1 in 2 Gen Zers and millennials say ‘’they don’t know how they’d get through life without video.’’
You’ve spent days strategizing about your next video, and you’ve finally found the perfect idea. You can’t wait to get started.
Congratulations!
Now, time to shoot the video, upload it across your different channels and watch these followers and sales go up.
Well, actually, not so fast.
First, you’ll need to ensure that you’re following the five simple rules below. This will help you get the best results from your hard work.
Shorter is Sweeter
As a matter of fact, according to Comscore, voice search accounted for 50% of searches in the US in 2020. And this figure is only predicted to increase, with voice shopping poised to jump to $40 billion in 2022 in the US and UK alone. That’s $38 billion more than in 2020!
This trend is mainly fueled by the improvement in voice AI and machine learning. But it’s also driven by the fact that Google voice search is now available on mobile devices in 119 languages.
What’s more, 55% of all American homes will own a smart speaker by 2022. As smart speakers become commonplace in households, they’ll, too, contribute to fueling the voice search trend.
This means an increasing number of digital brands will have to adapt their SEO strategy and optimize their content for voice search. Therefore, if you’re not already adapting your digital marketing strategy to voice search, you need to get to it.
As the usage of voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, or Cortana continues to increase, now is the time to set yourself up for success and stay ahead of your competitors with voice search optimization.
Authenticity is Key
‘’Authenticity, honesty, and personal voice underlie much of what’s successful on the Web.’’
- Rick Lavine
90% of consumers are looking for authenticity in a brand. They want to connect with the team behind the brand and make sure that the company’s values align with theirs.
Working with high-end equipment, scripting your videos, and rehearsing can be great in some cases, but always make sure to let your brand authenticity shine through and don’t overdo it.
At times, a mobile phone video can help to convey this authentic factor consumers are craving much better. This is especially true if you’re doing a ‘’meet the staff’’ video or shooting customer testimonials. Provide the staff, actor, or customer with a simple outline highlighting what you’d like them to cover and let their authentic self work their magic on your viewers’ engagement.
Sometimes the best videos are made from unscripted and improvised actions or candid moments.
Also, for a sure way to tick the authenticity box, use live footage as much as you can. To provide a dynamic experience to your audience, combine your primary footage (A-roll) and B-roll clips. This will break any monotonous footage and create dramatic tension or help illustrate a point.
Use Text Overlay
There’s no two ways about it: if you want your video to be successful, it’ll need to pass the silent movie test.
Let’s be real, these days most of us watch videos to keep entertained on public transport or even during our lunch break. At least, that’s the case of 85% of Facebook users who watch videos with the sound off while on the go. Yet, 76% of videos need sound to provide context to the viewers.
Now that you have this in mind, avoid this mistake and create your video in a way that it can still work when watched with the sound off. Just like with a silent movie, your footage should provide all the context the viewers need and tell your story in an impactful way.
Use a captioning tool to add text on the video when necessary and only when necessary. We wouldn’t want to overwhelm your audience with a huge amount of text on-screen, hiding half of each scene.
Optimize your Descriptions and Titles
Who runs the world? SEO.
SEO is not something to only be considered with written content. To rank on video platforms such as YouTube and make your videos easily discoverable, you’ll need to optimize their titles and descriptions.
Use well-researched, relevant keywords in both your descriptions and titles as well as meta tags. However, don’t stuff the text with keywords just for the sake of placing them there. This will most likely harm your content more than anything.
Instead, ask yourself whether what you wrote is engaging and whether your text contains the main keywords people type when searching for this type of content.
Create an Engaging Video Thumbnail
The competition for consumers’ attention is fierce. To make your video stand out, create a striking, compelling, and all-around amazing thumbnail. Think of your thumbnail as the cover of a book. Your video sits in a library of many videos so your cover needs to be appealing to draw people in and lead them to click it. A thumbnail should work as a teaser, revealing a glimpse of what the video is going to be about.
Don’t be lazy, though, and make sure you craft a custom thumbnail instead of picking an auto-generated one. After all, if it’s any indication, 90% of the best-performing YouTube videos have a custom thumbnail.
Another important tip in the battle for attention is to ensure that your thumbnail is relevant. For instance, if the video is about ‘’how to learn Italian quickly’’ to promote your language app, use a high-quality image featuring the Italian flag and a catchy caption, and showing two people interacting in front of an iconic Italian monument.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Video production and promotion should be a fun process. Pour some creative flair into a bowl of ideas, add some structure and a zest of improvisation, and you’ll get yourself a recipe for success. Not sure where to start and how to nail the video creation process?
We’ve got your back.
At New Evolution Video, we’ve perfected the art of video creation over the years and would love to help you create incredible video content for your audience. You can contact us anytime to discuss your upcoming projects or simply bounce ideas off us. And to help you further, we’ve
also put together a lot of useful resources, including tips and tricks to optimize your video content.
Don’t hesitate to read, use, share and let us know how you go in the comment section below.
And if you’d rather have a chat with our team to see how we can help, you can contact us directly on the website. We always keep our cameras running 😉
