Video marketing: How bitesize video hits the mark

Has your business gotten a taste for video yet? If not, you’ll find yourself at a bit of a disadvantage: 93 percent of marketers are already integrating it into their current content strategy and for a good reason.

Video marketing campaigns can provide your business with better quality reach, greater levels of interaction and heightened ROI. In fact - according to 52 percent of marketers worldwide - video is heralded as the content type that delivers the best return on investment. 

When developing and optimising your video content, it pays to remember that no one size fits all. It might be the case that your inbound marketing strategy calls for the production of a bitesize video. Here's a walkthrough.

Bitesize content provides no-strings contact with your target audience.

In an increasingly saturated online domain, attention is difficult to grasp and maintain. When it comes to video, you are likely to have lost a third of viewers by the time the first thirty seconds have lapsed - and then half as much again by the one minute mark.

This means you have a limited window of opportunity to get your message across to viewers.

Video length is a deciding factor in the approach you take to making any video; it affects editing, script, budget and even the platform you choose to distribute it on. This is why it’s prudent to decide your goals and core message beforehand. Bitesize content is great practice for this.

In art classes a popular exercise is to get students to render something in a restricted amount of time, sometimes as little as 15 seconds. Under pressure, you find yourself stripping away excess information and getting straight to the point. The same process happens in all good bitesize content - it is highly condensed and strongly motivated.

Here are some key elements to consider when making a bitesize video:

Script

Marketing professionals understand the value of copywriting. Writing for video follows the same basic principles.

A good script will have a straightforward message. Transcripts that include relevant keywords can boost SEO. Even when your corporate videos are short and sweet, be sure to optimise your script carefully around a topic.

Though brief by nature, bitesize scripts can be used to direct people to other written content and relevant website pages.

This is a good way to move buyer personas along the sales funnel. It has often been said that bitesize videos are the most shareable, so it’s a great opportunity to spread brand awareness. Your business can use video to spark interest in your product or services and invite potential customers to conduct research via your site.

The appropriate length for a bitesize video will depend on the platform you use. However, if it's more than two minutes long, it’s no longer bitesize.

For social media video, include language that captions easily. Fun, entertaining videos are often best received, especially when they're delivered in a short and easily digestible format. With social media, you can take a more informal tone.

Documentary-style branded content can afford to be longer. Bitesize video doesn’t necessarily have to be casual or flippant in tone of voice.

You could even produce a bitesize video series. Consider presenting your video content in episodes focused on one topic. The benefit of post-production means that you can take complex issues and break them down into manageable chunks. It might be better to make five compact videos than one long boring one.

Sound

Because many videos on social media autoplay without sound, it’s wise to optimise your video so that it makes sense with or without audio.

In Facebook settings, users have the option to turn autoplay sound on or off. This means a good proportion of your target audience won’t hear your content.

You can add music or sound effects to accentuate your point, but it has proven more effective to use visuals to draw people in. Research shows that the majority of videos on Facebook are watched without sound, and 80 percent of people will react negatively to mobile ads that interrupt them with sound.

Your audience engages with video at a higher rate than any other type of content, and that popularity should be achievable whether the volume is turned up or down.

Production

A successful video marketing strategy demands great planning. Bitesize content is short by nature, but that doesn’t mean your film day has to be: remember the power of editing.

The benefit of approaching bitesize content as a video series is that you will achieve a consistent look and have lots of content to fold into your content calendar. It’s much more cost efficient too.

Timelapse video is one fun and affordable way to create dramatic visuals, and bitesize video might be the right opportunity to share an insight of your workplace using this technique. Alternatively, you could take the chance to show off a product, or introduce a team member. Whatever your subject matter, keep it refined.

Choose one core message and execute it well.

Mobile friendly

Bitesize video optimised for mobile will use up a low amount of data and be easy to understand without sound.

Design for interruption: picture your buyer persona browsing the internet on the go and make a video that can be watched while they wait for an associate, have lunch or commute.

Visual appeal

Text can be made visual in the form of text overlays, lower thirds, graphics or presentation slides. Internal testing conducted by Facebook showed that captioned video ads are watched an average of 12 percent longer than un-captioned ads. 

So, provide your viewers with text that supports your message. If you don’t have access to video editing software, you might consider using automated caption tools. It will overlay captions for you and generate a preview, ready for review. Alternatively, you can manually upload captions using a .srt file (basic subtitle format).

Decide the visual focal points of your film early and consider the way they will look in relation to overlaid additions such as text and graphics. You have limited time to connect and will need to make it easy for people to process what they are seeing.

Captions do more than improve understanding; they attract the eye and inspire your audience by giving them things to tag or say when they share your content. This means you can influence buyer personas to adopt target keywords and give their conversation about your business a boost. This is helpful in SEO terms as well as your social monitoring. 

Powerful imagery increases viewership tenfold. It has been proven our brains love visual content, which is why infographics have always enjoyed so much success.

Bold colour is arresting and makes your video pop. If possible, colour grade your piece. This will make a tremendous difference to the overall feel of your video.

Intelligent use of colour implicitly communicates things about the tone, merit and intent of your video - without anybody having to press play.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails represent your video visually. It’s important to acknowledge that, for some, it’ll deliver the first and only impression of your business.

Research suggests that people respond best to ads with minimal text on the initial image. This proves that sensitively curated pictures stand out from the crowd. Choose yours carefully to communicate the content of your video and attract the right viewers.

It’s undeniable; video campaigns continue to yield strong results for inbound marketers.

Clear, informative, targeted content is the most effective way to get your products or services in front of the right people at the right time. If you are looking to improve your company’s reach, bitesize video content may be the best way for you to accomplish this.