How to personalize your video content for different devices

In 2018, an article in Forbes called personalized video the “marketing breakthrough that brands need” (forbes.com).  

Five years later, we can confidently say that this “breakthrough” has increasingly become an established reality for various companies, brands, creators, and marketing professionals in general.  

Why? 

Because it’s the results themselves and the returns on investment of those who have decided to focus on personalized video marketing that speak loud and clear.

So, is there anything else to explore? 

No, far from it! 

Personalized marketing is not a “tool” that is acquired once and for all. Quite the opposite: it’s a change of attitude, an approach that, once implemented, triggers a positive spiral of continuous improvement and optimization of your strategies.

In this post, we want to focus on everything related to optimization of the different devices on which personalized videos can be deployed. 

We’ll do so by answering the question “how to personalize your video content for different devices?”

First, however, a premise about the concept of personalization itself is necessary.

What is personalization…in brief

The “turning point” of personalization, at its essence, is very simple.  

It breaks the pattern of traditional marketing (including digital marketing) that involves a company, brand, or creator packaging a communication—always the same—that is delivered to all the people who are part of its audience.  

Personalization, on the other hand, produces a “matrix” communication that, in an automated way, adapts to the characteristics of each individual recipient to whom it is delivered.

Think about it: the best way to persuade a person is to know him. Know his preferences, his needs, his tastes. Know his recurring behaviors. And, consequently, anticipate his possible desires.

Today, all of this can also be translated into the digital world. In other words, into the world of very large numbers of people. 

To put it even better: today, companies can have in-depth knowledge of their audience, even when it consists of thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions of people. 

How?

Thanks to data analysis, that is, the traces that we all leave online, from all kinds of devices, at any given moment. These traces perfectly tell “who we are,” where we live, who we interact with, the preferences and desires we have…and much more.

For companies and marketers, it’s about collecting these traces. Keeping them as secure as possible (and in accordance with legislative regulations, which are constantly being updated). Then putting them together, interpreting them in the best possible way.  

The result?

Generating a potentially infinite number of targeted communications that are tailored to each recipient…and with the ability to optimize them, again in an automated way, for each type of device. 

With that, we’re ready to enter the theme of the post.

How to personalize your video content for different devices – key aspects to consider

Our online experience is less and less linear, and we move more and more naturally from one device to another: desktops, laptops, tablets, and especially smartphones.

What does this mean for video marketers? 

It means knowing how to build your campaigns from an omnichannel perspective, paying close attention to everything related to optimization for different devices (and it’s not enough to say “smartphone,” because  there can be many technical and usage differences that are also very important between one smartphone and another).

It’s all the more critical when it comes to personalized video marketing. 

There are clearly many aspects to consider. Below we have isolated the ones that seem most important to us.

1) First of all, some technical issues

This is not the place to dwell on all the technical aspects of optimizing a video for different devices. 

However, there are some basic parameters to be taken into account: 

– the right resolution: this refers to the number of pixels per video frame 

– the frame rate: the number of frames per second that compose a video

To put it simply: as the resolution and frames per second increase, the quality of the videos increases…but, of course, so does the size of the files, with possible issues related to loading time.

Everything comes down to finding the right balance: offering the best quality without creating hiccups and slowdowns. Of course, while respecting the technical limitations and best practices for both the devices and the platforms on which you upload and distribute your video.

Here are some additional technical aspects that are unavoidable: 

– Use the right CODEC (i.e., file compression and decompression standard)

– upload the video with the right format (there are several; the most commonly used include: H.264, MP4, MOV, AVI, and MKV). Here, again, it’s about finding the right balance between quality, size, device, and platform rules.

2) The importance of responsive design

Considering this aspect is about embracing an approach for video design that makes all design elements (which are many in a video) adapt in an automated way to how different audiences view the different devices.

It’s another indispensable aspect of making sure that your content is always accessible, “readable,” and maximally effective for each individual viewer and their device, the precise screen size…but also, trivially, the orientation of the screen itself.

3) Adaptive content

Here we descend into an even more specific aspect related to responsive design mentioned above. 

Producing adaptive content means making sure that efficient communication always reaches the user, reducing the amount of unnecessary or redundant content. 

In short, it’s about using metadata and templates that define how content will vary as devices, platforms, but also about the changing ways that individuals use them.

What is upstream of automatic adaptation processes?

First, a breakdown of video content into smaller, more specific “portions” that are much easier to manage and well categorized. 

Following this, we can move on to establishing a hierarchy of content, based on its relevance and communicative importance…always in relation to the individual user and his or her viewing patterns.

4) Sounds and colors

Sounds and colors are two aspects that have a very clear (though sometimes subliminal) influence on the perceived quality of a video.  

Two aspects to think about very carefully also in relation to different devices and different audiences. 

When it comes to sound and color, it is always a matter of both pre-production and post-production: don’t forget this.

Without getting too technical, there are many factors that must be considered as far as “colors” are concerned, including lighting, exposure, contrasts, saturation, and temperature. 

For the audio side: everything related to microphone placement (input and output), possible noise, volume, tones, equalization.

In short, there are a large number of variables. 

A rule of thumb? 

Not everything is recoverable in post-production. Before shooting, it is always essential to consider the outputs in advance, anticipating possible problems and taking the right countermeasures in time.

5) Test, test, test

Let’s step out of strictly technical matters to bring up a best practice that is always valid, especially when it comes to omnichannel and personalized optimization.

Before distributing your video content to a mass audience, make sure to conduct thorough testing to evaluate its effectiveness and performance on different devices and platforms. This is the best way to correct any errors or problems, to gather feedback (all the better if personalized), and to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your campaigns. Ultimately it’s about maximizing your return on investment.

6) Finally, continually update and recalibrate

How can you personalize your video content for different devices? Here we come to the last item on our (certainly not exhaustive) list.  

Again, this is an enduring best practice for video marketing and digital marketing more generally.

It’s not just about testing. It’s also about being able to keep track of the results of your campaigns. 

Understanding what worked, what didn’t, for what specific targets, for what channels, for what device, under what conditions. With this wealth of lucidity and awareness in hand, it’s a matter of updating your campaigns, recalibrating them to make sure that they are always high performing, satisfying, and relevant to every single member of the audience, and doing it continually.

We would like to close with a couple of data points that marketers must keep in mind:

– In 2022, there were more than 6.5 billion smartphone users worldwide. 

– Also in 2022, more than 60% of web traffic was generated via mobile. 

(allconnect.com)

Translated: the optics for personalized video marketing must be omnichannel, sure. But the starting point, increasingly, is to optimize them for smartphones.