Right now, video is bigger than ever
No matter the platform, video viewership continues to soar year after year. If you're a marketer, that means big things. Over 80 percent of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video, and 80 percent of people want more videos from brands. More?! In this economy??
So how do you make that happen? Video marketing can be a complex world. There are so many different types of videos, how do you choose what to go with? Do you run ads on every video you make? What will be the ROI?
We get it. And while there's no way to make a magical video that will print money every time you show it to someone, we do have some tips that will help you be more successful in your next (or first!) video campaign.
What is video marketing?
If it seems like a pretty simple answer... it is!
Video marketing is video content that promotes a company, brand, service, product, or idea. Unless you live on the moon, you run into every. single. day. It's everywhere. Its main purposes are to increase brand awareness, increase engagement with your company, and help facilitate sales processes.
It's important to note, however, that video marketing is not strictly for advertisements that you see on your Instagram feed, or in between the football game on TV. Video has become so ubiquitous with our culture that sometimes companies marketing can be hard to spot. Every video you put out, is essentially marketing your company in some way. Whether that's an explainer video, brand film, or some quick social content, it's portraying an image of what you represent to your customers. When it's thought of in that way, it can be a slightly daunting task to think about, and that's okay. Video marketing often requires outside expertise to come up with a full strategy that will make an entire set of videos for your full marketing funnel.
If you're on the boat with 93% of other businesses who see video as an important part of their marketing strategy, let's keep exploring.
Benefits of video marketing
Video is one of the fastest, and most effective ways to market your company. The benefits are stacked high, so lets take a quick look.
Help position you as the expert.
- Gaining brand awareness: Probably the most common reason for using video: Making your brand more well known.
- Showing off your culture: This is basically a subset of the first benefit, but think more of the style of video here. Through set design, editing style, and storytelling, you're able to create for the exact customer persona that would be interested in your brand
- Adds organic traffic to your website: If you have an increased social media presence, then it only makes sense that more people would also want to visit your website.
- It's an SEO goldmine: Speaking of getting people to your website, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a great way to do that. Up to 26% of all search results on Google are now videos, and adding high quality videos to your site can keep people on your site for about 50% longer. And for the kicker: Webpages with relevant videos are 53 TIMES more likely to rank on the first page of Google.
- Makes the selling process easier: Think about all of the small details customers are always asking about. Could a quick video help to address those concerns, and give the customer an added sense of clarity? Clarity = Trust
- Helps position you as the expert: This could really be in any of the above benefits, but I think it's worth its own bullet. The more consistent, and purposeful you are with videos, the more you will be at the top of the mind of everyone who follows along, making every part of your marketing and sales process smoother.
Now let's get you some of those benefits with a plan.
6 steps to building a great video marketing strategy
- Know your audience: As with all types of marketing, understanding your customer and where they metaphorically "hang-out" is a huge part of success. If this step is missing, the rest of them hardly matter at all. You should know your target audience, and be able to speak directly to them.
- Understand the purpose of the videos: As an important followup to the first step, where are the customers on their journey in discovering your brand? Will you be making these videos for people who are brand new, and have only just found out about you? Or are these videos for someone who's been a fan for a while, and you're helping them better understand your offerings?
- Create a timeline and a budget: How soon will you need this video to be up and running? Generally speaking, longer is better (2-3 months is about average), so really try to plan ahead for this. Make sure you factor in time and money for pre production, post production, and of course the video shoot itself. Oftentimes the steps can require a bit of TLC from some members on your team so make sure to account for that as well.
- Choose your platforms: A video that does exceptionally well on Youtube, will not necessarily do well on Instagram or Linkedin. Make sure there is a plan of where each deliverable will live in order to give each video the best chance of success. And remember that first step? Knowing where to find and market to your audience is half of the battle. Make sure you're getting it in front of the right eyes with this step.
- Decide what types of video: Understanding the purpose of the videos should be your guiding factor here. Will you need product demos that show a customer how simple it is to use your product? Or will you need a more direct product advertisement that shows the benefits of using it? Creativity is always welcomed here. Sometimes the best product ads barely show a product at all. Think of all the Apple commercials you've seen. They don't talk about the product for 30 seconds, they show one benefit in a creative way.
- Work with an amazing team: It helps to work with a team of people who's done this a time or two. Shop around your local area and find a team who you'd like to work with. There's often a lot at stake, so make sure you choose a team who understands your goals, and can work within your given timeline. If you're in Cincinnati, contacting Good Post House is a good place to start. Come on... You're reading this blog post from us, and knew the self plug was coming eventually.
Once you've got everything sorted, it's time to start the fun part, and make a video that actually gets results.
