I don’t know about you, but I am a visual learner. They say it’s because I am a part of the “Sesame Street Generation.” The generation who grew up learning our ABCs from Big Bird before we even attended kindergarten.
By the time we reached our teen years, we learned that Video Killed the Radio Star and became, quite enthusiastically, the “MTV Generation”. We liked our music by video, thank you very much, and nagged our parents obsessively until we got it. Anybody else remember screaming “I want my MTV!” every day for months until they added it to your cable package?
We got our news every morning at school by video piped right into our classroom via Channel One. Anderson Cooper and Lisa Ling told us about what was going on in the world. We watched Communism fall, the first Gulf War, the Rodney King riots, and the OJ Simpson trial this way.
We learned about the Holocaust by watching Schindler’s List, the Civil War by watching the Civil War PBS documentaries, and the birds and the bees by a wonderful reel-to-reel film they wheeled into your classroom in 5th grade.
This has led to a lot of communications studies which tell you that if you want to communicate effectively to those of my generation or later, you need to incorporate video. That can’t be your whole strategy, obviously, but it needs to be an integral part of it. It is how we grew up learning to learn, and it’s one of the best ways to get the message across to us.
As the internet has grown, and social media has expanded, video continues to grow and develop as an excellent medium to communicate your message. But the question remains, how can you effectively incorporate video into your marketing strategy to reach your target market?
6 ways you can incorporate video into your marketing message:
Commercially produced videos by a high-quality, professional video production company are an excellent option for several projects including television advertisements, event videos, educational videos, and longer promotional videos.- Creating a YouTube channel for your company is a great distribution channel for your videos – either those professionally produced or those you do with your own video equipment. Build your subscriber base and deliver enticing, relevant content and you’ve got a great way to market yourself, your products, and your message. If a 10 year old can build a multi-million dollar empire doing make-up tutorials from her bedroom, you too can conquer YouTube.
- Facebook Live is a recent new video development in the world of Social Media. You can go live from your Facebook page and share with anyone who has “liked” your page. Better yet, it offers a chance for real-time interaction with viewers who can watch live, comment, ask questions, and give feedback. It is a great way to increase your Facebook affinity with people who “like” your page, which will help your social posts show up in the newsfeed without having to pay to boost your posts.
While Vine itself has gone away, the idea of a vine has not. Short, succinct videos recorded on any smart phone can be uploaded on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, or Twitter. It doesn’t need to be long to be powerful or reach your audience.- Creating a viral video often feels like the holy grail of digital marketing, and we all want it. We want to create something that gets shared over and over again and increases our reach ten-fold. The best way to do that is to connect emotionally with your audience – create something touching, heartwarming or funny. You want to elicit a positive emotional response that people can’t help but want to share with others.
- Video and pictures are colliding now-a-days in entirely new ways. Whether it is an animated gif or a looped video created by Boomerang, it’s an important, effective way that people are now communicating. Find a way to deliver your messages in this medium. They are share-able, like-able, and powerful.
If you need help figuring out how video can fit into your overall marketing strategy, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are full of ideas on how to expand your reach through video in 2017.