Introduction
If you are not adding video marketing to your content strategy, you are losing out on your customers.
Gone are the days when textual content and images were enough to help attract your audience. Around 85% of marketers have claimed that videos are an effective way to get the attention of your customers. Not only this, it is so powerful that 93% of brands already have new customers because of sharing videos on their social media platforms.
There are endless types of videos that are being used by brands. Some of these include augmented reality, 360° videos, live streaming, short clips, and more.
Several brands today are understanding the power of videos and investing their time and effort in creating them. There are also a plethora of channels that can be used to distribute these videos like social media applications with Facebook being the leading platform.
If you still haven’t incorporated videos in your strategy with the kind of growth it is experiencing, you are not future-proofing your brand.
Don’t worry. You can start now!
If you’re not sure how you can begin with your video marketing, let me help you out.
But first, understand why you need video marketing in your kitty so that you don’t back out if and when things get challenging.
Why
If you are not sure how video marketing can help you, here’s the answer.
- Brings great ROI
Indeed, creating a video is still neither cheap nor easy. But the returns we get from well-produced videos make it worth it. In fact, as video marketing is receiving more and more positive responses, there are new and affordable video production tools being launched in the market.
Apart from that, today we have smartphones with technology that can create decent videos for your brand. You don’t necessarily have to spend a lot on buying professional gears.
Another great thing about video marketing is that it is your content that’s the star of the show. The quality of videos matter but not as much till the time you are thoroughly explaining how a consumer can use your brand’s product(s) or service(s). So, you can get a few videos shot professionally while others can be made using less expensive equipment as well.
- Gain consumer trust
Gaining trust is of utmost importance in today’s time when there are several brands selling products that are similar to yours.
Your entire content marketing strategy is based on ways to gain your consumer’s trust and build relationships with them. Videos make it possible for you to do exactly that.
When you create well-planned and informative videos, something that adds value to the lives of the consumer and also, helps them find what they have been looking for, it can establish your brand as an authority. Consequently, your customers start trusting you instead of your competitors in the market.
You can add YouTube to your marketing strategy. It keeps the consumers engaged and makes it easy for you to promote your brand. It can also help attract new customers, thus increasing the chances of you making a sale.
- Boosts sales
Our end goal, irrespective of the brand, is generating conversions and sales. That’s where video marketing has proven to be a fabulous tactic.
Add a product video to your landing pages and see the magic happen. Of course, when it comes to your landing pages, the quality matters just as much as the content does. Thus, you should consider getting a product video produced by a professional. It can truly help you out.
Make your videos exciting and informative. If a picture is worth a thousand words, just imagine what a video can do.
- Helps with SEO
SEO is an important part of every digital marketing tactic. It helps your website rank on the top of the SERPs which gives your brand an upper hand as opposed to your competitors.
You can conduct a thorough SEO audit, improve your on-page SEO as suggested, and yet, you will always have websites with videos ranking better than you. Why? Because Google algorithm favors videos.
In fact, you can often see YouTube videos ranking for certain keywords. This happens because of the engagement – likes, shares, and comments a video received from users. Google always puts the audience first and categorizes the content accordingly.
The more engagement your video gets, the higher it’ll rank. Thus, you should definitely consider creating videos that are relevant and add value to the lives of your customers.
- Easily explain everything
You can only add so much content in a static image. Still, you are not sure how much content is actually being read by your customers. Or, even worse, how is it being perceived?
With videos, there are so many formats for you to choose from and create videos that can explain everything while keeping the users hooked.
These explainer videos allow your customers to start using your product quickly and without any hassles. This makes them stick around for longer and also, maybe turn into brand advocates.
One example of making your content interesting is an animated video. You can use animation to explain difficult concepts. It will be fun, educational, and also hit the nail when it comes to building an emotional connection. This is because it helps create a sense of nostalgia among the audience.
- Increases social shares
Social media has entwined itself in our lives in a way that it has now become an indispensable part of every business marketing strategy.
When you share interesting or useful videos, something that has been crafted with patience and creativity, it will get social shares from your existing audience. This results in improving your social value and helps expand your reach.
Your brand gets more visibility among your audience’s social network. This further increases the chances of you finding more prospects and consequently, generating more sales.
How
I know video marketing can get a little overwhelming, but don’t worry. Find below a few tips you should keep at your fingertips when planning a strategy.
- Establish a goal
First thing’s first. Before you start planning your storyboards and formats, take a step back. Before anything else, you must identify what you are trying to achieve with your video marketing efforts.
Is it brand awareness? Are you planning to use your video to convert leads into sales? Maybe you want to share an explainer video with your users once they have made the purchase? Or, is it all of the above?
Whatever your goal might be, it is best to identify it before you start planning your strategy. This is because it will make it easy for you to figure out what your videos should portray. You can also easily work on the scripts and messaging of your videos once you have the direction.
- Identify your target audience
Now that your goal is set, you should figure out who your audience is and where they are in the marketing funnel.
This is crucial to identify the tone and messaging of your videos.
Your audience is spread across different channels but there are certain channels where you will find a majority of your target group. You need to identify your audience so that you can easily choose a platform to distribute your videos.
Now, suppose your target group is individuals between 45 to 60 years. This is a demographic that can mostly be found on Facebook and YouTube. Thus, you should keep your distribution channels limited to these. Secondly, you would want to steer clear of the slang that the younger generation uses today. Your audience will not understand and it can push them away.
Hence, it’s important for you to know who you are targeting.
- Stick to your budget
It’s very easy to overspend on videos. Once you see the results coming in, it can be difficult to hold back. But not every video you create will perform exceptionally well and you must understand that.
Hence, you should always set a budget before you add video marketing to your strategy and stick to it. Whether it’s spending on props, ad budget, or hiring a professional, everything should get covered within the set budget.
