Video marketing continues to be a favourable trend for brands, both big and small. The consumption of video content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and, YouTube, keeps following an upward trend. An astonishing one-third of internet users, as many as 1.9 billion people, use YouTube. That is a good enough reason for marketers to not only include 'video marketing' in their overall marketing plan but make it a focal point and strategize interesting video marketing campaigns. 

We know that creating professional videos is not a tedious process anymore. The internet presents various video making platforms that manifest your vision and create effective video content, with minimal effort or time. InVideo is one such video-making platform that is popular amongst aspiring video marketers. 

Now, let us look at a few video marketing tips for 2020, that will help you take your video marketing game to the next level.

Create stories not a sales pitch 

It is advised to create stories that are relatable and also promote your brand subtly to strike the right chord with your audience. No one is interested in a video message that brags about the product or service and adds no value to the audience. An exciting video message is one that educates the viewers about a topic of their interest in the form of a story. The better you get at telling stories, the more your viewers are going to relate to your brand and understand your product or service offerings.

Go for an optimal video length 

The length of your videos is crucial in evaluating the success of the campaign. The golden thumb rule for every video marketer is that the video needs to be just as long as your audience's attention span. In this fast-paced digital world, the optimal video length is somewhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes. However, the length also depends on the social media platform you are featuring the video on. Facebook suggests businesses to optimize video streaming at 15 seconds.

Though Facebook can accommodate videos which run for as long as 240 minutes, it is not advisable to have such long videos, as your audience might stop watching mid-way through.

Instagrammers watch video content under the stories feeds and IGTV sections. A video uploaded on your brand's Instagram feed needs to be lesser or just about 2 minutes long.

 Video content exceeding 2 minutes and up to about 15 minutes, becomes a part of IGTV (Instagram TV). Whereas, an ideal upload on your YouTube channel should be between 7- 15 minutes. 

The idea is to get to the point early on in the video and eliminate the unnecessary fluff. The first few seconds are rather important and grabbing the attention of the viewers as soon as the video begins to play, makes it more likely for the audience to watch the entire content of the video.

Make your videos SEO friendly 

Videos are a great way to achieve your SEO targets. In-fact videos are one of the mediums by which you can increase your SEO ratings. Good quality videos drive traffic to your website & landing pages and compel your audience to learn more about your firm. Hence, it is essential to clearly mention the appropriate 'call-to-action' you wish your audience to take, at the end of your video.

Choose a clear video title that gives the viewers an idea about the topic that the video is based on. The title should include keywords and phrases that are searched more frequently and are easily relatable. Just as the video messages are preferred short and sweet, the title too should be precise.

A video description is yet another opportunity to let your audience know what the video is all about. Google and YouTube index these descriptions, and hence, well-researched keywords must be used in the same. A link in the description adds weightage too. Make sure the link is featured on the first-line of your descriptions to drive traffic and secure a better ranking. 

Explore different video formats 

The more innovative your videos are, the more they stand out from the heaps of video content already uploaded online. One way to make your videos enjoyable is to try out different video formats across different social media platforms.

Research shows that users prefer to hold their phones vertically 94% of the time.  So, if you want your viewers to watch your videos comfortably, you better produce videos in the vertical i.e., portrait format. Vertical videos are naturally more suitable for mobile viewing, and most of the videos are watched on mobile devices. Even Facebook has got rid of the blank space which was seen on the sides when vertical videos were uploaded on brand pages.

Have you explored the 360-degree video feature yet? Give your audience a walk-through into the lovely property you are selling or walk them through your bespoke store or fancy restaurant. No matter what you are trying to pitch, a 360-degree video can be an interesting way to get the attention of your audience. This format is especially popular amongst real estate advertising. It gives the audience a chance to interact with the Ad and excites them about the prospects of the property.

The ultimate way to interact with your audience one-on-one is to go live. Go live from an exhibition or an event and invite your audience to participate virtually. Especially in 2020, when social distancing is the new norm, live videos are gaining more acceptance. Brands come live and hold online sessions on various topics to establish thought leadership and give-away a free piece of advice to people by industry experts.

Let your videos be authentic 

Gone are those days when videos were a super expensive affair. The trend has shifted and audiences like watching more authentic videos, than streaming a proper trimmed-to-perfection video, filmed by an entire production team from a pricey agency. Marketers now prefer to generate videos more frequently using decent video maker software and average editing skills. 

To be able to keep the interest of your audience alive, brands need to be constantly active on social media and keep posting content on their pages. After watching an inspiring video on your page, the audience anticipates the next video message to feature soon after. If this momentum is broken, the audience loses interest in your brand and establishing the recall becomes rather tricky. So, brands need to focus on getting less plastic and showcase real content, more frequently.

Promote your videos

If you think your job is done by uploading the video on one of your social media pages, you might want to rethink your agenda! Ultimately, you want the video to get more views and benefit as many users as possible, while parallelly improving your technical ranking. To achieve this agenda, you need to put into practice a couple of things. 

Start by adding your videos to your blog posts. This not only enhances the content of your blog but also improves SEO. 

Share your videos on online communities and forums that discuss a topic that is relevant to your brand. By doing so, you may suggest solutions to questions asked on the forum and win the interest of a new follower. 

Embed your YouTube videos on the website. This is a great way to increase subscribers for your YouTube channel. Cross-linking videos are an effective way to market your videos.

Invest in boost post or run video Ads on social networking sites. Running target-specific advertisements will lead to the generation of leads and increase the ROI of your campaigns. 

Make your videos soundless 

Statistics suggest that 85% of videos are watched on mute. When a user scrolls through his Facebook newsfeed and happens to come across your video, the default setting is set on 'mute'. This means marketers need to devise a way to make the videos engaging without its sound being played. For this to work, the clips need to be bang on and maybe supported by appropriate subtitles. By looking at the visuals in the first few seconds, the viewer must get an idea of the content and should be intrigued to watch further. 

Summary: 

We hope you find these video marketing tips for 2020 useful. Put your creative hats on and get started with your video productions. Don't forget to keep it short; keep it simple, and keep it informative.