It all starts with a question…
The first thing to to do is step away for a second from the idea of video and ask yourself why you have an overall content strategy in the first place – what is it trying to achieve and who are you trying to reach?
When the objectives become clear, it’s a matter of understanding where video can fit in to an overall content strategy and offer meaningful value alongside other communications, such as blogs, social, white papers and so on.
All research points to video…
Most of us watch a lot of video online – and the stats back it up. In 2014, YouTube attracted over 1 billion unique viewers per month, tablet owners watched on average an hour of video per day and by 2017 over 75% of all internet consumer traffic will be video. To relate this to the world of business, according to a study by Forbes, 65% of executives have visited a company website after watching a video and a study by Comscore found that consumers are 64% more likely to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video.
Video provides a great platform to get creative and humanise your brand
Video provides a great opportunity to express creativity and to make your brand stand out from competitors. It’s also a versatile medium – one piece of content can be used in a variety of ways both on and offline. Video has also been singled out as one of the most trusted sources of branded content. A study by Brightcove indicated that 24% of viewers say that video is their most trusted source, whilst Axxon Research found that 7 out of 10 people view brands in a more positive light after watching high-quality video content from them.
Video content is both shareable and well suited to mobile…
We live in a world where millions of pieces of content are shared every minute. Short, engaging video is easily shareable and also well suited to the mobile viewing experience. Video content can also be re-cut in a variety of ways to suit different platforms and needs.
Stop and think…
A few handy things to think about when deciding how video will fit into your content strategy…
- Always take the time to stop and ask yourself ‘why?’ when creating content. Does it address a business challenge? Does it address your audience’s needs?
- If you don’t have a clear and concise brief for each piece of video content, you have a problem. Get tips on writing a video brief here.
- How is your brand and tone of voice translated into video? Do your brand guidelines include video?
- Where will your content be viewed? Is it optimised for different formats?
