Did you know that people only read 20% of the written content on a page?

Today, video content dominates. It’s fed through social media networks, spread across website pages and distributed on blogs.

In a world that focuses on fast content and mindless scrolling, you only get a few seconds to reel in a browser. Words alone simply won’t drive results.

If you want to grow your brand and stand out to increase those impressions, views, engagement and conversion rates, you need to jump on the bandwagon – and fast! Otherwise, you’ll get left behind.

This year online content will reportedly consist of 80% video marketing and 87% of online marketers are already using video marketing in their strategies. Plus, mobile consumption of video content has been rising by 100% annually.

But why is video marketing so important? And how do you cater to the masses in such a way?

That’s where we can help. Our nifty guide will dish you all the ins and outs on why video marketing is important for your school, and most importantly – how to execute it in your marketing strategy.

Why Use Video Marketing?

As mentioned, in today’s saturated world of content, people are busier and attention spans are shorter.

Simply put, video marketing helps to deliver ideas more effectively in a quicker amount of time whilst striking the viewer’s emotions through visual and auditory elements.

If you’re not yet convinced, think about it from your own viewpoint. Would you rather crawl through a long page of text or watch a quick video to find the answers to your questions? Better yet, read on to discover the best benefits of using video in marketing.

1. Better Brand Awareness

Quality video content leads to improved brand awareness. When you connect to people through video marketing, it means your company is likely to spring to mind when a potential customer has an appropriate problem and requires a solution.

In fact, people maintain 65% of information for three days longer when it’s complemented with a visual aid.

Remember that whilst you want your brand recognized, you want it associated with helpful and encouraging experiences. Avoid any outrageously controversial or delicate themes, unless they’re topics your brand covers.

2. Increased Conversions

Converting sales is the main goal of video marketing and companies have reported an increase in conversions from pages featuring video content.

School social network Driving Sales has noticed an impressive 27% increase in click-through rates and a 34% higher web conversion rate.

3. Strengthened Trust

Like building brand awareness, sharing video content helps foster trust among your digital community.

Product reviews, customer testimonials, and expert interviews are all types of video content that will help strengthen the bond between your company and existing students, potential students and employee candidates.

Let’s face it. Watching a real person talk or demonstrate a product on the screen is more believable and memorable than reading about it. You can gauge their expressions and articulations through video which makes it feel more genuine. This is something you simply can’t get through reading written content.

If your brand appears authentic and helpful through video content, these important people are more likely to use and recommend your services. Giving viewers a glimpse of the people behind the company can help form an emotional connection resulting in trust.

4. Improved Rankings

Another benefit of video marketing is that search engines love videos too!

Add a video to your pages and they’re more likely to appear in the first page results of search engines.

5. Encourages Engagement

As people become bored and disconnected scrolling through their social media feeds, they seek out ways to experience a sense of engagement, connection and entertainment in the world-wide-web. This is one way to explain why the method of storytelling and creating emotion through the art of video marketing is such a powerful one.

If viewers are responding to your video content through comments, likes, and shares, it shows you’re on the right track – keep it up!

Likewise, if you’re receiving negative feedback – or the dreaded empty silence – you may not be practicing your video marketing strategy the best way. Hold tight – we’ll get to that.

Isn’t Video Marketing Complicated?

You aren’t the only one in thinking that video marketing is expensive, time-consuming and obscure.

Yes, shooting, editing and producing videos has in the past been a fiddly venture that not all marketers have the skills, time or budget to practice.

But thanks to improved technology, it’s been dramatically reinvented for the modern era and is easier to use than ever before! With equipment and editing programs becoming cheaper, more accessible and easier to use, everyday marketers are stepping both behind and in front of the camera.

If the budget isn’t there, your video marketing strategy can be as simple as shooting and editing content on your phone.

Today, quality videos are shot in 4K resolution from almost every smartphone sold on the market. The most recent iPhone has a better camera than most professional ones! Don’t worry if you don’t have the extra lighting, the perfect backdrop or the latest camera –- make do with what you do have.

Whilst the quality of videos is important to some degree, content is key. Viewers are usually happy to overlook a video of lesser quality if the content is funny, interesting, relevant or useful.

Since the costs aren’t as high as they once were, this means that there’s a huge improvement in ROI.

Where to Use Video Marketing?

Online, video marketing can be used almost anywhere and everywhere with success. There are, however, certain places where video content thrives.

1. Social Media Networks

Social media networks are where video content booms.

