Video Marketing, as cited by some sources such as the Guardian, is the future of online marketing, and indeed the future of how content is both read and received. According to Cisco, by 2017 video marketing will account for 69% of all online consumer traffic and businesses, both large and small, need to effectively utilise this marketing strategy to ensure they keep up with, and even stay ahead of, the rest of the competition. We look below at how to do video marketing on a budget in the online world.
1. Use Graphics, Not Crew
You don’t need to spend money on actors, models, directors and writers anymore. Some of the best videos are short and sweet animations, made at a low cost with one or two voice actors. You can still deliver an effective video without hiring a large crew; think something simple yet well-delivered like Pinterest’s video:
2. Commission A Video Cheaply
As with the above point, you don’t need to hire expensive storyboard writers or directors. You can simply commission a video on websites such as Fiverr or PeoplePerHour, for a fraction of the price and have the work turned back around to you quickly. However, bear in mind that these are freelancers and the quality of their work can’t always be guaranteed; shop around and always look for feedback on their profiles.
3. Make Use Of Free Websites
Gone are the days where you need to spend a large amount of your budget getting your video into a TV advert, you can now use free websites like Facebook or YouTube, who both have more than 1 billion unique visitors a month. Even smaller, less established platforms like Vimeo and Vine still have excellent reach, although Vine only allows for six second clips. However, it is still useful to use apps like this, as well as Snapchat, to offer alternative bitesize content that viewers can watch quickly as well as reaching a different market.
Here is a great use of Vine marketing from Sony:
4. Social Media
If used correctly, social media can act as a free marketing tool for you. Video content has the opportunity to go viral within a matter of seconds, and even just a few shares can make a difference to your business. You can even pay a small fee for sponsored or promoted content, which can increase your organic reach by a large margin. Make sure you are set up on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, posting regular, interesting content and engaging with your wider community.
5. Getting Published On Blogs & Websites
In the same way you need to utilise the large audiences on social media, make sure to also try and get your video content published on relevant blogs or websites within your chosen sector or industry. These sites may not be as large as Facebook or Twitter, but it is simply another place that you can get published for free to an audience you may not have been able to otherwise reach.
6. Use Your Smartphone
You don’t need to buy expensive camera equipment to shoot your video, the latest smartphones have extremely high quality, high definition cameras built in. The iPhone 6s shoots 4K video, and Lee Morris from Fstoppers said how “The iPhone’s 4k footage downscaled to 1080p was significantly better than the Nikon D750.”
Also make sure that you target mobile phone users with your video marketing content, as 41% of video consumption is from mobile phones.
7. Live Video Streaming
Marketing doesn’t just need to be done through content, you can also effectively market yourself through live video streaming. Live video can be a great way, especially as a startup, to build a community and user base, as well as increase and encourage audience engagement. Live videos or live interviews offer something a little bit different, and can help to build up excitement and engagement with your audience.
8. User Generated Content
Some businesses ingeniously get their consumers to do their marketing for them, for free. For example, take Airbnb’s #OneLessStranger campaign . Airbnb asked users to send them in videos of how they displayed a random act of kindness to someone they didn’t know; it’s content that plucks on emotional heart strings to pull in viewers from all over the world, and even better it’s marketing Airbnb’s brand the whole time. The only cost to Airbnb was to reward users for sending in videos, but you can plan clever marketing strategies of your own on how to reward viewers who engage with you in this way.
9. Animated Presentation Software
You can use simple software like Prezi to create good-looking presentation animations which you can then add sound to make for an inexpensive and easy video.
10. Be Creative
Even if you do need to hire a couple of actors and don’t want to use animated videos, think creatively and think about how you can do the budget cheaply. Simple videos like the one below from Dollar Shave Club have had a huge impact, being viewed over 22 million times. If you can get a video right it will generate a constant buzz that will mean people keep coming back to view it time and time again.
Dollar Shave Club:
If you utilise all, or at least most, of the strategies above you can produce an effective and well-rounded video marketing strategy that can be written, filmed and shared for a low-budget. With these less expensive methods, you can trial a few different versions and styles to find what works well with your audience and what returns the best results.
