It is strange to think that a number of businesses have yet to appreciate and embrace the vast potential of social media, but to be fair, that number is steadily dwindling. Nevertheless, even companies who heavily invest in social media are missing a trick if they neglect to make video a mainstay of their social strategy.
The importance of video marketing is borne out by the statistics: 82% of Twitter users view video content on the app and almost half (45%) of individuals watch more than an hour of video content on Facebook or YouTube every week. Actually, a third of online activity is now spent watching video, a figure no doubt nourished by the meteoric rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Yes, there are many valid reasons to produce high-quality videos across Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms. Little wonder 87% of online marketers do just that.
While it’s important to know your market – the millennial 25-34 age group, for example, are the most avid viewers – it would be tough to make a case for not figuring video into your social strategy.
Leveraging video on social media is necessary to capture and satisfy a captive, content-hungry audience, and good marketers understand this. Indeed, 51% of marketing professionals cite video as the type of content with the best ROI.
If video really is one of the most impactful, versatile and profitable digital marketing tools at your disposal, you’ll want to make it a key part of your web strategy. And in order to do so, you’re going to need some effective software. With that in mind, let’s look at three popular video creation tools you might consider trying.
Wave.video
Wave.video is an easy-to-use yet powerful video maker that is an absolutely packed with features. Not only will it have you pushing out marketing and social videos in a matter of minutes, but it gives you access to a library containing 200 million stock videos and images, sorted into sectors like food, travel, fashion, business and sport. There are even 300,000 royalty-free audio clips, so you can strike just the right tone.
Of course, you’ll probably want to upload your very own images, video clips and music and that’s perfectly fine: just drag and drop, and away you go. You might combine stock footage with your own videos to make a bigger impact, and there are hundreds of professional templates to choose from, too. Videos can be formatted to suit various social platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, and whether you opt for full-screen landscape 4:3 or widescreen 16:9, your videos will embody the professional image you’re after.
With Wave.video, you can easily overlay text on your footage, drawing the eye with stylish fonts and impressive effects, and you can also incorporate slick transitions between clips.
Naturally, videos can be customized to reflect branding and company ethos, and you can even add intros and outros to reinforce key messages. Choose between Pro ($39/month), Agency ($45/month) and Ultimate ($149/month) packages to get the ball rolling; even better, you can start with the free version to see whether you’re comfortable with the tool (it’s worth mentioning that with the free version, your videos will have the Wave.video watermark)
Biteable
Used by tech giants like Microsoft, Mattel, IBM and Shopify, Biteable gives you the power to make glossy videos that get results – fast. Whether you want to make head-turning ads and social videos or accomplished explainers and presentations, the fun video maker has got you covered. Biteable has a library of 85,000 professionally filmed clips which you can make use of, compliments of Shutterstock. It also lets you upload your own videos, photos and sounds to put together something emblematic of your brand.
Biteable guarantee complete satisfaction within 14 days or your money back, which is a nice touch. Having said that, they offer a free version which gives you 1gb of storage, permits five video projects per month and lets you publish to YouTube and Facebook – so this is a great place to start if you’re still unsure. As for the paid version, it costs $23/month (billed as $276/year) and is what you need to access the generous library of stock footage and publish an unlimited number of videos. Three million marketers have used Biteable to craft visually stunning video content, and many rave about just how easy it is to produce a sophisticated clip even if you’ve no previous experience.
Where Biteable excels is with its studio-quality animated video maker, with which you can use a selection of templates (new ones are added weekly). If you’re desperate to up-level your social media game, this software comes highly recommended.
Shakr
Social media devotees love video content, and you can give them what they crave with another popular tool called Shakr. The leading video making platform for Facebook marketers, Shakr boasts over 2,000 video designs (with more added each week) put together by creative professionals and utilises a drag and drop feature to get you up and running in no time.
The ONBRAND feature of Shakr, meanwhile, lets you cycle through sizes and formats to suit the ratios needed for various social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Instagram Stories and more. Launching custom video ad campaigns is a breeze thanks to the ease with which you can create appealing on-brand content in a variety of formats, and you can access a wide selection of pre-licensed music tracks, as well as over a million stock images and video clips.
No download or installation is required to use Shakr: all you need is a browser and a desire to make good videos. What’s really nifty is the fact that you can turn your in-house productions into reusable templates that any of your team members can use. That way, if you hit upon something that goes viral or gives a great ROI, you can tweak and repeat sometime down the line. There are three subscription plans available: Standard ($99/month), Pro ($179/month) and Onbrand (Custom Pricing), and all plans include unlimited video creation, editing and previewing. The latter may prove costly but comes with a dedicated account manager.
The Verdict
Honestly, it’s tough to pick a winner from these three. The fact is, each of them does exactly as advertised: helps you to create appealing custom videos to drive your messaging and keep customers coming back for more.
Thanks to features such as templates, video and image collections, custom designs, easy tutorials, animations and license-free music, the software promise to add value to your marketing. Whether you’re an individual, an agency or an e-commerce business, they will make the process of crafting exceptional social videos easier than ever before.
Creating social media-friendly videos is something all the big players are doing, so it’s great to know that you can emulate their efforts without breaking the bank. Now go create your masterpiece.
