So. You've got the leading video automation platform on your side. But what stories are you going to tell? Dip into our community blog for ideas, inspiration and plenty of handy how-tos.
November 7, 2022
November 7, 2022
There are two key things to help you understand and create a winning video marketing strategy: defining your audience, and setting your goals. If you have these two ingredients in place, we have a feeling you’ll be surprised at the results video can help you achieve.
You need to know your audience, because, let’s face it - if you’re unsure at all about why you should use video, who your target audience is or what your goals are, you’re going to quickly encounter problems.
And, of course, it’s likely you’ll have defined user personas by now. Even though you know your customer, there is a problem; before you even begin working on your video, you may realise the proposed target audience is too broad.
After all, each individual customer needs to feel targeted and heard. How do you do this? By properly understanding their needs through devising an effective video strategy. Long story short; your videos should make an audience feel properly wined and dined.
The biggest mistake you might make when embarking on a new video is by thinking too big and trying to do too much, both for choices of subject and target audience. As Magnus Dahl, Creative Director at KIT, “It’s often tempting to try to tell several things in a video or tell one thing to several target audiences, and this never ends well.”
This problem exists in every aspect of social media content production; your proposed target audience is probably much larger than the few individuals who actually will care about what you’re trying to say right here and right now.
Marketers love to split their targeted audiences into personas.
By producing content for a specific persona, an elaborate description of an archetype in your target audience, many believe that it’s possible to represent an entire group of individuals.
Of course, this can be helpful in certain situations, but on social media, we are more than just a bundle of personas; they’re completely worthless when creating your own video strategy for social media.
“On social media, we simply don’t click on or interact with content that doesn’t truly appeal specifically to us,” says Peder Bonnier, CEO at Storykit. “We don’t consume content just because it happens to be close to the things we’re interested in; we only click on content that completely aligns with our current interests.” But how do we make content that serves these goals?
To create better content, start by organising the company’s main target audience into micro-target audiences.
Of course, you may need to adjust it over time, and you should be flexible, particularly if you notice that your target audience responds better to a particular topic.
This might sound like a difficult task. We hear the jaded marketers at the back thinking, “how could I possibly make tons of videos for several micro audiences?”. With algorithms needing to surface more content than ever, your chances of being found and seen are maximised by making more content.
And when making “more” video is a good thing, this way of looking at your target audience becomes a positive.
You can create a video that does both, by distributing it to a larger target audience while also modified into fitting with micro-target audiences – do this by creating several versions of the same video and changing its images or title.
Swedish bank Skandia does exactly this by using Storykit:
“We have specific topics like pensions, mortgages, and health, but we talk to many target audiences, such as companies, private individuals, and different age groups. A 25-year-old who has just started receiving a pension from their employer is undeniably a different target audience to a 45-year-old in the middle of his career or a 65-plus person who is about to select their pension. Storykit helps us to quickly duplicate a video and rewrite the message to each target group,” says Jesper Carlson, who is responsible for Skandia's editorial office.
This is where we have to talk about ‘likes.’
It is perhaps shallow to single out ‘likes’ alone, so let’s use the term vanity metrics; they may make you and your brand look good, but they don't say much. They don’t help you to reach your goals nor do they help inform decisions for future strategies. Keep this front of mind when setting goals.
For example, if your company books thousands of meetings every month thanks to your video strategy, but almost none of them lead to more business, then something’s wrong. It’s a pointless metric. You have to be ruthlessly honest about these.
However, in the context of video, social vanity metrics stand in the way of our work.
After having made a great video, it’s common to expect an enormous flood of likes and comments (and then be let down).
It's not strange that these types of goals have become ‘The Goal’ on social media. This is partly due to the fact they are visible; every extra thumbs-up or heart on your post is a public statistic you can measure yourself with. Even the algorithm interprets these interactions and uses them to push out your content, increasing the organic reach of your videos.
So, vanity metrics are not always an ugly thing.
However, the problem with relying on them is, as aforementioned, they don't actually help you reach your goals or to make informed decisions about them. And, they can be completely counterproductive. So, make content that drives people to make the right choices.
Drive business without driving likes.
