Attn: Marketers and Entrepreneurs
If you want to create video pages that convert, you’ll learn how to do that right now on today’s podcast.
Note: if you’re clicking to this post after having listened to the podcast, the key tools that can help you execute today’s strategy can be found here (but don’t click on the links if you haven’t read or listened to the podcast! Don’t get sucked into tools till you have a strategy :)
If you go to the show notes, you’ll also see a link to the full transcript, as well as instructions on how you can register for a more detailed webinar that will both give you strategies and how-to’s that we’ll cover today.
Is Video a Good Marketing Tactic?
But before we go into the details, let’s start with whether video is even the right tactic for your marketing goals.
On the one hand, video seems to be the preferred way of communicating these days. The popularity of video apps such as YouTube and TikTok serve as a good proxy for video’s growth.
And the saying goes, “People don’t like to read.”
However, I personally find problems with video as both a consumer AND as a marketer:
- Watching a video is slower than skimming through written copy
- Much harder to annotate video (whereas I can markup as PDF on my tablet or print it out)
- Video introduces friction since your audience needs to have audio, so they can’t watch in a noisy space
Video also presents challenges if you’re a marketer or entrepreneur:
- Most videos take much more time because of the higher production value
- Videos consume much more bandwidth and can slow the user experience
- More is at stake to recover costs given #1 and #2
Granted, there are some ways to create videos that are easy and fast. TikTok, for example, has popularized short, off-the-cuff videos shot on their phone. The site’s popularity shows that, for its users, this format works.
Marketers who use these short, informal videos leverage volume: instead of trying to make a few high-quality conversion videos, they generate a ton of intriguing and unique shorts which build up an audience over time.
Some marketers use template-driven tools which can create videos based on pre-selected music and imagery, relying only on changing the copy. This can be good for quick ads for Facebook or Twitter, for example.
Another common way to generate “cheap” videos is to host a slide-based webinar or record the video interview and to repurpose those.
All of these are tactics that could work if there’s a strong belief that publishing video at volume will drive your business.
The common factor with this approach is around your goal. Typically, higher-volume and lower production-value are good for Top Of Your Funnel (TOFU) marketing. It’s designed to try as many things at lower costs to aggregate as many total views to drive through your funnel.
The question remains whether it’s worth working with higher-quality, longer-form video.
When Quality Video is in Your Favor
Whether you are in SaaS, eCommerce, coaching or some other high-value sale, at the Bottom of Your Funnel (BOFU), video can also be a powerful tool, but with a different intent. I’m not so sure it’s always the right approach when you’re trying to drive traffic at the Top of Your Funnel (TOFU) because there you are in high-volume, high experiment mode typically (unless you are a viral video genius in which case, yes, take a single video to drive awareness and leads).
But if you have highly-targeted audience, spending time making the video high-quality can make a difference.
At the bottom of the funnel, your prospects are converging upon a decision-point.
Typically, most decisions are driven by emotion, but justified by reason.
While short, fun videos can also trigger emotions, a clear, powerful narrative that engages both emotion and logic at the same time will result in higher conversions. In fact, the more senses that are called into play by the video, the more likely a customer will have cognitive overload.
Studies at Stanford have shown that engaging visual and auditory senses can actually make the audience less skeptical and less rigorous in their analysis, which may not be so good for them, but is great for you!
(Note: in some cases, I do not advise against this kind of “dark art” such as through obfuscation, which is part of the Stanford study. Be clear, but over-loadingly clear!)
What are the key principles of great video?
A compelling video is a combination of both art and science. However, the details of a compelling narrative arc or marketing argument is not what we’re going to cover here.
While understanding how to craft copy that takes a viewer through those decision-making points definitely forms the core of this approach, I know that depending upon strategy, alone, can actually slow you down.
For example, going through complex frameworks, while undeniably valuable, take time to research and write. And even with all that preparation there isn’t necessarily a guarantee of conversion or, more importantly, traffic!
I found myself almost paralyzed trying to get something out that met the sometimes opaque definitions (and then ultimately constructing my own framework).
So if we set aside those “marketing narratives,” what can lead to better outcomes with video?
Speed.
How can speed outpace quality and deliberation?
Generally, deep work, clear thought, and quality product will break through the noise better than shallow content, common thinking, and a me-too or low-quality product.
I believe this applies as much to your marketing video as to an actual product.
However....speed can also yield a powerful outcome if it’s done well.
What does speed enable you to do that will ultimately let you breakthrough?
It will let you experiment. And experimentation is the big idea to take away for your video strategy.
However, the common ways of producing higher-quality videos (versus TikTok style iPhone videos), are slow.
Setting aside the script and copywriting (which I believe is the primary horsepower and, as far as I can tell, takes time no matter what -- even if you have the right structure, which will make or break your video), the typical video-creation, publishing, and delivery process for most people is slow.
What often slows down the video process?
