It’s no secret that the popularity of social media keeps rising, and marketing strategies have had to shift to keep up with consumers’ insatiable cravings for more content. More and more, there is a greater demand for video content. Diode Digital reports that online video is a 600% more effective marketing tool than print and direct mail combined.

If content is the king of marketing, video is undoubtedly its crowning jewel.

A Big Appetite For Video Content

People are hungry for video content. An Impact data report revealed that more than 500 hours of video content is consumed every day on YouTube by more than a billion worldwide users. That’s a remarkable amount of video consumption.

Additionally, Impact reported:

• 75 million people in the United States watch online videos every day.
• Nearly 50% of all video is watched on a mobile device.
• Video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic.
• Videos that are less than 2 minutes get the most engagement.
• 95% of viewers remember a video ad more than a blog or text ad.

Merely mentioning the word 'video' in an email subject line increases the click-through rate by 13%.

While it is irrefutable that your marketing plan should include video content, you will need to create the right content for your audience.

4 Quick Tips for Creating the Right Content

To create meaningful videos for your business or nonprofit, you should:

#1: Tell A Story

Telling engaging video stories is the best way for your organization to stay relevant and relatable. If you want to connect with people and get results, sharing emotional video stories accomplishes that better than any other marketing tool. Video stories have the powerful ability to connect with human emotions, shift perspectives, initiate change, set a mood, and cultivate relationships. 

Have you considered how storytelling could change your relationship with your target audience?

Check out the power of emotional storytelling and three ways you can easily shift your thinking about how you’re connecting with your audience.

#2: Have A Purpose And A Strategy

It’s not enough to create videos just for the sake of having videos on social media. You’ll need a strategy that may need to be tweaked as you measure the success of your efforts.

Start by asking: “Why are we making this video? What’s the ultimate goal?”

Many answers we hear are things like:  

• Spread brand awareness
• Increase sales or donations
• Drive more visitors to your website
• Boost email opt-ins or landing page conversions
• Attract the right team members

Having a cut-and-dried purpose will give you direction throughout the planning and production process.  It should also force you to think about how you’ll measure your results and ROI.

Check out the 8 important questions you should ask as your planning your video.

#3: Keep It Short

Start your video with a bang, but then keep it short. Your audience will decide within the first 10 seconds if they want to keep watching or move on to more engaging content—which will probably not be yours. You’ve got to capture their interest right away and then keep it. After one minute, nearly half of your viewers will stop watching.

The total length of videos depends on what platform your audience is using. Facebook’s most popular videos are under 2 minutes, but YouTube videos can range from 4 to 10 minutes without significant differences in engagement.

#4: Include Strong Visuals

Our world has continuously become more visual. The brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text. The visual content of your video helps your audience envision the benefits of what you’re offering.

Your video should be compelling with or without sound. Did you know Instagram was the first social channel to initiate silent, auto-playing videos? Soon after, Facebook followed. If you’re creating video content for social media, you’ll have to grab someone's attention fast and without sound. Incorporating text or including captions helps spark interest and allows viewers to follow along with or without audio.

Let’s Get More People Talking About You

Posting video content on your website or social media platform will get more people talking about you and sharing the good that you do. Consider collaborating with a creative, diverse team that knows how to capture your vision, craft inspiring words, and create a compelling visual story that will captivate your audience.

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Want to learn more about how you can use video stories to connect with your audience and gets them to take action?  Request our free eBook Videos That Create a Stronger Connection.

Start identifying what your audience wants and how to create video content that meets them where they are.