The fact that video content is very quickly overtaking all other formats of content across social media is no secret, but with every brand vying for space and cut through on the channels, creating video content that stands out from the crowd is essential in driving awareness and consideration for your company.
If you want your message to resonate, video is the key format you should be considering. According to research by Forbes, social media users will retain 95% of a brand’s message portrayed in a video, as opposed to only 10% read in text. However, despite this, overall video consumption is said to be plateauing, which is why it is more essential than ever that your video content stands out from your competitors.
There are a number of ways to ensure your video content has cut-through, for example, optimising it for the channel in mind and shooting with good lighting and high-quality sound. But ultimately if your content doesn’t show off your brand’s personality, educate and have the audience hooked in the first 3-5 seconds, it won’t resonate.
Many client briefs revolve around elevating the brand’s social presence by building awareness, which is best done with an effective video strategy. For clients across a spectrum of industries, from sport, to sustainability and healthcare we have found a common tactic that has worked well was shooting content in-person with the team, be that MDs of the company, sports players or healthcare professionals. This resulted in huge increases in video views, positively impacting engagement.
There are several different methods to achieving this and having the opportunity to bring those ideas to life by shooting videos in-person, grants your audience behind-the-scenes access and gives your content an edge.
Position your client as industry leaders
Using video to introduce key members of the brand is an important way in which to build trust and credentials, particularly if you’re in the healthcare or sustainability space. Due to the nature of these industries and the services they offer, it’s crucial that the audience trust that the professionals know what they’re talking about.
Once trust is established, and the audience buy-in not only to their experience in the industry, but into them as individuals as well, they are far more likely to consider the service offering. However, getting a spokesperson in front of the camera is one thing, but making a video of someone talking to camera engaging, is another.
Often cut-through on the channels comes where we you give the spokesperson opportunity to showcase their personality as well as their insight, encouraging authenticity that is received so well with social audiences.
Trend-Led Content
Regardless of the industry, keeping up with content trends is essential to achieving reach and awareness on social media. Trend-led content not only increases your chances of organic reach, but also for discovery by new audiences. It can often be a struggle to get brands in more corporate sectors to be brave enough to jump on trends, whereas many consumer brands in other industries wouldn’t think twice.
However, despite the importance of such corporate brands conveying trustworthiness and a professional tone, this doesn’t have to mean they should also be void of character. Making trends relevant to your brand’s offering can require some creativity, but they are important in showing brand personality and are key in appeasing those social algorithms.
These work especially well for sports brands or teams, where many people can get involved in the trend – but don’t disregard the power of a trend for B2B brands, for whom such content shouldn’t be overlooked. However, the very essence of trend-led content is that it has a shelf-life, so you really need to be timely with it to reap the rewards.
Educational Content
Educational content is now commonplace on social, with people frequently heading to the likes of TikTok and Instagram to find out information over traditional search engines like Google – none more so than Gen-Z: 40% of young people prefer using TikTok to Google when it comes to search, and that’s from Google’s own research.
That trend extends in part to discovering education-based content, with the ‘Learn on TikTok’ space a well established one within the social media landscape.
Social platforms provide a more engaging learning environment, and this is an important strand for your brand’s video content strategy. Educational content is essential in generating strong engagement, encouraging comments and in helping to position your brand as industry leaders.
BTS Content
There is huge opportunity on social for videos that give the audience a behind-the-scenes look into the brand, giving access to what they usually wouldn’t get an insight into. Whether that’s a healthcare procedure, a day-in-the life of the CEO or a training session with a sports team.
This is also exactly the sort of content that best conveys brand personality, the people behind the brand and provides a level of authenticity that really resonates with audiences on social media.
Competing on social media to generate awareness and consideration for your brand more effectively than other brands can be easier said than done, but with a fine-tuned video-first strategy, it is easier than you’d think to cut through the noise on platforms and be noticed in an oversaturated social media environment.
If you would like to discuss a video content strategy for your business, get in touch with our Digital team today.