online video: a quick-fire guide to getting it right

Online VideoA Quick-fire Guideto Getting it Right

www.skeletonproductions.com

So you want to get better at online video.

We’re going to show you the5 most important steps

to success with video online.

But first of all...

Why do you need online video again?

There’s so much of it!Everybody’s making & watching video.

Doesn’t that make it harderto stand out from the crowd?

Well, yes.

But there are 5 really good reasons why you should be

using online video.

1. Online Video is Unique & Emotive

There’s no medium of communication quite like video.

Think about the last time a video made you feel delight, or despair, or excitement.

All of us have been affected by the power of video.

This power is invaluable when trying to connect emotionally with your audience.

Here’s how we used emotive video to promote the University of

Nottingham Sports department:

2. Audiences Prefer Online Video

Video is so popular that it’s spread everywhere online. From social media to news networks to corporate sites.

In fact, 60% of visitorsto a site will watchvideo if it’s available

before reading any text.

If you’re not using video you can bet your target audience wish you were.

3. Online Video Increases Conversion

Video content can give your audience exactly what they need to hear at

exactly the right stage of the funnel.

That means increased conversions.

There’s a reason why video is used so much on landing pages.

In one study, video content on a landing page:

✓ increased the conversion rate by up to 80%

In one study, video content on a landing page:

✓ increased the conversion rate by up to 80%

✓ increased the purchasing intent of visitors by 70%

4. Online Video Improves Discoverability

Did you know you’re50x more likely to beon page 1 of Googlewith a search resultcontaining video?

And those video search results can have up to a

41% higher click-through rate.

So video helps you get found by your audience too.

5. Online Video Boosts Brand Awareness

Remember this Old Spice campaign?

It got 20 million views in 3 days.

As a result Old Spice gained:✓ 2,700% more Twitter followers

As a result Old Spice gained:✓ 2,700% more Twitter followers✓ 800% more Facebook fans

As a result Old Spice gained:✓ 2,700% more Twitter followers✓ 800% more Facebook fans✓ an increase in 300% of traffic to their

websitewww.skeletonproductions.com

That’s a lot of brand awareness.

So what’s the result of all this effective video marketing?

✓ 82% of marketers say video marketing has a positive impact on their business

✓ 52% say video video has the best ROI of all types of content

Yes, you can achieveincredible things with video.

But here’s the key to getting it right…

A comprehensive plan.

5 Steps to Online Video Success:

1. Goals & Objectives2. Audience3. Content4. Marketing5. Measuring Success

Let’s look at each step more closely.

1. Goals & Objectives

It all starts with the end point.

Without this you’ll never know where you’re heading with your video content, or when you’ve reached it.

What business problem(s) are you trying to solve with video?

What does video success look like for you?

What do you need your audience to

think, feel & doto reach that point?

These questions will help you solidify your objectives for online video.

Remember to always make them SMART!

For example, your objective might be:

✓ To increase a landing page conversion rate by 20% in one months’ time.

Use our video objectives template to help you set out SMART objectives.

You may need multiple pieces of video content to achieve a large goal.

But each video should have its own specific objective.

Think about what action you want your audience to take after each video to

achieve your goals.www.skeletonproductions.com

2. Audience

Understanding your audienceis probably the most important part

of making a successful video.

You need to go beyond basic persona profiling like

gender,

gender,location,

job title,

gender,location,

job title,industry…

Flesh out your personas into real people.

What makes your target audience tick?www.skeletonproductions.com

Until you know this, you’ll find it very difficult to engage them.

Conduct some real in-depth market research.

✓ Ask questions.✓ Send surveys.✓ Get feedback.

What are your audience’s goals?What challenges stand in their way?

What do they valuemore than anythingelse?

What are they afraid of?www.skeletonproductions.com

For example, your target audience might be retired women looking to stay active.

They want to spend quality time with family, but worry about getting older.They need help to achieve this goal.

Use these insights as the basis for great video content tailored to your audience.

We use a process calledInsight, Idea, Execution

to work out effective videos.

Here’s how we used it to create a brand video for Simply Supplements…

Insight: The audience of 60+ women want supplements to help them keep active and spend time with their family.

But there’s lots of conflicting advice in the marketplace. They don’t know who to trust.

Idea: Rather than stressing the benefits of the product, we told a story from the customer’s perspective to build trust.

Focusing on what really matters to them: their health and their family.

Execution: We created a video showcasing the customer’s journey.

The benefit of the product and brand is included, but the focus is the customer’s happier and more active life with her family.

3. Content

Next, think about the type of video content you want to produce.

Consider your objectives and audience.

To help, there are 3 types of content research you should

conduct:

1. Content Audit

Of your existing content, what has worked before?

Don’t just consider video.

What has your audience enjoyed, engaged with and shared?

2. Competitor Analysis

What are other people doing in your market? What’s working for them?

What do your target audience seem to be consuming and demanding more of?

3. Gap Analysis

Are there any gaps in what your audience want and what they are being supplied?

Where can video content add extra value?

Use the information from this research to find formats & topics for video that are most likely to be successful.

We also use a powerful framework developed by YouTube to identify

the right video content for each stage of the funnel.

It involves 3 types of online video that match the 3 stages of the buying funnel.

Hero HubHygiene

Here’s how Volvo Trucks use it to deliver relevant & engaging video to their

audience at each stage of the funnel…

1. HERO video content

✓ Aims to entertain and inspire✓ Awareness stage of the funnel✓ Generally impressive one-off pieces✓ Focus on brand rather than product

2. HUB video content

✓ Aims to show value and expertise✓ Consideration stage of the funnel✓ Generally frequent & repeatable videos

encouraging audience to engagewww.skeletonproductions.com

3. HYGIENE video content

✓ Aims to answer audience questions✓ Decision stage of the funnel✓ Generally multiple pieces of evergreen

content answering common concernswww.skeletonproductions.com

By giving the right information at each stage, Volvo Trucks have a whole series

of video content to encourage leads down the funnel.

