A friend of mine has had a viral moment. He blames it on Harry Hill. One complimentary video on his Facebook page and overnight he had a phone full of notifications and a 9000 reach on a piece of unpaid advertising.
Now, we all know that uninvited celebrity endorsements are few and far between (although if you are thinking about paying a celeb to talk about your product, check my blog on influencers), but video marketing is currently big news. When you hear that almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day and that there are 1200% more shares on posts with videos than posts with text and images combined, then you may decide to invest in a professional video marketing campaign.
So, how do you ensure that that your video marketing campaign has a chance of going viral?
Focus on the story, not the sale.
Right, this may not seem to make sense, after all the creativity behind creating a marketing video is surely to get more sales. Think about it, though, when was the last time you sat down and shared an advert with your friends and family? Other than the John Lewis ads at Christmas and, more recently, the Nike ad for the Women’s World Cup, I can’t think of anything that has been shared on my Facebook wall that has been specifically selling-centred.
Consumers want to see a story; they want to see how things are made and to share the interesting or funny (and when I say funny…it actually needs to be funny). They also want to see something that makes them want to share a video with others. A perfect example is WestJet, whose Christmas Miracle video has achieved 48 million views on YouTube worldwide.
Get your customers’ attention.
It’s sad to say that most viewers will click away within 10 seconds of your video starting, so you need to hook them in right from the start. While you may think that your business is fascinating, there’s a high chance that others may not, so you have to spark their attention.
We all have short attention spans, so realistically, the majority of viewers will only watch because they feel the need to learn something new or are asked a question that they need to learn the answer to.
Essentially, just like the product or service that you sell, your video needs to convey a feeling of value.
Lighten Up
The world can be a serious place, and if I’m honest, I don’t want to be reminded of it on my Facebook feed. Your video marketing campaign has to be lighthearted or at least have some element of comedy/humour in it. Take LA Scaffolding as an example. Their ‘Outtakes’ video went viral earlier in the year and made what is a reasonably dull subject entertaining and memorable.
Do remember, though, that the humour has to be funny and shouldn’t be offensive, so it’s worth getting any video marketing professionally scripted and asking a few friends who give you realistic feedback to watch it.
Once you’ve created your funny, insightful and shareable video, make sure that it is marketed properly, through the right channels and with the perfect SEO tags. Of course, we can help happily tick all of those boxes for you, so get in touch.
