How to Start a Video Marketing Campaign on a Budget

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that video is big news in marketing. With recent studies claiming that “online videos will account for more than 80% of all consumer internet traffic by 2020”, smart marketers are turning their attention to video as a way to stand out in all the noise currently doing the rounds on social media.

However, other surveys have also shown that “83 percent of marketers said they’d like to create more video content if they didn’t have restraints such as time and resources”. Video creation is often seen as an expensive and time-consuming process that is out of reach for the majority of time and budget strapped marketers.
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This is a common misconception and with the right approach all businesses can leverage a video marketing campaign to their benefit. In this article, we tell you how.

Embrace Amateur
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The rise of social media has created two interesting aspects in video marketing that can be used to create content on a budget. Firstly, with increased noise there is an increased need to produce consistent and frequent content on a daily basis, meaning that video with lower video production is now generally more acceptable.

We have also seen a dip in consumer trust in big businesses, this has led to many brands aiming to create content that is more personal in its look and feel as to increase the human element in its branding. This also means amateur type videos are now widely used across business.

This has become especially true with the rise of live video. This amateur type filming has already been used by big brands such as Dunkin’ Donuts and Tough Mudder.

However, do not assume that amateur should mean rubbish. The video content you produce may not need to be as consistently polished and shiny as days gone by, but it must still bring value in terms of knowledge or entertainment to your audience. Remember that this is still a representation of your brand.

Think Animation

Trust me when I tell you that animation is not just for children. Forward thinking marketers are increasingly using animated videos for websites and social media as a budget way to create content that is both professional and engaging, whilst cutting out the vast costs usually associated with video production such as actors, props, locations and film crews.

Not only is this method of video creation a cheap alternative, but is also allows for unlimited creativity in its application. These are used to excellent effect in creating fun and colourful adverts as well as informative content such as an animated explainer. Due to the artistic scope you can use this type of video to show and explain things that otherwise would be impossible to communicate.

These are now common with huge brands for example as used by Sainsbury’s in their 2016 Christmas advert and the Halifax bank series of cartoon adverts. Creating a video like this can be done on a small budget by either working with a studio to develop a budget scope or on a do-it-yourself basis with tools like GoAnimate.

The Influencer Effect

It is doubtful that you haven’t heard of influencer marketing by now. It is huge news in the marketing world and it has a huge amount of buzz around it as a method for promoting content. But did you know that the tool is an excellent way to create and promote professional video content on a budget?

As we have already established, working with a professional studio to create content can often be a huge investment. Influencers on the other hand can be relatively cheap to work with or even free if you can offer them some other value beyond cold hard cash.

These influencers often gain their huge audiences and position of respect both by understanding their audiences as well as due to their skills in content creation, in many cases this also includes the creation of video. So, using influencers to create video marketing content is an excellent way to tap into industry knowledge, expert video creation skills, all topped off with the huge reach and respect that your chosen influencers have in your industry.

Two great examples of this is the work AirBnB do with The Bucket List Family and Red Bull with multiple athletes like Justin Burbage.

It is clear that there are many ways in which marketers can adopt video as a method to promote their business in a budget way. Whether that is adopting amateur methods of video creation, working with a studio/cheap software to create animation or by using influencers to make awesome video with huge reach and impact.