How will you stand out from your competitors in 2017?

We’re almost at that time of the year again when Santa pays us a visit and we all eat way too much! It’s now that a lot of businesses will find themselves winding up for the year and perhaps even looking ahead to 2017. Of course, many business owners will be asking themselves:

What can we do differently next year to stand out from our competitors?

While a good portion of companies would have at least dabbled with some kind of video (web video production, animation, corporate videos and so on), there’s so much potential for video to help your business in 2017. If you haven’t even experimented with video up to this point, you need to realise that you’re missing out on capturing a huge chunk of your market.

You may not have noticed but in recent years, there’s been a real shift in content marketing. It’s becoming more and more visual. Consider these statistics from Envato:

• YouTube has over one billion users – that’s almost one third of the web population in total.
• People spend more than 40 minutes watching video on mobile devices such as phones and tablets.

Once upon a time, video may have been labelled as a trend but with statistics such as these constantly emerging, it’s fair to say that it’s here to stay. More importantly, we know that video is growing and that consumers expect businesses to evolve and cater for their changing behaviour. If you ask us, branded video content is going to become more and more important for businesses of all sizes moving forward.

The dedicated team here at Creswick Creative have been involved in the video production industry for almost two decades now. As you can imagine, we’ve seen some huge changes during that period of time and we’ve never been more excited to be involved in the industry. Back when we started, a lot of businesses thought of video only in terms of TV advertising – of course, as this is such a costly medium, this automatically meant a lot of companies automatically dismissed video altogether.

Thanks to the rise of the web, the game has definitely changed. Armed with the right strategy and a quality video, this can be the medium that helps you to stand out from your competitors in 2017. If you’re open to considering video production as part of your marketing mix moving forward, here are 3 factors to put at the top of your list:

1: Never underestimate the power of storytelling

You can have the fanciest visuals but at the end of the day, a video without a strong story will fall flat on its face. Generally speaking, you have about 10 seconds or less to capture your ideal client via video. Be aware that 90% of information we all receive via our brains is visual. Put simply, the more you can connect with your customers visually, the more successful your video will be.

2: Sight and sound is a combination made in heaven

Anyone who’s ever had strawberries and cream knows what a great combination it makes. Sight and sound are another match made in heaven. The effective use of sight and sound together in a video, helps people to recall the central message you’re trying to deliver.

3: Ensure your video is on message

Nobody knows and understands your business and brand values more than you do. Like with any kind of marketing, your video needs to reflect your company and speak to your ideal clients. There’s no point in making a video that might look like the next web blockbuster but completely misses the mark with your ideal customers.

We like to think of video production as an art. When all of the elements come together, video has the ability to help you to stand out from the crowd in 2017. If you’d like to learn more about how we might be able to help you, contact us today.

P.S: Before we head off for the year, we’d like to wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We’ll see you next year!