Where to use your advertising budget 2022

The New Year is always a good time for making decisions about the direction of a company for the next 12 months. There are few more crucial decisions than where and how to spend your marketing budget for maximum impact.

Get it right, and the rewards can be considerable. Get it wrong, and it’s at the very least a missed opportunity. For many businesses, successfully deploying their marketing budget is not only an optional extra, it’s key to the future viability of the business.

Every marketing strategy needs video

Our online habits are increasingly interconnected. Our tech-led lives mean that video content has never been more important for businesses. In the age of social media and online content sharing, the ability to grab attention and inspire consumers is a powerful tool in any marketeers armoury.  

From product videos, short snappy social media content, to TV advertising, our culture is increasingly visual. Not only are people consuming more visual content, but their expectations about that content are also becoming more exacting. Consumers expect high-quality content, and anything that’s substandard may be overlooked.

Although creating your own low-budget video content, perhaps using a smartphone, may seem like a good way to reduce costs, it’s unlikely to be effective in showcasing the true strength of your brand.

Professional video content should be a priority in 2022.

Outline your key marketing goals

Before you begin deciding how you intend to slice your 2022 marketing pie, it’s important to think about your goals. If you’re using video as part of your marketing strategy then there are four broad goals that can shape your approach:

Reach new target groups

Video is unrivalled when it comes to reaching new audiences. This is particularly true when used in conjunction with social media. However, think about other potential channels where you could target a new audience, such as through TV advertising or email marketing.

Captivate and inspire

Nothing helps consumers engage more than visual images. They play an essential role when it comes to capturing and inspiring your audience. Video provides a more interactive and engaging experience than static images or text alone.

Convert

No other medium converts quite like video. It inspires passion and emotion - two key ingredients when it comes to turning driving converts. Video enables you to convey more complex emotions and can engage your audience on a different level to text. Crucially, it can even overcome language and cultural barriers.

Educate

Education will often play a key part in marketing, particularly if your product, service or approach is new and untested. Whether you’re selling B2C or B2B, providing information and education in an engaging way can be a great way to support your marketing message.

The return of the TV advert

Prior to social media and online content, video marketing was dominated by TV advertising. Over the years the number of channels has proliferated, most of them being commercial and keen to secure advertisers. As a result, TV advertising as a marketplace has become more competitively priced for would-be advertisers and more accessible.  

Although it’s been overlooked in the past, TV advertising still delivers a huge business advantage. It can help drive market share as well as providing scale and reach. People also trust TV and it provides advertisers with the ability to buy the exact amount of viewers that they need. You can also target your advertising to specific audiences or times of the year that suit your product or services.

Television can also create word of mouth, with people sharing their impressions of advertising they have seen and engaged with. TV advertising has the potential to become an event in itself, with many of the big retailers rolling out Christmas advertising with movie production values.

As well as helping you reach a larger audience, TV advertising still has a degree of prestige, particularly when compared to online advertising. Add to this the ability to better target your audience, and the fact that this audience is to a larger degree captive and you have a powerful set of reasons why TV advertising is enjoying something of a renaissance.

Get on new platforms

The world of social media may be dominated by a number of key players but the landscape is continually evolving and changing. TikTok is increasingly becoming the video platform of choice for an ever-growing demographic. While older users still veer towards Facebook, younger groups now look elsewhere, with the fast-moving video platform becoming the destination of choice when it comes to video content.

Tik Tok now has over 1 billion monthly users making it a serious social media player but there are other emerging platforms to look out for too. Twitch was launched in 2011 and has over 140 million monthly active users. Initially dominated by live-streaming gamers, it now provides a platform for video content as well as marketing opportunities. Other platforms to investigate include Discord and Clubhouse, as well as established offshoots of existing platforms such as Instagram Reels and Twitter Spaces.

The emerging platforms of today are the social media giants of the future, and if you’re interested in reaching younger demographics it’s important to look beyond Facebook.

Don’t neglect your existing social media platforms

While it’s important to be looking at new outlets for your video content, your existing audience will be expecting new video content. Think about how you can offer them something new and surprising in 2022.

Go professional

Video content standards are getting higher year-on-year and if you’ve been making your own video content in the past, then it may be getting overlooked. Professional video content can transform your marketing, increasing engagement and lead to more conversions.

At Eight Engines, we bring our award-winning video creation experience to your marketing. Call 0161 974 1319 or email Info@eightengines.com to find out more about how we can help.