“Have you ever wondered how much time in a day you spend watching videos, whether it is on YouTube, Facebook or even Instagram? It was predicted that in 2019, people will spend an average of two hours each day watching videos. Are you guilty of that?”
Videos started off as a tool to spread information or bring entertainment and inspiration to consumers. Now videos are just everywhere! Since 2016, there was a rise in the usage of videos as a content marketing method by businesses. These videos are used as a marketing tool – to amplify their brand name or sell products or services – not only to consumers, but also to other businesses. The inclination of videos could be due to the increase in demand for them, and also thanks to the rise of smart mobile device usage, granting consumers with convenience to access videos on-the-go.
However, we, as businesses; should ask ourselves: “Do we produce videos for our consumers, or for the sake of achieving personal business goals?” Why not both? Now, before jumping the gun to immediately producing a video, we suggest you take a small step back. Try to understand your consumers first. Their pain points, their goals, needs, and wants. Only then, can we align our personal business goals to connect with our audience better. Moreover, as we capitalise on such information, the content direction of our video can effectively touch our consumers’ on an emotional level.
Starting with recognising our consumer’s persona, we should leverage on the demographics of the group – age, sex, marital status, income, occupation, interests. These data, which could be retrieved from most social media platforms, is information that can help your business gain further insights and sharpen your sights moving forward. Creating a customer profile goes a long way in being able to recognise and understand our target consumers’ characteristics, behaviour and traits. When we understand our target audience, we are able to more accurately integrate elements into our videos such that it will appeal to them.
For example, students are more likely to click on a video with a title that interests them (if it’s not perceived to be clickbait) whereas working adults might prefer watching videos with a shorter duration due to their busy schedule. Another instance can be seen in those who have an interest in make-up. What do they tend to watch? Beauty/Fashion/Make-Up tutorials on YouTube. What’s considered before clicking on one out of the hundred thousands of similar videos? The title, thumbnail, duration of the video can be recognised well enough by viewers to know if it’s an elaborate tutorial or just an unspoken demonstration. As we study their behaviour, we realise which features to include or avoid when producing the video. Hence, setting aside time to observe our target audience and study their demographics would help us tremendously in the present time as well as in the future so that we are always in the loop on the ever-changing trends.
When we have studied our target group, we identify the information that they (don’t) want to see or hear. With this insight, we can tweak our product in the most effective way such that our consumers are more likely to be convinced, following to sway their opinions in our direction. This form of guided communication puts us in a better position compared to our competitors, as we are able to empathise better with our customers and make them feel understood.
Notwithstanding the above, when armed with prior target market research, it helps businesses to plan ahead. The collected data that is collated can be examined to determine the potential ‘sweet spot’ that may have been previously untapped. This approach of knowing our target audience’s dos and don’ts at our fingertips is likely to direct us, as providers, in the right direction of our consumers. As such, this helps us make better business decisions like planning and saving cost in producing the product or service, since we are now more focused and clear on where we should utilise our resources for the best effective product that our consumer would enjoy and react to.
Content creators have to always be on their toes and ready to adapt to the dynamic tendency of consumers. When we begin using this approach, multiple benefits could be garnered. It is time we realise that identifying and understanding our target audience is of unique value and that we should start strategising our products based on that via the information that is readily available from any social media platform of our target consumers. Only then, can we truly create valuable and meaningful content.