When talking about video marketing, we often hear about YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and paid media options, but we don’t hear a ton about LinkedIn. Not really known for being a video platform, the site is nevertheless a critical network for B2B marketers that has over 350 million registered users (the vast majority being real people). What makes it good for B2B marketers is its focus on business.For marketers who promote their video content on LinkedIn, it provides a stellar opportunity to reach a professional audience with targeted B2B videos. Let’s take a look at three ways you can boost your video marketing by using LinkedIn.
Profile Interactivity
howtostartablog.net/FlickrA standard LinkedIn profile that reads like a resume is fine and all, but it won’t attract much attention and won’t be remembered by any media contacts or potential clients who visit it. Rather, you can give your profile a boost and promote your brand with a video. You can add or link to a video in your LinkedIn profile in the “Summary” section, which would be an ideal place to put an explainer video that talks about your brand. Another way you can add video to your profile is in the “Experience” section. Here, you can add customer testimonial videos that pertain to your brand. Share the love by creating branded recommendation videos for your business partners or colleagues so they can post them on their own “Experience” sections. This is an ideal way to promote your company via video on LinkedIn.
Video Updates
Boosting engagement on LinkedIn is as easy as posting video updates about your business. Your latest marketing videos or short recaps of what’s new (done in a brand journalism type way) are good options. You can tag other companies if they are mentioned so they will also share or comment on the video. To get the best of both worlds, you can first upload your video to your YouTube channel and then post the link on your LinkedIn post. LinkedIn will use YouTube’s metadata about the video, which will also be good for SEO.Sharing your brand’s marketing videos and posting video updates keeps your business page fresh with new content and keeps prospects up to date with what’s going on with your company.
LinkedIn’s groups are a superb way to connect with other people in your industry. You can start a new discussion with video content by posting a link into a new discussion thread or you can post video in a reply to an existing discussion thread. While it would be tempting to use your brand’s video content in these groups, that may backfire, as people may not appreciate your marketing content being used in groups. (And, in fact, some groups will even give you the boot for that.)Sheila Scarborough/FlickrRather, this is a good opportunity to prove that you’re an industry leader with video content other than your own. Video is naturally engaging and if you find a news story or something that pertains to your industry and post that to start a discussion, you’ll effectively be using that video content to boost yourself as an industry leader. And, finally, you can always buy some video advertising on LinkedIn now that the network has gotten on board with video ads. Although it’s not usually associated with video, LinkedIn offers B2B marketers a great opportunity to reach their audience. With some planning and strategizing, you can use LinkedIn to your advantage with video advertising. To see how much an animated explainer video to post on your LinkedIn profile and company page would be,click here to use our price estimation calculator. (You don’t even need to talk to anyone!)
These 12 social media tools will make social media marketing infinitely easier. They are either free or only require a nominal fee to use (with one exception). None of them are total management tools like HootSuite. But, used together, these small tools add up to a streamlined and fluent social media experience.
Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark allows you to edit photos quickly and easily right in your web browser or in the Spark app. Simply touch up photos you’ve taken on your phone before posting them or get a little more creative and use the effects and text captions to create truly unique content. In addition to photos, you can also use Spark to make branded videos, complete with text captioning.
Backly
Backly turns every link you share into a message that also points people back to your site. Rather than just sharing something interesting and having your social media followers go to that other site, Backly will insert a message that also points them back to your site so you can reap the rewards of sharing interesting content.
Bitly
In addition to shortening links for you, Bitly gives your a custom redirect so you can track the click-through ratio on shared links and also what the person does after the click. It’s a phenomenal tool for anyone who wants to share links. (And who doesn’t wanna share links?)
BuzzSumo
Benson Kua/Flickr
Like Sumo wrestlers are wont to do (we think), BuzzSumo helps you find content that is trending for given keywords and topics. Use it to find buzzlinks (a term we just coined that means links to content about topics that have a lot of buzz around them) and use it to optimize your content to take advantage of the topics that have buzz around them online.
