Video marketing is using videos to promote and market your product or service, increase engagement on your digital and social channels, educate your consumers and customers, and reach your audience with a new medium.

Brands need a video marketing strategy — this idea isn’t new. What has changed is how important video has become on every platform and channel.

Though social media videos are naturally appealing, as you are more likely to find people keenly watching videos posted on various social platforms than scrolling through pictures. However, only high-quality, engaging videos would be able to get this kind of attention.

Social media marketers should increase their efforts to create high quality engaging video content, which will not only clearly deliver their messages to their audience but will also bring positive reactions from the viewers. These reactions include a high engagement rate, a high conversion rate, and driving more traffic to your website.

Creating a video is no doubt more time and energy consuming than graphics or text, but it yields positive results than those kinds of contents. How do you consistently create engaging social media videos knowing the amount of effort you need to put into making it happen? Here are some methods:

Pick interesting topics

One of the most powerful methods you can use for video marketing is to educate your audience. Even with the highest video quality, if the topic is not exciting or your audience does not get the point of the video, there would be a high rate of drop off. So, you need to carefully choose an exciting topic that will appeal to your audience. How would you know what interests them? 

Start by finding out more about your target audience. What are your audience interests, and what kind of contents did they engage in the past? When picking topics, ensure it contains conversations and has a smooth flow. To make the video turn out organized, either write a script for the video or outline the parts. Doing it offhand could make a well-thought video look disorganized and amateurish.

If you lack inspiration for persuasive topics, you can go digging around popular videos in your niche. You can also do some repurposing of text or graphic contents or analyze high performing videos you made in the past and get some inspiration from them.

Consider the layouts

The layouts could be portrait, square, or landscape, but whatever you choose, ensure it is something that works best for the social media platform you intend posting the video and your audience. You need to follow the video specifications of the platform you intend to post the videos. 

If you plan to post on various social media platforms, you can first record the video using the landscape layout option because it’s easier to adjust to other types of layout from it. 

You also need the consider the kind of device your audience is using to view your account and ensure your video content layout caters to it. Half of the social media users use mobile phones to view videos, so ensure your designs are mobile-optimized.

Camera quality

Another important factor to consider in video marketing is camera quality. The camera quality is another aspect you have to consider if you hope to create highly engaging social media videos. If you cannot afford a high definition camera to ensure the quality of your videos, don’t despair. Your smartphone camera can also do the work. If you have an iPhone, all the better, but if not, use other smartphones with a high-quality camera. 

You can also add external lenses to help in taking different camera shots such as macro or wide shots. Adding a different kind of shots when creating your videos gives it a more professional look.

Use video equipment like the tripod to ensure your video stays stable while recording so it can look professional. Tripods for smartphones are not as expensive as you could even get one for $11.

Audio quality

Aside from a bad camera quality, bad audio can also reduce video engagement on social media. No one wants to waste their time watching a video with distorted sounds. 

When creating a video, ensure the background sound is in sync with the video if there is a need for a background sound. Avoid noisy backgrounds as they will only end up distracting the viewers from the message to pass across.

Always find a quiet place with people making loud conversations. However, don’t use empty rooms as it would make your voice echo when talking, and this could sound creepy! Either fill the place up with furniture or install sound absorption panels in it.

If you can afford it, purchase a mic to give your videos better audio quality. There are mics you can easily connect with your smartphone if it’s what you are using you shoot the video.

You should also make provision for sound off as some social media users would prefer to watch their videos without sounds.

Flattering background

Your background lends to the quality of the video, so make sure it complements the message you are trying to pass across to your viewers. Avoid using plain backgrounds or using white walls as it could make the video look boring. You should also avoid busy environments, as it could be distracting.

You can use backgrounds that are color appealing and can also give your viewers a hint of what you do. You don’t need too many colors, furniture, or any other unnecessary thing going on in the background. Remember, less is more.

If you can’t find a natural background, you can create one. There are lots of creative backgrounds you can buy from Amazon and other online market places. 

Lighting

The lighting, when done right, makes the video more appealing. The best light sources to use are the natural light, but if you can’t get enough of that in your location, consider using lamps or other light setups. 

When using the lights, ensure you set the tripod at a proper position where the light can spread evenly rather than brightening up a part and casting dark shadows on the other.

Edit your videos

After recording your videos and capturing all the moments you want the viewers to see, it’s time to make some edit to ensure the video comes out perfect. Some fantastic tools exist that can help make the ideal edits. You can use the Animoto, Wave, Promo, Quik, Stop Motion Studio, Adobe Spark Video, Crello, and so on to add different video clips, photos, and even music to make a video.  

After editing your videos, share them across your various social media platforms, and watch the engagement rate of your viewers.

If you’ve already experimented with video marketing, what’s working for you