Social media video content – when it’s well done, we all love to see it.  When it’s our turn to create it… not so much. Filling your social media channels with good quality content is both a necessity, and a great benefit – so let’s talk about how to get it done, without breaking the bank.

• Plan: Depending on the size of your organization and how formalized your social media strategy is you may have a strategist who is tasked with curating and creating content for your channels.  If you’re going to create your own though, the first thing to remember is to plan your messaging.  What are your marketing goals for the next 6 months, 1 year?  What seasonal promotions, or events does your company want to share or create buzz around?  The clearer your vision of your upcoming marketing strategy, the more you can maximize efficiencies around video costs.   

• Repurpose:  Once you’ve paid to have a video, you want to leverage that investment and get as many social media miles out of it as you can.  Ask your videographer or content creator if they can version your video so that you can use it at different times of the year, for different audiences, and across many different channels both online and offline to get the most bang for that buck.  Once you’ve paid the cost to have a video created, the incremental cost of having a second or third version of it edited is nominal and you’ll have at least double the amount of content you did before.  Example:  You’ve created a full length testimonial video about 90 seconds long – have 2 or more cutdown versions of 30 seconds created, and spin off bite-sized versions of your full length video.  Pro tip: Link back to the full length version so people can see both once they’ve consumed the short version.

• Maximize Efficiency:  Certain types of video require only a few backgrounds and set-ups.  Interview-style videos for example, where team members discuss company wins or upcoming initiatives – or testimonial videos where clients talk about why they chose your company – these kinds of shoots can easily be maximized by scheduling as many interviews as possible into a shoot day.  Once the lighting and cameras are in place, the additional work required to place as many people in front of the camera is nominal.  Get as much out of that shoot day as you can, and think ahead to what kinds of content will be relevant over the next few months – and ask those questions.  You can then edit that footage to launch content continuously over the course of 3 or 6 months and then you can even repackage those videos again into a new batch for the latter part of the year if the content is still relevant.  Strategy is your greatest ally when planning to create media content.

         Bonus Tip:

• Create a Team:  Once you find an agency that is a good fit for you, both in terms of cost, and quality – stick with them for multiple campaigns so that you can reap the benefits of repeat customer savings.  Without advertising this perk, many content creators will reward repeat business with a better rate after the first project.

For even more great insights on how you can leverage video marketing send us an email, our team is always happy to share winning strategies with friends.