To achieve this goal, you must look for simplicity. But take note. Simplicity is hard, not easy.
Youtube has figured out its audiences very well. Many video marketers know full well how to employ YouTube videos creatively.
And YouTube, with over 1 billion users, knows how we consume video content better than anyone. That is an amazing statistic, isn’t it? Here are several more that caught my eye
Yes, indeed video matters a great deal. If you aren’t using video marketing by now, you should be. You have a lot of catching up to do.
Video matters so much that Facebook wants it in your stream more than any other form of content.
The push towards video marketing is so prevalent that it’s created a fork in the road for all marketers.
Creative video content … are you in or out?
You have a choice, just like everyone else. Creative video content, or miss out on a bunch of clicks, shares and new customers.
In the last ten years, the digital landscape has changed significantly. People are phasing out of desktop and laptop computers to search the web and interact with content.
Instead, they are picking up their mobile phones and tablets.
What’s more, digital technology is cheaper today than it’s ever been before; there are virtually no boundaries on how, when and where people can interact with content.
According to HubSpot, 80% of customers remember a video they’ve watched in the last month.
One of the biggest strengths of video marketing is that it’s highly visual and auditory, which means it’s easier for many users to remember than text-based content.
And when customers remember your video marketing content, they also remember your brand, which translates to more sales and leads for you.
What’s more, customers typically like to share videos they enjoy, which can expand your online reach.
Make the simple complicated is commonplace. Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple … that’s creativity.
Connecting ideas are how new ideas originate … It is the basis for creativity.
Most of the time regarding finding more ideas to add to our list of considerations… The more new ideas to connect, the more chances of improving your creativity.
Though it has some competition, YouTube remains the premier video site on the web.
GIFs are commonplace across the Web, but it’s sometimes hard to find the right one for the right situation.
Thankfully a new dedicated search engine just for GIFs has arrived. Its name is Giphy.
youtube.com/watch?v=gy1B3agGNxw
Change the URL to this:
gifyoutube.com/watch?v=gy1B3agGNxw
You’ll be brought to Gifs.com, where you can add a variety of effects and crop the GIF to your liking.
Once done, share the GIF to social networks with an easy link or download it for safekeeping.
Note that videos must be under an hour to use this service. Amazing, isn’t it?
How to create video content.
Link to any part of a video
Typically, when you copy a link to a YouTube video, it starts from the beginning. If you want to show someone just a bit of a video or skip a lengthy intro, you can append a timestamp to the URL to start it at that time.
You can do this in a couple of ways. By manually adding &t=YmXXs to the end of a video URL, you’ll set it to start that many minutes/seconds into the video.
You can omit minutes, or use only seconds, such as the 90s for a minute and a half. So, this video:
youtube.com/watch?v=7RWI3-8N_-Y
Can be shared 90 seconds in using this URL:
youtube.com/watch?v=7RWI3-8N_-Y&t=1m30s
If you don’t want to use the manual method, pause the video at the time you’d like to share it at, then right-click and choose Copy video URL at the current time.
Skip a certain amount of the intro
Similar to the trick that lets you pick the start time, you can also choose to skip a certain amount of seconds at the start of the video.
You can’t specify minutes with this one, so use 90 (seconds) for a minute and a half.
And, to skip the first 30 seconds of this video:
youtube.com/watch?v=1F_bG-uJMns
Add start=30 to the URL and get this:
youtube.com/watch?v=1F_bG-uJMns&start=90
This is similar to the timing one, but a bit faster to type and doesn’t require you to remember a certain timestamp.
Thus, you’re in control of what you see instead of YouTube deciding for you.
The bottom line
To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently.
No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares.
We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better.
But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your social media marketing or advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
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