How to create engaging product videos for your social media platforms - The Crowdfire blog

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The Crowdfire blog
Posted by Hanson Cheng
People are more likely to buy a product if they can see it in action. That’s why product videos are so important for social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. They give people a chance to see the product in action, and that can lead to more sales.
The problem is that creating an engaging product video can be difficult. You need to find the right script, choose the right music and edit everything together in a way that looks professional.
Moreover, considering that most people on social media judge brands based on the quality of their visuals, it’s important to make sure that your product videos look amazing.
With a little bit of planning and some clever editing tricks, it’s definitely possible to create engaging product videos that will help you boost sales on social media.
In this post, we’ll go over the key elements of creating engaging product videos on social media. We’ll cover everything from determining the kind of video to choose, how to tell a great story, which video marketing tools he should be investing in, and more.
Let’s get right into it.
1. The increase in videos on social media
Over the years, there has been a growing increase in the use of videos on social media platforms. Don’t just take my word for it, a survey by Wyzowl shows that 93% in 2021 of marketers claim videos are very important in their marketing strategy.
And although there are several factors that could be responsible for this, here are some of the major factors that prompt product marketers to employ engaging videos in their social media marketing strategy:
Video content is informative, entertaining, and engaging
Approximately, 88% of brand marketers stated that video content gave them a great ROI.
90% of consumers claimed videos were instrumental in their buying decision
Creating video content is a great way to put a face behind a brand and create credibility
It is a perfect avenue to establish an emotional connection with an audience or consumer.
Before you can enjoy all the benefits listed above, you need out-of-the-box innovations in your social media marketing video strategy. Whether you’re involved in SaaS marketing for B2B brands, an eCommerce business, or anything in between, the following points will help you get started.
2. Identify your brand goals and objectives
It is a ritual in any marketing strategy to identify goals and objectives. This also applies to video content. Video plays a part in the whole content strategy for personal branding. Therefore, figure out the role the video will be playing in your content strategy.
Apart from that, highlight the result you wish to achieve with the content. Do you intend to create brand awareness? Generate leads? Or position your brand as an expert in your industry?
All of these can be accomplished on social media so knowing what you want will help you produce laser-focused content.
3. Determine the kind of video to produce
Now that you’ve identified your goals and objectives. The next thing is to determine the kind that aligns with your goals and objectives. There are different kinds of video content ideas that suit different brand goals on social media. Some of them include:
Instructional videos: The video content can be in the form of tutorials, how-to, and demos. Instructional videos provide insight into how a product/service works. Apart from that, instructional videos provide solutions to buyers at the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey. When poorly executed, it could diminish your chances of attracting prospects and retaining customers. It’s also paramount that this video has in-depth and insightful details to take prospects from one buyer’s journey to another.
Interviews: Interviews can be likened to a question and answer. Interviews with experts in your industry will help you build credibility and grow your audience. However, when conducting interviews, it should not feel scripted. All you need as an interviewer is to come up with engaging questions that cut across industry trends, topics, or even exclusive news.
Trailers and teasers: These are perfect for product ads, product launches, pre-order campaigns, and other kinds of brand announcements. Trailers and teasers stir the curiosity and interest of your targeted audience. Furthermore, the running time for teasers runs up to a few minutes. On the other hand, trailers only last for some seconds, which might be ideal for social media platforms.
Product reviews: Most people like to check in with their friends and the internet before they decide on a product. Therefore, it’s worth investing in this form of video content. Product reviews video that covers the features, perks, and setting up of a product breeds trust and credibility with the audience. With that said, employ layman terminologies and communicate effectively with the audience.
Webinars: Webinars are another great way to stay connected with your customers . With webinars, you can educate your audience and offer them actionable tips on topics and industry trends. You can employ paid social media ads to increase attendees to your webinar. Eventually, you can leverage these numbers to generate/convert leads and make more sales from the product or services you offer.
Company culture/ behind the scene: There’s more to video marketing content than pitching products to your audience. Company culture and behind the scene videos show the human side of your brand . The side that is not guarded with consciousness and formality, The video idea also helps you connect with your social media audience on an emotional level. One of the perks of this idea is that it gives room for creativity. You can spice with brilliant ideas like pranks, birthday parties, and bloopers. However, it’s best that it features every member of your team. On the other hand, if you are a coach, freelancer, or have any one of these self-employed jobs , you might want to use video to show off your values and thought process behind your work.
Case study: Prospects are constantly searching for the easiest ways to solve their problems. This can be proved with a case study. Also, it is effective in converting bottom-of-funnel leads. All you need is to feature a couple of customers that won’t mind on camera. These customers will spell out their challenges and how your products have solved these problems.
4. Know your targeted audience
Your product is incapable of solving everyone’s problem. That’s why you have to identify the set of audience that is likely to get the most from your product. If you are running paid ads on social media, targeting is easier as the platforms allow you to target a specific group of people.
