” One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words.” Forrester Research

Imagine what you could tell your current and prospective customers about your business if they would read a million words. That’s more than the Bible or ALL of the Harry Potter Books!

People love watching video and most would chose to watch a short video rather than read a paragraph of text. Also, when viewers watch a video they retain 95% of a message compared to 10% when reading it in text.

We are surrounded by video. On our smartphones, tablets and laptops and more and more visitors to a website expect to see video.

You can use a video can explain your product or service, show your satisfied customers talking about how great you are, visualise how you can solve a problem they’re having and keep them on your website for longer. They’re especially good for charities because you can so powerfully SHOW the benefit your organisation is making.

If you have videos about what you do make sure you use them on your website and your YouTube channel as well as on FaceBook, Instagram and Twitter. Video is widely shared once viewed. In fact a post with video is 1200% more likely to be shared than one with text and images alone.

Here are some top tips for successful video marketing

• over 50% of viewers watch with no sound so make sure you video makes sense with no audio or uses subtitles.

• the first 15 seconds is the most important. If you don’t grab the viewers attention within 15 seconds, you’ve lost them.

• try to keep your video below 3 minutes in length. A significant percentage of potential viewers will watch a video up to 2 minutes 59 seconds but not when the length is 3 minutes or longer.

• ensure your call to action (phone number to call, for example) is featured regularly throughout your video not just at the end.

• consider putting your brand logo in the top right hand corner of your video all the way through. That way, if it gets reposted viewers will know where the video originates from.

• use your brand colours, fonts and logos through your video to improve brand recognition and ownership.

• be as specific as you can about your objectives for the video with your video creator. If they don’t know what you’re trying to achieve, they can’t create it!

If you want to produce a video for your organisation talk to Jo at JG Creative about who they would recommend to create video for you. It’s quicker, better value and more fun than you might think!

Guest Blogger – Peter Ewan
Owner and videographer
www.heelheadover.com