Identify how many resources you have that can be utilized to create videos in-house and how much work would be necessary to outsource. Also, figure out what form of video you would like to use because some are more expensive than others. This decision can be made easier once you know your budget.
Plan it all. Without proper planning in place, you will spend way over your budget without even realizing it. This can hamper your ad budget and your marketing budget as a whole.
- Make your videos transformational
Your videos should make your users experience your product before they have had a chance to try it. You don’t want to share some boring videos in the world where creativity is at an all-time peak.
Your videos should be transformational. They should take your audience from where they are to where they actually want to be.
If you are a travel brand, show the best spots in the most humanized way possible. You can add glimpses of tourists enjoying and having the time of their lives. This could make your audience feel they can also be there, instead of those tourists.
You should entice your customers with your videos. It’s time to move on from the old, boring photo montages and embrace this effective method.
- Make it informative
Today, customers are mostly in search of a solution. They want to have answers to even those questions they didn’t know they had. Now, among all of this, if you share an irrelevant video that is solving no purpose whatsoever, it can easily backfire.
You should work towards making your videos more informative. By informative I don’t mean make them boring, voice-over videos with a slideshow. You have plenty of different formats to try and make your videos explanatory and interesting.
Just like an animated video we talked about in the section above.
You also need informative videos once your users have made the purchase. You don’t want them to feel your post-sale support and services are poor.
When you create a video that explains your product well, it will allow your customers to try your product out more quickly and find a solution to their problems. Thus, leaving them satisfied.
- Keep social platforms in mind
There are plenty of social platforms for you to choose from.
However, you should not try and use all the social media platforms available for you to use. This is another reason why you must identify your target audience beforehand.
If you try to promote your brand on every social platform, it can make it difficult for you to stay consistent. It can also lead to a wastage of your time and effort if the right people are not watching your videos. You can certainly repurpose content but resharing only makes your brand look lazy.
Hence, identify what social platforms have the majority of your target group. Once you do that, create videos keeping in mind the video dimensions and duration of the platforms you choose.
This is because every platform has a different dimension. For instance, Facebook aspect ratios are 16:9 to 9:16 (portrait) while for Instagram, they are 16:9 to 4:5.
Durations also vary with the platforms. While your Instagram reels can be of a maximum of 30 seconds, Facebook videos can go up to 240 minutes.
- Come up with compelling headers
The first thing your audience comes across is not the frames of your video or your script, it’s the title. The more compelling title you use, the more traction your video will get.
Your title should describe what the video is actually about if you want your audience to click on it. Sometimes, keeping and saying things as it is can do wonders. You can try a straightforward approach and write just what the customers should expect to see when they watch the video.
If straight-forward is not your game, you can always try your hands on embracing your quirky side. Keep your title as something weird or unique but still within your niche or giveaway a hint of what the video is based on. You can use something that makes your customers curious. Curiosity is a great emotion to target when it comes to marketing.
- Experiment with different formats
We have already talked about the fact that video marketing has different formats and types. It’s best to leverage those.
If you keep uploading the same format every time you post a video, it will start looking monotonous. As a result, your audience might just disown you.
Hence, you should try different forms of videos. You can choose between scripted real-life movie videos, animated videos, 3D, 360 views, and more.
The format can vary with the kind of video you are producing. Is it a commercial, a product shoot, or an explainer video?
Ensure you have everything planned well before you go ahead with video production.
For Whom
Ideally, every brand should consider stepping into the world of motions and emotions. However, there are a few industries that need video marketing more than ever. These include:
- Travel & Hospitality
Videos are a great way to entice your customers and bring the location or a dish to life. You can showcase what it would be like to walk in the middle of a vineyard or what will happen if they cut open a scotch egg at your restaurant and make them experience your service virtually before they can visit.
- Education
Today, online education is taking over the traditional form of learning. So, it’s only natural that the education industry is among the top ones that should use video marketing. Apart from giving a sneak peek into the kind of course a student should be expecting, universities and schools can use videos to build an emotional connection with potential applicants by showcasing the life on campus.
- SaaS
Remember how we talked about explainer videos in the above sections? Such videos can be of great help to the SaaS industry. You won’t be physically present with your customers when you are selling an online product. So, you can use explainer videos to do the job of explaining how your product works and more.
- Healthcare
Healthcare is an industry that runs on trust. We have already established how videos are a great way to gain the trust of consumers and thus, when it comes to the healthcare industry, whether it’s a hospital finding a Healthcare software brand or a patient finding a doctor they can trust, you can use videos to induce that trust among others.
- Finance
Just like you need someone reliable and trustworthy for your health, you need such a company to handle money as well.
It’s best to use videos like testimonials, value-based videos, or explainer videos to gain the trust of your audience. You can make your customers aware of how easy and breezy their finances can get using video marketing.
- Law
Individuals are always searching for the right lawyer; someone who’s a winner. When an individual is in the need of a lawyer, it usually requires a large investment.
That’s why you must try to gain your audience’s trust with your marketing strategies. You need to look like someone they can rely on. You can use videos to make your firm more credible and also, humanize it so that you can build a relationship with them.
- eCommerce
eCommerce is leading the retail market. When users are buying products online, they want more than just a static image. A video is perfect when your customers are in the decision-making phase.
Suppose you are selling apparel online. You can show how the product looks from all angles and even how a person looks in it while walking or sitting in a particular outfit. Video marketing is a must for eCommerce brands.
Conclusion
Video marketing is one of the most celebrated methods of marketing. It has proven to be effective for brands in a way no other method has. Although it does require a lot of planning and equipment to get the videos right, in the end, it is all worth it.
Have you started leveraging videos for your marketing? If yes, what’s your most favorite form of videos to publish?