What should you look at if you shouldn’t look at vanity metrics? What should you focus your video strategy on? Can you even use video for something other than the early stages of the targeting audiences? Can video really provide business benefits? Let's talk about that.
First, a quick refresher on the funnel: The marketing funnel is a model to visualise what you want to achieve within your operations.
It’s shaped like a funnel, and in the end it sifts through the consumers that are ready to buy your product. This model makes it easy to decide the goal of your video strategy and gets your message across in the best way.
So you really could, no, you really should, use video in every step of the buyer’s journey.
A disclaimer before we begin; telling other companies what goals they should set for their marketing activities is as stupid as explaining to other parents how they should raise their children. No purchase funnel is the same: set goals that reflect what you really want to achieve for your customers.
Here, we use experiences from our business to show what you can do.
Further reading: How to make a video marketing strategy that works
When you pour the audience down into the top of the funnel, the purpose is to make them aware of the problems that your product solves. It also needs to make audiences know you and your brand actually exists. For this reason, video can play a crucial role in helping you reach the audience, wherever they are, with whatever topics they are interested in.
At this stage of the funnel, you can really explore and go crazy with your storytelling and the topics that your audience is curious about.
Right now, the feeling you want to evoke in the recipient is much more important than what you want to say about the product. You can also establish thought leadership by talking about an issue that is close to your customers’ hearts that can, coincidentally, be linked to your product.
Just remember to be clear when it comes to your brand. You want to evoke feelings that will become associated with your brand, and this can be done through clear colors, logos, jingles, or slogans.
At the top of the funnel, you throw out a large net and hope to catch lots of fish. In addition, you usually want your video to be received well and for engagement to be high. But as we have just said: think carefully about whether your video, and its goal, really is the type of content that should drive ‘likes.’
This type of engagement is often driven by classic social media tricks such as playing on strong emotions or encouraging someone to ‘tag a friend.’
Is working this way suitable for your organisation? If yes, then go on! But for most organisations, this type of communication is both pointless and harmful, skirting on acting like the ‘cool mum’ from Mean Girls. Simply put, you're trying too hard!
In such a case, it’s much better to look at the number of views and retention, aka how long people have watched your video.
Top of funnel KPI examples:
At the middle of the funnel, we take a big step closer towards selling without losing the focus on creative user value. At this stage, you should be helping the audience to make informed decisions: you need to be a credible and lovable sidekick along this journey.
At this point, you often want the audience to leave the platform and go to your site. Balance telling a good story and making them come back for more. Save a slice of your brand cake for later so that they come again, clicking and hungry. To do this, don't stray away from creating eye-catching and teasing videos.
Mid-funnel KPI examples:
Depending on the type of product or service your company sells, these goals can differ greatly but should always have a common aim of being able to see that the audience has taken a step closer to buying from you.
It’s time to sell! Your video content needs to drive a call to action. The purpose is to get the user to buy, buy, buy. The audience by now should know what your company stands for and what they can do with your product. You no longer have to tiptoe around the elephant in the room.
“When using ads on Facebook, don’t be discreet. It’s better to be crystal clear from the beginning,” says Josefine Billström, Creative Strategist at Facebook.
Additionally, should you ever invest resources in creating many different types of videos, do it during this final phase. Don’t do it to convey a thousand different messages though; do it to test a thousand different ways to continuously find what attracts the most potential buyers.
Bottom of funnel KPI examples:
Of course, these goals depend on the business you run. What they should all have in common is that the customer should be entering the "buying" phase. And for us at Storykit, this is about being able to fill the sellers' calendars with qualified meetings.
November 3, 2022
November 3, 2022
Of course, some headline-grabbing research is built to go viral by design – but there’s a lot more that lacks the glossy PR punch and drifts under the radar.
There’s a big difference between writing articles published in scholarly publications and bringing that same research to broader audiences, like students, stakeholders and the public.
And for many universities, sharing research isn’t a choice: it’s an essential duty.
In the battle for attention, some argue there’s a risk that we could lose the researchers of the future, who are probably on TikTok right now. How can your university bring its work to a wider audience without maxing out on budget?
There’s work to do: universities need to train students and researchers alike to communicate their research in a more accessible way.
