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If you’ve followed our recent marketing tips in the past, you know how important it is to make video part of your strategy. In fact, a study from Google found that “almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store.” So, not only is it good business practice to utilize video in your marketing strategy, but it can actually help guide your prospects in the right direction on their buyer’s journey.

However, just because you’re currently using video, doesn’t mean you’re using it effectively. So, here are few guidelines to follow before you publish your videos:

Shorter is Better

Videos can be great for explaining topics in detail, however, videos under 2 minutes are the most effective in terms of watch rate. In fact, most people prefer to engage with video content that’s only 30 to 90 seconds long. So, instead of explaining everything in one video, break it up into smaller segments. This will be easier for your audience to digest, and easier for you to edit and upload later on. You have to give your audience what they want. If you’re not getting a lot of traction on your 5 minute video about auto insurance, it may be time to rethink your strategy.

Be Real

Your insurance agency isn’t a late night drama series on TV, so don’t force laughter or emotion into your content, just be yourself. If prospects are watching your videos to learn more about what your insurance agency has to offer, they shouldn’t have to skip parts of your video because you spent the first 30 seconds telling jokes – get right to the point the first time.Tell your audience what they need to know, that’s why they’re watching your video to begin with.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t take a light-hearted approach to it either, having fun and recording a non scripted video comes off as more personable and relatable. You’re not a robot, and neither are your clients. Just don’t try to force an image that your agency is not, but be careful not to cross too far into unprofessional territory.

Be Consistent

Remember, the biggest impact on the effectiveness of your branding efforts is your consistency.  Your insurance agency’s videos should reflect your brand and values – don’t make irrelevant content that won’t help or entertain your core audience. For example, our marketing team creates a variety of videos that showcase community events, local businesses, insurance tips, and impromptu office videos that showcase our staff.

Additionally, each video thumbnail always contains a screenshot of the content with a semi-transparent blue overlay, and our logo is always placed in the lower right hand corner. This helps our audience identify our brand right away, even before they read the title. Your videos need to have relevant content, but also relevant branding. If they do not, this can hurt your brand and confuse your audience.

Execution

Video doesn’t have to be complicated, nor do you need expensive equipment to create amazing content. In fact, our marketing team uses their iPhones and a tripod to film. To edit they do use professional software, but that doesn’t mean you have to do the same. In fact, there’s a variety of inexpensive apps for your smartphone that can help you edit video right from your phone.

Speaking of filming from your phone, make sure you’re filming horizontally and not vertically. Horizontally filmed video is more aesthetically appealing, and vertical videos often display with black or blurred bars on the side. These bars can be distracting to your audience, so just remember to turn your phone horizontally before you start filming.

Additionally, even if your own marketing team is experienced in the video field, they may not completely understand the SEO process behind uploading a video. Sure, you can upload videos to social media sites, but in places like YouTube, it may be a bit more complicated because tags, titles, and thumbnails need to be optimized so users can find your video and content.

So, how should you optimize your video content for the web? Well, first of all, the raw video file itself needs to be renamed before being uploaded. This is because YouTube uses filenames as a part of their ranking algorithm to place your video throughout the site, similar to what Google would do with your website.

Titles are also important because they help create a sense of professionalism and unity within all of our videos. For example, a title like “Flag Day Celebration 2017 | Paradiso Insurance” is effective because it summarizes what the video is about and who it is from in a few words. Good video titles always include keywords and your insurance agency’s name.

Of course, the title isn’t the only place where you need to include relevant keywords and consistency. YouTube gives creators the option to add tags to each video. Tags help users help find your video. For example, we always make sure to include tags like “paradiso insurance” and “connecticut” so this way if a user is watching a video with those tags, YouTube may suggest that they watch our videos, as well.

This means that when a user watches one of our videos they’ll see our other videos show up in their recommended video feed. This is simply because YouTube recognizes all of our videos having the tag “paradiso insurance” and finds them for the user. Of course, we use other tags to help YouTube understand the true content of our videos. For example, “flag day” is used in our Flag Day videos, while “restaurant” may be used in our Partners of Paradiso videos. Similar to tags used on social media or blogging, tags on YouTube group your video with other relevant content and help Google understand where to put your videos in the search results.

Lastly, don’t forget to fill out the description box with a small summary of the video and your insurance agency’s contact information. This way users don’t have to look for your information in case they need to contact you. This helps users who may not be familiar with our insurance agency to reach out to us, while also giving us the chance to link back to our website.

Video is a great way to market your insurance services and now that you have a clearer way to promote them online, it’s time to make your own. It’s been shown time and time again, how effective video is in terms of marketing, so don’t let your insurance agency miss opportunities that your competitors are already capitalizing on.