“Content is King” has been the PR mantra since the days of telegram and typewriters. The past five years have proven that concept in every industry. Whether they sell groceries or Gucci attire, retailers have discovered that not only can good content impact sales but failing to do so can destroy an organization. This is because organizations need to be visible so they can be seen, offer usable content so they can be considered credible, and be searchable as SEO can make or break a business’s online presence.
Content needs to be a blend of blogs, podcasts, how-to one-sheeters, and even self-published books and courses–the things that make for great public relations campaigns. And content needs to be presented in written and video formats.
And it is the latter to which charter schools, private schools, nonprofit organizations, and mission-driven businesses need to pay attention. Generating PR campaigns with video content will empower you to improve your brand visibility online as you uncover complex issues to customers in simple, easy-to-understand presentations.
TikTok and other platforms that have surged in popularity demonstrate just how essential video content is to an organization. Fully 88% of consumers expect entities such as charter schools, private school nonprofits, and small businesses to pump out more video content in their PR campaigns.
But where should you begin? Following are several top strategies that your charter school, private school nonprofit, or businesses can use to start moving the needle.
What is Video Content Marketing?
Video marketing is a marketing strategy through which organizations create videos to promote their mission and message through the internet. The most popular hosted and social venues for video marketing are Youtube, Rumble, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Many organizations have left YouTube for Rumble as YouTube often censors videos due to its sensitive algorithm although no violation occurred, making it an unreliable platform that can cause an organization undeserved embarrassment and loss of time and money.
Videos are presented in various formats such as live, animated, webinars, and screen recordings. Of those, survey mentioned above by Wyzowl revealed marketers prefer:
- Live – 42%
- Animated – 33%
- Screen recorded – 16%
Internet users have short attention spans and expect brands to use content mediums that deliver messages quickly. One way to get around this is to create a long-form video and then edit a series of short videos separated by topic.
Videos engage more of the five senses than other platforms, which is why they are the most effective platform. However, other venues are needed along with videos such as blogs.
Video content creation has become extremely user-friendly. Anyone can make a near professional-grade video using a few of the many free low-cost video editing tools available.
Vidyard released a study that revealed 82% of marketers recognize video content as a must-have.
Following are four key points you need to know when making decisions about video content for your charter school, private school, nonprofit, or small business.
1. Videos Help People More Easily Understand Your Products, Services, and Messages.
Explainer videos are a must-have to help people understand a product or service.
Although the same can be accomplished through a blog or step-by-step PDF, the Wyzowl study points out 73% of views rather watch a video to learn about a product than read about. Not only 11% prefer to consume a text-based post, which beats out the 4% who would rather view an infographic. Last in line are the 3% who prefer an ebook. Nobody wants to read a Chilton-sized manual when a quick video can be watched while taking a walk will do the trick.
Since prospective clients and customers are hesitant to engage in a purchase before they clearly understand how they will benefit charter schools, private schools, and nonprofits need to include videos in their social media marketing strategy.
Apple is a brand that gets the importance of marketing with video content. Even a screenshot of one of Apple’s videos demonstrates its product’s features. Click on the image for the video, and you’ll see how Apple masters video marketing. Queue up to 1:40 on the video and you’ll see a great explainer video.
2. Video Contributes to Credibility Building
Whether you operate a charter school, a Christian school, or a nonprofit advocacy group, credibility is the essential ingredient to get media coverage, highly-qualified staff, knowledgable volunteers, and donor dollars your credibility will determine your success. Videos can help make that happen.
Charter schools, Christian Schools, and advocacy-based nonprofits can benefit greatly for little, if any, cost, by producing video testimonials. End-users who voluntarily engage in video production to share how they benefited from a school, nonprofit, or small business are a huge asset. People believe their stories. In fact, testimonial videos are far more effective than advertising videos. People are not going to praise an organization that has disappointed them.
YouTube and TikTok creators and influencers have demonstrated the power of brief video clips as they promote their brands and their client’s products and services. Comedian sensation J.P Sears is a case in point. If you want to buy a mention on one of his posts, you’ll need to get on a waitlist.
Videos enhance an organization’s social proof status, which heavily influences buying decisions. When customers see someone they trust or everyday people with similar needs give a testimonial, they are more likely to take actions such as enrolling their children in a charter school or joining a nonprofit.
Organizations that post testimonial videos make the case that they are a credible brand that new customers, clients, families, members, etc. can trust. Organizations that generate a high trust level are able to convert customers or clients into sales, members, students, etc. much faster than those who do not make the effort to collect testimonial
3. People Enjoy Video
Another reason to use video content for marketing purposes is that our globally entertainment-driven society is comprised of people who enjoy video. This is because video give a quick, simple, and easy-to-recall way of conveying messages.
Consider this:
- Internet users watch more than 1 billion hours of YouTube videos daily
- Twitter gets 2 billion video views daily
- Facebook users watch more than 100 million hours of video daily
Clearly, video marketing is essential in any industry.
4. Videos are Great for SEO
Videos enhance search performance. Given that Google owns YouTube, one is already ahead of the game by posting on that platform. The key is to know the keywords and search terms in your industry that Google’s algorithm hones in on. I’d like to point out that although I used a preposition to end the last sentence, nobody got hurt, and my point was made just fine.
This is because Google ranks videos in the SERPs and you can also show up for the video search page. For example, the search term “How to edit videos” shows several videos below the top-ranking post on the search results.
Another reason why marketing with video content is important is that it improves your search performance. Creating YouTube videos that target the common search terms in your niche is a great way to move up the search rankings.
As we referenced earlier, notice that “how to edit videos” place right under the top-ranking search results.
In this experiment, the highest-ranking entry leads to a “how to” video on video editing.
Videos are a powerful tool to drive traffic to your website. Furthermore, the more time visitor spend consuming your content, the higher you can rank on Google.
5. Video Appeals to Mobile Users
Surveys and studies conclude time and again, that people watch more videos on their cell phones than on desktops. For one, employees don’t want to be caught watching videos at their desk, and mobile watching can be done far more discretely. But even for those who view videos on their own time or for work purposes, mobile is the way to go.
There were 2.33 billion mobile device video viewers last year and that number is still surging. Charter schools, Christian schools, nonprofits, and small businesses need to tap into that market. There’s enough room for everyone.
6. Videos Stimulate Social Sharing
Viewers are twice as likely to share video content than other platforms. Social sharing improves visibility online visibility and is effective in driving traffic to websites. Organizations cannot overlook these powerful tools called “videos.” Too much is at stake.
Conclusion
Gone are the days when schools, nonprofits, and businesses had to spend a fortune on videos with short shelf lives. There are many free and affordable user-friendly tools available to make great videos that can be shared via social media. In fact, public relations agencies that work on retainer bases now include video production as part of their deliverables for no extra cost. Due to the high-yield videos return to the investing organization, it would be foolish to not include such services as everyone wins.
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