The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) funds research in science, technology and medicine. SFF wanted to reach a wider population, become part of the social debate, and increase the interest of Swedes in research.
Long term, the big goal is to attract young people to become scientists.
One goal was to reach young adults aged 25-44, predominantly women – both groups that have been traditionally hard to reach with science news, but easy to reach on social media.
Eva Regårdh, then Head of Communications, was convinced there was already strong interest in the research field among Swedes – the missing piece in the puzzle was adopting the right tone, format and channel to reach them.
Content had to be engaging and exciting, without being frivolous; so SSF joined forces with the social media agency KIT.
The strategy was to use explainer formats to maximise reach and engagement for increasingly video-heavy social algorithms.
All video was produced using Storykit, to make video production intuitive, open it up to more team members, and allow their content to move at the speed of social. Each video finds the golden nugget of the research to pique interest, then provides rich color and detail to add context.
The Explainer format is a successful way to do this, posing an interesting, enticing question on-screen then answering it, often with the help of a researcher.
Using Storykit as a video tool “transformed our relationship with the audience. Now they care about what we have to say and we're building a community – and all firmly within budget,” says Linda Öhrn Lernström, former Head of Creative Studio and CEO at KIT.
One of the countless videos they produced, “Web-connected implants are the future - but how safe are they?”, is based on Thiemo Voigt’s Uppsala University study “Don’t hack my body”. The project, funded by the SSF, aims to increase the safety of surgical implants.
By pulling back the curtain and interviewing the researcher, the content highlighted the importance of the study in the first place.
Anne Kolehmainen, editor at KIT, always start with asking herself, “what’s the big deal here?”. With this study, this allowed her to quickly build up a picture of widespread concern about mesh implants – the most interesting thing for swathes of the target group.
When Anne selects studies and finds angles, she doesn’t always start from a study, but rather from the everyday life of the target group and where the social debate is. After all, that’s what they care about.
“I always have the target group in mind when I choose angles. Based on this, I look at what research can answer questions, concerns and accepted truths - preferably with the help of a researcher who can do this in an educational way.
An example of this is the video where we tackle conspiracy theories,” adds Anne Kolehmainen.
Since they started five years ago, SFF and KIT have produced 100s of videos. Now, most adult Swedes have at some point been reached by their video content - and engagement is strong, with the greatest impact in the target group of women aged 25-44.
“We’re extremely pleased with the results. Now, we’re reaching young adults and a majority of women – a difficult group for us to reach otherwise!,” said Eva Regårdh in a previous interview.
These are smart people who would certainly find great ways to score highly on the algorithm and drive more eyes to content if they were given the right conditions: so give them a social media playbook, illustrated with examples.
A video tool everyone can use opens opportunities for you to effectively produce more video content for social, for more audiences – which means more chances for your work to be read!
Start from the everyday lives of your target audience. Find where the social conversation is, and work backwards.
Engage your audience further – ask them questions, and be quick to respond to incoming questions. For example, can the researcher behind the study be active in the comments section? You can also use comments to link back to the research article.
November 3, 2022
November 3, 2022
The hard truth: Colleges are spending billions on marketing, which means that prospective students are inundated with an overwhelming barrage of information from universities across every channel, and it’s making their decision harder.
Staying top of mind with prospective students today needs an effective social presence that feels accessible, relatable and desirable to students.
It’s no mean feat.
But many universities fall behind, focusing their content on existing followers and forgetting to have an outreach content strategy for new students at all, let alone one that resonates with students, new or old.
To make an impact on social, use video.
Your institution can take prospective students through the entire customer journey: from awareness, to consideration - to ultimately conversion to applications.
Engage, enthuse, ask questions, use trends judiciously – and do it all from the audience’s perspective. You have to make content they truly want to watch.
It’s a strategy that works. One study shows that universities can achieve a 73% higher conversion rate by using relevant video for every stage of the marketing funnel to recruit new students.
In central Stockholm, Berghs School of Communication is a vocational school and one of Sweden’s most reputable in the field of communication. Every year, hundreds of prospective students nervously await the results of their applications.
Despite its success, Berghs had noticed that the number of applications had stalled, and that those who applied were largely from a similar demographic. Berghs wanted more applications – and it wanted to broaden the pool of students who applied, too.
