Nobody likes tax season, but, it’s that time of year again! So we wondered, how are some of the biggest tax preparation companies approaching video marketing for a subject most people would rather not think about? And, what can the rest of us learn from them?
Choice overload is a cognitive process in which a person has a difficult time making a decision when faced with many options. If it sounds familiar, it’s because it’s a universal problem. There are few industries left that are not hyper-competitive and crowded with options. Couple this with the fact that we are all bombarded practically non-stop with advertisements in-person, on television, radio, podcasts, and online and it’s easy to wonder how any of us is able to make a purchasing decision at all!
Fortunately, the brain has some favorite ways of helping us to overcome the issue of choice overload and when properly understood, smart video marketers can leverage these common cognitive shortcuts to better-serve their audience. Today, we’ll review the six principles of persuasion, taken from Dr. Robert B. Cialdini’s book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”. We’ll take a look at the psychology behind each principle and share examples of how each can be effectively incorporated into your marketing videos.
There are numerous ways to approach video marketing. There’s the explainer video approach, the interview approach, the webinar approach, and there’s the storytelling approach which we’re huge fans of here at SproutVideo. While there are many more, one trend that we have never explored is the idea of disturbing your audience with what we call the “yuck factor”.
Not sure what we mean? Refer to the viral sensation Dr. Pimple Popper (aka Dr. Sandra Lee) who has millions of social media followers and just debuted her new TV show on the TLC network earlier this year. In the following video, she shares how her embrace of video marketing to both entertain and educate people online has skyrocketed the visibility and business of her practice over the past four years.
In short, sometimes grossing out your audience is the key to success! Let’s take a look at how creatives from different industries have leveraged this approach to video marketing, why it has worked for each of them, and how you might be able to apply these lessons to your own business.
Please note that some of the video examples we share below may be intense so please watch at your own discretion.
What comes to mind when you read “baby boomers”? Is it a gray-haired grandmother baking cookies? A tech entrepreneur launching his second career? An empty-nester couple embarking on an around-the world adventure?
Born between 1946 and 1964, baby boomers can be a hard group to nail down; the fact of the matter is they can have any or even all of these characteristics. Sure, they may spend one Sunday afternoon helping little Susie put the finishing touches on her sugar cookies but you’re just as likely to find them exploring the world the next day. The worst thing any marketer can do is assume there is a one-size-fits-all approach to this diverse group of people. That said, there are some common factors to consider when planning your video marketing campaigns.
Long gone are the days of bringing in communications last-minute for your new product or feature release. While it may have been enough before to send out a press release and schedule a press conference a few days before your big release, it’s now imperative that companies large and small take a more strategic, integrative approach.
Today, video can help to support all stages of your new product launch. In this post, we’ll identify the types of video you can leverage pre-product launch, for the product launch, and post-product launch.
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when I say ‘video marketing’? Chances are you’re thinking about explainer videos, funny ads or even customer testimonials. I’d bet a dollar to a dime that you can even go further from those types of videos but you’d never think about educational video.
You’re not alone – most business owners neglect educational content in their video marketing strategies. However, that doesn’t make it right. In fact, that’s all wrong!
When done correctly, however, educational videos can bring new visitors, increase your visibility and maximize the effectiveness of your marketing. If you’re skeptical, you should try making one. Before you jump in, though, here are some considerations to make to ensure your final video is as close to a perfect educational video as it can be.
When you think about video marketing, chances are you think of videos that are 10 seconds to two minutes long. After all, we’ve all been told that nobody has the attention span for anything much longer than that. The accepted wisdom is that we must keep our videos short in order to get any views.
What if we were to tell you that there are some very good arguments for incorporating long-form videos into your 2018 video marketing strategy? What if we were to tell you that some of the best corporate videos out there are 10, 20, and 30+ minutes long? And, what if we told you that these types of video could lead to more engagement?
Below, we share five reasons that long-form video is a growing trend. Learn when to use long-form video (with examples), how to best measure the efficacy of your long-form video, and how to get the most mileage from it.
We are in the thick of the holiday season, and as usual, emotions are running high. Whether it’s stress, joy, comfort, or nostalgia, it can feel like a bit of a rollercoaster.
As it turns out, almost all of these emotions are reflected in this year’s crop of holiday car commercials. Not content to show off a shiny car with a bow on it, different manufacturers tested out different holiday emotions to see which might strike a chord with viewers.
In this post, we discuss why this approach might work, and look at the range of emotions being explored in these ads. We’ll wrap it up in a neat package with key takeaways for your next video campaign.
The New Year is all about new beginnings. It’s no surprise many people start their job hunts in January. In fact, one of the largest job sites, Monster.com, sees a 70% spike in job searches in January.
So, how can you be sure that your company stands out from the competition for talent? Use recruiting videos to establish your company’s brand, sell your work culture, and motivate candidates to apply. Here’s how.
Last year, we saw retailers and other B2C companies diving into storytelling with enthusiasm and plenty of Hollywood flair. Recently, it seems as though B2B companies picked up the torch and really ran with it.
Telling B2B stories requires a heavy dose of authenticity, or they won’t ring true. They also have to be really compelling, or risk being a total snooze-fest.
In this post, we take a look at some of the very best examples of B2B storytelling from Google, Square, and Amazon. We’ll tease out the key elements that make them truly outstanding, so you can apply these takeaways to your own videos.
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