According to researchers at Microsoft, the human attention span has reached a new low, lasing a whopping 8 seconds. While that doesn’t mean marketers need to squeeze the bulk of their messaging in 8 seconds, it does explain the fast rise of video as the key to effective marketing. In 2017, views of sponsored videos increased by 258% compared to the previous year. Moreover, in a study conducted by video experts at Wyzol, over 80% of surveyed businesses intend to continue utilizing video content, which makes video marketing a vital key in creating competitive strategies that fit within today’s trends.
Going beyond 30-sec animations
While videos don’t have to be overly elaborate visually to get your point across, there are several ways you can expand your video resources for maximized ROI. Take a look at some of the prominent ideas that are being used today:
- Serialized animations – These videos can be either animated or live footage, yet they are different from mainstream videos since they are all connected and released one at a time via social media or digital marketing.
- Silent videos – Did you know over 80% of Facebook videos are watched with no sound. While social media videos still include audio, many of them also use short, succinct bullet points or captions to overcome new user preferences.
- Live video – Popular video sharing service, Vimeo, found that over 80% of customers prefer live videos over reading content as a way to keep up with any particular brand. Live videos let customers get extremely close to your brand and team, giving your business a much more approachable and human identity.
- Behind the scenes – Another way to help customers get a closer look is to take them behind the scenes of your product or brand. These may include demo videos, interviews, and montages showcasing your team’s journey.
- 360 Viewpoints – Projected to keep growing within the coming years, augmented reality videos such as 360 viewpoints and VR have become an increasingly popular way to submerge viewers into a new yet controlled experience.
- Interactive Videos – These videos expand engagement time while collecting data since viewers must actively click and listen. Whether it be choosing different points of view or selecting different paths, viewers can expect to be both entertained and informed through hands-on experience.
- Webinars and Discussions – COVID-19 changed a lot in our lives, including our preferences regarding webinars. Webinar platforms have seen up to a 330% increase in popularity as gatherings transition to the digital world. Unlike other video strategies, Webinars help customers connect with each other in real-time while giving you center stage in front of them.
- Tips and Tricks – As on our personal favorites, these videos help bolster credibility since you need to have thorough knowledge on a subject in order to offer “shortcuts” and tips on any particular topic.
- Infographic Videos – These videos take the tips-and-tricks theme a step farther by giving more in-depth explanations of how products/solutions work, and they are usually geared towards a precise smaller audience. While most successful videos should strive to be under 2 minutes, in-depth infographic videos might go over the time-limit since they are directed towards a more interested audience from the very beginning. These videos also lend themselves well to personalized marketing strategies due to their smaller target size.
- Case Studies – Giving a face to both your brand and your clients, case studies allow viewers to see how a product works within their context. Moreover, they can serve as testimonials to be added either to your web page or into your digital marketing campaigns.
- Product Announcements – Similar to serialized videos, product announcements help build up excitement over time. These can also be used as a gated or “specialized” content for different target audiences to help drive personalized content.
- Social Responsibility Statements – Not be confused with promotional videos, these videos work less on the sales and showcasing side and more on a human aspect by commenting on values your business holds regarding social and ethical topics. As a matter of fact, many more consumers expect businesses to take social and ethical initiatives seriously as part of their brand’s mission, and video may be one of the crispest and vivid ways to demonstrate this.
These are just a few of the ways you can leverage your ideas onto the video landscape, but there is so much more you can do. Reach out to our video experts to check out some more samples, and see what other shearable, knowledgeable, and engaging stories your videos are waiting to tell.