But always remember…

Your audience is human!

Even B2B audiences.Especially B2B audiences.

Your video content needs to be 1 of 3:

✓ Interesting✓ Useful✓ Entertaining

To keep your audience engaged.

4. Marketing

But great content is only half the battle.

You also need to find out where your audience hang out online.

And reach them there.www.skeletonproductions.com

This information will come from the audience research you did earlier.

But there are other ways to improve the odds of your target audience discovering your video content…

1. Use Metadata Properly

Search engines can’t watch your video content.

Metadata helps them to understand and rank it accordingly.

Video metadata includes:

✓ Titles✓ Description text✓ Closed captions / subtitles

Make sure this data accurately reflects your video content.

It should (naturally) include the keywords you want to be found for.

2. Improve Viewer Engagement

Did you know that viewer engagement is actually the

#1 ranking factorfor video on social sites like

YouTube and Facebook?

Avg. viewer engagement =the % of a video that is watched on average.

Think of it like bouncerate for video.

length of video

Simply Supplements | 63% average engagement

The higher your engagement, the better.

It means your video content is relevant and valuable, and viewers want to keep watching rather than click away.

This will help your videos:

✓ Rank more highly✓ Have a better chance of being found

by your audience

3. Set Effective Thumbnail Images

Thumbnails heavily influence your play rate.

(Play rate is the % of visitors that click play to start watching a video.)

Along with the position of a video and the text surrounding it, thumbnails are all your audience have to judge

whether they want to watch or not.

Good thumbnails:

✓ Capture viewers’ interest

Good thumbnails:

✓ Capture viewers’ interest✓ Bright & contrasting

Good thumbnails:

✓ Capture viewers’ interest✓ Bright & contrasting✓ Include faces & emotion

Good thumbnails:

✓ Capture viewers’ interest✓ Bright & contrasting✓ Include faces & emotion✓ Accurately represent the

content of the video

Good thumbnails:

✓ Capture viewers’ interest✓ Bright & contrasting✓ Include faces & emotion✓ Accurately represent the

content of the video✓ Consistent with your brand

4. Position Your Online Video Correctly

Play rate is also affected by where video content is located on a page.

Make sure to put your online video somewhere prominent but relevant.

It should be in a place where visitors aren’t surprised to see it. It should match their stage in the funnel.

Wistia did a study on the impact of a video’s position on its play rate.

They placed the same video in 7 different zones of a landing page, in descending order…

5. Invest in Video Advertising

Most successful online video campaigns are a mix of paid and unpaid promotion.

Video advertising helps to extend your natural reach and gets the ball rolling on the initial spread of your online video.

Just be sure to tailor your video content to each channel and ad format.

For example, in YouTube pre-roll ads you must grab your audience’s attention within the first 5 seconds,

after which time they can skip.

And on Facebook it’s best to include subtitles with your video content.

Most users do not play sound when watching videos on Facebook.

6. Encourage Action with CTAs

Remember your objective(s) for your online video?

Remember deciding what you need your audience to think, feel & do to achieve that objective?

You also need the right call-to-action to encourage your audience

to take the desired action.

Do you want your audience to:

✓ Visit another web page?✓ Fill in a form?✓ Subscribe?✓ Like, share, comment?

Whatever that action is, ask for it clearly and make it easy for your audience to do right then & there.

5. Measuring Success

Everything we’ve put in place so far will lead to effective online video content.

But you also need to track and prove that effectiveness.

You should always measure the ROI of your video content, so you can justify your spend and future investment.

To do this you’ll need to track the relevant video metrics that

tie back to your objectives.

This means going beyond just vanity metrics like view count…

Key video metrics:

✓ Play rate % of visitors that click play

Key video metrics:

✓ Play rate % of visitors that click play✓ Engagement rate avg. % of video watched

Key video metrics:

✓ Play rate % of visitors that click play✓ Engagement rate avg. % of video watched✓ Social sharing number of shares

Key video metrics:

✓ Play rate % of visitors that click play✓ Engagement rate avg. % of video watched✓ Social sharing number of shares✓ Click-through rate % of viewers that click

your CTA

Key video metrics:

✓ Play rate % of visitors that click play✓ Engagement rate avg. % of video watched✓ Social sharing number of shares✓ Click-through rate % of viewers that click

your CTA✓ Conversion rate % of viewers that convert

You should always be testing & improving your online video content to get better results.

With each new video, what could you make better?

Continuous improvement will allow you to turn lots of little changes

into big advancements.

Could you change your video thumbnail to improve your play rate?

Could you re-edit the footage to improve your engagement rate?

Could you alter your CTA text to improve click-through rate?

Summary

Online video is an incredible opportunity for your marketing strategy.

But you need to do it right with a well thought out plan.

5 Steps to Online Video Success:

1. Goals & Objectives2. Audience3. Content4. Marketing5. Measuring Success

Use our video production brief template to put all this planning in one place.

Remember these 5 steps, and keep testing & learning.

Remember these 5 steps, and keep testing & learning. I have no doubt you can achieve outstanding things with online video.

Good luck!www.skeletonproductions.com

Video strategy, production and marketing

Click here for more video marketing tips atwww.skeletonproductions.com/insights

online video: a quick-fire guide to getting it right

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