IFTTT
The almost-acronym IFTTT stands for “if this, then that.” As the name implies, it allows you to create custom triggers for content sharing. For example, if you publish a new blog post, then IFTTT automatically creates posts for your social media accounts and sends out an email to your mailing list about the post. It helps you streamline this entire process and gets all your accounts talking to each other.
Pixabay
For when you need stock photos and you want to get them for free, Pixabay is the tool to use. It has a plethora of royalty-free stock photos you can choose from either through your browser or through the Pixabay app on your phone.
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Quuu bills itself as a way to get hand picked curated content for your social media channels. The completely free service gets you to choose categories that you’re interested in and then it suggests and saves personalized recommendations. This lets you share content that is relevant to your brand without having to spend the time to search for it yourself. You should note that in its current iteration, Quuu only works as a plugin for Buffer or Hootsuite.
Refind
Refind is for those people who see something online and don’t have time to explore it, so they save it for later. (So, basically everyone.) The tool saves and tracks links of interest that you find while browsing. On top of that, you can also use it to find links to similar content. It also has an element of social media to it, as you can connect with other Refind users and see what links they are exploring. It can be useful for tracking content that is trending.
Rocketium
This one is especially interesting to us. Rocketium can turn a photo slideshow into a short video and also take a non-captioned video and provide captions for it. This is important because a lot of Facebook videos are watched without sound, so if there is dialogue that is crucial to the video, captions are necessary to have. It’s lightweight and easy to use.
Social Mention
Social Mention searches for mentions of whatever brands, influencers, topics or products you want to monitor the internet for. It can give you an overview of the conversations happening online about any subject you’re interested in. If you are adept at coding, you can also connect the Social Mention API to other apps to extend its reach.
Sam Howzit/Flickr
Yala
Yala doesn’t just schedule posts for you automatically, it can also suggest the best times to post based on your social media feeds. You can use Yala via Slack or Facebook. Try it for free and if you like it, you can get a monthly or annual subscription.
Yotpo
This one is a bit of an exception because it does require a higher end plan to work, but it’s well worth it. Yotpo gathers all the reviews and user-generated content about your brand online. If you see content about your brand that you like, you can link to it and share it and if you find less than flattering stuff about your brand, you can take steps to reach out and rectify the situation.
Here is how to have an effective brainstorming session about your company’s business videos.
1. Refrain from Starting with the Story
Richard Garside/Flickr
There is a lot of emphasis placed on storytelling when you’re making a video and many people will start with trying to decide what story they want to tell. Save this for later, though. You have more important things to consider than the story when you’re starting out.
To keep people focused while brainstorming, you may want to split your brainstorming sessions into the following segments:
Buyer’s Journey
Platform
CTA
Buyer Persona
Video Type
Story
2. Choose a Stage in Your Buyer’s Journey
Ed Kohler/Flickr
To keep your video focused, you need to know what stage of the buyer’s journey it is meant for. A video meant for someone who is just discovering your brand will be different than one meant for someone who is already a lead and is looking for more in-depth information, which will be different than one meant for someone who is ready to make a purchasing decision.
Knowing what stage the people will be at in the buyer’s journey will help you identify the purpose of your video and how much detail you need to include in it. If the video is being used to introduce people to your brand, one that gives an overview of it would be ideal.
And if the video is going to be seen by people who are already familiar with your brand, like ones who have made their way to your website, a video that assumes the viewer knows the basics and goes into more detail about your offering would be a better option.
For people who are already familiar with your brand, more intimate content like testimonials or behind-the-scenes content would be in order to help solidify a connection with them.
3. Choose Your Platform
gdsteam/Flickr
Once you know what stage of the buyer’s journey your video is meant for, picking a platform for it will be much easier.
Introductory videos are best for posting on social media and hosting on specific landing pages that you can advertise and try to draw visitors to. It’s likely people will get to these videos from seeing them pop up on their social media feeds or via a Google search for a keyword you are targeting.
More detailed videos about your products and services should be hosted on the corresponding pages on your website. These are for people who know your brand exists and who want a more thorough explanation of something you are selling.
