Internet, Marketing, Social media

Creative Ways That Charities Can Leverage Video For Marketing And Social Media Awareness

video-marketingVideo marketing is a type of marketing which uses the internet to allow an individual or organisation to advertise themselves effectively in the form of short videos typically lasting up to 5 minutes in duration. Products and services can be displayed online with the benefit of free online services such as YouTube. Traditionally this type of marketing had the sole purpose of securing more sales and increasing profit but more and more video marketing has been incorporated by charitable organisations which have had to react to the changing landscape created by the World Wide Web. The internet can benefit not for profit organisation just as much as traditional companies. This is because a whole new audience is available for a charity which was not the case when most had to rely on high street shops and canvassers. The fact that there is a healthy appetite for social media with its diverse mix of members and enhanced interaction means that there is a greater chance of charities meeting objectives not previously thought possible.

Demonstrate In Animation

Video marketing is particularly effective for charities as it provides an opportunity to introduce dialogue and demonstrate in animation what the charity is all about. The general public might be more sympathetic to realistic videos relaying messages about worthy causes. Donations are likely to be more forthcoming when a video charting the plight of a starving child in Africa or the emotions of a bereaved family of a cancer victim. In addition, an animated video on product donations appeal more to people, check out these video marketing examples below:

In order for your online campaign to be effective, you need to be specific as to what your main goals are. It could be that you want to encourage more members or raise awareness to an issue rather than just accumulating more funds.

Cost Effective Solutions, Use of Social Media

Of course there are some things which charities must consider before making a video. It would be unwise to have content which would be likely to offend most of the intended audience in an attempt to be hard hitting. This will generally discourage any further involvement from prospective members. The video itself will also need to be as cost effective as possible. This is why social media is a favourite amongst the charities when formulating a new campaign. Charities should purposely target social media sites since they should already have a captive audience and volunteers are more likely to be forth coming through seeing the exact work and outreach that the charity brings.

Video marketing on social media sites captures the attention of the audience, if a charity does not have this in place then they should follow this this process:

– Set up a Facebook business page and upload all videos. With this you can now track your analytics to see how many people are viewing your video footage and how it is outreaching or if it is hitting a viral status. There is even access to Facebook advertising at a low cost and this could be better value for money in the future through the lifetime budgeting option which allows you to set a budget to spend across the lifetime of your campaign.

– Set up a YouTube page for brand and marketing awareness. This is your investment in outreaching your visual content for free, share and share alike is the concept you need to think about here if you want video marketing success. Brand marketing is crucial to success and YouTube can drive your brand forward through social network integration and linking up with Goggle+. Your aim with YouTube is to get those subscribers, get people involved in your charity event and develop your YouTube channel; it could make for an interesting daily watch.

Target Link

It's important to have a target of what you want to achieve because that way you can monitor which stages you are at and how far you have to go to attain the main objective. Your online video should have a dedicated link within your website and the site itself should be of a standard that will attract members in the first place.

Celebrity Voice Over

One way to encourage video views and subsequent new members might be to use a celebrity as a voice over or even to star in the video itself. It might be surprising to some when they discover just how much influence a famous person can have. Alternatively you can use a video where the charity's staff are also the presenters. This can be an advantage since the viewer will be witnessing people who know what they are talking about and who are passionate to the cause.

Mobile Access

From a technical standpoint, you need to decide whether you are going to have a platform for allowing mobile access to the video as well as standard web based TV. The more applications that can be used to view the video, the more potential members and donations you will receive.

It goes without saying that video marketing is the way forward for charities. No other medium has the effect and appeal to purvey important messages. Videos by their inherent nature will attract attention and keep people interested. It has the personal touch and immediacy which is not possible by relying on text alone. It's likely we will see many more charities using the internet to highlight good causes in the future!

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