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How to ensure your digital video marketing is successful (1)

How to ensure your digital video marketing is successful (1)

June 14, 2017

Via: itCurated

The online experience is all about speed and multi-source information: people open one page, then another, read a sentence here and a title there. Lots of data bits compete for our attention in the same time span, and which one will prevail is a seconds’ decision. What determines the attention to focus on a certain piece of information rather than on another? This equation is infinitely refined: by age, by moment of the day, by education, profession, season or initial search goal. Nevertheless, we are all aware of the digital overload phenomena: however focused one might be, distractions always appear and even if they are not trivial (finding out a bit more on each subject is just a click away online), they still lead people in unpredictable Internet loops. It’s in our nature to be curious. That being said, as a marketer, one will always rather be the distraction rather than the thing people are distracted away from. Digital video marketing enters – as an intense visual experience appealing to human curiosity and visual aesthetics sense.

Digital video marketing parameters

We will not consider here the experience of watching full-length feature online movies. Instead, the experience we approach is the one each and every one encounters daily, if not hourly, in the online environment: short(er) video materials on webpages or via social media channels, brands, pages or contacts suggest countless videos.

  1. The written video headline

This element is the first most likely to appeal to the viewer’s attention. Acting as the video’s “hook”, that small piece of information should be able to entice and summarize the video content while leaving enough undisclosed information to motivate watching the visual material.

  1. The video (inter)mediator

Each one of us has trusted sources, and business communities have validated opinion leaders and influencers. Once such a “trust point” endorses the video material, it is far more likely for the viewer to find time and availability to watch it.

Advertisers strive to reach nodal influencer points with their materials, while such persons in turn make a constant effort of keeping a quality-based selection for the materials they pass on – in order to keep their status.

  1. Message consistency

Sometimes the introductory fragment does not match the video content – to various degrees. This leads to a lack of consistency that will be perceived as deceitful by the viewer. Businesspersons tend to value their time, and so do independent professionals and self-aware people – therefore such an unpleasant experience might result into future avoidance of the product/service/brand video materials sooner or later.

  1. The visual experience itself

It may happen that even though the message is consistent and all the criteria are met for the target to watch the video, the visual experience itself would not deliver in terms of quality and design.

Media quality still remains a concern for 2015 marketers, as this recent UK survey proves it, and the issue is global, especially since the video plugins have diversified and some of the viewers might have compatibility problems. (Of course, hardware progress is keeping up with software and apps, but in marketing it is important to reach the targeted persons regardless of their devices being up to date or not.)

  1. The quantifiable video parameters

The video parameters equally concern the viewer and the marketer: the viewer is interested in the length of the material (total length, essential moments length and placement, video renderer features like fast forward, pause and so on), while for the marketer is important to know details about the video viewing process and impact (viewed/skipped, dropping point, impressions, actions triggered).

There are measurement systems that influence in turn both viewers and video owners: view count rates, shares, comments). The new viewer may include these factors in deciding whether to view the material or not, while the marketing team needs the analytics feedback in order to determine efficiency and future strategy.

How does an online video experience look like?

There are two main instances:

  • When intentionally looking for a video material detailing a product or a service;
  • When encountering a video material during some other focused or non-focused online activity.

When purposely searching for a presentation video material, a potential client has a certain time allotted for the entire experience. The material should be accessible and cleverly paired with the written information and should conveniently describe the duration and the content presented – for the entire process to be efficient and professional. The quality of the video material should also raise to the challenge, as well as the video content. Getting potential customers’ online attention is a precious, not-to-be-wasted thing.

When casually interacting with video materials (advertising videos) online, the context is the first factor to consider. Any material should be placed on a relevant webpage, social network sub-page or segment. Of course, the placement may be the result of automation, but even then coordination failures may occur. Automation requires monitoring; otherwise the effects may be adverse. (E.g. no one usually appreciates seeing farming videos when browsing cyber-technology pages.)

The length of the video, its default sound and frame position are just a few other elements to consider when conceiving a video material destined to work its way into the viewer’s attention span. The unintentional viewers tend to be more critical when diverging from their initial activity, therefore the aim is to provide a flawless, pleasant experience that remains embedded into the viewer’s memory.

Meeting audience expectations is the key in syncing video design with video placement. Alternatively, even surpassing their expectations might well constitute a goal (even when producing in-house video materials). A positively surprising experience is likely to be passed on via countless sharing actions. The cleverer your video, the better it will spread on social media channels.

B2B video content marketing

Using digital video marketing is not confined to the B2C sector – in fact, B2B companies have assumed the video race for some time now, and here is a recent article that exemplifies how some have aced this marketing method. There are two short featured videos (0:35, 1:48) and one longer material (6:53). The shorter materials are intense and dynamic, mimicking the style of TV ads, while the longer video is elaborate and informational, presenting a CRM platform in a video tutorial manner (the type of material one might imagine would accurately respond to the intentional search coming from a business peer).

Usually, engaging B2B video materials are short (1 or 2 minutes, or even shorter), energetic and clever. Appealing to reason rather than to sentiment and sensations, such materials try to raise to the challenge of intense compression – delivering the most relevant business-linked message in the shorter time possible. Or, as we have seen above, taking the technical lengthy approach once the target viewers are pre-qualified peers.

In what numbers are concerned, a 2015 survey coming from the Web Video Marketing Council shows that over 96 percent of the B2B respondents are confirming video content marketing is part of their outreach. Video engagement serves the respondents in visibility, brand awareness and lead generation.

Forecasts estimate that B2B video content marketing marks a new era: improved quality that would boost brand awareness and online engagement is just at the beginning.

As B2B video publishing on YouTube reached a 76 percent (of marketers) in 2014 and went on growing, the YouTube platform acknowledged this phenomenon, and so did other similar platforms. In turn, they improved and upgraded their marketing-dedicated features. The aforementioned study found that 63 percent of the respondents are in their fifth year of video engagement, while 32 percent are in their second year of video marketing adoption.

Join us next week to find out more about the main traits of online video marketing experience and how each of these can be tuned for success.