’s not. They key to any marketing strategy is to be engaging and to get people genuinely interested in your output. It’s a longer route, but it’s ultimately more effective. Don’t just your social media channels to promote your videos when they’re actually live - be active between content, start conversations, reply to comments - ultimately, be social. It will make viewers feel more positively to your brand and encourage them to share it amongst themselves.
Madeleine Hammond is a marketing executive at Skeleton Productions - one of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region>*’s leading video production companies.
image courtesy of Google*
