Looking for an inexpensive way to get an edge on your competitors or gain a powerful new connection with your target market? Consider these observations about video marketing and think, for a moment, how this relates to your marketing and public relations strategies:

• 79% of marketers who are not using video plan to build a video strategy this year
• In 2021, audiences watched an average of 18 hours in online video per week
• While 91.4%of users are content to watch any type of video at all, 31.3% want how-to videos and another 29.8% want educational videos

This certainly suggests that businesses need a video marketing strategy — but this idea isn’t new. What has changed is the importance of video’s presence on every platform and channel.

So…are you using video to convey your message? Or are you totally dependent on words and still pictures to communicate your key marketing messages?

Video is a staple of our everyday lives

America has been a TV society since the 1950s.

The notion of “TV”, however, now extends far beyond sitting in front of a television set.

Social media has revolutionized how we “consume” or watch information. YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok and all the other gaggle of online information sources have both created demand for video content and influenced how people receive and absorb information.

Cell phones, tablets and computer screens are now more dominant than one’s television set.

The takeaway: To remain relevant, you need to include video in your total marketing plan and particularly in your public relations communications, to effectively put yourself in front of your key audiences.

But doesn’t video cost an arm and a leg?

Over the years, video-making tools have become more and more accessible to the average marketer and small business owner. Today almost anyone can launch their own video marketing campaign.

An inexpensive video need not look like it was produced in one’s garage. Plenty of low-budget videos look as professional and polished as their more expensive counterparts.

The costs of video creation have declined significantly. Cameras have improved a great deal – in fact, if you have a smartphone, there’s a video-quality camera sitting in your pocket right now. This makes recording footage quicker and simpler than ever before.

That does not mean, however, that you should set up a chair under some lights and hit the video button on your cellphone to record something. It does mean that you can have video content produced at a reasonable price that can stay well within your budget…and underscore your business’ level of professionalism.

You must put aside a sufficient budget to reach effective levels of communication. The exact amount, of course, will vary with each client’s budget capability and needs, but something in a range of $750-$2,000 can serve to get your video presence established.

How Wellons Communications approaches video content development

The message you want to communicate will depend entirely on your product or service.

At our Orlando marketing agency, we strategically rely upon the themes and messages you use in your overall marketing plan. That provides consistency with what you are already saying about yourself.

There are, however, four basic ideas to which we subscribe in planning short video content packages:

• Sound quality is paramount. Viewers must be able to hear and understand what you are saying.
• Get to the point! Communicate your relevant thought within 10-15 seconds.
• Add a personalized element. This provides an emotional connection with your viewer.
• Be mindful of the length of your video. Shorter is better.

We can build a video package for you.

We plan the video package. Unless it’s something short and snappy for social, we typically don’t shoot them. We use professional videographers who have professional equipment who will make you look as professional as possible.

We can build your video package from scratch—from what you want to say and how you say it to how it will look, where, how, and when the video will be used and how much it will cost. We also handle the research to identify a video team that will stay within your budget.

Before we get to the production stage, we plan…and plan…and plan. This usually results in a storyboard that illustrates how your video will look. In turn, the video team we select takes that information and puts your video together (under our supervision).

Finally, we assist in the distribution of the video, from coordinating its use in your online marketing initiatives to distributing it to news media.

Use video to freshen your marketing. And call on us to get it underway.

At our Orlando PR agency, we think like marketers and act like the public relations professionals we are. We think of ourselves as “marketing public relations” practitioners…and that translates into virtually all the PR services we provide our clientele.

When you are ready to add video to your marketing or PR mix, keep us in mind or simply call or email us and let us discuss with you how you can, affordably, add video to your overall marketing program.