As a health club marketer, there are a variety of mediums and channels you can pour your time and energy into. But have you considered video marketing — specifically for social media?
“With video accounting for 70-80% of all consumer internet traffic, incorporating video content into your strategy is more important than ever,” explained Lindsay Ray Dowrick, the video content creator and videographer for Newtown Athletic Club. “And it’s only going to keep growing. Social content and video are the greatest tools to sell — without selling — because of its powerful reach. As no surprise, our video content on social media reaches over three times as many people compared to an image or text of its type.”
As a result, Dowrick advises using video over photos whenever you can in your marketing strategy.
“When defining video campaign goals, the way to encourage a consumer to take action is by providing something of value to them or making them feel something in connection with what you’ve provided,” added Dowrick. “Don’t be afraid to provide free, valuable content or to show your club’s personality. Members will feel more connected to your brand and other members this way. If they say a picture is worth a thousand words, then how much is a video worth?”
Here, Dowrick shares additional tips for creating video content specifically for social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
CS: What should clubs keep in mind when creating a video specifically for Facebook?
LD: A club should focus on bringing value to its viewers. Make sure you grab the attention of the viewer the first five seconds, and dive into the valuable content right away. Facebook caters to long-form video, however most people viewing do not have their sound on. If I could give one tip about creating Facebook videos: make them with closed captioning. This will increase the watch time, especially for mobile viewers. Generally, the sweet spot for videos is one to three minutes, unless otherwise necessary.
CS: What are tips for videos that will appear on Instagram?
LD: As a strictly mobile platform, most users are scrolling without the sound on. The best tip for Instagram posts is to create short-form videos that are shareable. I recommend that videos stay under 30 seconds on Instagram, unless you’re utilizing IGTV (Instagram TV). IGTV is fairly new and I believe it will become the new YouTube in the future. We saw this happen with Instagram Stories — it took a few years to gain traction and now it’s crucial for providing social content.
In addition, for those who use their cell phones to video — video in the vertical format is where we’re going. This approach is much more natural to your viewers on Instagram and has a longer scrolling time, since the video dimensions are bigger. I found that since switching our Instagram feed to strictly short-form video (check out @newtownac for ideas), we grew our following organically by 1,000 followers and now it’s our second most important social platform.
CS: Are there tips you can share for Instagram Stories specifically?
LD: People who are on social media want to see what’s going on. Instagram Stories are perfect to acknowledge what is going on at your club right now — we call these #HappeningNow posts. You can make the content extremely time sensitive and relevant since they disappear in just 24 hours. I recommend three to seven stories in a 24-hour period. If there are too many, people will skip your story completely.
CS: What app or software do you use to edit or make videos?
LD: I use Final Cut Pro X Editing software, which is only for Mac. For PCs, you can use Adobe Premiere Pro and accomplish the same thing. If you’re creating a strong video content strategy, knowing how to edit into vertical dimensions is important.
CS: What tools do you use to measure engagement or manage social media?
LD: For Facebook, we use Facebook Insights Creator to analyze how each video is performing as well as make business decisions to reach our audience at the right time, in the right place with the right message. Instagram analytics only provide a week’s worth of tracking, so you need to stay on top of it if you’re tracking that. Some of my video-specific KPIs include shares, watch time, likes and impressions. We also use Google Analytics to show new traffic to a page on our website with unique landing pages for important campaigns.
CS: Are there any other tips you can share for social video content?
LD: Video content should be educational, entertaining or emotional (with storytelling or even humor). Following these guidelines will help your viewer stay around and feel something every time they watch — and make them share it.
Imagine trying to say how your club changes people’s lives? It comes off disingenuous and not as credible compared to if a member did. Testimonials are the best way to do this. They sell your brand without you having to do it, and most members are honored and excited to be filmed about something they’re passionate and happy about. In the near future, I plan on highlighting member’s lives in correlation to their lifestyle here at the Newtown Athletic Club and really make our content around members.
BONUS Tips from Lindsay Ray Dowrick:
A unique way to promote new trainers is by providing a workout that members can try on their own. We videoed and listed a workout from a new trainer. This can be done on a cell phone. This created a touchpoint for the trainer and for your brand with members. We then took the workout and made it into an infographic for those who like content in different ways.
Find ways to venture into something unexpected. For example, for the launch of our new boutique studios, we took the videos outside of the club to capture the feel of each studio. We filmed yoga in a field in the middle of our local park. We even filmed a video in a closet with a black light for our HIIT studio. The point is, members saw a video from the NAC, but were curious because it clearly wasn’t within their club. Never be scared to try a new type of video, you might be surprised by the success of the ones you took a leap of faith on.
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
