It's hardly a secret that videos are a pillar element of successful marketing campaigns. With almost 90% of consumers asking to see more videos from their favorite brands, marketers work hard to meet these demands but often hit roadblocks.
Producing high-quality videos can be complicated and time-consuming for marketing teams without dedicated internal resources. The need for professional equipment coupled with bandwidth challenges often forces companies to abandon a significant number of video ideas.
When the COVID-19 pandemic kept people at home, professional videos produced in studios quickly pivoted to homemade videos in living rooms or home offices. While there are a few ways to create videos at home, our favorite tool to use is Wistia's Soapbox.
Let's take a closer look at Soapbox videos and how they can enhance your video marketing campaign.
Yes, I filmed this using Soapbox!
What is Soapbox Video?
Created by Wistia, Soapbox is a Chrome extension that allows you to record and edit videos online. All you need is a webcam and Google Chrome.
The program works entirely on the cloud, which makes it easy for your entire team to shoot, edit, and share videos online. As long as the person has a computer with a strong internet connection, a webcam, and a Chrome browser, they are set up to create marketing videos.
Key benefits of Soapbox include:
- Intuitive operation
- High-quality support
- Easy export
- Fast recording experience
Users can share videos via live links, post them on social media, embed them in emails, and much more.
Essentially, Soapbox is a straightforward video recording and editing tool that helps you create a variety of video marketing materials without any special software or equipment.
1. Create How-To Videos
According to Google, "how-to" videos on YouTube get more attention than any other content category. To capitalize on this popularity, you can create tutorials and how-to videos to use as educational tools for your prospects and customers.
You can also utilize how-tos throughout your customers’ buyer’s journey. While they are great tools for nurturing new customers down the sales funnel, how-to videos can also act as a key part of your retention strategy.
To brainstorm ideas for what how-to videos to produce, utilize any keyword and persona research you’ve conducted to create a list of questions your target audience asks online.
Blog: How to Create Engaging Awareness Videos for Your Campaign
2. On-Demand Webinars
Getting several speakers together to film a webinar can be time-consuming. However, you may have more success if you ask them to record their portion of an on-demand webinar via Soapbox Speakers can record 30-minute videos and utilize the screen share and split-screen features to include any visuals they’d like.
While Soapbox can't help with live webinars, it simplifies the creation of pre-recorded marketing materials like on-demand webinars significantly.
3. Webinar Recaps
When you do host live webinars, you’ll likely have people sign up who won’t end up attending the event. In these cases, video recaps are incredibly useful for anyone who wants the information you have but doesn’t necessarily have time to sit through a live webinar.
With the Soapbox tool, making webinar recaps is easy. You or your speaker(s) can make a short recap video to use in all of your follow-up marketing materials like email and social media.
You can even include a webinar recap in a relevant or repurposed blog that has similar information — in fact, we recommend it. Including videos on your website pages is proven to increase reader time-on-page by 2.6x.
4. Welcome Videos
With personalization becoming the foundation of successful marketing campaigns, marketers should work hard to add a personalized touch to any communication.
With Soapbox, you can create personalized welcome videos for new customers, new subscribers, high-value prospects, potential partners, and more. Taking 10 minutes to record and email a welcome video will leave a positive impression on your viewer and increase the likelihood of them continuing to interact with your brand. In fact, when you use videos in emails, you can increase your conversion rate by 21%.
5. Personalized Reminders
Creating a reminder video for your prospects can help you drive sales through your pipeline.. For example, if a consumer shows interest in your product but hasn't purchased it yet, you can send a friendly video reminder.
Similar to welcome emails, personalized videos like these can help your prospects make a decision. These reminders are also great for reviving the connection with existing customers, becoming an integral part of your retention campaign.
For example, if a prospect has scheduled a meeting with you, including a personalized video in your email to remind them of your call will help build rapport and increase your meeting show rate.
Blog: How Personalize Video Will Improve your Sales Process & Close More Deals
6. Team Updates and Reports
In addition to making videos for your target audience, you can use Soapbox to communicate information to your internal teams. If time is tight and someone can’t hop on a call, you can record an educational video and share it with them to review at their convenience.
Since Soapbox videos are easy to make, your entire team can use them to share information during different projects. From employee onboarding to troubleshooting, you can record and use these videos as long as they’re relevant and helpful.
7. Social Media
Short videos are an essential part of social media marketing. If you are creating marketing materials for Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more, Soapbox can become an irreplaceable tool.
With the ability to edit and reformat videos on the spot, you can create a diverse variety of social media materials quickly.
Final Thoughts
As a tactic with a high barrier to entry, video marketing is high-performing but can be intimidating for smaller marketing teams. Wistia lowered this barrier and made video creation accessible to anyone with a webcam. While it doesn’t produce the highest quality videos, Soapbox offers marketers a new way to engage their audiences and harness the power of video without having to invest in any special equipment.
Try out Wistia's Soapbox today to see how videos can help your everyday marketing efforts.
If you’re ready to take the step towards studio-produced videos, contact our team to learn how we can help.
