Increasing Brand Awareness With Educational Video Content

Choosing The Right Video Marketing Strategy

Utilizing video for teaching, learning, communication, as well as promotion is paramount in today's high tech environment. For marketing departments, it isn't just optional any longer...it's a must-have strategy. [caption id="attachment_4967" align="alignright" width="300"] TeroVesalainen / Pixabay[/caption] One of the most searched keywords is "how to...", and many individuals and companies have jumped on the bandwagon to offer their advice on a particular topic in order to elevate the perception and recognition of their brand. If a company's image can come across as helpful and generous, providing valuable information, then giving away some information might seal the deal with a consumer making a purchase. Finding a happy medium between giving away too much information, effectively rendering a product or service unnecessary, but still providing enough instruction to highlight a company's good will and level of knowledge is a delicate balancing act. According to the Huffington Post, the key to boosting your brand awareness via video is to be genuine:

Every day more and more people watch videos about products they're interested in and decide to buy them because they watched their video. That's why video marketing has become this huge thing for startups. Forget about going viral. This is more about sharing with the world what you are all about, and in those 90 seconds [hopefully] you've got their full attention. And that's a score! How to make the most out of those 60 to 90 seconds of full viewer glory: Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Taken. See the full post here:  How to Use Video to Boost Your Brand Awareness

Measuring Video Engagement

Knowing exactly what the lasting impact of a video for your brand is difficult to nail down. Engagement metrics are one approach because they provide various insights. The number of views and likes shows an element of how engaged the audience is. How many shares across social media is another method of measuring a video's success. More important than any of the above is the length of time spent watching a particular video. In the following clip, the narrator discusses how much brand awareness increases the longer the video is viewed:

One big difference between promotional videos and how-to videos is that the person searching for the latter is on a mission. They want to learn more about a specific topic, so they will be more engaged. Someone that views a promotional video advertisement is a whole different story. If they choose to watch it as opposed to skipping the ad, that is a great way to measure their interest, but our topic is increasing brand awareness with educational video content.

Attracting An Audience With Educational Content

YouTube's Director of Family and Learning, Malik Ducard, had this to say about the importance of educational video content:

Perhaps that explains why learning and educational content have exploded on YouTube in recent years. There are 500M views of learning-related content on YouTube every day. People aren't just watching—they're engaging: 1M learning videos are shared every day. These viewers are learning from a library larger than the Library of Congress. And unlike that library, this one is global: Over 50% of learning-related videos are uploaded outside of the U.S. See the original post here:  What brands can learn from educational content on YouTube

[caption id="attachment_4968" align="alignright" width="300"] geralt / Pixabay[/caption] Mr. Ducard went on to share three things brands can learn from educational content on YouTube:

1. Lead with entertainment, or "edu-tainment"
2. Get specific with skill-building content
3. Find your format: teach-along, learn-along, animation, and more

When given a choice, most people will pick video over text every time. In fact, viewers retain 95% of a message when watched as a video compared to 10% when reading. So, if you want to be remembered, tell your story, be genuine and add value for your viewers.      

The following blog post Increasing Brand Awareness With Educational Video Content is available on S&S Pro Service Blog