Video Production (Creation, Editing, Rendering)
Once you have all of your creative, the editing and rendering is slow for most people.
If you have a super-beefy desktop, then you’re probably fine.
But even on my quad-core MacBook Pro, rendering a 20 minute video can take 20 minutes or more! And I can’t really do that much more on my computer during that time because of the memory and CPU consumption.
If I’m an occasional video creator, that’s not so bad. I just let it run, and walk away.
However, as has happened to me, once I render the video, I need to make some quick tweaks that I missed during the preview, and -- guess what -- I am back waiting for my laptop to go.
Video Management and Transformation
What do you need to do after you have created the video asset?
Because videos are so expensive to create, being able to be flexible across all of your channels is the best way to get the most out of them.
But, what happens when you have to make tweaks like:
- Transcode from .mp4 to webm
- Add or change your watermark
- Resize the dimensions for different posts and marketing channels
- Crop the video
- Trim the video -- cut off a few seconds in the beginning and end
- Reduce the quality to reduce the total file size
This takes time if you have to go back to your editor and re-render.
Video delivery (video CDN)
Because videos files are so big, they run the risk of playing slowly or buffering.
Content Delivery Networks (CDN) have long been a solution for delivering cached content from servers as closer to the viewer as possible.
There are many many options for video delivery. In fact, many opt to just use YouTube since it’s free and, presumably, fast due to Google’s global delivery network.
But YouTube is a bad choice because it’s designed to keep people in YouTube, and will sometimes load other videos or unaffiliated ads. And it’s not as consistently fast as you would think.
Working with the right CDN can make a difference in the speed of delivery. And while picking the right CDN won’t necessarily save you time, it may have a huge impact on conversions.
A buffering or slow-loading video can waste all the effort you put into making the video and driving traffic in the first place.
So how do you get out of the speed trap?
What are the tools that go good together?
There are three areas in the video tool-chain where you can gather speed:
- Creation, editing, and rendering (production)
- Video management and transformation
- Video delivery (video CDN)
Being able to stitch together tools that complete your workflow better, faster, and cheaper will help you to run more experiments at lower cost.
Here are the tools we recommend based on our experience to solve the problems described above.
Fast Editing and Production -- Flixier
Flixier lets you edit and render using their server farm in the cloud. That means you get access to beefy machines to render your video much faster than you could do on a regular laptop.
You may be wondering: “Why does this matter?”
Perhaps you’ve been editing and processing your videos on your home computer all this time. There doesn’t seem to be a real reason to make a change now.
That may be true. But I would say, if your goal is to experiment quickly, being able to render quickly, adjust, and render quickly again will be an important, strategic outcome.
For example, perhaps you just want to change music.
Or you have different title cards.
Or you want to cut a longer video up into smaller pieces.
These are all minor, and could be done relatively quickly on your computer.
But why? Why waste that time when speed matters in fast production, experimentation and iteration.
Especially since the technology is so cheap, you actually may save much more money.
Instead of eyeing that new M1 Apple MacBook, keep using your crusty laptop for email and browser, and spend it in the cloud.
To try it out today, check out Flixier, which gives you many of the same editing tools as a basic to prosumer video editor.
Except it’s in the cloud.
Fast Video Transformation and Management - Publitio
I had no idea what “video management” meant, even as I started to use Publitio.
But once I started working on it, I realized that video storage isn’t the real issue.
It’s all the post-production management and transformation headaches we talked about.
But imagine if you could make those changes (like transcoding, compression, size, cropping and trimming) with your existing video just by changing the URL?
Need to transcode from .mp4 to webm? Change the file type in your URL.
Need to do a quick crop by 5 seconds? Just add a query parameter that says how many seconds you want to crop!
It’s that simple and that fast.
Fast Video Delivery (CDN) - Swarmify
As mentioned earlier, there are many options for a CDN.
What I found compelling with Swarmify was that, if your content platform supports adding a javascript snippet in the header and embedding their html “smart tag,” you can essentially “load” your video once into their content delivery network and then the video is globally available to play fast without buffering.
It was, at first, a hard concept to understand.
You can’t “upload” it as you would a Vimeo.
You’re not setting up a cache using a proxy, which is the most common way to accelerate video.
Your embed code points to your source, such as YouTube, Dropbox, or my recommendation, Publitio. The reason why this is important is, if you decided not to use a tool like Publitio and just manage videos in your regular cloud file system, like Dropbox, you don’t now need to upload it elsewhere.
You maintain your videos in Dropbox, but they are now served globally through Swarmify.
Speed comes from simplicity, as well.
Conclusion
Don’t leave this article without looking at how these combined tool-chain can accelerate your production, management, and delivery.
Speed matters if video is part of your marketing strategy.
So check them out today and stop wasting time and, instead, publish more videos and less time!
- Creation, editing, and rendering (Flixier)
- Video management and transformation (Publitio)
- Video delivery (Swarmify)
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