Using video to promote an event, have you tried it yet?

Videos on social media are users’ favourite content and are twice as popular as photos and four times more popular than text posts. A report from the US video company Animoto has revealed that video content has the best return on investment for marketers on social media. 88% of people surveyed were pleased with the ROI of their video marketing efforts and 93% percent said that they gained a new customer or client thanks to a video on social media.

Many event organisers still haven’t tried video, but it’s a good idea to build it in to the marketing strategy, in the following ways:

• Launch video: this will drive awareness and create excitement – let everyone know what is happening and when.
• Run-up to the event: share details of speakers, the programme, exhibitors and any additions to the event
• About the event: answer the key basics – what time is the event starting, where is it and how to get there, what they should expect, things to remember or bring
• Afterwards: relive the excitement and successes for attendees and let people who didn’t attend know that they missed out. Invite people back next year and thank everyone involved.

Video formats

In social media feeds, square videos are most popular as they take up to 78% more space in a mobile feed than horizontal shots. Instagram stories uses a vertical format of Instagram Stories and as a result vertical video is growing. So, make your news feed videos are square to get the most screen coverage. Also look at Instagram Stories for tips. Instagram is deisgned to be instant and personal, so it’s not necessary to have expensive, professional videos and content filmed on a phone works fine.

Video is getting shorter and shorter, because of the power of Instagram Stories which encourages stories to be told in moments. By making a video short, viewers are most likely to watch all of it. Between 10-30 seconds is ideal, using 2 second clips to get the message across quickly. There’s only a second or two to capture a viewer’s attention as they are scrolling down a page.

Check for news about your event, industry information, the speakers, attendees and react to it quickly. Use anything relevant in a video summary to keep promoting your messages.

Use a mobile phone to collect quick clips immediately and try to get the right shots, some of the ones you’ll need are:

Close-up shots that capture emotion — people having fun, cheering, concentrating, networking
Crowd shots – showing the volume of people, as well as the venue and what’s happening
Shots of performers, speakers, presenters on stage — try to capture questions, applause or laughter from the audience
Testimonials and soundbites from attendees sharing what they get out of your event
Shots from the stage, showing the audience from the presenter’s view
Use a drone to capture aerial shots of the entire event, but make sure you are insured if you are flying over people.
Product and merchandise clips, which can be used to set the scene

Create the video

You can either use a template or create the video from scratch. Firstly, decide the order of the clips, but don’t use a logo at the beginning. Use the first few seconds to capture the viewer’s attention with something exciting and stop them scrolling further.

Tests show that text at the top of the video clip work best on opening clips. Think about asking a question to keep people watching. Put your call to action in the middle of the video, as well as other places, in case viewers don’t get to the end.

Build your video promotion strategy

Facebook and Instagram prioritise video in their algorithm, which means that your organic posts will reach a greater audience. If you are paying for ads it should result in more sales.

Facebook

There are more than 1.47 billion daily users of Facebook and can be used successfully if you:

• Target a defined market
• Have a Facebook Events page
• Use Facebook’s targeted advertising options
• Avoid a hard sell because Facebook is a personal space for friends, conversation, not sales pitches
• Create square videos, which appear bigger in the news feed
• Make videos that work without sound, because 85% of viewers scroll through their feeds with sound disabled

Instagram

This site is about images and stunning visuals to build your brand. It’s good if:

• Your audience is young and your event imagery visually enticing
• You can work with influencers who have a big following on this platform and can help you cross-promote
• You have more than 10,000 followers, which means that you can use the “swipe up” function of Instagram Stories to connect to your registration page
• Include a call to action button to convert interest to sales.

As well as the social media platforms, videos can be used elsewhere too …

• On email: if you use the word “video” in a subject line it will increase open rates.
• Website: make sure the latest video is embedded on your Home Page.
• YouTube: it’s the world’s second-largest search engine (after Google), so posting a video there increases your chances of being seen with little effort.