Video is ubiquitous - the question is no longer whether to make it - the question is how to win the war for attention and stand out from the noise. Our experience is that many brands recognise that their video content is not performing as well as it should but struggle to identify why.
The reality is that despite increasing spend and focus being on video marketing, only 37% of UK marketers have a dedicated video strategy*. So here’s the 4 key reasons why you should have a dedicated video marketing strategy that sits alongside or within your existing marketing strategy:
- Viewers are not the same as customers/consumers – what do you want people to think, feel and do having watched your content? You have to plan in terms of a content journey not a customer journey - understand the viewer, the context in which they consume content, along with the real competitors for share of voice
- You are not the target market - everybody in your organisation, right up to the CEO, has an opinion on the content you should make, but they rarely reflect the target audience online. Make sure you can substantiate your approach based on customer insights and a genuine understanding of the viewer and channel.
- De-risk the medium - film is likely to be your most expensive form of marketing. Investing modestly upfront in strategy helps maximise your marketing budget and creates production efficiencies throughout the year.
- Plan for success – just producing a video is no longer enough to ensure success there are so many variables you need to juggle – cost, frequency, quality, distribution as well as being actually interesting enough for viewers to watch to the end.
Film is so subjective that we believe an evidence and viewer behaviour led video strategy is the only way to substantiate your creative approach and ensure stakeholder buy-in.
*Source: (Content Marketing Institute, 2016)