Berghs had tried several different marketing strategies, and the recommendation from the social media agency KIT was to put all other marketing activities on hold and focus on social-first and mobile-first content.
“We wanted to help Berghs reach out to more potential students in a broad way by establishing a relatable brand identity, and giving concrete facts about what an education with them can actually lead to. We contacted former students who were asked to tell us about something they had created or achieved after their education, and share what they were proudest of”, says Linda Öhrn Lernström, then Head of Creative Studio at KIT.
The videos and articles were distributed across social. And the result? “Brilliant. In every way. All we had to do was sit back and take in all the applications,” said Johan Malmgren, Operational Project Manager at Berghs School of Communication. Never before had Berghs received so many applications in such a short time. By distributing more content to more audiences, they also managed to broaden the demographics of the students who applied for the courses.
So video works for recruiting new students. Isn’t it a huge drain on money and time? Actually, no! You need a content strategy and an easy-to-use video tool where everyone in your organisation can easily learn how to produce video themselves.
A content strategy will ensure you’re delivering the right messages to the right customers. Always have a clear customer journey in mind to validate your decision making — it’ll make it easier!
What channels are your prospective students on? Make sure your video content is optimised for the channel you are distributing it on, and build out a customer journey based on each channel.
Chances are, they’re your very best marketers — you just don’t know it yet. Let them feature in your communications, but don’t forget to think about demographic spread. Use students of different genders and backgrounds - and from your different educational backgrounds.
Always ask the question, “Who do I want to reach with this video - will that person be interested in what I’m saying?”. Refer to current trends and add to the conversation where possible, instead of always starting your own!
Students appreciate feeling that the institution is communicating directly to them — it shows that they want to get to know them better, and direct address grabs attention (replace thinking about “we” to thinking about “you”). Be active in the comments section - invite questions and make sure you are organised to respond quickly to questions that are asked.
November 1, 2022
November 1, 2022
Want to try a tool that we guarantee will boost your video production? Let us know!
Once you start producing and creating videos you will have an urgent need for images and video content . If you're a Storykit user, you can choose directly from specific stock-libraries. But, sometimes you might have the perfect manuscript yet lacking the necessary assets. We are here to tell you that you can relax – there is an ocean of great and free images and video material on the web, available at your fingertips.
Content that is completely free and does not require attribution is the easiest type of material to use when you make a video. It means that you can use the images and the video footage however you want, without even mentioning the name of the creator.
It is important to respect the copyright licence, regardless of whether you are paying for the licence with money or not. Our tips include several sources that offer content with a CC0 licence. CC stands for Creative Commons, and this licence is often used for creative content which is distributed online. There are different types of licences available, but CC0 means that it is completely free to use and that it does not even require any attribution.
The other licence from Creative Commons you should be aware of is CC-BY licence. In this case you can use the content, even for commercial purposes, but you have to mention the source in a specific way. When you create with Storykit Video Studio you handle this type of content by filling in the ”Credit”-field available for each image or video, and you also have to keep the option ”Credit information” active in the side panel. Read more about the different licences on Creative Commons’ website.
The range of free video content has increased remarkably during the last few years and today it is possible to find very good content with CC0 licence or simple attribution models. The selection of images is even larger. These are some of our favorites.
Pixabay is something of a giant when it comes to free content online with over 2.7 million images and thousands of videos. All photos are released under Creative Commons CC0 and are free to download. Because of the enormous amount of community submissions, the quality of the footage can be a hit or miss. However, you’ll most likely find something that works for you in their large library.
If Pixabay is one of the largest databases for free images, Pexels is something for the connoisseurs. It currently has over 3 million photos to pick from. Pexels has a clear focus on high quality when it comes to both video and images. Their licence model is CC0, which means that everything is free to use. Pexels is a rewarding site for both images and videos, because they have loads of incredible content available.
Videvo is a service which offers hundreds of thousands of premium stock assets. Their material is provided in 1080p HD minimum resolution, and most of their content is now provided in 4K. You will also find lots of great “conceptual” films, called motion graphics, which have a certain abstract quality to them. They work really well as background imagery for content that can otherwise be difficult to find suitable content for. A bonus: you can also find nice royalty-free music here!