Also, your social media organic pages will attract a specific type of audience that is more likely to convert. Knowing your audience will help you identify their pain point and the means of getting through to them. It will also help you decide on the kind of tone, language, and message to use.
But how do you identify your targeted audience?
By measuring user engagement experiences to drive product-led growth will help you figure out how users engage with your product and know your targeted audience better. Here are other ways to identify your audience.
Talk to your sales team: Your sales team talks to your customers all day long. You can ask your sales team questions like
The set of people that are more likely to buy your product?
What do these people care about?
What are their major problems?
How do they speak?
Talk to your customer: What’s the better way to identify your audience than engage your customers directly? This way you can figure out the features that make your product special and how it has been efficient in solving their problems. You could send over an email to your customers using a simple email marketing service . This email could cover some basic questions in a survey format. You can then use their answers to better your product.
Observe your brand discussion: This revolves around monitoring reviews online, comments on social media, hashtag tracking , and other brand-related discussions. Observing brand discussion is one of the best ways to know what the audience thinks about your product/brand.
Pay attention to your competitors: You can also identify your audience by paying attention to the set of people your competitors are targeting. How they are reaching out to them and their mode of communication.
5. Tell a story
We all love a great story. Storytelling entertains and creates an emotional connection with the audience. It helps you tell your brand story.
Social media was created with the aim of connecting and sharing information. With stories, you will be able to capture your audience’s attention and create a lasting impact through the videos you post.
But it’s important that your story is genuine. Remember one of the purposes of creating video content is to build credibility? Content that entails where you are coming from and what inspires your brand, will more likely create an emotional bond with the audience.
Your story should include every stage of the buyer’s journey. It’s a big win when
marketers have a deep understanding of every stage of the buyer’s journey. That way they will be able to cover everything the audience at different stages needs to understand.
In a nutshell, your storytelling should cover the following:
First off, identify the problems and challenges your prospective buyers are facing.
Know the buyer’s state the prospect buyer is when they come across your video.
Determine the kind of information the buyers need to take them to the next stage.
6. Be straight to the point
The span of human attention is short and while you have it, your priority is to make the most of it. Although there is no definite answer to how long an ideal marketing video should be, quality should always trump quantity.
The story you tell, the pain point you pinpoint, the data you give — everything about the video should be on point and align with your brand message. No room for dibble-dabbling, be concise and straight to the point.
7. Make it less about your brand
Just like the AI chatbot platforms make more about the consumer, the video content you post on social media should be less fixated on your brand.
In every marketing content, it’s paramount that you make it more about the audience and less about your brand. Why? Because the audience is not interested in your GDP, or the numbers of employees your company hired last year. They don’t care about all that. What they care about is how your product solves their problems and adds value to their lives.
When you make it less about your brand, you are focused on helping people. And when you do that you stand a chance to build an authentic and lasting relationship with your audience.
8. Explore mid-roll call-to-action
At the beginning of this article, I made reference to out-of-the-box innovation, here’s one of them. It’s a common theme in marketing to utilize post-roll call-to-action in content like blog posts, emails, and landing pages . Likewise, most video content out there is no exception to this practice.
An analysis by Wistia shows that 95% of customers use post-roll CTAs. But the analysis further indicates that mid-roll CTA has a higher conversion rate than pre-roll and post-roll CTA. The truth is the span of human attention is short. It’s important to make the most of it as early as possible. There is a set audience who only likes to catch a glimpse of the video. These people won’t come across videos post-roll CTAs. With that said, marketers should consider mid-roll CTA in their video content.
Let’s say that you want to advertise appointment scheduling tools using video on social media. In addition to focusing on the benefits of your product and its core features, you should also tell a story that resonates with your target audience.
Whether this means showcasing customer testimonials or highlighting real-life use cases for the software, it’s important to find a narrative that connects with consumers and encourages them to engage with your brand.
You can then use a mid-roll call to action to invite viewers to learn more about the software or schedule a demo. This ensures that even if someone doesn’t watch the entire video, they will still be exposed to your product and its key selling points.
9. Invest in video marketing tools
Investing in video marketing tools will also help your strategy in the long run. We all know creating video content can be time-consuming and capital-intensive. But video marketing tools can save you a lot of money, time, and stress. With these tools, you can edit your content, drive, and generate leads.
When it comes to social media and video marketing, various tools can help with video creation. Some of these are Adobe Creative Cloud, iMovie, and Animoto.
Obviously, your skill level and how advanced you want your videos to be will determine the video marketing tools you use.
Conclusion
Video marketing helps your brand on social media by allowing you to tell your story while creating credibility and emotional connection with your audience. However, creating unique video content that engages your viewers requires a lot of work.
Creating video content doesn’t have to be a hard nut to crack. That’s why we have come up with actionable guides to help you create an engaging product video without any hassle. Here’s a recap of what we’ve discussed here:
Identify your brand goals and objectives
Determine the kind of video to produce
Know your targeted audience
Be straight to the point
Make it less about your brand
Explore mid-roll call-to-action