July 8, 2020

Video to the Rescue:

By Belynda Cianci

4 Best Practices for Visual Marketing in 2020

As part of our Show Must Go On virtual event, we sat down with Vidyard VP of Marketing, Tyler Lessard. Vidyard is an online video hosting platform that makes it easy to create, host, and share videos so you can keep connecting with customers and colleagues when everything else feels remote.

With the abrupt move to work-from-home and remote, visual marketing, a noisy marketing space just got much louder. Marketing and sales teams who had previously relied heavily on in-person events and meetings were suddenly faced with an immediate need to adopt virtual and video strategies. Says Tyler, “I think we’re all worried about clawbacks in our markets, and a reduction in lead flow and new sales opportunities.” With so many making the switch to online-only marketing at once, having an excellent presentation is vital.

While the world settles into this new normal of virtual marketing, marketers learn how to make the best use of visual marketing content to get their message heard and build relationships with their audience, customers, and prospects.

What’s the best method for delivering your content and inviting an audience to participate? Today we’re going to look at some of the methods, best practices, and tips for making the most of your virtual marketing budgets and campaigns.

The World Goes Visual

With cancellations and travel restrictions, a nearly universal truth in marketing, everyone brings their campaigns online in a variety of ways. Where more traditional forms of marketing still have an important place in the marketing mix, the humanizing power of video makes it the priority in industries where the customer connection is essential. It can help sales teams overcome the difficult circumstances of stay-at-home orders and cancellations.

Video is also the format in which most people prefer to consume media. In fact, 82% of all internet traffic by 2022 will be consuming videos. Add to this the fact live-streaming is on the rise on nearly every social media platform, and it’s clear where you stand to make the strongest connections in the social distancing era.

The precedent of visual marketing will transcend our current, socially distanced marketing landscape. As the world opens up again, marketers will have realized the budget and outreach potential in virtual webinars, conferences, and video content. “Most businesses I’m talking to who are increasing their investments in webinars and virtual events are now seeing those as critical complements to their existing in-person events because of the value they’re generating from them at a much lower cost.” By embracing these strategies, we can now overcome the current challenges and set ourselves up for success once the recession is over.

Visual Content Ideas

Depending on the audience, topics, and desired outcomes of your event or content, you have several options for delivering visual content. Each serves different audiences and purposes, and each can be used to capture leads, increase your reach, drive your pipeline, and grow your revenue over the long term.

1:1 Videos and Screen Shares

These highly personalized pieces of content are an excellent way for sales development reps and account managers to reach out and connect with customers and prospects, delivering information that is of the highest interest, in a way that significantly strengthens the customer relationship.

Webinars

Whether live or pre-recorded, these informative events effectively address your customers, clients, or prospects by providing answers to their questions. Webinars can be presented to a targeted audience at any point in the funnel. They provide excellent value in terms of replay and repurposing. The format of your webinar will also take guidance from your audience. Panel discussions, Moderated forums, and 3rd party presenters are all popular.

Virtual Events

Virtual events have grown in popularity in the early stages of COVID-19, as many in-person events were forced by travel advisories to pivot to a digital format. They can be as simple as a series of webinars delivered in sequence, or as elaborate as a fully-fledged event with virtual booths, keynotes and content tracks, and more social aspects of in-person events such as scavenger hunts, reward systems, etc.

Visual Thought Leadership

Like its counterpart the podcast, video thought leadership is a way of providing ongoing, high-level information and entertainment for your audience, inviting them to engage with the content, learn more about your product and industry, and build relationships that increase conversion. “Ongoing video-based thought leadership great tactic to do a lot of the same things we’re trying to do at live events.” These can be parts of a series, or deep-dives of meaty topics that your audience is searching for.

Best Practices for Visual Marketing

Visual content is about more than just videos; although videos are a valuable component in your arsenal, more interactive forms of visual media are also soaring in popularity. No matter the content or format you utilize, all types of successful visual content share some key strengths:

Great videos and visual marketing stand out, appealing to your target audience by serving the right mix of quality and insight.
Successful videos and visuals deliver a high level of value, answering the questions most important to your audience, and doing so in an engaging way.
Engagement starts with your presenter. Focus on having great presenters engaging to an audience in a remote setting through body language, intonation, captivation, etc. “A great presenter can make or break the success of your webinar… when you’re working with people, think about how they need to be engaging to an audience in a remote setting.”
The best visual marketing strategies embrace the technology that best serves the needs, budget, and intent of your campaign.

Making Great Content is the First Step

Getting your content out to the audience is only the first step in maximizing its value. Developing high-quality videos, webinars, and events takes time and budget, so it only makes sense to get the most mileage out of your content. As Tyler puts it, “Always, always, always have a plan in place for how you can take advantage of the on-demand asset.”

Keep these tips in mind to get the most ROI out of your content.

Remember that your live participants are only part of your audience: while 20-25% of participants will watch live, 75% will engage with the content on replay or repurposed.
Repurpose portions of your video content as a lead generation tool by offering reserved segments as a CTA to downloading or engaging with the whole piece.
Use video to drive interest in your other content such as white papers, ebooks, etc.
Your content can be used to support other channels, such as email marketing and outbound sales.

Register below to watch the full on-demand session with Tyler, including more tips and strategies for delivering best-in-class visual content to audiences, available through our The Show Must Go On virtual event.