A recent Cisco study found that 82 % of all internet traffic will be video by 2021. Why is video replacing the traditional mediums? The answer is extremely simple.
Video is the medium that all types of audiences crave.
We get goosebumps because the human brain is designed to be impressed by the richness of audio and imagery.
Because it uses both, video marketing can surpass every other type of medium in engaging the senses of the target audiences.
If you look at what is being done now in terms of marketing, you’ll notice that video plays a central role in virtually every major outreach and marketing effort.
Video is here to stay, there's no question about it.
Just to give you an idea of where things are headed, a top Facebook executive recently predicted that their platform will be all video in less than five years.
The average US adult spends more than 100 minutes daily with digital videos -this figure was 39 minutes in 2011. In fact, video has grown to the point where it accounts for one-third of all online activities.
By using the power of video marketing, you will be able to convert leads into prospects easier than ever before. Your business SEO is also affected by the use of video marketing – in a good way.
A recent Hubspot research found that 54% of consumers that support a brand are most eager to see more video content.
Video content has also proven to be the most memorable type of content. It’s certainly not surprising that virtually all the major players use it in their marketing efforts.
In the past month, what type of content posted by a company was the most memorable to you?
But let’s pretend for a second that these stats don’t exist.
Nothing tells a story like a video.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Video is so much more than words.
Don’t underestimate the power of body language and tone of voice. Video marketing will serve the viewer with more information and context than any written copy – no matter how good it is.
Whether you’re looking for ways to convert more leads into prospects, to boost your business SEO or you’re simply after increasing your email response rates, video marketing will help you do it.
How to Create a Video Marketing Strategy
Every marketer will tell you that video marketing is a great driver of brand awareness, driving sales and promoting your product or service.
It’s true. Video marketing is an absolute beast when used correctly. But in or-der for it to be effective, you need the know-how to create a video strategy that reaches the right audience with the right message.
This will help you create optimized videos that will lead to better rankings and a traffic increase for your local business.
But how exactly do you go about creating a video marketing strategy tailored for your local business?
Step 1: Setting The Goal.
This step is essential, so make sure you get it right. If you don’t have anyone to brainstorm with, start a conversation with yourself about the purpose of the video you’re about to make.
Ask yourself who is your target audience and what do you want them to feel at the end of the video.
Do you want them to know something or you want them to undertake a certain action? Do you need to gather new leads or you’re just looking to generate some local buzz?
Get as specific as possible and make sure that the goal is perfectly in line with what your local business needs to achieve.
Step 2: Sketching out your audience persona
This phase is all about defining your target demographic. Who are the people that you want to reach with this video marketing campaign? What kind of content are they most receptive to?
Besides classic demographic metrics like, age, gender, income level, education, occupation, and so on, dive into more specific metrics that are important to your business niche.
Take the time to analyze your previous interactions with your clients and figure out what their needs are and what actions make them engage with your ser-vice or product.
Look at your current client base and search for common characteristics and interests. Which type of clients bring in the most business your way? Those are the people that you need to target!
Combine them into one audience persona and go through the next steps with it in mind.
Step 3: Spy On Your Competition.
It’s extremely important to take the time to research your competitors and see if they are also using videos as a marketing tool.
If they do, identify those videos that are getting the most engagement and see if you get a feel of what works in your particular business niche.
If you feel that they’re onto something and are getting results, by all means, adapt your strategy to incorporate some of the stuff that they’re doing.
Keep in mind that knowing which elements to borrow is key here.
Don’t focus too much on the execution and the visual elements that they choose to include. Try to see past the visuals to discover production patterns and figure out the audience that they’re trying to target.
Step 4: Decide on the video type
You got your goal, you know your customer persona and you are aware of what your competitors are doing. Now it’s time to pick the right video type that will help you achieve your business objective.
Different video types will help you achieve different business goals. Before we get to the scripting part, you need to decide on the type of video that is closest to what your local business needs.
Here’s a list of video types that are often used with video marketing:
- Interview
- Testimonial
- Product videos
- Case study
- Live videos
- Micro-documentary
- Explainer
- Story-driven video
- Brand video
- Animation
- Values and mission
- FAQ
- Social Media ‘Shorts’
When you’ve made your decision, stick with it! Don’t try to create a mish-mash of different video types because you’ll just end up confusing your audience.
