When used right, stock footage can help enhance your marketing campaign. Stock videos look professional and help fill in the gaps when you don’t have the time or the inspiration to shoot original content.
Also, many of the big-name companies use stock footage because it lowers the costs of production and produces great results. However, the secret to these results is to know how to integrate stock videos (and images) in your campaigns without anyone knowing the difference.
If you want to learn more about using stock videos to enhance your content, here are a few tips to keep in mind.
1. Shine on Social Media
Stock footage makes your content look great and professional, which is quite helpful when you’re competing for attention on social media. As amazing as social media is, the fact that you only have a mere two to three seconds to make your mark on the audience is incredibly challenging for marketers and creators.
This is why stock footage can help. First, it can provide inspiration in those dire moments when you can’t think of anything good. Second, it helps elevate your content with well-shot angles and interesting image compositions.
Now that you’ve discovered the treasure trove of stock videos, all you need is some social media management tips, and your campaigns will be ready to shine!
2. Let Your Creativity Flow
The demand for video content is only going to increase over the following couple of years, so it’s a good idea to learn how to twitch and edit your footage. However, besides great editing skills, high-quality videos also require time, good ideas, and reliable equipment.
Plus, more often than not, the production costs of one short video are not exactly low. Depending on the topic, what you want to express, and who you want to depict, your costs can easily balloon up.
This is why a good stock video library is an excellent tool in any video content creator’s toolkit. The initial investment is low, and you can use your editing skills to make the videos yours. Plus, there are lots of video effects for editing the footage and giving it a more authentic feel, such as effects, music, voiceovers, and more.
Sometimes, all you need is inspiration, the right stock footage, and editing skills to create amazing campaigns for your brand.
3. Bring Emotions into Your Branding
Due to the fleeting nature of social and other online media, many companies use micro-moments to inspire their audiences into action. These are short video moments (less than 15 seconds) that transmit powerful emotions and direct viewers toward a specific action (follow this link, subscribe to my newsletter, like this page, etc.).
Of course, it’s not easy, nor is it cheap, to create a high-quality and engaging micro-moment. But stock footage can help reduce the costs and the time invested by providing inspiring backgrounds, people, or activities or by setting the mood.
When you use stock footage, you reduce the costs and the effort needed to create engaging content for your audience.
#4: Align Your Campaigns with a Cause
People love to see their favorite brands and creators getting involved in social issues or supportig various causes. But unless you’re out there actively getting involved in events or volunteering (and filming while doing so), you don’t have any visual representation of your support.
Plus, supporting a cause doesn’t necessarily mean getting actively involved. You can also do so by making donations, talking about the cause, or trying to get your friends and family involved. Support takes many forms, and some are less visual than others.
Many companies and creators use their platforms to spread the word about a cause they support. And this is where cause-related stock footage comes in handy.
A great example of such a campaign comes from SoFi, a company focused on student loan refinancing. In 2017, they used stock footage to create a marketing campaign aimed at raising awareness of the fact that student loan debt is not something to take lightly.
#5: Make Your Educational Content More Entertaining
Educational content doesn’t have to be bland. In fact, people learn better and faster when they watch a fun and inspiring video instead of reading a how-to long article!
Tutorials, examples, and explanations look better in video format, and now you have the tools to make them engaging! You can use colorful landscapes, images of happy people, footage of animals, and a lot more to attract people’s attention and keep it.
Stock footage provides you with the pieces missing from your storytelling strategy, so don’t be afraid to use it.
Wrap Up
Video content is an amazing way to attract audiences and promote your brand. However, good content is not easy to come by and requires serious financial and time investments. This is why stock footage is such an amazing option for creators and marketing people out there. It provides you with most of the puzzle pieces, and all you have to do is put them together!