There are a lot of advice articles about how to build a great video marketing campaign, how to shoot your videos, what kind of content your users are interested in, and how to post your videos to get the most views, likes, and shares. However, one thing that almost all of these resources seems to overlook is that the vast majority of video ideas out there don't fit into the 30-seconds most social media users are willing to spend on a video. Though there are other ways and places to use longer videos, most video marketing campaigns are going to focus on social video and videos to draw more attention to their social media and other inbound marketing activities.
If you've been looking into starting a social video marketing campaign but have been despairing at how to fit all that content into thirty little seconds, we've got the answer. Whether you're a B2B software or a local ice cream parlor, here are eleven effective ideas for very short videos.
1) Customer Testimonials
In the age of star ratings and reviews, nothing is more important than the high regard of your customers and testimonials are a great way to show that. Now before you sigh and move on, we're not talking the usual infomercial style testimonials where someone talks slowly for ten minutes about their problems and your company's solutions. Remember, we've only got 30-seconds giving you the perfect excuse to get snappy, energetic, and enjoyable brief testimonials from enthusiastic customers. Look for interesting, funny, and unique testimonial styles and settings because you don't have to make it last.
2) Product Demo
For many customers, they'll listen to the benefits of your product, hear what does, but they still have one outstanding question: "How does it work?" While you may not have time in a 30-second video for the full explanation, what you can do is show your customers how the product works by creating a very speedy demo. If your product is software, show them with mobile taps or mouse clicks how to navigate through some of the basic features. If it's a physical product, quickly go through how to install, open, close, operate, or pack your product based on what is actually possible with the item itself. This will show your visual-learner clients exactly what the product does.
3) Employee Thought of the Day
One of our favorite of the regular video idea suggestions is interviewing your own employees which serves to humanize your brand, add a little human-interest to your content, and delights both employees and viewers to share a few thoughts. While thirty seconds isn't long enough for a real interview, you can take the camera to one employee a day and ask for their most interesting, silly, or brand-building thought to share.
4) Event Bloopers and Best Moments
Always take your camera to events. The still frames and clips of people having a good time in your venue and with your products are absolutely priceless for marketing. You can't fake that kind of real enjoyment and genuine engagement. Of course, while there won't be time to share the entire event, you can make fun clip-reels of best moments or, even better, best bloopers.
5) Company Mission Statement
Many businesses like to put a face on the company, and often that face is the founder or current brand leader. Rather than the usual peppy, silly content, take at least one video to have your leader sit down and explain to the audience the mission statement of the company. Whether your goal is to streamline business accounting, provide healthy fast food, or build a fun online marketplace, share that with your community.
6) Daily Thought Leadership
Thought leadership occurs when your business has new, innovative, and industry-useful thoughts to share with the community and other professionals in your industry. Thought leadership can be anything from contemplating the results of recent regulation changes to new ideas for how to use smart homes in the office. Whatever your theme, sharing a tidbit of thought leadership is a great way to show expertise, industry investment, and create short fun social videos.
7) Day in the Life of Random Employees
What's it like to be one of your employees? From arriving at work to leaving in the evening, can you tell a story about one employee in thirty seconds? If you're very clever and use a few fun fast film tricks, the answer is yes. Do an amusing mini-case-study of one employee, or several over a few videos to show what it's like to work in your company.
8) What People Tweet About Us
It's always fun to share some user-generated content, especially when it's fun and funny messages about your company. Collect some of your favorite social media posts made by your community and put them into a slideshow. The funnier and more flattering, the better.
9) Stop Motion How-To's
Among the most popular types of video across the board for video marketing is how-tos. People love to learn how to do new things whether or not they actually start a project of their own. That said, it's hard to instruct on how to do an entire project in 30 seconds but you can do it with stop-motion. Stop motion allows you to visually speed up tasks while at the same time getting your hands out of the way so viewers can really see what's going on.
10) Employees at Play
Want to show a little of your company culture and the personalities housed inside? Keep the camera rolling in the workplace during your more light-hearted moments to catch a few of your employees at play. Whether it's sharing a round of drinks after a shift or a bit of a french-fry fight during lunch break, your audience will enjoy seeing the fun side of your corporate side.
11) Time-Lapse Project Progress
Finally, if you have a big project you'd love to showcase the progress of but just don't have the time in a short video, may we suggest time-lapse? Videos that use time lapsing can fit days, weeks, and even months into a few seconds, especially if your goal is to highlight the difference between Day 1 and Day 30 or however long your fantastic project takes to complete.
Building a video marketing campaign can be an incredible amount of fun, especially if you're prepared with a wide variety of great ideas for the medium, platform, and length you need. With these 30 second ideas as a seed, you'll soon be imagining a little thought-leadership in social video development. For more great video marketing tips, tricks, and trends contact us today!