Startups: This Is How You Nail Video Marketing

Maria 01
Maria 01
Published in
4 min readJan 24, 2018

By Kim Oguilve

AdLaunch was one of the companies that made it to the top 3 of Slush 100 list during Slush 2017. When listening to that last pitch by AdLaunch’s Joel Hypén at Slush — one thing was clear that day, this AI-powered video editing tool with unlimited amounts of stock footage, would for one, have a huge impact on how companies with smaller budgets produce video, and second, the speed in which just one video is produced.

We had the chance to have a chat with Joel, who has useful insights and tips on Video Marketing — which promises to be a huge trend in the upcoming years. Furthermore, we will bring forward how startups can make better use of their resources and keep up with the trends.

“If we think of big-name brands who hire production companies and spend a substantial amount of money in professionally taken video — having a very limited budget and time is something that every startup founder shares”— Joel Hypén

It is noticeable the increasing amount of video content we see every day on social media. Nowadays, you can upload a video to almost every social media platform and make basic edits. The amount of content being pushed every day has shortened our attention span and the quicker we consume that content the better.

The speed of the internet has improved enormously together with the option of storing in the cloud, and smartphones are also capable of recording good video quality — this trend is in our hands.

According to HubSpot Research, 54% of consumers want to watch more videos from the brands they support. This presents a great business opportunity for any business and their products to get more attention if done properly.

“Video is a very easy form of communication for people to view a message, compared to reading a blog post that requires a lot more time and concentration.” — Joel Hypén

So, how can you get started on Video Marketing?

1). Make a list of keywords

When thinking of going for video content, you can’t forget keywords because this is how you want to be associated with on search engine results. Thinking of the best keywords that describe your product or brand is just the beginning of becoming an authority for some of those topics in a way that matters.

“Choose keywords that aren’t the most competitive. Something realistic that within the next two years can substantially improve your search ranking. Plan your content around those keywords”. — Joel Hypén

2). Combine both video and written content

Planning a video strategy is also about efficiency — that is why you should consider utilizing your written content as video content and vice versa. At the end of the day, written content is still a big chunk of helping you boost SEO.

“As part of our Content Strategy, we started with the concept of writing a blog post, that would later on work as the script for a YouTube video and later turned into small snippets of info for Instagram and Twitter. Rather than investing a lot of time and money in doing just one thing, I think companies and especially startups should learn to re-purpose their content.” — Joel Hypén

3). Be platform specific

Every single platform has its native format. For example, on Instagram, you will find 3 different lengths for profile video (60 seconds), Instagram story (15 seconds) and live video (1 hour). Thus you must understand the native features of each platform.

“Facebook defaults the audio on mute so don’t start a video with a person talking, because when people swipe through the feed, unless there is something very engaging they might never put the audio on. Those are things to take into account format-specific wise.” — Joel Hypén

4). Adjust the video length

It is important to start from a harsh perspective — Facebook view average is 11 seconds per video, so don’t go for making content that is so long that people won’t watch.

“If there is content you can’t squeeze in 10 seconds create a teaser or trailer about it as a preview for the full-length version. You could then buy Facebook boosts for the teaser and the call to action would be to go see the full-length version.” — Joel Hypén

5). Remember your call to action

If you are selling something, adding a call to action button on each video should always be part of your plan — of course, you want to make sure each of your videos converts into something according to your company goals.

“Whether that call to action is getting a person to start a trial or buying your product, will depend a lot on what the service or product is. You should always think about the business objective of that one video. Think always about meaningful conversion, otherwise, it is hard to justify the money and time spent, and that is something startups can’t afford to do.” — Joel Hypén

If you are looking forward to starting your video marketing strategy we hope that these tips will guide your initial steps and that you learn along the way, what works and what doesn’t.

Check out the AdLaunch platform as their pricing is extremely affordable and you can easily test it out by registering for free.

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Maria 01
Maria 01

Maria 01 is a startup campus in the heart of Helsinki. This account is inactive. Follow our latest stories in our blog www.maria.io/blog