Video Marketing: Develop a Strategy To Drive Business

When it comes to marketing, content marketing has been the most integral forms of marketing over the years, though video marketing is beginning to becoming more and more important. However, there are several brands that find it difficult to achieve success as they attempt to create effective video content.

Videos tend to be incredibly narrative with the capability of telling stories in mere seconds. When videos are created and broadcasted sensibly, they have the ability to drive your company to brand new heights. The question is how do you do that? The key lies within having the right strategy. Here are a few things you need to know about developing a successful video marketing strategy.

1. Visualize Your Audience and Goals

When you make the decision to get started with video marketing, there are a couple of things that are extremely important. The first thing is that you need to define a specific goal. The second thing is that you need to understand your audience and carefully align those pre-defined goals with your audience.

Ultimately, everyone expects that they will be able to obtain more sales via video marketing. However, if your sole focus in a promotion, then there is a good chance that your audience is simply going to ignore it. This is because they will view your video as uninteresting and/or spammy.

To help you visualize your audience and goals, here are some tips:

• Begin by creating a draft of your audience’s demographic details. Make sure you have existing data to use.
• Split your target audience into distinct groups based on their buyer personalities.
• Promise to educate, inspire and entertain your audience through the videos that you create.
• Make sure that your marketing spiel is subtle.

2. Take Various Types of Videos into Consideration

If you have taken the first step, then you should have a solid goal in place with a target audience for your videos. Next, you need to determine the best form of video that you will want to use and that will best cater to the needs of your goals and audiences.

Depending on the stage of the buyer’s journey, there is a good chance that your goals will vary. Therefore, you will need to take into consideration that you the video that you choose will need to match that particular goal. There are many different types of videos, including animated explainers, how-tos, customer testimonials, recorded webinars, company culture, etc.

To help you choose the right video type, here are a few tips:

• Make sure you understand what each video type is supposed to do and associate that with the expectation of your customers.
• Try different types of videos out for the same goal to determine which one performs the best.
• Do some research on your competitors to find out the type of video they have chosen and how well they are performing.

3. Finalize the Idea for Production

Once the above elements have been finalized, you are almost to the point to begin creating your videos. Therefore, you need to make a decision as to who will actually produce the videos. You ultimately have three options for this:

1. In-House Production – This means that you and the rest of your team will be responsible for producing the videos.
2. Outsourcing – This means that you will work with an outside, third-party agency who has experience producing videos.
3. Partner with Influencers – This means that you would partner with influencers/vloggers who currently have a solid visibility online.

Some things that you will want to take into consideration as you make your decision:

• It can be expensive to produce videos in-house. Therefore, you should only go down this route if you have the budget for it.
• If you go with a third-party agency, make sure that you perform your due diligence. Do you research on their background, proficiency, etc. and ask them to do a test.
• It can be a bit tricky to blend your own service or product into an influencer’s existing style of producing videos. Therefore, it will take some extra work, so be willing to put in the additional effort – and expect it from them or the partnership won’t work.

4. Think Beyond the Initial Strategy

Many believe that you simply put in some initial effort into creating a video marketing strategy and you are done. However, it is important that you are consistently reshaping your strategy as things change with your business over time. What works now may not work for your business in a year.

After all, there are always new technologies being developed, and trends are changing constantly. Therefore, it is important that you stay on top of your game and be ready to change your strategy at a moment’s notice so that you can stay ahead of your competitors.

With that being said, don’t hesitate to give something new a try even though it is outside of your initial strategy. You never know when something new may just push you over the top and above your competition.

5. Pay Attention to Three Essential Factors

Now that you have done all of the above, it is finally time to begin creating your videos. In order to ensure your videos are successful, you need to keep these three factors in mind:

1. Length – Due to the fact that viewers tend to have very short attention spans, it is important that you create short videos.
2. Naming – Individuals tend to decide whether they will watch a video or not based on the video’s name. Therefore, you need to create a compelling and catchy title. Don’t forget to use relevant keywords and your brand’s name in the title.
3. The Message – The video that you create needs to broadcast your desired message. So, make certain that each video that is produced is delivering the message that you want it to broadcast.

A couple of things to note:

• If necessary, you can create a video that is longer in length. Just make sure that you let the viewer know that it is longer than usual.
• Never add a misleading or false title for your videos. This will negatively impact your reputation.

6. Focus on Call-to-Action (CTA)

It is crucial that your videos have a particular intention. With each video that is created, your goal is to get your viewers to take some form of action. This action can be a number of things, from visiting your website or following your on Facebook to e-mailing or calling your sales team. So, make sure that you let your customers know what it is that you want them to do by adding a call-to-action to your video. You cannot simply assume that your viewers will know what to do without you telling them.

Here are some tips to help you create great CTAs:

• CTAs can be included as annotations so that they can appear in the most compelling section of your video.
• You can ensure that you explain pain points within the video itself and then propel the CTA for resolutions.
• The best part of the video to display your CTA is at the very end, so make sure that the end of your video is not just a blank, black screen.

7. Choose the Appropriate Distribution Channel

Once you have produced the video, you are now ready to begin finding places to publish it. However, most businesses tend to publish their videos on YouTube, and that’s it. The thing that you need to understand is that there are numerous other tools out there in the world that will allow you to promote your videos and you need to use them to your advantage.

The key in successful video marketing is utilizing various distribution channels in relevant industries and niches. This will allow you to truly propel your videos forward. You can also distribute your videos on your Facebook, Twitter and website, in addition to sending them out in e-mails and in guest posts as well as on Vimeo.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you begin to choose a distribution channel for your videos:

• Vimeo, similar to YouTube, is a great place to upload your videos, as it offers inexpensive paid subscriptions.
• Facebook Live is a great option that will allow you to broadcast your videos, especially if you have “surprise” videos.
• It is crucial that you are familiar with the channels that your loyal followers are using on a regular basis, as you are going to find the most success with your videos on these channels.

8. Don’t Overlook the Importance of Measuring Performance

In order to deduce how successful your video marketing efforts are, you must take the time to measure the performance of your videos. The most prominent metrics in regards to videos are view counts. This will inform you of the video’s reach, though other metrics are important as well, including drop-off rates, duration of views and number of repeat views.

To efficiently measure the performance of your videos, here are a few tips:

• Group your videos that have high drop-off rates to see what is similar with the videos that aren’t working for your audience.
• Calculate the average drop-off timeline and include attention-grabbing content in the video at that specific time.
• Take the time to track down prospects who follow your videos regularly and send your sales team to cultivate them.

Conclusion

It is important to keep in mind that it takes time and effort to pull together a successful and effective video marketing strategy. This is because you must validate numerous avenues in regards to your business – testing out various techniques and channels until you can determine what it is that truly defines success. However, the aforementioned advice can help you achieve the end goal wisely.

If you have questions or would like assistance with developing your video marketing strategy, give us a call at WebDetail today.