Lights, Camera, Action: Make the Most of Year End Grant Funds with Video

Can you believe that the end of September is right around the corner? We know our friends in the community health sector can! That’s because every September as their fiscal year draws to a close, some organizations may be faced with an important dilemma: what to do with leftover grant funding.

In the era of COVID when many community health organizations are struggling to get their services across to those in need, an engaging approach is more relevant than ever. While we’ve covered some basic education and awareness tactics before, this blog is all about video.

Ready to take action? Here are some of our top video marketing tips to get you camera-ready.

Why Video?

With apps like TikTok skyrocketing in popularity, you don’t need to be a marketing expert to see that video is reaching younger audience members more than any other channel. Video is so popular that Instagram recently announced it’s shifting its focus from serving as a photo-sharing app to one focused on sharing videos via the Story feature, along with Reels, a.k.a. their version of TikTok.

Plus, according to Cisco, by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic –– that’s 15 times higher than it was just four years ago in 2017! What’s more, viewers retain 95% more when they watch a video in comparison to a 10% retention rate when reading text (as a friendly reminder, you can also watch our Marketing Monday video on this topic too!).

The beauty of video is that it’s more important to make something authentically you and put it in front of your audience than worrying about production value. Professionally made videos and a quick video recorded on your iPhone will both gain positive traction and generate more engagement than photos or text alone. And with numbers as impressive as those listed above, the real question is, why not video?

Videos > Photos

More and more social media platforms are coming out in favor of video over photos or text. Like we mentioned above, Instagram is prioritizing video in users’ feeds with Facebook echoing the same sentiment (they are owned by the same company, after all). Similarly, TikTok has likely gained notoriety among younger generations because it’s a video-only platform. 

Along those lines, can you guess what the number two search engine in the world is? Amazingly, it’s not a traditional search engine website. It’s actually YouTube! YouTube’s user-friendly interface, coupled with the popularity of video content, rakes in 3 billion searches per month –– making its search volume larger than that of Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask.com combined.

Simply put, people are looking for videos. It’s yet another reason why video will get your message to more people now than ever before.  

Lights, Camera, Action

When it comes to accurately getting across the right emotional tone, video is always your best bet. A good place to start is with testimonials from a passionate client who learned an important lesson that your services helped them navigate.

Let’s say your message is mental health-related and you want your audience to understand the importance of asking for help when they need it. A video with someone talking about their mental health journey is an incredibly impactful way to get your message across because it allows the audience to associate a face with the message. To go back to testimonials, the stories of clients who have benefited from your services can be both emotional and educational. How did they change their life? What services did they use of yours in order to overcome what they were going through? All of this makes for great content that can be shared in fewer than 30 seconds.

Other video options include recording online workshops and then parceling that content out onto social media, or even in a digital ad. Similarly, don’t forget about animation. If you have an impactful infographic or a brochure that would make a visually appealing online animation, that’s another way to create video. Sprinkle in the right musical cues and you’ve got movie magic. 

Video is a key tool to create public awareness and an excellent use of end-of-year grant dollars. We hope the tools we’ve mentioned here have you ready for your close-up. Looking for someone to provide direction on your next community health blockbuster? We’re here to help!

For more information, visit KidGlov.com/community-health or drop us a line.