With the explosion of digital media, there are now nearly infinite ways to market a product or service. Gone are the days when you could launch an advertising campaign by putting up billboards, newspapers, or TV advertisements.
In our hyper-connected society, where every individual has access to almost limitless amounts of information, marketing via media is not effective anymore.
As consumers become more aware of this, companies have shifted their strategies towards instead investing in social media, YouTube, blogs, and other platforms to get attention.
This is especially true for online businesses that use video as part of their marketing strategy. More and more people enjoy consuming content that is interactive and entertaining, making it a very popular medium.
Businesses must learn how to use videos to effectively promote their products and services. Luckily, there are several easy ways to do so. In this article, we will discuss some tips on how to make your first video ad successful.
Know your audience
As we mentioned before, knowing your audience is one of the most important things you can do when marketing using video. Who you are targeting and what they need help with will determine how you approach your videos!
Targeting an older crowd may require different strategies than talking to someone who is in their twenties. Finding out more about your target audience can help tell if these tools work for you or not.
Ask around yourself and others close to them whether they know anyone that uses this tool or product. You could also ask if there are any success stories or testimonials related to it. The both may be able to give you tips and tricks for successful marketing.
Another way to find out more information is by doing surveys. There are many free survey websites where you can contribute to gain knowledge.
Heck, even taking a few minutes to read through user reviews can provide valuable insights. If you have a product similar to theirs, you can use that as motivation to promote yours!
Final thought – while it is good to add testimonials to your videos, make sure they don’t sound fake or exaggerated. Your followers might believe instead of investing in the products themselves, people just want attention.
Design your ad
After deciding where you will advertise your video, what type of content you will use, and if you will edit or add extra touches to it, now comes the design! The design is an integral part of your advertisement.
The first thing people notice about your advertisements are the visuals. Yours should be interesting and eye-catching to draw attention. You can use pictures, logos, fonts, and other designs as materials for your ads. Make sure to give some context to your audience by incorporating their knowledge or having them look at something related to your product or service.
There are several free designing tools available online that most major web browsers have access to. Some of these include Adobe Photoshop, Google Sketchup, and Giphy. Many of these allow you to create and save new documents or files so you do not need to go through the process of buying all the premium software packages.
Choose the right location
Choosing your filming location is an integral part of creating effective marketing videos. You want to make sure you are investing in their experience, not yours!
Surprisingly, most people will agree that filming outside is better than indoors. This is because some outdoor settings look more authentic — it feels like there is actually space around you, instead of being confined by walls and ceilings.
Also, capturing natural light can help bring out more vibrant colors for your video. While professional lighting equipment can cost a lot, you do not need too much to create decent lighting.
You can even use the sun as light if needed! However, remember to discard any reflections or shadows this might cause.
Plan for the weather
A lot of business owners make the mistake of thinking that if they don’t see any results within the first five attempts, then they give up. This is not the best way to run marketing campaigns!
By giving up, you lose interest in your videos and potential customers get distracted. If one video doesn’t perform well, try another one!
Never give up when it comes to marketing. It will always have benefits for you! Even if you fail, you can learn from your mistakes and keep trying until you succeed.
Plan for the weather by having a plan B ready. You should always be prepared for anything when it comes to marketing.
Anticipate negative comments
Even though marketing videos are very popular now, there is still one major thing that some people feel cannot be done in video advertisements. That is talking about products or services for longer than two minutes!
Some say this style of advertisement is too long and not fun enough because you have to watch it all the way through before getting the “sale”. Others believe that marketers use this length to seem more professional and thus push up the price tag slightly.
However, we will talk about how important it is to advertise products via video in this article.
Create your ad
After you create your video, it’s time to start creating your advertisement. You will want to make sure that your advertisements are relevant and clear. Try to use pictures or videos to enhance your message.
Your advert should tell someone something about your business and what services or products you offer. Make sure your audience can easily contact you if they need more information!
After uploading your advertisement, you will then have the option to edit and optimize it. This is very important to ensure that it works for your computer network and web browser.
Try different lengths and styles of videos to see which ones work best for your business. People respond differently to visuals and marketing videos are a great way to use this knowledge.
Test your ad
A very common way to test your video marketing campaign is to create an advertisement or advertorial piece. This can be done via YouTube, Medium, Facebook, or any other channel that offers advertising services.
You can pick any topic you want! It does not even have to relate to your business or product. You can choose something totally unrelated and put a spin on it. Your audience will then be able to give their opinions on the article and its content.
This will help you determine two important things: 1) whether or not what you are offering (for your advertising investment) is working for your company and 2) how much value your audience is getting from your ads.
If there are too many advertisements with no feedback, it may indicate people are tired of looking at videos or people may start ignoring advertisers because nothing new is being said.
Create a website
A marketing video ad is not just for watching, it’s also about creating an audience that watches your videos. You can’t start filming unless you have a good space where you are going to put up your content, so firstly, you need to create a home online!
A domain name and web hosting account are two of the most important things to pick as your business site. It should be easy to remember and unique so people will know what it is and how to connect with you.
Your website needs to tell people who you are, what you do, and give them resources and tools they can use to work with you or learn from you. Your website should have all of this information, but it should also leave a great impression and draw visitors in.
Making sure your layout, colors, and fonts are clear and aesthetically pleasing will help establish trust and connection with your viewers. Try different styles and layouts to find one that works for you.
After you have those basics down, then you can begin thinking about what kind of content to include on your site. What services does your company offer? What products do you sell? All of these things could go into making your site interesting and informational.
Now that your site has some content, it is time to choose a platform to host it on! There are many free options out there, but we would never recommend using something like YouTube as your main source of income.