Videezy offers a vast collection of images and video footage in both HD and 4K resolution. Most files are free to download and free to use. However, when searching for videos, any results marked with “Pro” are premium clips that are only available by paying with credits.
Coverr is a service which focuses mainly on b-roll footage that is great for a background setting. However, their videos can be used for other purposes as well and they are of high quality. Coverr is a completely free stock footage website that allows you to download and use their stock videos anywhere. All the videos are in HD, and available to download in MP4 format. No sign-up needed, no attribution required.
Unsplash is something of a giant when it comes to finding great images that are completely free. The site offers over 3 million free high-resolution images. Their licence works like this: no cost, no attribution needed. They offer lots of high-quality images in a variety of genres. Unsplash truly deserves a spot on our list of favourites. If you have a hard time finding a photo for more niche purposes, try Unsplash. You might get positively surprised.
If a site that only has pretty images of food sounds good to you, we suggest that you visit Foodies Feed. Even if they only have around 1700 images, they are all food-related – delicious! Everything has a CC0-licence, which means that it is completely free to download and use as your heart desires.
Stocksnap offers lots of great images with a CC0-licence. Completely free from copyright restrictions. As it is a slightly more unknown site, it increases your chances of finding an image that isn’t over-used. It is a great site with good search tools, but just keep in mind that they mix in hits from Shutterstock – which is not free – in the search results. Several other sites do this as well and it is how they generate their income. The images from Shutterstock are labelled, so you can easily spot them in your search results and choose to go for Stocksnap’s free images instead.
Burst is a service that is run by the e-shopping platform Shopify, and as such, it has a natural connection to the commercial side of creativity. Burst offers lots of images chosen for their ability to entice the right emotions for sales purposes. Great service and all images are free and require no attribution.
Gratisography is a slightly smaller site, but they offer gorgeous images that are completely free to use. You can find more unique and weird material on Gratisography that you won’t find anywhere else. It is a great site when you need an image that can truly wow your audience.
Something we haven’t included in the list above, but is definitely worth taking a look at, is direct searches on the big platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo and Flickr. On those platforms you will find lots of material that you can use. It can be a bit hard to find content that you can use with 100% certainty without breaking any copyright laws. But there are also ways to navigate these sites to find videos and images with a CC0-licence.
YouTube offers users to choose a CC-BY licence. This is how you can find those videos: Do a search like you normally would. When you have your search results, click on ”Filter” above the list on the left-hand side. Under the title ”Features” you should see a row marked ”Creative Commons”. If you click on that you will only see videos with a CC-BY-licence.
Browse the Creative Commons licensed videos on Vimeo. Just do a normal search and add a search filter to organise the hits according to their licensing model. When you have entered your search term you can add your filters on the left-hand side. If you click on ”More filters” you will see a list of the available licensing models, including CC0 and CC-BY.
You can also change the settings for the “Mature” content and adjust that however you want. Many people who upload videos and images play it safe and label their content “Mature”, which means that the hits won’t show up in the search results.
On the enormous image site Flickr you will find heaps of content with CC0 or CC-BY licence. You can search on Flickr for images posted under the Creative Commons Zero licence.
When you do a search you will see a little menu on the left-hand side on top of the search results, where you can choose your licensing model. The default mode is ”Any licence”. This list of licences can appear to be a bit cryptic at first, but the choice that gives you the most flexibility is the one called ”No known copyright restrictions” (CC0).
Just a little word of warning – there is a model called CC-BY-SA, which allows you to use the content commercially if you give the proper attribution AND apply the same licence to your own creation. This may not be a good solution if you are working on a project which will be licensed in a different way. But this is of course entirely up to you. Just a heads up.
As mentioned before, there is a huge number of stock websites available – especially if you are looking for free images. So, we want to give you another valuable list; a long list of sites that offer free photo and video material. However, some of them offer only a free trial before you need to pay for the downloads.
When it comes to these sites, we suggest that you give them a go and see for yourself if you find something that is valuable to you. Who knows, you might find a new favorite!
