March 25, 2020

With the uncertainty around the current global pandemic causing disruption across various industries, we want to offer some tips and guidance on how video content can help businesses in these unsettling times. With businesses across the country sending employees home to work remotely, and various event cancellations on the horizon too, it has never been more important to maintain communication with strong online marketing. With that in mind, here are some ways in which businesses can stay connected, and how video can help maximise these channels’ full potential.

SOCIAL MEDIA

If it wasn’t already, over the coming months social media is going to become the essential tool for businesses to utilise. As lockdown measures become more intense, more people are looking to social media for updates. Many businesses are needing to make urgent decisions, and are utilising different platforms to update customers on what’s going on. It’s unsurprising that we’ve already seen social media engagement jump by around 20% on platforms like Instagram (CampaignLive).

We don’t need to go into the ins and outs of how social media works, but the important thing to realise is that with more people engaging with content in an already saturated market, it is essential to stay on top of the noise. We’ve written about the power of video content across all social platforms – but now more than ever, companies should be thinking about how to make their content shine.

Luckily, platforms have some great tools to help. One of these tools are live streaming functionalities. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram make it incredibly simple to begin live streaming with your audience natively. It has already been a brilliant tool for live acts to entertain their audiences from home. However, it can also be beneficial for events, product launches, and behind the scenes features. It’s a fantastic way to tap into a virtual audience when the real thing might not be possible. Think about how your business might be able to utilise this!

Tapping into the surge of social media engagements is essential.

With customers and employees stuck at home, it’s easy to dwell on negative news that appears to be flooding our feeds. This means that there is a great opportunity take peoples minds away from panic, with creative content on feeds. A lot of the tools you need to create on-the-fly video content, are already built into apps, with Instagram and Facebook stories, or native camera modes in all major platforms. There’s never been a better time to get playful with how you are presenting your business. Naturally this might not be a fit for every brand, but if you can, have a think about some of the ways you might be able to take users behind the scenes. It can be as simple as documenting how you’re tackling the situation, but the “homemade” feel of native video content can be a brilliant tool in building a relationship with your audience. 

Check out our social media packages for more information on how we can help with content creation and scheduling.

EMAIL MARKETING

In a similar way to social media, emails should already be a part of any company’s online marketing strategy. In times like this however, they are yet another essential tool in keeping your user-base in the loop. It goes without saying that more people working from home means more people tuning into their inboxes for information and updates. Having a strategy for consistent email communications is key, but similarly you need to think about how to maximise engagement with these.

Video is a brilliant tool for keeping eyes on your email, and making engaging pieces of content that will lead readers to your brand. Firstly think about how you might be able to re-purpose any existing content you have into GIFs. You may also create graphical GIFs, with kinetic typography or animations, in order to breathe life into the email body. Some of these are simple to do in-house; others may require a little help. We’re experts in this stuff, so feel free to get in touch or check out some of our existing work to see how we could help here.

Once you’ve thought about what content you’d like to use in GIF form, you then need to think about where and how you’re using them. A general rule to follow is that you should header your email with something visually engaging, to hook the reader and make them want to continue. So a GIF at the top will work great. You can also use them to break up an email into sections, or visualise something you may be explaining in the body. Try not to oversaturate your email, however. There is such a thing as too much GIF action (as much as we wish there wasn’t).

REMOTE PITCHING & PRESENTATIONS

Pitch videos are great for concise messaging, and can be sent/viewed remotely.
Video presentations can engage and reach new audiences online.

Moving away from general online marketing, one of the casualties from this crisis are meetings or networking events. These could be B2B meetings where you might be hoping to pitch ideas to a client. Or, they could be broader networking events where you may be presenting to an audience. Video content is a fantastic solution for taking these events online.

Pitch videos are already a brilliant way of presenting information in a concise and infinitely more engaging manner. Leading any meeting with a short video presentation will quickly make sure everyone is on the same page before leading into discussion. But these are also re-usable and customisable, so you don’t have to worry about starting from scratch every time. This is also a great way of making sure you aren’t missing out any vital bits of information. As many businesses are now working remotely, these are also much easier to send to potential clients.

The same points apply to presentations, too. Digitising your presentations in video format, not only provides a more engaging and informative experience for the audience, it opens up options to reach a bigger audience.

Once your presentation is in video form, it can reach viewers through a host of different channels. There’s no reason why you can’t incorporate elements in your online marketing strategy.

You might want to upload it to Youtube, or directly to your social channels. You could break it up into smaller form pieces with bitesize information and run these as ads on social platforms. You could send it via email to potential viewers. The list is huge, and will differ depending on the content and what you want to get out of the presentation. But, the point still stands: cancelling in-person presentations doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t find an audience online.

VIDEO FOR ONLINE MARKETING

Hopefully by now, the need to maintain communication online has become increasingly apparent. Our final bit of advice is not necessarily for a specific platform or tool, but instead it’s about video’s general ability to communicate information in a concise and engaging manner. Whether it’s through GIFs on emails, videos on social feeds, ads across the web or video presentations; turning text into animated typography is one of the easiest and most effective ways of getting more eyes on your message. If you’ve got a message to say during all of this, think about how you might be able to turn that into engaging visual video content.

We’ve created a lot of graphic-based work for clients over the years. You can check out a taster over on our explainer video page, but of course if you want any further advice on how video can help your business, please get in touch! We’ll be posting more advice on the blog over the coming weeks, and as usual, the best place to stay up to date with us is through our social channels. We’re on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even LinkedIn – so why not give us a follow!

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