Check out these stats from Hubspot’s State of Video Marketing report:
- 87% of businesses are using video as a marketing tool.
- 91% of marketers consider video an essential part of their marketing strategy.
- 83% of marketers say video gives them a good ROI.
- 90% of video marketers feel the level of competition and noise has increased in the past year.
- 88% of marketers say they will spend more on video than they did in previous years.
With a little creativity and a well-thought-out plan, videos can help your brand stand out from the competition and drive your audience to action. The best part is, the most effective videos are not expensive to produce.
For today’s audiences, it’s all about authenticity – especially on social media sites. Take, for example, this video we produced for St. Patrick’s preschool in Gretna, Nebraska.
To capture the real St. Pat’s, a small crew of two people spent the morning at the school shooting unscripted interviews with parents, teachers, and administrators. We also captured “B-roll” to support the interviews. Using the classroom’s natural light, we could minimize equipment and crew, which kept us nimble, minimized distractions and lowered costs.
As we edited the video, we did so with an eye toward repurposing it in multiple ways. For example, we pulled smaller bits for a series of Facebook posts and ads – each focusing on St. Pat’s unique benefits.
Blair Bonczynski, Marketing and Communications coordinator for the Archdiocese of Omaha Catholic Schools Office, incorporates video into their social media and email strategy, particularly with the Omaha Catholic School Consortium. The Consortium kicked off its school year with a Back to School Novena (a special prayer) and included principals, priests and families from the Consortium’s six Catholic schools.
Each day Blair emailed out and posted the prayer on social media. The prayer videos were taken with mobile devices and edited very simply. “We got feedback from various stakeholder groups that they enjoyed this and made them feel a part of our community. We also have data that showed open rates and engagement rates to view the videos was higher than our typical emails,” Blair said.
The Consortium also hosted a virtual donor appreciation event in the fall. Due to COVID-19, visitors were not allowed inside schools, yet they wanted to give supporters a peek into what school looked like in 2020-2021. Blair hired a videographer to make brand videos using footage from all six schools. She emailed the videos in a follow-up campaign, posted them on the Consortium website and started a YouTube channel. Blair said that their board members subsequently met with donors who said they hadn’t fully understood the school system’s structure or the full scope of how many students they served until they watch these videos. “Exactly what we wanted!” said Blair.
As you can see, video works! We advise all of our clients to include video in their marketing mix – because if a picture is worth a thousand words … just think what a video is worth.