Internet video will account for 79% of global Internet traffic by 2020. That's less than 3 years away, folks. Are you making every effort to integrate this into your marketing and donor recruitment strategy now?
This can be tough for blood centers. How are you supposed to know where to start? Video is so expensive - how could you even afford that kind of marketing strategy? Unfortunately, it's more of a question of "when" than "if."
To help you get started, we've put together a list of 4 tips for using video to recruit blood donors:
Create a DIY movie studio
We asked ourselves many of the same questions here at Incept:
- How can we afford to do this?
- We don't have video expertise. Where do we even start?
- What about lighting? And background? And the expensive camera equipment?
We decided to start where anyone else would - with a Google search. There are so many resources for video marketers online, that we had a hard time pairing down which ones were the most helpful.
Ultimately we started with the experts at Wistia. They have a really great article about building your own movie studio on a budget. A quick trip to Home Depot and less than $100 on Amazon will get you pretty close to delivering a professional looking video.
We used Wistia's suggestions and got right to work filming. The simple office movie studio has helped us create professional looking shots on a small budget. The DIY lighting has allowed us to walk throughout our center and generate additional videos relatively easily too.
Share stories your donors care about
People care about people. They want to hear about someone's struggles. They want to hear about a happy ending. They want to feel a personal connection.
You're probably picturing a video that costs thousands of dollars, but this type of emotion can be drawn out with an iphone. Quality is important, but so is authenticity. Use the authenticity of your donors' stories and forget about the need for perfect equipment.
Pro-tip: Never let your video fade to black. Use your video to prompt a call-to-action, like a call for blood donors!
Choose the right platform to share on
If you've shot a meaningful video, but don't post it in the right place, it's as if you never produced the video at all. So where should you post it?
YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Instagram... the list goes on and on. You can't effectively engage on every platform, so how do you choose which is best for your organization?
Unfortunately, there isn't one best answer. It all depends on you, your donors and your target audience. Skyword's blog does a really good job at comparing the pros and cons of some of the most common social video platforms, which should give you a better idea of where to invest your time.
Whatever platform you choose, make sure that's where your donors are hanging out.
Measure and iterate
Measuring the outcomes of your videos (and all other tactics of your marketing strategy) is one of the most important steps of a successful video marketing strategy. We like go beyond vanity metrics and use some of Hubspot's suggestions:
- Play rate
- Watch rate
- Conversion rate
- Social shares
Once you know your outcomes, it's easy to iterate. Could you choose a better thumbnail image to improve play rate? Could you add subtitles to keep muted viewers engaged and improve watch rate? Do you need to add a call-to-action at the end to increase conversions? These are all questions you should keep asking yourself as you continue on this video marketing journey.
A bonus piece of advice
The most helpful thing I found before jumping into video marketing was declaring myself a beginner. It's okay to not know exactly what you are doing. If you hold off on starting till you think you've got everything perfect, you'll be too late. Declare yourself a beginner and START NOW!