Video is a strong way to market your business. Get it right, and your video could go viral – spreading your company name further than you could have ever possibly hoped.
Video marketing is a tactic that can easily be forgotten in an SEO strategy, but which could pull in a lot of links. Make a good video and share it around, before you know it people will be talking about it and posting links back to your site.
Actually making that video isn’t easy – but it can all start with a good idea.
Seeing What Others Have Done
I always find that it’s easier to develop your own ideas after looking at what others have done. When trying to come up with video ideas, there are a wealth of people that have done it successfully and profited from it.
Whenever I think of company videos on YouTube, I always come back to the Old Spice channel. Some of their videos have attracted millions of views – their most popular “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” has over 45 million views at present.
So what makes the Old Spice videos popular? They don’t discuss the products features – in fact, the videos hardly make sense at all. Even so, they’re funny and it stays in your head, making you more likely to remember it next time you’re in the shop.
The same can be said about the Dollar Shave Club. Their first video, titled “Our Blades Are F***ing Great” has over 10 million views. They’ve followed a similar route to Old Spice – opting for humour over showing off their actual product. It’s light-hearted and sticks in your head.
Evian’s latest video “Baby&me” isn’t even related to their product, but the video which has now racked up 53 million views and has been a great success for the company.
But What If Humour Isn’t Your Thing?
Not every business is suitable for humour and you don’t have to limit yourself to funny videos to have success with video marketing. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world – if someone wants to find out how to do something or see a product in action before buying it, they’ll come to YouTube first.
YouTube is packed with videos on how to complete tasks. Sainsbury’s, for example, shows people how to cook recipes using their products. B&Q, as I mentioned in my last blog post, show people how to do DIY around their home. ‘How to’ videos can still attract a lot of attention and might be shared around among the niche groups you’re targeting – reminding them you exist and bringing more attention towards your company.
Product demonstrations shouldn’t be forgotten, either. People visit YouTube to get an idea how something will work and if it’ll be right for them without buying it. I did this myself when I was looking for some bags for my motorcycle – I eventually settled on the ones shown in this video because I could see that they were exactly what I wanted. The trick is to make them interesting and discuss the features people are really going to want to see.
Coming Up With Your Own Video Idea
If you want to hit it off like Old Spice, Dollar Shave Club or Evian then you need a unique and interesting idea. As they’ve also shown, it doesn’t even have to relate too much to your product. If your video is great then it’ll stand up on its own but still attract people to your site.
Creativity is key, and sometimes the wackiest videos can draw the most attention to your brand.
Then again, you could always start with how to videos and product demonstrations instead. These will still get you found when people search in YouTube and are still likely to draw interest to your site.
Gaining Views
Please always remember that there is no guarantee you video will ever take off and reach millions of views. You can increase your chances substantially by optimising your video once it’s uploaded and sharing it on different social networks, but it still might lack that spark that sends it viral.
Researching what others have done and coming up with your own fantastic idea is definitely the first step towards video marketing success.
