GUEST BLOG: How to create video on a budget

We have had a lot of questions lately about video. How to create video on a budget and to be strategic when creating video for a cause organisation. While we are big advocate of video, we aren’t videographers. So, this week we’ve invited a guest to join us on our blog and share with you her best tips on video strategy.

Give a big welcome to friend of Hancock Creative, Rebecca Saunders from the Deli Agency!

A quality video strategy is the backbone of quality video content and quite frankly, you shouldn’t be making video content for your business without a strategy or plan in place.

So, what makes a successful video strategy? Well, whether you’re a newbie marketer or you’re a seasoned CMO, you need a roadmap outlining what it’s all for, where you’re going and how you’ll measure success.

This, in its most basic form, is a video strategy.

Your video strategy doesn’t need to be incredibly detailed. It could be a simple as a list of (SEO-friendly) titles or frequently asked questions with bullet points to talk to. And it could be packed full of video ideas from event coverage to client case studies.

The most important things you need to remember when planning your video strategy is that your video content needs to be:

• relevant to your audience and targeted at the right persona,
• educational and tells a story without hard-selling your product or service,
• aligned with your greater marketing strategy and business goals.

Now you know what a video strategy is, here are my 6 secrets of a successful video strategy:

1. Dedicate Calendar Time

If video trends continue to follow their current trajectories, there will be a record amount of video watched in 2019, yet so many businesses are still putting video in the ‘too hard basket’ and never quite get round to making any (or anything good).

Unfortunately, it will stay there unless you put dedicated calendar time aside for the planning and creation of your video content.

Putting time aside for the planning of your video content will ensure your video strategy has legs. It will also help keep you accountable during the production of your content.

When the time comes to create your video content, consider filming multiple videos at once in order to maximise both your time and budget. For example, for regular Thought Leadership videos (or vlogs) I’d recommend setting half a day aside for filming rather than 1 hour per week.

Remember: Practice really does make perfect. The more videos you make, the better you’re going to get. And the better you get, the more confident you’ll be on camera.

2. Target Your Audience

Just like any other form of marketing content, your video content should be targeted to your target audience, your client personas and created for the channel it’s intended to be viewed on.

So… it’s research time!

Start by taking a look at your current customers and profiling them. What pain point are you solving for them? Where do they hang out online? By taking the time to do this you’ve built the foundations to understand who you’ll be targeting and what message you need to be communicating.

Then take a peek at what your competitors are doing. What are they making? Do they have a loyal following? How regularly are they creating content? And most importantly, what can you do differently to stand out when communicating to, and targeting, the same audience base?

Finally, jump online and check out the different types of content created for different social platforms. Creating video for Facebook is very different to creating video for Instagram. It’s important to take the time to understand the different platforms where your audience are playing in order to create engaging content for them to interact with.

3. Nail Your Messaging

Unfortunately the rise of social media has decreased our attention span as an audience, and you have less than 8 seconds to grab, and keep, your audience’s attention!

Don’t waste valuable seconds showcasing your brand logo at the beginning of your video – it’s video suicide. Start your video with something short, sharp and eye catching – experiment with ways to communicate your key messages in under 10 seconds.

Be sure to create a mix of video content of differing lengths:

• Short-form videos (10-30 seconds long) are great for audiences scrolling through news feeds
• Medium-form videos (90 seconds – 5 minutes) are great for audiences wanting to learn a little more, and build trust with your brand
• Long-form videos (5 mins +) are for in depth learning, and great for interviews or deep diving into how-to’s

Regardless of the format you choose, concentrate on the value you’re providing for your customers and ensure that your content centres around the story and not the sale.

Finally, be sure to include a call-to-action at the end (and sometimes middle) of all your videos. Not including one is one of the biggest mistakes people make. How are you going to get ROI if you don’t instruct your audience to like, follow, visit or engage with your brand? Keep your call-to-action clean, simple and easy for your audience to take action at the end of your video.

4. Create Quality Video Content

Now that you’ve done the necessary planning, it’s time to actually create your video content. There are so many different was to approach filming your videos, from DIY to freelancers to video production agency depending on your budget and the type of content you’re creating.

It’s vital that you focus on creating the highest-quality video content possible – you don’t want to be putting out bad videos!

• DIY Videos: Awesome for creating video on a budget but be sure to invest time and some cash in learning the basics. Online courses such as The Vlog Schoolare a great resource for those trying to creating content on a shoestring budget.
• Freelancers: Come in all different skills sets and price ranges. Do you research, and ensure your chosen freelancer understands your brief, deadlines and budgets before filming anything.
• Video Production Agencies: These guys have you covered from start to finish. They can help you create your video strategy, produce professional videos and even assist with distributing your videos online and across social.

Remember: You’ve spent time (probably years) building your brand and reputation, don’t destroy it in seconds by putting out shoddy, off-brand video content.

5. Optimise for Search

There’s no point in creating video content if you’re not going to get eyeballs on it, so it’s vital that you optimise your video for search when uploading it to your YouTube channel.

When it comes to SEO for video, titles and descriptions are imperative.

Ensure your videos are tagged with relevant keywords, have a unique keyworded title and have descriptions which fully explain your video. This will allow Google to make sense of your video, understand what the content is and direct viewers to your content.

Once uploaded to YouTube, you can then embed your video on your website or landing page.

6. Go Native or Go Home

“What is native video?” I hear you say. Well quite simply it’s a video that is directly uploaded, or created within a social media platform, and played in-feed. It isn’t a link to videos hosted on other sites such as YouTube or Vimeo.

Native video formats are specific to each social platform and are designed to maximise your videos’ engagement and uploading your video natively into a platform increases views, discovery and distribution.

The great thing about native videos is that it doesn’t disrupt the user experience, so it’s imperative that you create content tailored to the social platform you are putting it on.

Need help with video? The team at Deli Agency in Sydney have worked with many non-profits and would love to help. If you want to learn more ways you can nail your company’s video get in contact with them and discuss your goals and tailor a video strategy to help you meet them.