91% of brands utilize video marketing in some capacity. Destinations must use a video marketing strategy to stand out from the competition. But what’s the best way to incorporate video into your destination marketing?
Today, we’re sharing video marketing best practices from Forge Apollo’s travel video production team. Use these tips to kickstart your travel video marketing, or contact us to learn more.
1. Find an Authentic Voice
Before creating any content for your brand, take a moment to establish or review your brand’s voice. It’s also helpful to tap into your target audience’s voice during this stage.
Consumers want authentic interactions online, which means content with a natural voice. Put down the stiff destination marketing bullet points and tap into your brand’s story.
2. Start With a Call to Action
Before starting your video, it’s essential to know your ultimate message and call to action. That will help you effectively structure your video.
For example, Forge Apollo produced this video for Secrets Resorts and Spas with the ultimate message that a getaway at their resort can help couples reconnect. Without that message, the video would be cute, but it wouldn’t connect with viewers to drive action in the same way.
3. Consider Aspect Ratios and Distribution Platforms
Where do you plan to post this video? On your website? On social platforms?
Answering these questions can help you identify which aspect ratios you need. For example, a video on your website would do best in a horizontal, 16:9 aspect ratio. A vertical aspect ratio does better when posting a video on an Instagram story, Reels, or TikTok.
When Forge Apollo produced the following videos for Jersey Shore tiki bar The Point’s social media ads, we optimized three different aspect ratios for different ad placements.
16:9 (Horizontal)
1:1 (Square)
9:16 (Vertical)
Knowing the necessary aspect ratios before shooting a video allows you to capture the proper footage instead of realizing too late that you need a vertical video and none of your shots work.
4. Create a Content Library
Maximize the content collected in one shoot to build a content library for your brand. Content libraries allow brands to maximize video ROI by pulling multiple assets from it, like photographs and shorter video cuts.
For example, Forge Apollo created a content library of 245 high-end assets from one shoot.
5. Promotion
Creating a video is only a part of the video marketing process. Many brands make the fatal mistake of putting all the effort on creation and none on promotion. Even the best video has a low chance of success if all you do is upload it to your brand’s YouTube channel.
Forge Apollo has helped brands with promotion to help their videos be as successful as possible. We helped Breathless Spas and Resorts distribute their Evolution of the Bikini video to get over 22 million social views.
Distribute your video on all channels according to your performance goals.
6. Evaluate Video Success
Measuring success is the key to understanding the effectiveness of your videos and improving them over time. Before creating a campaign, set some goals for the number of views, impressions, click-throughs, and other essential metrics.
After you’ve promoted your video, evaluate the results. Did it resonate with your audience the way you thought it would? Did they watch the whole thing or fall off at a certain point? Did you get enough ROI from the project?
With this information, you can make your next video even better.
Turn to Forge Apollo for Tourism Video Marketing
Integrating destination marketing video into your strategy can feel daunting. Your team can start on solid ground with these video marketing best practices. If you need help with video production, we’re here. Forge Apollo is a Philadelphia-based video production agency, but we travel the globe to capture video for our clients. Contact us today to discuss creating high-quality travel videos.
