How to Prepare an Online Video for Distribution in Foreign Markets

Videos are now a very popular marketing tool. A survey done by Wyzowl shows 63% of businesses use video to sell their products and services and consider videos a crucial part of their marketing strategy.

Videos produced are posted on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and also on company websites. And that is a good thing because many customers would love to see a product or service in action before they make a decision to pay for it.

Creating videos, however, can be expensive. The cameras, lights or editing equipment needed can take a big chunk of your marketing budget. That is why I would recommend that you outsource the video production process.

Working with a reputable video production company will ensure you have quality videos. The company can also help you translate these videos for your various markets and advise on how to distribute them. There is nothing as bad as having grainy videos or videos without translations for the targeted audience. Such videos put off potential customers and cost you revenue.

So what are the dos and don’ts when it comes to using video marketing for your international market? Read on to find out.

Ensure your videos are translated for all your markets

Customers love to be sold a product in their native language. Yes, English rules the internet but if you talk to existing and potential customers in their local language I bet you’ll get more sales. So rule number one when making videos is: Keep in mind that you’ll have to translate them.

To save on costs consider hiring actors or presenters who can speak several foreign languages. That way they can be able to do the videos in English and the other languages you need the video in.

If your videos are done through narrations you can hire a translation service to do voice overs in the required languages for the global market. If possible, the translators used should be native speakers of the language, as this will give your message more credibility.

Include captions on social media videos

You already know that social media are huge. According to Statista there “over 2 billion people using the various social media platforms. On average, the daily social media usage of global internet users amounted to 135 minutes.” That’s why video marketing on Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat is growing fast.

When making videos for social media be sure you include captions for different languages. Why? Most people on Facebook don’t watch videos with the sound on. This is probably because they are checking their social media feeds during working hours or while on their way to work.

So if your video lacks translated captions it is very easy for potential clients to ignore it and scroll to the next video which could be your competitor’s video. I’m sure you don’t want that to happen.

Adding captions is not hard. You can do so using native tools of a given medium or incorporate them into your video content.

Get your video out there with paid video marketing campaigns

Posting your video on your social media pages and website is a good first step. But if you really want to use them to market your products, pay for them to be advertised to a larger and targeted audience. The more your video is viewed the more traffic your website receives and if your conversion rate is good, sales will  increase.

Facebook, for example, allows businesses to pay for ads on their network. And, it is not random advertising. Facebook uses Facebook Pixel, which helps them collect information about buyers. They share this information when advertising your videos they are seen by your target audience. That means you get the age, gender, location, profession of users who  may end up buying from you. Pretty cool, right?

You don’t have to pay to advertise every video you create. Come up with a calendar for when to advertise and when to simply post new videos on your pages.

Remember content is king, distribution is queen. That means it is better to spend less on creating videos and more on distributing them. There is no need for having dozens of high-quality videos which no one views.

Team up with local Influencers

As a business, you don’t have to be the one creating your product videos all the time. When you enter a new country, reach out to influential bloggers, YouTube Vloggers or those with huge Instagram following.

They can create their own videos of your products and tell their followers why they should use them. When they post such videos on their social media pages your product will get the attention it requires to create referral traffic to your website.

You’ll have to pay the local influencer but the partnership will be a win-win. Your business gets potential leads and the influencers generate revenues from their platform.

Another positive is you will not need to have a larger budget to produce or translate videos as the person you work with speaks to customers in their native language and produces the videos themselves.

For this type of agreement to work you must have a good product otherwise no one will want to put their reputation at risk selling something that could harm or disappoint their followers.

Translation of video content? We will take care of it!