Surprising Ways to Maximize Your Video Uses

If you’re planning to use video in your next marketing campaign, you’re already ahead of most of the businesses. At this point in time, you basically need a video to remain competitive. But, with so many of your rivals already using video, how can you make sure to have yours stand out?

You need not just use video marketing, but use it in new and surprising ways. The more added value you succeed in providing to your user, the more likely they are to remember you and engage with your brand.

So how do you do that? Check out these nine surprising ways of using video marketing that’ll not only a delight to your users but helps increase your ROI as well.

1. Use videos for training your staff or employees.

Video marketing is usually considered consumer-facing, but there are plenty of videos you can make internally to cut on your communications and education costs. If your company requires mass training, like in the restaurant or customer service industries, training videos can help train your new staff with a specific task that would be tiring for you to explain again and again.

2. Use video to simplify the customer service experience.

Videos can help you go a long way by answering customer’s queries through FAQs or support emails. This is a great way to address your customer’s problems. Research a bit; figure out from your sales and customer service teams about the most common obstacles or user queries and create good video content addressing those issues. This not only will help save your employees’ time, but also provide a great user experience to anyone puzzled about your product or service.

3. Include video on unexpected web pages.

No doubt you should have a video on your homepage and product pages, but ever thought about your 404 error pages? What about your thank you or confirmation pages? These are often ignored pages that don’t usually receive the attention they deserve. Since they so typically end the user experience, higher bounce rates and lower engagement rates are experienced. Try including a fun, quirky video on these pages and you can easily boost your website’s KPIs.

4. Involve personalized videos to talk directly to your viewers.

Personalized videos are thought of as complicated to create, but it’s actually not! There are lots of tricks you can use to send across videos that seem personalized. For instance, you can create individualized welcome videos for people newly signing up for your services or if you are able to collect a user’s birthday, you can create a video wishing them a happy birthday and send it across via email on that exact day If you receive a good number of signups, select some of the more common names, like John, David, or Mary and send these out to new registrants with the same names. You can also consider creating a video with someone’s name inserted digitally, then keep using it over and over again, simply replacing the name. The more personalized these videos actually are, the better will be their performance, so bear that in mind!

5. Use common man interviews to create a fun, impromptu experience.

Come up with a fun and unique premise for your video — maybe you wish to present your viewers with a problem they are facing or to show the ubiquity of a specific issue. Use random man-on-the-street interviews to put your point across. The authenticity will not only work in your favor but also provide entertainment to your viewers that they are sure to enjoy. For instance, if you have your own hair salon, ask people about their worst haircut, or how much they paid for it, and if they have any photos of the same. You’ll get unlimited laughs and, because it’s so unexpected, you’ll achieve higher engagement and have awesome content for all your social media channels.

6. Create educational video content that is regularly scheduled.

This works wonders for certain industries that have plenty of useful information they can provide to their users, like tech and SaaS. Apart from attracting new visitors, these aids receive weekly interest, indicating that you’ll have a growing list of people who come back to you week after week. Think of a Reddit-style AMA (Ask Me Anything) or a series where you address new trends in your industry.

7. Use videos to create countless gifs.

Gifs are super short and extremely easy to create. If you already have got some videos you’re proud of, use a site like Giphy to turn them into fun gifs quickly and easily. Alternatively, you can use an app like Instagram’s Boomerang to shoot one of your own live gifs. They can be used all across blogs, social media, email, and more to add a hint of brand personality to your digital content.

8. Use videos to re-engage unsubscribers.

Attracting new customers is important, but don’t forget about re-engaging the ones who have unsubscribed or forgotten about you. “We don’t want to see you go!” messages are usually cute, but they’ve become so mainstream now that they don’t actually do much to keep a user from unsubscribing. Imagine seeing a video instead of such messages! You would suddenly feel more connected to a brand, you would feel like engaging more, and you would most likely be impressed by the effort. This also is a great place to use a personalized video.

9. Use a screen capture video to record how-to videos or show off your product or service.

Screen capture videos are extremely easy to make; most computers and mobile phones come with screen capture software and even tools like QuickTime or PowerPoint allow you to record your screen or window. Simple videos like these can assist you to explain how to do something online or take your users through any online process. They’re super easy to make and super easy to share, but not a lot of brands use them to their full capacity. Take advantage of this simple video tool and see your engagement numbers increase drastically.

How can your brand use videos in more creative ways? There are countless options, but hopefully, with this list, you can start thinking out of the box and get your video marketing started in ways your audience will love.