The Power of Music in Video Marketing, accept the silence.
I’ve got a challenge for you. Please find me one person who manages to sit completely still when watching the 1980 classic film “The Blues Brothers”. It features brilliant songs by the likes of Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. The vibrant energy in the film makes you want to ‘shake your tail feather’. That is what a combination of perfect visual imagery and great music does to you. That is the power of music in video.
Music can make or break your video content. Hiring a composer to create a bespoke piece for your brand works brilliantly. Music plays such a vital role in the overall audience experience. Just remember those two notes in the Jaws theme tune. Alternating between an E and an F brings a suspense to the film that couldn’t be achieved with imagery alone. You should not take your decision on the background music lightly.
There are numerous academic studies that prove the effectiveness of music in retail shops. The type of music, the volume, the variation, it all influences purchase decisions. And so, most retail shops rightfully pay attention to the music they have on in the background. Video marketing is no different. Music will influence the way we perceive the content.
(The lack of) Background music in Online Video Marketing
There is a good chance that your video marketing strategy includes posting your content on different social media networks. If it doesn’t, it should. Every social media platform has its perks and restrictions, but most of them have one amazing feature in common: autoplay.
Videos that show up the a user’s feed often start to play automatically. A user doesn’t necessarily have to press play to see your content. But to hear it – that’s a different matter altogether. Most platforms with autoplay disable the sound as a default. A user has to make the conscious decision to consume your content with sound. So how do we harness the power of music in online video marketing?
If we take Facebook as an example, we can see that 85% of the videos are watched without sound. This shows that you really need to think about how you will convey your message if people aren’t hearing what you have to say. However, Facebook did discover that the average watch time increases by 12% when you add captions to your video.
Producing video content for social media
We’ve already established that music plays an important role in the audience experience. But for social media, we can’t rely on it to help you set the mood. Your visual imagery should be strong enough to seduce your audience to engage with your video.
In this context it is important to consider the use contextual footage. Think about the visual imagery that your audience would want to see and would engage with. As a business, you will probably have an amazing offer for your clients and customers. There must be an amazing story to share with your audience. So when the time is right to produce your social media video content, think about how you can show it to your audience without speaking to them about it. Show, don’t tell is best advice we can give you.
Strong visual imagery helps
There is one additional benefit in creating visually appealing and engaging content. And that is an increased probability that you will get noticed. Just imagine the multitude of posts someone might see when they’re scrolling through their newsfeed on Facebook. On average, every Facebook user has more than 1500 posts competing for their attention at any given point in time. And only 300 of those posts actually make it to the news feed. Strong and engaging visual imagery is your best option to stand out.
Back to the power of music
Music is powerful. It sets the mood and influences the audience. So when you are working on your video marketing content, make sure your audience gets a chance to hear it. Create engaging visual content that makes people curious, that makes them make that conscious decision to turn on the audio. It’s the only way to make your audience see AND hear your message.
