Effectively demonstrating a product’s features to new customers is fundamental. Developing video and visual content is one way to showcase these features, in short and easy-to-digest sections, without having to rely on lengthy written manuals and guides. With so many organisations now using video, ensuring your content stands out from the crowd is now more important than ever.
TechSmith recently surveyed 1,900 consumers, exploring video viewing habits, to find what criteria is needed to make the perfect marketing video. Below is an outline of the things to think about when planning an impactful marketing video.
Who will be watching?
Firstly, who is your target viewer? Think about who they are, what they need to learn about the product, and how this should be delivered. A marketing video that is engaging for one person might be a turn-off for another. By understanding who your audience is and what will be of interest to them you’ll be better at keeping their attention.
How much of their time do you have?
Viewers of educational and training videos are likely to have a reasonable amount of time to spare to absorb new information. But according to the TechSmith video viewership survey, marketers should not base their videos on this assumption. In fact you have less than 50 seconds in which to capture and intrigue your audience with your video. With this in mind, it is worth aiming to provide short and snappy information. For products with a number of new features that you might want to demonstrate, why not create a series of short videos – one video for each new feature? That way potential customers can to go straight to a specific video without having to fast-forward through a longer one.
Adding extra sparkle
The great thing about today’s video editing tools is that they come with a whole host of new features that can help make your video more engaging. These range from hotspot features that embed hyperlinks in the video, to interactive quizzes and annotations. Tools like this can help increase engagement and, ultimately, the likelihood of generating a sales lead, if used in the right way. The trick is not to over-use them. Whilst it might be tempting to cram as many quizzes as possible into your video, overloading it with special effects can actually distract from the important information your video holds. Knowing where and when it is appropriate to include these features is key to creating an engaging video.
Measuring success
Once your video is published, tools such as Google Analytics, Salesforce and Optimizely can dig deeper to understand how your viewers are interacting with your content. These tools can assess how successful your video is at engaging with potential customers by highlighting where in the video people stop watching, which sections are most effective at eliciting a response and when people choose to share a video on social networks. This feedback can be a powerful tool in assessing what your next video should look like.
With so many marketing videos out there, one way to ensure yours stands out from the crowd is to create content that is personable, to the point and measurable. Making video doesn’t have to be hard and there are many instructional tools available to ensure success.