On Twitter, 82% of users consume video content and on YouTube, more than a billion hours of videos are watched every day. The video networking website also boasts almost two billion monthly users. That’s one-third of the internet!

2. Landing Pages and Website Heros

As well as looking attractive and tidy, a video featured on a landing page or hero will increase website conversions. How much so? Some studies have found that it presents an uptick of around 80%!

3. Email Marketing

Looking for a way to punch up your e-newsletter? If a video embeds into an email newsletter, click-through rates increase by 200% to 300%!

4. Blog Articles

It can get boring reading paragraphs of text only. Videos complement well-written blog articles or work as a stand-alone piece on a blog page.

How to practice video marketing – the best tips and strategies

The power of video marketing has convinced you and you’re ready to get started. But steady on – for every quality piece of video content, there can be a dull or poorly-constructed one.

Read on for our tips on how to produce compelling video content.  

1. Use Humor and Emotion

As mentioned earlier, story-telling through video marketing that provokes emotion in the viewer is a successful strategy that retains the attention of an audience. This can last up to years later if the plot or theme is a strong one.

People recall experiences that spark an emotional response, whether that’s sadness, fear, happiness or humor.

Think back to adverts that you remember yourself. Funny animals, grand travel adverts or heartfelt stories might spring to mind. Make your viewers feel something!

2. Keep It Short and Sweet

Yes, videos are more compelling than written content but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re still a network of skimmers and scrollers. Keep your video content up to two minutes long maximum for optimum engagement – as viewers get bored fast.

3. Build Curiosity

Planning a series of linking videos – or a story if you like – is a great way to build curiosity. End each ‘episode’ on a cliff hanger and viewers are more likely to watch the next one and return to your website or social media channels to check when it’s published.

4. Use Familiar Faces

Whether you can convince a celebrity or a recognizable face such as a community member, local leader, or a well-known employee, viewers love to see someone featured that they can identify. Expert or employee interviews go down a treat!

5. Show Behind the Scenes

Likewise, curious customers enjoy a good peek of what’s going on behind the scenes of a company. It makes them feel like they’re getting an exclusive look and can help build that trust we spoke of earlier.

Even taking a quick video of the atmosphere of an HVAC lab or a snippet of life in the financial aid office is enough to add an air of intrigue.

6. Avoid Using a Template or Slideshow

One way many marketers go wrong with video marketing is by using a template or creating a PowerPoint-style slideshow presentation. This just comes across as cheap, impersonal and effortless.

Viewers have seen it all before – most likely in their own office meetings – and are likely to skip through it.

7. Keep Branding Subtle

Yes, the video is there to promote your school, but nobody wants to watch a video that is blatant in-your-face advertising.

Whilst you do want to showcase your logo somewhere within the first five seconds, it’s better to demonstrate a clip with your logo on one of your wall or employees instead of plastering it all over the screen.

Instead of telling people about your school, it deters people from the obvious advertising and they’re likely to click off.

8. Optimize for Search Engine Ranking

As we covered earlier, videos rank well in search engines. There are, however, ways to give your video content a head start and help push them onto the first pages of search engines.

Optimizing the titles and descriptions of your videos is a good start – use appropriate keywords to match your themes.

Then, take advantage of the category tags so your content shows up in the right places. Embedding your videos into blog pages also helps.

When your videos include optimized titles, descriptions, and keywords, they work like a complete package and perform better, which in turn helps the page perform better. Win-win!

9. Optimize for Mobile Viewing

Up to 78% of all videos are viewed on a mobile device, meaning that optimizing your videos for mobile is crucial.

Edit them so they are viewed as a square video, so the viewer can avoid having to rotate their device. This gives them a more satisfying user experience.

Remember that whilst YouTube videos are predominantly played with sound, on Facebook 85% of Facebook videos are silenced. The best option is to produce your videos with sound in mind but to also give them a crystal-clear visual impact.

Using neat and tidy captioning is a great idea if you’re planning to share your videos via Facebook.

Let Us Help with Your Video Marketing

So, if you’re seeking to increase brand awareness, connect with your customers in an intimate and engaging way, increase conversions and website rankings and tell a story that illustrates your company’s brand, mission, and purpose – invest in video marketing.

Of course, sometimes your personal marketing time and efforts can’t stretch to filming and producing video content. Or perhaps you already have compelling written content that you’d love to see brought to life on the screen, but you’re not sure how to do so.

That’s where we can help. Here at Local Finder, we can transform your existing blog posts into short, meaningful and engaging videos.

Sound good? Learn more here or get in contact with any queries here.