It wasn’t that long ago that corporate websites were considered an unproven novelty.
The same can be said for social media, mobile apps, and any number of other tools that have since evolved from being extraordinary novelties, into ordinary tools of the marketing trade.
Video marketing is steadily evolving along the same path. Once the extraordinary tactic of the few, video marketing is quickly becoming the ordinary tool of the many.
Video production, and therefore video marketing, have been generally thought of as costly and complex, but it doesn’t have to be, and professional, effective video is becoming more accessible to businesses every day.
So, what changes can we expect to see, as video marketing evolves from the extraordinary into the ordinary? The evolution of those earlier tools holds the secret.
Evolutionary Pathways for Video Marketing
I’ve been at this marketing game long enough to have seen websites, social media, and mobile apps (to name but a few) emerge, as brand-new marketing tools. Without exception, all of them were received by marketers with great fanfare, but lethargic adoption.
Video marketing is no different.
When corporate websites first emerged, they were built by talented amateurs, because professional website agencies didn’t exist.
After a while, it was clear that websites were here to stay, and that encourage professionals in marketing and its allied disciplines to specialize in websites, start new agencies, or build website practices within existing agencies.
Technology has now evolved to the point where most anyone can build a simple website. But, sophisticated, top-performing websites are still the realm of experts, and anyone serious about building a website for their company, doesn’t give the project to “that new kid, down in Marketing.”
Video marketing is at a similar stage in its evolution. Talented amateurs still produce much of the video content for all but the biggest brands. (After all, anyone with a smart phone can be a video marketer.) But, people serious about video marketing rely increasingly on video marketing experts.
Moving Past the “Big Deal” Syndrome
For many brands, video is still something of a novelty. Very few have integrated video into their marketing mix, much less adopted a video-first marketing strategy.
Many brands want to make a big deal out of creating a video, and they have a grand vision for how it will introduce people to their brand, promote their next big event, help them make introductions with prospects, and even help them recruit some new talent.
Not every video has to be a big deal and, in fact, some of the most successful videos we’ve created have been fairly modest productions.
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A step-by-step guide to programmatic video marketing content production.
A New Way
For a long time, the work that had to go into producing and distributing video content through various marketing channells ultimately made it impossible for anyone but the biggest of brands to integrate video into their marketing mix in a serious, programmatic way.
The process was too cumbersome, slow, and expensive. But that’s quickly changing.
Advantages of Having a Video Company in Your Corner
The promise of a video-first marketing strategy is that the power of video can be leveraged for a wide variety of marketing contexts and channels.
It’s not just the big projects, but the little projects that need video. But, if the process for procuring video assets is so cumbersome that only big projects can be sourced, the promise of a video-first strategy will remain unfulfilled.
Let me give you an example.
A software company releasing a major upgrade to their product may very well understand that a professional video could help spur sales and adoption. That’s a project that may well be worth a careful search for the right agency.
But, that same software company will have a variety of other smaller projects that could benefit from video, too. Thought leadership content, event announcements and sponsor videos, customer testimonials. The list goes on and on.
Those videos will never get sourced because the process is too slow and cumbersome. No one in a busy marketing department has the time to write an RFP for a new video, and opportunity after opportunity gets missed.
With a video partner, you can dramatically reduce the amount of overhead and cost required to execute on video marketing projects, making it possible to expand the use of video throughout your department and company.
What role do you want video to play in your overall marketing strategy?
If you’re content with producing the occasional video as needs arise (and many marketing shops are), then you probably wouldn’t benefit from a retainer relationship with a video marketing agency.
On the other hand, if video is playing an increasingly important role in your marketing mix, a retainer relationship with a good video marketing agency might be just what you need.
The ability to just fire off an email to get the ball rolling on your next video project, without the need for RFPs, contracts, and other paperwork, can take your video marketing to a new level. It will allow you to more fully integrate video into your marketing mix at every level.
Plus, because your agency can count on a certain amount of revenue from their accounts over the course of the year, they’re often willing to reduce the price they would normally charge for one-off projects.
That’s certainly the case here, at Thoughtcast Media. Many of our customers enjoy significant savings by ordering multiple videos at once, and are able to call on us throughout the year, as new opportunities arise.
Consider entering into a retainer relationship with a production company that understands your video needs and the role that each video plays in your marketing strategy. They can help you transform video from an extraordinary novelty, to a manageable, programmatic and cost-effective part of your marketing mix.