October 25, 2022
October 25, 2022
We know that the competition online is extreme, but we still seem to think that we can be successful as long as we spend enough money on our content or ads. The truth, however, is brutal; it doesn't matter how much money you throw at a project if your content isn't spot on. Your ad will still drown in the ocean of happy babies and fun videos.
If you want to succeed with paid social media advertising then here are the building blocks that you need to pay attention to.
Use every data point within your business (from your Product to Sales teams) to figure out the myriad hard and soft facts about your audience that will help guide your ads: who are they really, what do they know (and what don’t they know)? Think of it as a few steps beyond customer personas; if you uncover in-depth insights like these, you’ll win.
Josefine says,
– The first step is to understand your target group, what you want to create, and what's best for the brand.
You may use the ad tools on the platforms to hit these targets.
– A very common mistake people make is that they think they already know the answer instead of casting a wider net and learn from the results. Your job as an advertiser is to understand your target group, while it's the platform's task to reach that target group, says Josefine Billström.
– Take into account that it's difficult to predict what will work. I notice this as well, although I have worked with this for quite a few years now. At times I am surprised by how effective certain ads are or vice versa. It's healthy for the ego to be reminded that you can, indeed, make mistakes.
It’s simple: if people don’t know you, they probably won’t take action. And you should be creating content for every part of your marketing funnel, because you don’t know where your audience is in their journey. Higher up the funnel, “testimonials and how-to videos provide great social proofing”, says Sofia. After all, other people can be remarkably convincing in ways that brands just can’t, so use people to add depth and conviction to your message. Bottom of the funnel content should always revolve around driving action, but that doesn’t mean it has to be dull: you can use video content to tell a whole story…
The best way to learn is to keep on testing new things, even if you are a seasoned Facebook advertiser.
– It's easy to get stuck in old ways. You may have a message that works well in one instance, and then you just copy it across the board. After a while, it won't have the same effects. A way to tackle this is to create different ads for different target groups. We usually recommend that you have 3-4 ads with different messages for different target groups. Test them on your regular target group, invest in a wider span, and look at the data to see who you've reached. Don't try to create a "one size fits all".
So, you shouldn't be afraid of using a variety of ads?
– No, absolutely not. We clearly see that advertisers who use more ads get better results.
How many ads do you recommend that people use?
– It certainly depends on the nature of your work. If you create branding ads, you can try 3-4 different ads, but from a performance standpoint... Then you can put out as many ads as you like.
– It's essentially a matter of allowing the system to tell you when it's time. You'll notice when an ad has been "exhausted", and it's time for a change. But when you do make a change, it's essential to keep the old one to check whether the new ad actually performs better.
So, I don't need to feel bad about using an old ad as long as it's still delivering?
– No, but you should, of course, create a new ad and see if it can deliver even better results. Don't remove something that's working, but what if you could create an ad that converts twice as well!
As an advertiser, it can be nice to know that your success rarely depends on whether you have made a "pretty" ad or spent a lot of money on it.
– No, the main thing on our channels is the creative content. We have seen that 56% of a brand's sales boost can be attributed to the look of the ads, and not in terms of how we tend to think of "quality". There is no need to use an advanced camera or a super expensive director, but the focus is rather on relevance.
Should I use a different approach when promoting editorial content in comparison to ads?
– You should always start with the user perspective. All ads are delivered in the same flow, and from the users' point of view, it's often difficult to notice the difference. You simply need to have equally high demands on everything you produce because the competition in the feed is so extreme.
– It's also important to get these parts to work in harmony. Sometimes I meet companies with a performance team, a content marketing team, a branding team, and an influencer marketing team, and at times they don't even adhere to a concise visual identity. It will end up being quite expensive, and you won't get the same value from your investment.
But is visual identity really that important?
– Absolutely! We did a large meta-study that showed that advertisers with a clear visual identity got a 67% boost in optimized conversions and advertising recall. 71% had a higher return on ad spend. Those who also incorporated their branding in the entire had got an even bigger boost.
– I think this comes down to the fact that we are bombarded with so many messages on a daily basis. Your ad shows up between posts from friends or groups, and for it to be effective, the receiver needs to know who's behind the ad.
How can we sufficiently incorporate our branding?
- We usually talk about four parameters in particular:
1) The logo. Make sure that it's clearly visible. Maybe you can animate it?
