For the past few years video has retained its crown as a popular and impactful channel for marketers and audiences alike. But given the higher cost to produce, regular video content is deemed to be out of reach for many fintechs and finance brands. Rather than forgoing video altogether, we look at how often you need to produce video content for it to be effective, and how to get the most out of the video content you are producing.
According to Hubspot, 97% of marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service. A further 85% of people say they’d like to see more video from brands in 2018, while 83% of consumers say they would consider sharing video content with friends. Clearly the medium works. As we learned in our Q&A with Google UK’s banking industry manager Natalie Invernizzi, YouTube consumers watch over one billion hours of content every day and over 400 hours of content is uploaded every minute, so it’s easy for brands to get drowned out in a sea of content; especially within the financial services industry. Is posting more often the best way to ensure you remain visible? Not necessarily.
YouTube recommends
YouTube’s Creators Academy provides some key takeaways for posting success:
- Publishing on a regular schedule – consistency will be more valuable than frequency. Weekly is a good place to start. Aim to maintain a set schedule but remain flexible to respond to trends or timely topics
- Be efficient with your content creation and production – create content in bulk. You can even upload multiple videos at once but space out your scheduling in order to boost your ongoing calendar.
- Create social posts around multiple angles to extend the reach of a single video.
- Be active in other ways – if you aren’t able to upload content as regularly, try other engagement tactics such as commenting on your own videos or replying to comments. Schedule this engagement in the same way you do your uploads to ensure regular interaction.
- Increase potential views with playlists – building bespoke lists automatically encourages the audience to watch more of your content.
- Add end screens to all of your videos to encourage the ‘watch next’ click.
Create social posts around multiple angles to extend the reach of a single video.
Other key tips include:
- Knowing your audience: some audiences, like niche gaming channels, will expect multiple videos daily while others, like the financial industry, will be more interested in episodic/useful content posted far less frequently.
- Repurposing content: behind-the-scenes, bloopers, recaps – there are a host of variations that can be produced from a single piece of video content.
- Planning your campaign marketing: it is vital to front-load the marketing in order to gain those views with 25% of all social shares taking place within the first three days of content being uploaded. Focus on that initial burst to get the most out of your campaigns.
A good concept can also generate a high amount of content without significantly increasing the cost or constant need for new ideas. Allianz UK gained over 1.5m views in 2016 with their My Car Story campaign which followed families discussing their ‘car stories’ in a low-key style; focusing on the characters and their story over production value.
Although there is no clear-cut frequency that guarantees success on YouTube, there are certainly valuable guidelines that can increase your potential; as well as vital production efficiencies that can give even small financial brands an opportunity to gain traction on the platform.
