Video Marketing: TruPlace Tips to Success
June 13, 2022
A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a million pictures.
Ankala Subbarao
Before we jump into best practices for making your videos, here are some more stats regarding our behaviors when it comes to video…
- Around 74% of internet traffic this year will be video.
- The time someone spends looking at a post as they scroll social media is equivalent to snapping your fingers.
- The motion in videos naturally captures short attention spans and makes people pause.
- 65% of people who watch the first three seconds of a video will watch for at least ten seconds, and 45% continue watching for thirty seconds.
- Videos are great because they allow you to deliver a lot of information quickly.
- Our brains are wired to process videos quickly — 60,000 times faster than textual content.
- We remember more of the content seen in videos than what we just read or hear. As much as 90% of all information our brain receives is visual content.
Now you’re armed with all the stats you should need to convince your team to take the leap into video! How do you get started?
The biggest roadblocks you may foresee are how much is it going to cost you and who is good enough and has enough time to do it. While videos don’t need to cost a lot or be very complex, they do need to be compelling and live up to your brand’s quality standards. First, decide whether you will outsource production or keep it in-house. Think of the saying “Work Smarter, Not Harder” as you consider some of these deciding factors:
- Do you have the right equipment and software to produce quality videos?
- Do you have staff skilled at video production and able to keep up with the latest trends and best practices?
- Does your staff have available bandwidth? Will you have backup resources if the need should arise?
- How many videos are needed? How often do you need to make new ones? If your needs increase, can you handle the work?
- Is your content readily available? Do you need to do a lot of work to gather it together?
- What type of videos will you need? Company and FAQ type videos might need the personal touch of “actors”, whereas property and area videos might be solely imagery based.
Once you have determined who will make the videos, you will need to plan what kind of content you will use. Our research shows that people’s attention spans are decreasing, as is how much time you have to grab their attention, so you have to pull them in fast with great content and keep them engaged!
Consider the following as you begin to plan your video:
- Keep it short, simple, and engaging. 2 minutes MAX!!
- Make the first three seconds too good to scroll by.
- Be professional and honest in your property portrayal.
- Establish a consistent vibe with a targeted color scheme/fonts.
- Avoid jarring movement, keep a consistent speed and smooth transitions.
- Provide complimentary high-quality music/audio.
- Show off highlights of your interior/exterior.
- Utilize bright and clear imagery.
- Pull in a quick drone or map view for visualizing property location.
- Select an enticing image to show when the video is not playing.
- Spotlight quick facts, brand placement, and contact information.
- Ensure taglines/voiceover align with visual content and aren’t overused.
- Incorporate prominent calls to action like property and booking links.
Awareness is the first step in a customer’s journey. You can create awareness only when you grab attention. Video is an amalgamation of visual and audio aspects, and that is why it is more engaging. People tend to stop to watch a video.
MasterHost
We’ve focused thus far on property-specific videos as those are the ones with which we, at TruPlace, have the most background. Our research, however, indicates you should consider adding these additional video types to your video marketing toolbox.
- Tell YOUR story- Create a connection and trust
- Why should guests trust you for their vacation? What makes your company and team different?
- What will help instill stability in a guest’s purchasing decisions and build a connection for return visits?
- Sell YOUR destination – Consider all of your target audiences.
- Why is your destination the ideal place to spend time away?
- What is there to do/see? Is there a fascinating history? Are there tips/customs specific to the area to think about ?
- Educate YOUR guests- Reduce decision fatigue and provide needed support
- Could you add testimonial videos for the company or properties to assist in their decision-making process?
- Would a library of Video FAQs for rental policies, rules/regulations, or property-specific instruction help guests help themselves and reduce calls to Support.