For the more intimate content, you can place them deeper in your website for people to find when they click around, but you can also put these on your social media profiles like Instagram or Tumblr.
4. Pick your Call to Action
Justien Van Zele/Flickr
These will also depend on what stage of the buyer’s journey your video is meant for. If people are just getting familiar with your brand and have found your video somewhere other than your website, try to get them onto your website with your CTA.
If your video is already on your website, try to get them to sign up for your newsletter or get them to download something so you will have their email address for future relationship building.
And if they’re watching videos specific to your inventory or services, take advantage while you have their attention and have your CTA take them directly to the page where they can purchase the product or service. You can also make your videos shoppable.
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It’s not just enough to have a general idea of who you’re talking to. Get specific. Are they male or female? Young or old? What do they do for a living? What are their hobbies, etc? The reason you want such a specific buyer persona is because once you figure out who you’re talking to, it will be much easier to decide on a story for your video to tell. You can tailor it to your specific buyer persona.
6. Decide What Type of Video You’re Making
Newsbie Pix/Flickr
A good way of deciding what type of video to make is to look at what is trending at the moment. Remember that you’re not making an ad. Rather, you are trying to make a video that will stand alone as an entertaining piece of content.
How-to and animated explainer videos are hot right now and so are mini-documentaries that your brand sponsors (think Red Bull being all over the world’s highest skydive).
Conduct some research and see what your competitors are doing for video content. Is it something you can emulate while improving on or should you try something completely different to set your brand apart?
7. Decide on the Story
David Bleasdale/Flickr
Yes, finally. This is the truly fun part of brainstorming, deciding on what story you want to tell with your video. No matter what type of video you make, there should be some kind of narrative to it. That doesn’t necessarily mean a traditional story arc, but there should be people trying to achieve something and having to overcome conflict and doing so with your products and/or services.
By segmenting your brainstorming session and thinking about each part in order, you will be able to come up with a focused idea that directly talks to people, telling them exactly what they need to hear at that specific spot in the buyer’s journey. Once you have your idea, WizMotions can help you with the rest. Click here to get started on planning and pricing your very own 2D animation video.
Many of the business customers we have end up making more than one video. Usually, they make a video, see how well it performs and then opt to have another two, three or four made. But, it can be a worthwhile investment to actually plan for having multiple videos created at the same time so they can be watched as a series.
Let’s look at why companies are moving away from standalone videos and opting to make series instead.
Multiple Products or Services
Sascha Pohflepp/Flickr
Large companies almost certainly have more than one product or service. And although small companies may only have a single product or service they offer, that product or service may be complex and require more than a single video to explain it properly.
Our client Drobo has multiple products that require promoting and they’ve made a video for each one so all their products get the attention they need to be thoroughly explained to customers.
Multiple Audiences
JD Hancock/Flickr
Even if you only have one service, that service might have more than one group of users, especially if it’s a service that connects businesses and customers. If your service has multiple groups of people who would be using it, then it’s better to make a video for each of those groups rather than trying to fit all the information into one video that addresses all the groups. By making multiple videos, you’ll be able to target their distribution better and all the various groups will be more engaged because the individual videos only address that specific group.
For example, JobFormance created two different videos for its JobFaxReport because the service is aimed at two different groups: job seekers and client companies who are looking to hire the best talent they can find. By making two different videos, JobFormance didn’t have to worry about trying to address both groups in one video, which could have overcomplicated it and which would have made targeted distribution difficult.
Avoiding Information Overload
Jorge Franganillo
Even though animation is usually more compelling to watch than live action business videos and it’s the perfect medium for breaking down complex ideas because you’re not bound by the sometimes pesky laws of physics, trying to shoehorn too much information into one video can overwhelm viewers and counteract the initial drawing power of the animation.
By having multiple videos and making the concepts in them even simpler, you make your messaging more effective. Plus, if you can get visitors to watch multiple videos on your site, it will be good for your SEO because it means they’ll be spending more time on your site. Viewers are much more likely to watch a series of shorter videos than one longer video.
