How to Make Creative that Converts (Not How to be a Videographer)
Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorcese, James Cameron and Alfred Hitchcock– what do they all have in common?
They don’t sell.
Not even their high-budget blockbuster movies sold themselves. Even the most amazing films of our time needed trailers and word of mouth to convince people to go, and the trailers even miss the mark with sales sometimes.
You’ve probably seen lots of beautiful ads with world-class cinematography and famous spokespeople, but is that enough to sell a product?
You can have an amazing product, but if you can’t explain what it is and how it helps your consumer in a clear and distinct way, your ad won’t convert.
Here’s how to make creative content that will sell on social media…
Get my attention!
The first thing a consumer sees should stop their thumb from scrolling for at least 3 seconds. That’s all you get. Maybe you’re selling a broom-related product– You might have a witch flying on a broom super fast, crash into a wall, and hold up her broken broom. Now you bring in the broom product to fix a problem the everyday consumer has when dealing with their brooms. You have yourself a problem and a solution explained in a clever and attention-grabbing way.
It’s about the product (so don’t get married to a bad idea).
Your ideas have to be relatable and demonstrate to the consumer how the product will make their life better. Don’t let funny/weird/bad ideas pull the focus away from the central message of a product. “Our brooms clean the best.”
Make it relatable.
Instead of a witch flying on a broom and crashing into a wall, maybe the witch and all her coven friends over for a cocktail party, and the witch kicks open the door to a dusty, cobwebbed lair. Maybe there’s a crow sidekick for jokes or a funny little troll. Now, all of the sudden, the witch starts acting like a mortified mother, angry over a messy room.
Everyone has a mother, and most people’s mothers/fathers want a living space that makes a good impression on people who come over. Boom. Now it’s relatable.
Demonstrate your product’s value.
A dusty and cobweb filled witch lair is a perfect place to show close up shots of the broom sweeping away dirt in a single sweep, transforming a gross lair into a clean home. Add sales messaging points like comparing the broom to other broom products, showing how it outperforms other brands. If you have reviews, you can bring in customer testimonials. Having real people talk about your product legitimizes it.
The payoff is when the video nears the end and you show the arrival of the witch’s friends, who comment on how clean her home is. This makes the witch feel good about her decision to purchase and use your broom product. The consumer will want to feel that as well, and so they’ll associate your product with that feeling.
Give a call to action.
This can be the witch directly speaking to camera, or there can be an ominous voiceover that only the consumer hears. Either way, someone in the video needs to tell the consumer to “Click now” will feel an urgency to purchase.
Make subtitles.
These are a must for all your social media videos. Whether it’s a testimonial, demonstration, spokesperson or lifestyle, the video needs subtitles. Most people watch social videos without sound and just read subtitles because they’re not in a place where they can listen (work/school/toilet/etc.)
IMPORTANT to remember!
There can be multiple calls to action in a video. Also consumers can and should be told to buy before the end of a video.
BUT what if the business is a service and not a physical product?Simple– instead of close ups on a product, get shots of the service taking place in real life and show people’s reactions to the service.
