Cycling, climbing, hunting, fishing—as an outdoor sports or performance brand, you know your audience’s drive for adventure won’t be satisfied by stiff video production. Your customers are doers. They want to be on the trail or in the water, not staring at their phones. So how do you get these outdoors enthusiasts’ attention on your social feeds or website? High-impact video production. Creative high-definition marketing can fuel interest in performance gear and spark newbies to step out of their comfort zones. When your outdoor brands’ videos push the limits of what’s expected, your social media followers are engaged, ignited, and ready to hit the trails, water, or woods with your gear or guide service.
Increase Engagement With Authentic Video Storytelling
HubSpot’s marketing statistics reported that engagement rates for video content remain at a high 38% for content up to 30 minutes long, making video production a strategic play for outdoor brands to increase engagement and expand their reach. Sprout Social revealed that 87% of marketers say video directly increased sales, offering big opportunities for lifestyle companies and outfitters looking to grow their brands and increase online engagement.
If you’re still on the fence about investing in video content, remember that this medium helps more than brand awareness alone. Whether it’s on social or your website, video production for outdoor brands increases audience interaction to solidify your reputation, increase customer loyalty, and generate leads amongst an entire community of hobbyists:
Empowers Storytelling
Adventure-seekers are more likely to hike a mountain than read a book about it, which is exactly why outdoor brands need high-quality videos to attract these hands-on consumers. Videos speak to this crowd in their language, providing more effective, memorable storytelling than blocks of copy or static images. People remember products, messages, and a brand’s mission when the information is delivered through creative visuals with a strong viewpoint. This also helps consumers feel like active participants and increases the likelihood they’ll like and share the content.
Creates Visceral Responses
When a video captures a product, like a paddleboard or fishing rod in use, viewers imagine the perfect day on the water—with your product. They crave the saltwater spray and the feel of a bass on their line. These emotional responses to videos go a long way to selling an experience, and a product. That’s why we recommend hunting and fishing brands and performance companies include video production in high-converting marketing strategies.
Forges Relationships
Your outdoor brand is more than a logo, and video production can lend your company the personality and points of view that build relationships with online audiences. Consumers expect to hear business updates and product news through authentic, honest content, and videos excel at this. Produce behind-the-scenes tours or employee interviews to speak directly with your audience, helping them to feel appreciated and to build their sense of loyalty.
Highlights Products
It’s hard to replicate in-person shopping experiences, but videos come close. Performance brands can showcase a product’s craftsmanship in vivid detail by shooting a high-production video showing its features, material textures, and quality. Explaining how a subscription-based hiking app or a specialized oyster-shucking knife solves a person’s problems in real time builds trust among your audience, and these visuals make any product concept easy to understand.
Establishes Brand Expertise
Your company doesn’t need to rely solely on product descriptions to communicate what differentiates your outdoor brand from competitors—show it using high-quality videos. When shoppers see and hear the benefits of a hunting blind or performance gear from a company spokesperson who speaks with confidence and expertise, the information sticks. User-generated content from influencers or reliable outdoor personalities can illustrate who your current customers are and show that your products are designed for experts.
Carves Brand Identity
Adventurers, hunters, and hikers love nature and value like-minded companies. Outdoor brands can use video production to highlight sustainability, conservation, or other environmental efforts and set their company apart. Mentioning these initiatives in engaging videos gives much-deserved attention to environmentally friendly brand practices and sets the record straight on your brand’s identity or mission.
Increases Online Visibility
Every outdoor brand strives to be seen in this competitive industry, but not all realize that video production helps boost visibility in the search engine results. High-quality videos catch—and keep—viewers’ attention, increasing page dwell times on your website and social feeds. Analyzing this consumer behavior shows you which content is relevant and valuable. Google rewards engaging content by boosting its position in the search engine results, making it easier for a wider audience to find your brand and interact with your content.
Tips for Outdoor Brands’ Video Production for Social Media
Algorithms for social media platforms change frequently, but one thing that has remained steady is a preference for video content. When social media marketing includes sharable and likable content, you’ll generate meaningful interactions that can translate into loyal customers and increased leads. Accomplish this using the tips below for social media video production.
Tailor Your Videos by Platform
Social media video for outdoor brands needs to consider each platform and tailor the content appropriately, because each channel has guidelines for optimal viewing, and the audiences have preferences, too. A 15- to 30-second video is sufficient for nearly any social media platform, but YouTube and LinkedIn are two channels that accommodate longer, often more educational or in-depth, videos. Check out this list of content lengths with positive engagement for each channel:
- TikTok: Authentic short-form videos (15 to 30 seconds) that educate or entertain draw the highest Tok engagement rates.
- Facebook: Brief, attention-getting videos perform well—keep these under 15 seconds.
- Threads: Videos shorter than 15 seconds and longer than 60 seconds are two of the top performers for Threads.
- X (formerly Twitter): Supporting traditional posts with short-form videos can be an effective marketing strategy to garner higher engagement rates on this text-forward platform.
- YouTube: Long-form video (exceeding 60 seconds) solidifies the top spot for YouTube engagement, but Shorts have become popular and worth exploring.
- Instagram: Users on this visual channel prefer shorter videos and the platform limits stories and feed videos to 60 seconds and Reels to 90 seconds.
- LinkedIn: Keep these quick tips and announcements to 30 to 60 seconds, but the platform allows for much longer videos when you need to dive into an educational topic.
Utilize Cross-Posting and Repurposing
If you’ve produced video content for outdoor brands, then you understand the effort these initiatives require. When you’ve invested in quality video production, get the most out of your content by cross-posting it to applicable channels or repurposing it to work across various channels. Long-form how-to videos and educational series that performed well on YouTube should be repurposed and reformatted for TikTok ads and Instagram teasers to squeeze every bit of engagement out of your production.
There’s a reason some brands haven’t fully embraced video production yet—time and resources. If you don’t have a team dedicated to creating video content, teasers, and social posts, it doesn’t mean you can’t compete. Contact our outdoor marketing team today for integrated, cross-channel support, including full-service video production and social media management, and unleash your brand’s potential.