A well-thought-out video marketing strategy is recognised as one of the best investments a business can make in 2022. The tech industry is no exception, in fact, video marketing has been particularly critical to its unprecedented growth in the past decade. Consumers prefer to look at, feel and experience products before purchasing them, but this is rarely possible with technology due to its largely intangible nature. Electronics, apps, software, internet services, and artificial intelligence are just a few examples of products within the tech industry that consumers may find difficult to visualise assisting their lives or businesses.
Video has the power to communicate effectively with target audiences, resulting in increased engagement and revenue. Let’s explore why this is and how video content can be utilised most effectively for your tech business.
Why use video for tech content?
Effective
The proof is in the pudding, look at our stats below!. The effectiveness of video in tech marketing is undoubtable. This is largely due to the fact that video gives people the confidence to consume, visual demonstration eliminates doubt from potential customers. In a world inundated with tech products alongside a rightly skeptical population, growing your credibility is the key to success.
Video does what other types of marketing cannot do. The endless abilities of a newly developed app cannot be compellingly demonstrated through billboard marketing. This is especially critical for tech companies to actualise, even for tangible products, as often the physical encasing of the product itself isn’t the selling point.
Marketing is designed to encourage audiences into the sales funnel and video is the most effective method of doing so. Forrester estimates that one minute of video equates to 1.8 million words of text in the message communicated.
SEO boosting
Video boosts your SEO potential. Videos appear at the top of the page for most google search terms. This allows more people to view your site and pushes audiences to engage with your content. In the evermore saturated tech industry, SEO is more necessary than ever.
Video integration, keyword labels, audio transcripts, and hosting on Youtube all contribute to increasing your SEO potential through video.
Versatile
Video content can be developed and used in many unique ways. It is easy to consume, accessible, engaging, sensual, and drives brand connections all whilst possessing the ability to fit anywhere in your sales funnel and be impactful on a multitude of media settings.
Shareable
People just love videos! Currently, around 5 billion Youtube videos are watched every single day. Failing to include video in your tech marketing plan means you are missing out on the most popular way people choose to consume media.
Audiences are more likely to feel an emotional response to video than any other media format, this increases shareability, exponentially widening the reach of your product.
Stats to consider
- 68% of people say they’d most prefer to learn about a new product or service by watching a short video. This makes video more popular as a learning tool than text-based articles (15%), infographics (4%) presentations and pitches (4%) ebooks, and manuals (3%)
- 87% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool. This number is up from 63% in 2017 and 81% in 2018
- A good video content marketing strategy can increase qualified leads by 66%.
- Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video marketers.
- Prospects are 95% more likely to remember a message told by video rather than text.
- The average user spends 88% more time on a website with video.
- A website is 53 times more likely to reach the front page of Google if it includes video.
- 93% of businesses said they got a new customer as a direct result of a video posted on social media.
- 62% of businesses say their homepage explainer video is effective.
- B2B prospects watch videos the most on Tuesdays between 7 and 11 am.
Types of tech marketing videos
- Explainers
- Advertisements
- Testimonials
- Tutorials
- Case studies
- Brand videos
- Event teasers/ recaps
- Expert interviews
- Blog post summaries
- Social media stories
How to make great tech vids
1. Set a budget and Invest in your video
Whether you have a large or small budget, it is important to get the look of your video just right. As the stats show, when done right, tech video marketing is an incredibly worthwhile investment. So how do you do it right?
Marketing videos should look appealing, choosing the right equipment can help with this, especially in terms of camera and lighting. If your tech company chooses to present itself as clean, polished, professional, and minimalistic, it would be productive to create a video representing this.
Creating video content can be a complex process, even with an in-house production team. It may be worth employing a video production agency, like us at Kartoffel Films to help things run smoothly.
2. Develop a goal
What do you want the audience to walk away with? Do you want them to subscribe to marketing emails or immediately buy the product? Are you keen to educate them or increase positive associations with your brand?
An overarching aim should be to retain viewer engagement throughout the video, this can be achieved through having an exciting start to the video – one that people cannot bear to turn off.
3. Know your audience
You will have to consider what buyer persona you are gearing your video towards. Imagine your ideal customer and hold on to this fictional character throughout the creation of the video and refer back to them, asking if they would be enticed by how your product is presented.
Consider your buyer persona’s narrative. If they are a Finance Director at a company looking for new B2B tech products, be sure you relate your product to their processes.
Consider using a less formal approach, such as humour and upbeat music, if you’re demonstrating how your new coffee machine works and are aiming to attract young professionals.