Another important aspect to decide is if this video will be a single release or part of a larger campaign.
Step 5: Scripting The Video
Most (if not all) marketing videos that have an authentic feeling and end up going viral are actually scripted.
You don’t need to script every little detail, but it’s important to create an outline listing the key points that need to be reached in a logical order.
If you consult with others, consider using Google Docs to encourage real-time collaboration with your peers.
A neat little trick that a lot of marketers use with videos is to create a two column script.
Write the audio on one column and use the other one to insert visual ideas that you want to include. This will help you immensely when you get to the editing part.
Step 5: In-house or outsourcing?
Video marketing has become affordable for small businesses because the video production cost has gone down significantly over the years. You no longer need an entire team to create an effective video marketing campaign.
Don’t worry too much about buying production equipment. If you plan on releasing your video marketing campaign on social media, remember that raw videos that have a more authentic feel are usually the ones that become viral.
Fort the best results, outsource your video to a professional team if you have the financial means.
But if you decide to do it in-house, make sure you allocate your resources where they are most needed.
If you need to enlist outside help and your budget is limited, look for individuals that have multiple skills and make them work for their money. Here are the areas that you will need to cover:
- Video editing
- Videography
- Art direction
- Graphic design
- Animation (optional)
Step 6: Choosing the hosting platform
Even if your creative work is outstanding, you might fail to achieve the result you’re after if you ignore your target audience and distribute the video aimlessly.
No predetermined distribution strategy will fit every video, so make sure you choose the host according to the type of video you will release.
The goal here is to decide on the main host for your video. This is potentially crucial since it will impact how easy it is for your audience to find your video.
Keep in mind that not all video platforms are created equal. YouTube has high traffic volumes and might contribute to your Google ranking, but native Facebook videos have a much higher reach than YouTube or Vimeo links.
The best decision you can make is to host the video on the platform where most of your audience resides.
It’s advisable that you don’t upload the same video on multiple platforms at once. Doing this will end up making your content rank lower on all platforms since no upload will get the full potential of viewers.
Instead, consider launching the video on one platform and upload it to the second platform after it has maximized its reach.
Step 7: Choosing the distribution channels
Now that you have your main host in mind, it’s time to build a linking system that will push your content out and bring viewers to your desired destination.
Making use of social media is essential here if you want to ensure a good distribution of your video.
If you plan on distributing your video and multiple social media platforms, make sure to adapt them according to the guidelines on each of them.
For example, Instagram requires short videos of under 60 seconds, making it perfect for releasing short sneak peeks with a link to the whole video. If you tar-get fellow business owners, adapt your video to LinkedIn’s guidelines and put the focus there.
Since organic reach is all but dead on all the major social media platforms, con-sider investing some advertising money to boost your videos in the first few days after release.
Step 8: Set the budget and schedule the launch
Now that you have most of your video marketing strategy outlined, it’s time to set the launch date.
But before you decide on a particular date, think about all the elements and you want to include in your video marketing campaign, research the costs and create a rough estimation on how much you’re willing to spend.
Do you have the money to support a video marketing campaign of this size? Having a maximum budget in place will prevent you from running out of money before the project is complete.
When deciding on the launch date, it’s best that you leave yourself room to breathe and set daily (or weekly) objectives.
And keep in mind that no matter how much time you spend planning this strategy, things are bound to go wrong so be prepared to adapt.
On a final note, leave yourself some wiggle room – on both your budget and the time table.
Step 9: Decide how you'll measure success
Now before you get to work, you need to establish some rules on how you’ll measure the success of your video campaign.
Start by ensuring that you have a data collection system firmly in place that will gather metrics from all your distribution channels.
You can use viewer data and similar stats form your industry, but remember to consider all variables including the concept, your audience, distribution and the execution of your video.
When studying your video’s data, make sure to compare it with other data from the broader industry.
It’s also a good idea to include both quantitative and qualitative benchmarks based on your business niche.
If you are very busy and interested in Engagement Services to achieve your business’s goals, don’t hesitate to contact us! Our dedicated team of Internet marketers is more than happy to assist you with Leveraging VIDEO for Maximum Engagement Services, And Youtube Marketing Service as well as all other aspects of your Digital Marketing Efforts.
