Opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of Rolling Stone editors or publishers.
As more and more people turn to video as their choice format for content consumption, an increasing number of businesses are jumping on the video bandwagon as well. But savvy marketers should know that it isn’t enough to simply create video content in order to gain the attention of your customers — your videos have to be truly worth watching.
To share their insights into creating engaging videos, a panel of Rolling Stone Culture Council members each detail their top tip below.
Address Your Customers’ Needs and Wants
Businesses need to remember that it’s about them, not you. You need to really spend time addressing the things your customer/viewer loves, hates, needs, desires, fears, dreams about, is passionate about or worries about. Do that well and people will engage with your content and share it with others and your brand will resonate with the right people – Brock Poling, StewMac
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Add More Humor
Open up, have fun and share the excitement of what you are doing. Humor also serves other purposes. It adds authenticity. It adds dimension. It enables a better, deeper human connection. Most importantly, it sets a tone. – Scott Cowperthwaite, AfterFiveMedia
Study Your Old Content
Within YouTube, for example, there are hundreds of ways to splice and dice the data at your fingertips that will help you understand what content is winning for your brand. In your YouTube analytics dashboard, you can learn what videos are driving more subscribers or see at what moments people stop watching your videos. Data is king, so grab a fork and dig in. – Matt Tuffuor, Toasted Life
Ensure Your Branding Is Consistent
It amazes me how companies will spend considerable time and resources on brand books that go into great detail about the fonts, sizes, logos and colors to be used and yet when it comes to video, there is often very little thought given to the look and feel. Videos should be consistently on brand and aspirational. – Shirin Etessam, OML
Combine Viewing, Listening and Reading
People learn in different ways. Some folks like visual learning, for some it is listening and for some, reading. Videos that combine these various components will entice a wider audience and ensure that viewers will receive the content you are putting out to them. – Amanda Reiman, Personal Plants
Add a Human Interest Element
People love stories with a human interest element that they can relate to or that taps into their emotions. I use common questions that come up in my classes to create engaging content. People want to feel and learn. – Sara Payan, The Apothecarium
The Rolling Stone Culture Council is an invitation-only community for Influencers, Innovators and Creatives. Do I qualify?
Create Something New and Original
In order to create engaging video content for your customers, you have to be original and regularly cycle in new content. With the constant increase of businesses using social media for customer outreach, many ideas and concepts have become overused and will actually turn potential clients off. The last thing you want for your business is for potential clients to think, “This video again?” – Logan Forbes, Untitledexport MGMT
Select the Right Content Type
The first step to creating engaging videos is determining what type of content is important to your audience. For example, if you produce a cannabis product, is your audience looking for education, how-to videos or recipes? Once you identify what’s important, you can then focus on that particular niche and create content your audience will love. Also, make sure to have good lighting and sound! – Jamie Evans, The Herb Somm
Keep Videos Short and Direct
One tip I would give to any business for creating more engaging content would be to keep videos short but to the point. The last thing a customer wants is to be taken down the road of pointlessness or be made to feel as though they wasted their time. – Chris Martin, Hempful Farms
Structure the Content Wisely
Narrow down your key objectives to one single message. Then remove the ad approach by telling a personal story related to the objective to impact the viewer and remain as authentic as possible. Add music to set the tone. Integrate visual effects to keep things interesting. Most important of all, keep it short and straight to the point. Structure the content wisely and you won’t be disappointed. – Tiffany Gaines, SS Global Entertainment
Stay Authentic
Only create videos using content and people that are relevant to the brand’s ethos. Being and staying authentic is more important than attempting to be something you are not in the community. – Skip Meador, marQaha
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