How To Create Video Content for Facebook Marketing

When was the last time your business posted a video on Facebook?

Facebook photos and text posts are a great way to regularly update your viewers, but if you are not using video, you’re not taking advantage of everything that Facebook has to offer. Don’t hand engagement over to competitors who have videos on their page; one-third of all online activity involves watching videos. If you aren’t posting videos, your viewers are watching videos produced by someone else (possibly your competitors.)

Use our online guide to learn more about creating and sharing video content and advertisements that encourage engagement and action.

Why Are Facebook Videos Important?

Facebook videos provide a lot of opportunities to connect with users, sell your products, and provide engaging content for every step of the sales funnel. Visual content sells; users who view videos are 1.81x more likely to buy a product than users who don’t view videos.

Even if you just want to expand your reach and introduce your business to new customers, video is the way to go. Users are more likely to share videos on social media than text or photo content. Video can increase organic traffic by 157%. If you want leads, you can embed relevant Facebook videos on landing pages and increase conversions by up to 80%.

Creating and sharing videos on Facebook can seem like a hassle, but once you start to film or broadcast, you’ll realise the potential you have for creating a more well-rounded (and more effective) content marketing strategy. A majority of marketing professionals credit video content as content with the best return on investment (ROI.)

The statistics say it all; video evokes a response and action from users. It’s time to invest in a camera, microphone, and editing software to start telling your business’s story.   

How to Keep Users Engaged: The Basics

Not all Facebook videos will boost engagement and sell your products. Before you start filming, think about how you are going to create a video that your users want to watch (and keep watching past the first few seconds.)

Grab Their Attention, Fast

Whether you are telling a story or advertising a product, you have to capture your viewer’s attention in an instant. Facebook studies show that 47% of a video’s value is delivered in the first three seconds. Ask an engaging question, build enthusiasm for the content of your video, or start your story off in a dramatic fashion. Whatever you do, don’t bore your viewer.

Effective Facebook videos don’t have to be long. Videos get the most engagement if they are under two minutes long.

Tell A Story

If users aren’t entertained, they will just keep scrolling. Think of a story that you can tell through your video. It doesn’t have to be a story directly about your brand or your products; think to the wildly popular “Chewbacca Mom” video. She wasn’t promoting any products, but her story (and the way that she told it) captured the attention of viewers around the world.

Other effective videos include:

• “How-to” guides and other evergreen content
• Product demonstrations
• Announcements and updates
• Interviews
• Classic advertisements

Include a Call to Action

While businesses cannot embed a call to action in the video itself, a call to action in the copy next to the video can help users know where to take the next steps.

Don’t Ignore How Your Video is Presented

Your video might be a masterpiece, but if you can’t convince users to watch it, you won’t get the views and engagement that you want. Before you share your video, take a second look at the copy you are using to promote the video and the thumbnail of the video. If the thumbnail isn’t enticing and the copy doesn’t capture attention, users will click away before giving you a chance.

Where to Post Your Video

Businesses are finding it harder to reach users through Facebook. Unless you are paying to boost posts, Facebook won’t prioritise your content on followers’ feeds. This means that businesses have to work extra hard to play to Facebook’s algorithm and take the steps necessary for Facebook to recognise and share your content, whether it’s a simple text post or a video post.

When you are planning your video distribution strategy, you can’t deny the power of posting straight to Facebook. Since Facebook and YouTube are such close competitors, anything that will boost Facebook over YouTube will take priority. Videos that are posted on Facebook get 186% more engagement than videos that are linked from YouTube, Dailymotion, or other video platforms.

This content can be added to YouTube later, and should be. Native Facebook videos don’t do as well in the long run. If your video content will continue to be relevant in a few month’s time, upload it to YouTube later and continue to share the video on different social media channels or in marketing emails.

About Facebook Cover Videos

If you want users to see a video immediately, consider a cover video. Pages can upload a cover video that adds more animation and life to your page. These videos have specific size requirements (820 x 462 pixels is recommended, but the minimum size is 820 x 312 pixels,) but come with a call to action button that entices users to engage with the cover. Facebook recommends that these videos are no longer than 90 seconds; get creative with quickly telling a story or providing the user with an introduction to your page.

Consider Facebook Live

Facebook videos don’t have to involve hours of editing and preparation. Keep users engaged in real-time by setting up a Facebook Live stream.

Facebook Live launched in 2016, but quickly grew to become a regular part of the Facebook experience. Facebook claimed in that in early 2018 over two billion people had watched livestreams on Facebook. If you are creating videos, consider going live.

Why Go Live?
The excitement of Facebook Live is in the real-time experience. Users can tune in, react, and ask questions in the hopes of getting a response from the person or company behind the video. Most of the work in the production of the Facebook livestream comes in setting up the background of the video and preparing the content of the livestream. Users expect to watch a single backdrop and lulls in conversation while your team views questions and comments; most of the time, live videos are easier to create than scripted and edited ones. Plus, once you have recorded a livestream, the video is saved on your timeline for users to watch later.

When You Should Go Live

Facebook Live is still new, and businesses can still get creative with livestreams. Consider going live for any of the following “events:”

• Company announcements
• Product launches
• Q&A sessions
• An invitation to meet employees or “behind the scenes” product creators
• Office tours
• Documenting events

Tell Your Followers!

Facebook friends and followers can turn notifications about live streams on or off. If you have an event coming up and want to drive engagement on a live video, be sure to let followers know when you will be going live and what they will be able to see. Provide instructions for turning on notifications so users will know when you are live right away.

Other Quick Tips

• If you have access to camera equipment that shoots 360 degrees, use it! Facebook allows users to upload 360 videos and share engaging, exciting content.
• Over 80% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Make sure that any dialogue in the video is captioned correctly and that captioned are enabled for users who are watching without sound. Captions also increase the length that viewers watch a video by an extra 12%, so it’s worth investing in the time to test out your captions.
• If you have a particularly exciting video that does well, you can feature the video on your page. You can also set up video playlists for viewers who can’t get enough of your content.
• Set a budget to promote your videos and share them with a larger target audience. Facebook prioritises videos shared by friends and family, so until users start sharing your videos with friends and family, you may have to shell out a small daily budget to put your video content where users can see them.
• Facebook offers insights on how well your videos are doing, including audience retention and clicks. Document these insights to learn more about what video content resonates best with your viewers.

Create a Facebook Marketing Strategy with Digital Squad

Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, and continues to provide more and more opportunities for businesses who want to make direct connections with users. From the initial Facebook ad to testimonials written by loyal customers, you can create Facebook content and advertising material for each step of the sales funnel.

Digital Squad can help you create a Facebook marketing strategy that brings high-quality users to your Facebook page and your website. We work with satisfied clients across New Zealand and Australia, setting up remarketing and advertising strategies that hit the right Facebook users at the right times. Give us a call to see how we can also help you with SEO services, Facebook marketing Auckland, LinkedIn marketing, AdWords management agency Auckland and more.  

Megan Okonsky is a copywriter and content marketing specialist with Digital Squad. She is originally from Philadelphia but has landed in Melbourne after traveling for eight months in Southeast Asia and New Zealand. She also teaches vinyasa yoga online.