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A company’s products and services tend to evolve the longer the company is around. If a new feature is added to your product or you offer some kind of upgraded service, a new video is in order. To make it fit with your older videos and add to the brand identity you’ve been building, use the same characters as you did in your initial videos.
Perfect Promos
werbelaeufer/Flickr
If you have a big promo coming up, why not add some oomph to your announcement with a series of short animated videos? They are super shareable and a series of videos that explain different points of the promo can more easily answer customer questions. And if it’s a regularly occurring promo, like an annual giveaway, you can even use the videos multiple times.
One explainer video is a good investment, but multiple videos in a series is an excellent investment. As we’ve found with many of our clients, it’s quite common for a company to come back for more after their initial one is completed. By planning for a series of videos right up front, you have more control over how they complement each other. Click here to use our price estimation calculator to see approximately how much an animated video series would cost. (You don’t even need to talk to anyone!)
Email inboxes are messy, crowded places full of personal messages, spam, special offers, spam, forgotten subscriptions and spam. To stand out in this dishevelled pile of subject lines all vying for attention like neglected toddlers, a marketer has to have something special.
Good copy is a good start. It should be relevant, engaging, informative and entertaining. (Yeah, that’s right. Entertaining. You’re not in the business of boring people, right?) But, it’s only a start. There should be something else in your email that compels people to open it and see what it’s all about.
That’s where video comes into play. When you include a video in your email, your click-through rate can jump by a whopping 200 to 300%. This is partly because an informative minute-long video has the same approximate value as 1.8 million words on the same subject. That’s a fantastic exchange rate!
But, just like your copy has to be good, your video also has to be high quality and well done. Plus, it also has to be strategically placed within the body of the email. (Spoiler alert: not at the bottom.)
And don’t forget about consumers’ ever-shrinking attention spans, which are now officially shorter than a goldfish’s. (Thanks, internet!) It’s best to keep your video as short as possible while still being able to clearly convey your message.
For ultimate impact, try these four video email marketing tips.
Include “Video” in Your Subject Line
Steve Snodgrass/Flickr
Let your audience know that your email is special by telling them it contains a video right there in the subject line. This simple step can increase open rates by 19% and we’ve already discussed the boost it gives to your click-through rates.
Put the Video at the Top of the Email
Jason Taellious/Flickr
You’ve told them there’s a sweet piece of content in the email and now you wanna deliver right away. Don’t make them go hunting for it. Just put the thing right up at the top in a prominent position. This was the hook that got them to open the email, so let it do its thing and wow your audience.
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If You’re Not Sending the Video in the Email, Use a Thumbnail
Mickey Destro/Flickr
There may be various reasons that you don’t want to send the actual video in the email. If that’s the case, at least have a compelling thumbnail in the email that conveys what the video is about and link it to a landing page where people can watch the video. This will get people onto your website and will bypass any potential glitches that can arise when you send video.
Provide a Call to Action
Kevin Shorter/Flickr
Yes, the ol’ CTA. Can’t forget to let people know what they should do next when the video ends. Don’t just leave them hanging, give them somewhere to click or a number to call or something. They should know exactly what you want them to do next.
Fortunately for you, it’s easy to cater to this increasingly on-the-go market. All you need to do is make your videos mobile-optimized. The best way to do that? A little thing called animation.
Follow these simple tips and you can create an animated video that is perfect for on-the-move viewing.
Spend Some Time on that Thumbnail
theilr/Flickr
The oft-forgotten part of a video, the thumbnail is what hooks your viewers before they even become viewers. Yes, platforms like Facebook start autoplaying a video, but others like YouTube or your own mobile website have to rely on viewers being enticed by a static image that promises entertainment should they click on it.
Simple text overlay on a white or light-colored background is a good choice for mobile because of the smaller screens, or you could opt for a screenshot of a pivotal moment in the video that can clearly be seen in a thumbnail.
You don’t have to spend a ton of time on the thumbnail, but do spend some time on it.
Start with the Hook, Even if it’s in the Middle
Jasleen Kaur/Flickr
You’ve got about three seconds to hook people and keep them watching. These are people on the go with a million other things vying for their attention, so eschew the slow build up and get right to that hook, even if it’s in the middle of your story.
