Top video marketing trends and tips
With the rise of TikTok, Instagram Reels and Snapchat, video content is at an all-time high. From vlogs to explainer videos, data shows that video content brings in more than 56% of consumers on social media every month.
Statistics show that the average person is predicted to spend over 100 minutes a day watching online videos, and 9 out of 10 viewers have said they want to see more videos from brands and businesses.
So, with videos becoming the most popular choice for content consumption today, what are the top tips and tricks to make your video stand out?
1. The shorter, the better
It would be stating the obvious to say that people don’t stay engaged for long when viewing videos online, but with the attention span of consumers reducing over time, you don’t have long to get your point across!
The general rule of thumb is to keep your videos under 2 minutes in length, but realistically people probably won’t stay invested for even that long. The shorter, the better. Just because you have a lot to explain in a short amount of time, doesn’t mean it isn’t achievable. You can show a lot in a single image, and shorter words and phrases usually retain better. Maybe even see what you can do with a nice animation…don’t be afraid to let your creative side shine through.
You can fit more words than you think into a couple of seconds. You’d be surprised at how fast the brain reads words when it’s forced to. If you don’t believe me, go and check out Apple’s infamous “Don’t Blink” video.
2. Kinetic Typography
Staying on the topic of text, let’s talk about one of my favourite techniques in video creation, Kinetic typography.
Kinetic typography is an airbrushed term for motion text (text that moves). It was first seen in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film “North by Northwest”, and later in the iconic cult horror “Psycho”. More recently it has become immensely popular in web design and online videos, and with good reason!
Kinetic text is a powerful tool to capture attention. You can evoke many emotions and convey different meanings by animating your text. It enhances the expressive power of words. There are endless possibilities with text animation, you can represent speed, volume, movement, even shapes and animals. Be creative with it, but don’t go overboard… you still want the viewers to be able to read the copy!
There are many different tools you can utilise to create kinetic typography such as Adobe After Effects, Moovly and PowToon.
3. Don’t cover too much!
Studies show that consumers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text, so you want to make sure you don’t end up confusing the viewer with an information overload!
If you want to cover multiple topics in your video, there’s three options I would suggest:
- Split each topic up into different videos. This then gives you more content to post out within your marketing strategy. You could even make a mini-series to keep your audience engaged!
- Briefly bullet point each topic within the video instead of going too in depth with detail.
- Find a common theme with each point and make the video about that instead.
4. Show personality
Whether you’re creating a video for general marketing purposes, education, or company culture, you need to make sure your video shows personality and represents your brand. As discussed earlier, you only have a short amount of time to get your point across, so you want to ensure the video is representing your brand and business culture. Think about your brand colours and what they represent, the tone of voice, and if your brand uses accents and shapes, use those to your advantage! Consumers will stay interested for longer if your video is more visually appealing.
5. Don’t forget your CTA
It’s important to direct the audience where to go and what to do after watching your video. It sounds like an obvious one but the whole point of your video is to gain more attention to your brand. You must keep in mind that when you share something on social media, it’s then out there for anyone to use and share and imagine if it’s shared without any sort of logo or call to action on there, it’ll be a complete waste of time!
My favourite way to do this is adding a simple, short scene at the end with a “get in touch!” title and a list of the correct links to direct viewers to websites, emails, and contact numbers. If you didn’t want to add in another scene you could add the companies, contact details at the bottom of the outro.
Still don’t know where to start? Get in touch with our designers, they love a good video project!