According to the New York Times, we are now entering a “Post-text World.” Written content is quickly becoming old-fashioned, while pictures and videos now tell stories of their own. Videos especially are a great way to connect with visitors and donors. They’re easy to consume and can be a great way to promote your business or non-profit. Here are three reasons why non-profits might use videos on their websites.
Video gives a face to the organization
According to BrightLocal’s report, an estimated 77% of web users have viewed video content on their social media channels at least once in the past month, and almost two-thirds of those have seen at least one video on their Facebook page in the past month. Videos are a great way to provide an overview of your organization that is easily accessible to viewers.
While written content can get boring pretty fast, videos keep you interested for a long time. The combination of infographics, pictures, storytelling, and animations gets you hooked instantly. While it can take time to read a whole paragraph to understand the mission and vision, videos can explain the same thing in less than 30 seconds.
You can create a brand around your non-profit organization using videos with similar themes and topics to show the values you promote and projects you engage in. Even though people have not seen your organization’s work, videos can help them get up close and personal with the work you do.
Promote a Specific Campaign with Video
Videos can be an ideal tool for running a successful campaign. For a non-profit organization, you can use videos to build around a specific project you are working on. You can walk your viewers through the whole process to get them interested. This will encourage volunteers to work with you, and donors can better understand the type of projects you take on.
Video is a great way to also promote a large event (or you could put the entire event online!)
Visual mediums are compelling as they prove the hard work and dedication that goes into the organization. With suitable themes, you can connect your audience to your work. You need to create awareness about the non-profit organization and the type of work you do. People need to get familiar with who you are and what you stand for. You can also educate them on any misinterpretations regarding your work or what they can do to help. By creating such awareness and educational videos, people will start considering you an authority on topics you discuss.
Vision Casting is a fantastic technique for non-profit organizations, especially if you want to promote a specific campaign. Vision casting videos are main impression videos that introduce your organization or campaign to the people. It shows your visions and goals you want to achieve. You can add one of these videos on the landing page of your website or create one for each page of your website.
By using a narrative technique, you can tell stories of different people the organization has helped. You need to elevate the people you have helped rather than your organization.
An essential part of the video strategy for a not-for-profit organization is not focusing on the organization but the people it serves. You should highlight different heroic stories from the people you helped or any volunteers that have grown under your organization.
Direct people to other pages on your website
An average user spends 88% more time on a website that has video options. If you want to give your audience a quick preview of all of your organization, a video will help you do that with ease. Create some highlights of all the previous works and merge them into a short, engaging video.
To ensure a strong video marketing strategy, make sure your video is easily accessible on all platforms. You can share it on all social media platforms and link your website below it so people can reach out to you. By creating collaborations with multiple other such organizations, you can expand your audience and reach.
You can also add videos to your emails, especially for donors and volunteers. Personalize the videos to show the other person how much to value their support.
Apart from creating exciting video content, your video needs to have an element of mystery that must leave the audience wanting more so they can come to visit your website. You can give them a few glimpses of the people you serve and ask them to come to visit your website for more information.
Conclusion
It is the age of social media now, and people’s attention span is decreasing over time with so many other interesting options to explore. Video content is a step in the right direction as they are much easier to go through than text. Keep your videos short, simple, and engaging. You can share behind the scenes, answer any questions or give them a peek into a special event. Such videos will help humanize and establish your organization.