4. Know where you want to host
Knowing where you are wanting to host a video is an integral part of the video production process as it impacts every aspect of the journey.
A video produced to be hosted on Youtube will be different from one made for Tiktok. The video must be compatible with the platform where it will be hosted; for example, Youtube videos are typically landscape and can be any length, whereas TikTok videos are portrait and must be under one minute long.
It is important to consider this before making your video to ensure the most beneficial hosting platform is chosen and is compatible with your tech video.
50% of all video is watched from a mobile device, so optimizing your video to work for mobile would be a smart move.
5. Know what’s important
Time is precious in marketing videos, it’s unlikely that you will be able to include everything you would like to in two minutes. Undertake market research and find out what information is most important to your target market and make sure to include it.
6. Develop a great script/ story
The best scripts are unique, action-orientated, and brand-focused. Scripts need to have value in order to be watched by the viewer, creating a storyline within your marketing script is the best way to generate this.
Scripts define the pace, tone, and message of your tech video and can be the difference between a successful and unsuccessful campaign.
Formulating a script can be a cumbersome task, hiring a video agency can streamline this process for your business.
7. Include a CTA
Call to action is a term used in marketing to describe any prompt designed to ignite an immediate and voluntary response from a potential customer, increasing the likelihood that they will interact with or purchase from your brand.
It is worth spending time and energy developing a CTA that works for your tech video.
CTA examples:
- Book a call.
- Subscribe here.
- Buy now!
- Download now for an extra 20% off!
- Click here to subscribe to our Youtube Channel.
There’s not really any point in having expertly produced video marketing content if potential customers have no idea how to access more key information about your product/ service or cannot navigate quickly where to purchase it.
8. Be loud, even without sound!
It is of course important and effective to utilise sound in tech videos. It engages audiences, helps to deliver concepts, and encourages the retention of information. This being said, it has become essential to cater to situations where audio is not accessible.
Reports have shown that a staggering 85% of Facebook videos are watched with the sound turned off. Silent video has become the new indisputable standard and marketing campaigns must take note of this.
There are a myriad of reasons as to why audiences will watch videos without sound. Most obviously, video hosting platforms have developed systems that do not encourage audio. For instance, Facebook and Instagram videos are preset to mute, further actions are required to unmute and frequently they are not undertaken. Commuters are one group that frequently watch silent video content. It is worth remembering this when advertising B2B.
It is possible to create a compelling story for your video without using audio as an essential factor. Eye-catching visuals, textual descriptions, animation, and subtitles can steer your production away from a reliance on audio.
These techniques additionally allow your content to become more accessible to those with hearing impairments or auditory processing disorders.
9. Be authentic
As is often the case with tech brands, people can forget that your business is created and developed by real people, not robots. Don’t let your pristine tech products take away from the human element of your brand. Authenticity increases meaningful brand engagement and this increases sales potential! Videos purely based on driving a brand or product will likely only be watched by those deep inside your sales funnels already and are unlikely to generate any fresh custom.
Innovation
Working in the tech sector, I am sure you know a thing or two about innovation, make sure you bring it into your video content marketing process!
Don’t be scared of imperfection
There are many different ways of creating effective video content for your tech company or product, don’t be afraid to go against the grain! Not all videos need to have a high production value or cost, with good strategy, story, and editing, videos shot on a phone can be hugely impactful. If the message is clear and the video is engaging, nothing is stopping you from creating your own tech video. Remember authenticity generates trust and sales!
Consider animation
The most ambitious and abstract ideas can be conveyed through animation much easier than through live action videos.
Animated content simplifies and condenses complex information, delivering it in easily digestible formats. This makes it ideal for tech video content. Its creative adaptability allows for quick modifications to address any technical developments you want to highlight. Not only does this save money by eliminating reshoots, but it also extends the life of the project.
There are many different animation styles to choose from. All can look polished, corporate, and professional. Click here to view our comprehensive guide on animation styles.
It may also be worthwhile to explore the realms of character animation to enhance the engagement of your tech video.
In summary…
Video should be an essential part of your content marketing strategy as a tech business. It extends your reach to potential consumers, promotes brand engagement, and has the potential to exponentially increase your bottom line growth. Make sure to follow our 9 steps above to ensure you create the most impactful marketing video for your tech brand.
Thinking about using a video agency to make things a bit easier for you? Kartoffel brings the collective years of our experience to the creative design and strategy of every project. Our goal is to provide our clients with the best video content for their needs, drive results for their brand, and build long-term partnerships. We offer full video content services from beginning to end. Contact us to get our creative relationship started.