2) Colors. It's imperative to work with distinct branding colors.
3) Your fonts. Especially if they are a branding characteristic.
4) The last parameter is what we call mnemonic. It relates to other things associated with your brand; a jingle, a character, or a slogan.
– You can work with this in different ways, either with all four or place more focus on one or a couple of them.
Video is not only favored by people, who can watch a story from start to finish, but increasingly favored by algorithms too. We have short attention spans (are you even still reading this?) and need to be won over. “Using the first 3-4 seconds of your video is a great way to stand out in the feed” says Sofia on capturing your audience’s (small) attention span. But video alone isn’t the silver bullet to your marketing woes: it has to be good. Really good. After all, a good image can outperform a bad video. How do you make good video? We’re glad you asked…
Is it essential to work with video?
– Yes, it is. On social platforms, you want to engage as many senses as possible, and video is perfect for that. But "video" doesn't need to be a perfect, highly produced video. I also see many good examples of using motion graphic design with still images to create video content.
– We have also seen that you get the best results when you use a mix of both still image ads and video ads, so create both!
What should I do if I get stuck creatively?
– There are many ways to deal with that; for example, you can start by asking three questions: Why do people need this product? What IS this product? Perhaps it isn't apparent to everyone. It's easy to lose perspective and expect everyone to understand the product as well as you do. You can also take the emotional route: what feeling do we want to evoke with this product?
What does a beginner need to consider?
– Just get started! It's very easy to set up an ad account and start testing. I think that's a great way to get started. Create an ad or boost something you have published already and see how it performs and ask yourself why.
– We also offer a vast number of guides, courses, and other free resources that you can use to become really good at advertising, but I really think that it's best to get started in a simple way and learn along the way. Nobody gets it all right from day one.
We’ll let you in on a secret: sometimes, we test static images ourselves even though we’re a video tool. Crazy? We don’t think so! By A/B testing different content types, you’ll understand your audience’s wants and needs – and, crucially, it’ll lower your cost per result too. Now that we’ve tested, we know for certain that video drives website traffic for us at a lower cost per result than static ads do, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be the same for you. Test and learn, don’t assume!
Every other week, we host webinars, which is your chance to put questions to our team and delve deeper into the topics that matter to marketers. Make sure you don’t miss the next one, and start your journey into making better video with our handy tool here.
October 11, 2022
October 11, 2022
“The buyer journey now is much more fragmented, because there’s not one single point where you can reach more or less your entire buyer universe”, says Peder Bonnier, CEO of Storykit and long-time marketing expert.
And he’s right.
But it’s an opportunity for you; with more eyes in more places, the ability to leverage your message becomes more democratised. But only if you know how to reach your audience in the first place.
If you’re relying on an agency to provide you with the insatiable thirst for content you (reasonably) have, you’re losing out.
We’re not saying there’s no place for agencies anymore, but if they’re running your day-to-day, they’re likely missing the nuanced perspectives of the person in your organisation writing the briefs.
Not only that, but your spend on content will be through the roof too.
Spoiler alert: we think YOU should be producing your content. But how?
When the person ordering the content isn’t the person delivering it, it’s natural for a bloated briefing process to seep in.
You know what we mean: more meetings, lengthy review times, missed opportunities and a creative process that feels anything but creative.
Briefs are important, but only when done properly.
For many organisations, the briefing process is an unnecessary drain on resources. How do you get that creative essence back where it belongs?
Simple: stop ordering, and start producing.
Yet. Content production is a hard, skilled role, but there are myriad tools that make it fast, easy and rewarding.
Our CEO knows how you feel:
“It can be hard to tell, for example, a talent acquisition manager that ‘now it's actually also part of your job to create and promote a video."
But that’s not the biggest hurdle. The big challenge is convincing someone in the organization that this person should have the authority to do that in the company's name.”
And to that we say, fail. Fail hard. And fail again.
Getting over the fear of putting control in your teams’ hands is crucial.
Unlike other marketing channels, it’s completely okay for some of your video content on social media to fail. After all, nobody will see it, and good content will be rewarded by the algorithm.
Have safeguards in place, but never kill your team’s creativity. Your job is to set up the safety rails and the (as loose but necessary as possible) brand guidelines so your brand remains cohesive.
