The Very Hungry Content Consumer

Has your content marketing produced results during the coronavirus pandemic? With social distancing in full effect, it’s become increasingly difficult for brands to engage with their audience. But that doesn’t mean you should stop creating content…

While some brands and marketing teams are ‘flinching’ and halting their advertising spend entirely, the demand from consumers for new content has only increased. 

This creates a unique opportunity. By simply being active with new content, brands have the chance to connect with a captive audience. 

In this article, we’ll discuss how to recycle existing video assets, the most successful content types, and Infinite’s production strategy to help your marketing team stay relevant.

Content Marketing Formats

Many people incorrectly assume that blog posts and videos are the only types of content marketing. In actuality, there are many different content formats, each with varying ROIs. 

To maximize your content marketing strategy, it’s essential that you first identify which content format works best for reaching your audience.  

1. Videos

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Pros – It’s no secret that videos can be an extremely compelling communication tool. With minimal effort, consumers can visually see your product, its benefits, and overall appeal. Videos also have the benefit of  increased conversion rates, increased reach, improved consumer trust, and offer the most versatility of content formats. With formats such as “how-to”, product demos, documentaries, and testimonials, video offers near limitless potential for creativity. If that wasn’t enough, YouTube is the number two search engine, powering over 1 billion hours of content a day. 

Cons – Depending on the length, video can be time-consuming, resource intensive, and expensive. To create a polished commercial for instance, there’s often actors, voiceover work, scriptwriting, graphics, and editing that increase your overall budget. Videos while engaging also tend to receive less “likes” and comment discussion than photo posts.

2. Photography

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Pros – Humans are visual creatures, and enjoy photos over reading text. Great photography can tell a story and elevate a brand’s authority. Photos are also great for catching an audience’s attention while scrolling through their feed, allowing you to passively market to them. Your audience can easily share or “like” your post with little effort, unlike videos, which are less likely to garner “likes”. If your product/service does not photograph well, you can always showcase your brand’s personality by taking real behind-the-scenes photos or team member shots. Paired with a gripping description, photos remain a great option to effectively communicate your brand. 

Cons – If your brand or product is not visually compelling enough on it’s own, it may be ignored by consumers. Using unaltered stock images or filler images will bore your visitors, which is why we recommend altering them in some way or creating specific brand photos.

3. Gifs & Animation

Pros – Gifs are simple animated images without sound. Whether you include them in email marketing campaigns, directly on your website, or Facebook, gifs are great for visualizing data and communicating emotions. At their core, gifs allow brands to express their personality in a fun way. For perspective on their popularity, Twitter announced that over 100 million gifs were shared during 2015. Gifs are better than photos at storytelling, since they can show multiple scenes in an authentic way.

Cons – Gifs are not always appropriate for every field. Medical and financial industries in particular may turn off potential customers by using gifs. Gifs will also not play until fully loaded, meaning larger sized gifs pose a potential problem for mobile users. 

4. Blog Articles

Pros – Blogs, like the one you’re reading now, are effective for starting a dialogue with your potential customers. And if you’re a strong writer, blogs can be virtually free to produce. They can also be easily updated, allowing your content to stay ‘evergreen’ and relevant for many years. The longer format of blogs help guide users through the sales funnel and increase the likelihood of them purchasing your services/product. If done well, a long-form blog can boost your likelihood of obtaining backlinks.

Cons – Developing an ongoing blog series requires planning, organization, and a strong editor to oversee articles. It can also be challenging to come up with creative and unique content if your industry has already developed a wealth of content on topics you’d likely want to cover.

Safe Video Production During COVID-19

Any video editor worth their salt should be able to craft a creative story – even with limited assets and resources. Here’s our favorite ways to save on video production costs. 

Repurpose Old Assets

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Repurposing existing assets in new and creative ways is a cost-effective avenue for most brands, especially when production teams are unable to gather to film something new. We’ve found utilizing existing assets, paired with fresh strategic content is a great way for a content team to bring an idea to life quickly.

Leverage Stock

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If you’re in need of something new, stock videos or photos provide a cost-effective and professional looking feel, without the complications of shooting/filming on location. After professional editing and layered graphics, it can be impossible to tell the finished product was stock footage. 

Small Scale Production

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Though we are all stuck at home, it is still possible to do a small scale production with a limited crew and still maintain social distance. Brainstorm a simple idea that can be executed with minimal effort, but effectively tells your brand story. 

Content Creation & Video Production from Infinite 

Telling you about our production capabilities is fine, but we are visual people! Here’s some of our favorite content productions we’ve created for our clients.

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That’s a Wrap!

Need help navigating the intricacies of keeping your brand relevant?

The Infinite Agency is here to help guide you using the proven strategies and insights we’ve built our company upon. Our internal content creation team is at the ready to execute, whether that be using existing content in new ways, utilizing motion graphics and stock assets, or finding a solution to allow for a small-scale live production. 

Much like The Very Hungry Caterpillar from the children’s book, consuming a lot of pointless content isn’t necessarily ideal. However, providing your audience with helpful and engaging content during this time is what will allow you to emerge from this crisis a stronger and more beloved brand.

Written By

Bradley Thurman

The Infinite Agency is an integrated advertising agency designed to drive brand growth through data driven insights, inspiring creativity, and connected experiences.