We at Wizmotions agree with Facebook’s video best practices that say you should show brand or product imagery within the first few seconds and also focus on storytelling. Although Facebook does talk about having a cohesive story arc — and we agree with that — what it doesn’t mention is that you don’t have to necessarily start at the beginning of your story. In fact, it’s probably best that you don’t.
Instead, start at a pivotal point in your story that will hook the viewer, even if that point is in the middle. You see this kind of storytelling in Hollywood movies all the time. The action starts at a dramatic moment and then the story shifts back to the beginning to tell how everything got to that moment. You can use this storytelling technique, too.
Coupled with this storytelling technique, animation’s ability to capture people’s attention with captivating visuals makes for a better video experience. Unlike with live-action video, you are already starting with something that people feel more compelled to watch. After all, who doesn’t like a cartoon?
Keep Cuts Quick
RJ/Flickr
Long, steady shots are great for documentaries and other long-form content, but not so much for quick, animated business videos. Switching angles and making rapid (but smooth) cuts will keep your story humming at a mobile-friendly pace.
And that pace is fast. We’ve already mentioned the three second hook you need, but a typical attention span for people watching videos on their phones is about 30 seconds. People might be glued to their phones for hours at a time, but they’re consuming short little bursts of content while they are. That doesn’t mean you should rush through your video at the expense of clarity, but be cognizant of these tighter timeframes when dealing with mobile. You should still take as much time as you need to tell a coherent story, though.
Drama: Now for Angles, too.
Kevin Dooley/Flickr
Dramatic angles will add visual interest to your video. The beauty of using animation is that you are not governed by the laws of physics. You shouldn’t go hog wild, though. People still expect to be presented with a video that uses traditional camera angles, even if it’s animation. But, because it’s animation, you can really get dramatic with your angles.
That’s not to say every shot should be looking up or down at 80 degrees, but peppering in some low angles that frame your subject dramatically or high angles that show a bird’s eye view of a scene is a good idea. For transitions, consider using Dutch angles or pullbacks. Experiment and have fun with it. It’s animation, after all!
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Have Good Audio, But Don’t Make the Video Dependent on the Audio
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According to visual marketing content creation firm Flashstock, 85% of Facebook videos are played while muted. You are probably aware that the default setting for autoplay video on Facebook is muted. Most Facebook users don’t bother turning the sound on if they can glean what’s going on from the visuals alone. Even for those wearing headphones, the audio of a video can be lost in the ambient sound of the world around them.
That’s why you shouldn’t rely on a voiceover (no matter how smooth) to communicate the message of your video. This is where animation really shines. Unlike the typical talking head video that absolutely relies on audio accompaniment, animation that portrays those same ideas can say the same thing using striking visuals without having to rely on the audio.
You’ll require text overlay for product information, announcements or your call to action, but remember that when it comes to mobile video, visuals outweigh audio. Always.
Text: Be Big & Bold
Michael Riedel/Flickr
Speaking of text overlay, it should be visible from space. Well, maybe not that big, but it should be a large font size and it should contrast well with the surrounding colors and content of whatever it shares the screen with.
Simple white text usually works well, but you may want to give it a thin black outline for appearing against lighter colors or, if you’re really concerned about visibility, you can put a dark background behind the text to make sure it’s visible.
Font isn’t a huge concern when choosing your text overlay. You just have to make sure it’s legible. Here are 10 open source Google fonts you can use for your video.
Keep CTAs Simple
Dwight Sipler/Flickr
Your call to action should be something that’s easy to do. Some suggestions:
Click a link
Use a hashtag
Push a button
Like
Share
Buy now
The action should be singular and measurable so you can easily track the results and use those results to influence future decisions on campaigns.
No matter who you are trying to reach, they are watching video on their phones and it’s up to you to cater to their content consumption habits. Animation is an ideal way to make compelling videos for mobile viewing. Click here to schedule an appointment with WizMotions to see how we can help you make the perfect mobile optimized business video.
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