Let your team tell the story the way they want to tell it, and you’ll probably get better engagement.
Your team consumes video on a daily basis. Spend some time training them to think critically – why did they tap that? Why didn’t they stop scrolling? What stands out on their own social feeds? When they know what to look for, they’ll know what works – and, even more importantly, what doesn’t.
Don’t keep feeding briefs. By using Storykit to put video production in everyone’s hands, you’ll obviously save time and money, but you’ll be able to communicate your message across more touch points, more effectively, and with more conviction.
After all, people trust people.
Discover strategies to save time and maintain consistency, while maximizing your impact across platforms. We'll will share practical tips for automating routine tasks, creating content more effectively, and leveraging tools to engage with your audience.
Need videos for social media, sales, HR, or internal communication? With Storykit, any team can create professional videos. These videos can match their brand and work for any platform, format, or language. No editing skills are needed. Whether for LinkedIn, corporate presentations, or global campaigns, Storykit ensures your videos are engaging and optimised for impact.
It’s that time of year again—when we all start scrambling for ideas and templates to piece together our social media plan for the new year. Trust me, I’ve been there too. The endless Googling, the overcomplicated strategies… it can get overwhelming fast.
That’s why we're here to make it easy for you. We're giving you our social media plan for 2025—complete with all the resources and tips to help you nail it without the stress. Ready to steal it?
Storykit is the leading video automation platform. It helps thousands of clients in automating and optimizing their video production, boosting productivity, efficiency, and return on investment. With Storykit, you can put your video creation on autopilot.
Anyone! Storykit is made for companies and organizations and works great for anyone with communication needs of any kind. The tool is ideal for digital marketing, PR, HR, social media, corporate communication, sales, events, recruitment, customer success – every team.
With Storykit’s text-to-video AI functionality, you don’t need video editing experience or expensive equipment to create unique and amazing videos.
Absolutely not. Storykit’s intuitive AI-powered platform allows anyone to create professional videos quickly and seamlessly, without any video editing experience or special equipment.
Certainly. Storykit is designed to turn any text into eye-catching video, so it’s perfect for everything from social media posts to corporate communication and employer branding.
Whether you're aiming to engage with clients, disseminate information internally, or enhance your brand, Storykit simplifies the process. It helps you create high-quality videos that appeal to your audience.
Yes, they work like magic on your phone, large display screens, and in your keynotes. We even have customers using Storykit to make videos for their coffee machines!
You can create many things. From social media content and ads to employer branding and internal communications – plus educational videos that boost brand awareness, strengthen reputation, build loyalty, and deliver real impact. The possibilities are endless.
Yes, keeping your videos on-brand is a priority for us. Storykit ensures every video matches your brand guidelines, from fonts and colors to logos. For even more customization, simply reach out to us.
Yes, you can upload your own visuals and integrate them seamlessly into your videos. You can also add voiceovers and audio for a more engaging experience – available in Pro and Enterprise plans. Check out our full feature list.
Yes! Producing video content in various languages allows you to engage a worldwide audience.
Creating different videos for different platforms is simple and fast in Storykit. You can easily change the aspect ratio, assets, music, languages, and stories with just a few clicks. This means you can create videos tailored for all major platforms, including LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
Storykit offers different pricing plans based on your needs. Book a call for a customized quote, tailored to your preferences.
Yes, we offer tailored plans for teams, companies and organisations of all sizes. Book a call to find the best plan for your video content needs.
The Pro and Enterprise plans have advanced features for companies and organizations that want to grow their video marketing. These include voiceovers, custom templates and modules, a premium library of videos, images, and music, and more. Check our feature list for details.
Absolutely, you can start your free trial and create your first video within minutes. No editing skills or credit card needed.
We offer extensive customer support, onboarding help, and useful resources. This way, you can always get the most from Storykit. Our Enterprise solution also includes a dedicated Enterprise Activation Manager to support you every step of the way.
Absolutely! Our API solution allows you to integrate AI-enhanced video generation into your existing tools. Contact us, and we’ll help you build a customized video production system that fits your needs.
Don’t wait to create! Reach out to us for a demo or start a free trial today!
