Video is a powerful content marketing tool.
It’s a perfect tool for storytelling.
Video marketing greatly influences the success of content marketing efforts and general promotional campaigns.
Video also makes connecting with people effectively. It fosters the development of deeper, satisfying relationships between your business and its target audience.
Here’re statistics to prove that video is an integral aspect of content marketing:
- An article published on Forbes shows that 87% of online marketers utilize video content in their marketing strategy.
- Video, according to Cisco, accounted for 80% of consumer internet traffic in 2019.
- Mobile video consumption volume increases by 100% each year, meaning NOW’s the right time to exploit video content strategy to boost your business.
- Unlike a combination of text and photos, social media video content generate up to 1200% more shares.
The number of time users spent watching online videos between 2013 and 2018 increased by approximately 32% each year.
According to the same Zenith report, individuals will spend about 100 minutes on average daily in 2021 watching videos. This translates to about 25 full days.
Take note of this prediction if you’re planning to develop a winning video marketing strategy. It’s entirely up to you on what to include in your videos.
The right strategy opens doors to more viewers for better brand promotion. Here’re a few steps to creating valuable videos as important business assets you need to promote your brand:
7 Steps to Creating a Successful Video Marketing Strategy for Your Business
- Develop a simple video SEO strategy
SEO is relevant for videos just like your website content and blog posts.
YouTube has grown to become the second-largest online search engine.
People are increasingly using the YouTube network to search for specific videos. It’s also used for searching general information just as on the Google.com search engine.
Here’s how to deploy video SEO to make your brand videos easier to find online on YouTube:
- Use short yet informative titles to grab the attention of your target audience – plan your keywords well and use the YouTube keyword tool or the SE Ranking keyword suggestion tool to find relevant keywords.
- Include keywords and a link to your website in the video description of up to 70 characters. It helps users understand the content of your video.
- Add different keyword variations in your video tags based on what people watching your video could be searching for.
- Create colorfully, branded, eye-catching thumbnails of high quality to engage your users because they’re the first things that lure users to watch your videos.
- Add enough links to your video for link-building and ranking of your important keywords in search.
- Create a video sitemap to offer your users and search engines all details about the content of your video for ranking purposes.
- Optimize your videos for mobile devices because millions of users watch videos through mobile viewing.
- Define what your video is about
Provide enough information on what your video is about if you want more views. It’ll help users decide whether to watch it or not.
According to John Bottom’s blog, people skim video titles before deciding to watch it.
However, video isn’t in an easy format to skim as you’d with its title and description. People prefer to scan a text description or image in seconds instead of watching your 5 or 10-minute video.
Here’s how to fix the problem:
- Create a short, informative, and accurate synopsis that highlights 3 to 5 benefits of watching your video. Plot the main points of your video if it’s a narrative.
- Transcribe your videos to provide your viewers with text content to skim before deciding to watch your video. The content also helps search engines to easily crawl your video content. Check here how Rand Fishkin creates viral video content.
- Deploy social proof
Social proof increases conversions and builds credibility and trust between your brand and your target audience. According to Animoto, 50% of customers find client testimonial videos useful and use them to make informed buying decisions.
Some tools to use to indicate your brand popularity and how people find it valuable and informative include:
- Votes
- Likes
- Comments
- Views
Case studies and video testimonials are effective ways to showcase your products or services to customers. The following people can help create your videos:
- Experts
- Customers
- Friends
- Celebrities
Check out how Van Damme helped Volvo create a winning video for its product/service offering.
4.) Optimize your video for conversions
Encourage your target audience to view your video. When that’s done, exploit your views for conversions. Focus on optimizing your video content for conversions as follows:
- Create a clear call to action based on your objective, be it sales, leads or simply conversions.
- Add a message direct from speakers in your video, share buttons, and a link to your landing page at the end of the video. Make sure your video is engaging.
Here’s how Berenji & Associates created a direct prompt for free consultations and what to do afterward.
- Analyze and determine the best time to publish your video for optimal views in the first 48 hours to help show YouTube the essence of your content to other viewers.
- Offer instant incentives to engage with and watch your videos; consider the following:
- A free white paper
- Discounts to your viewers
- Links to a free course
- A giveaway
- Create interactive, entertaining, and educative video content for your users; be creative and find out what works to get greater conversions. Here’s an entertaining Slack video for inspiration.
Provide 2 to 3 contact options, including:
- Phone calls
- Text messages
- Contact forms
- Emails.
See how Fernandez & Karney went about this tip.
- Create short and simple videos for better performance than their longer counterparts. However, you can choose a video length that works for you.
- Thank your audience at the end of the video to increase conversions. Showcase sincere emotions regarding your customer memories. It lures new clients and improves the rate of retention.
- Select your channels for distribution
Choose the right channels for video distribution to deliver content to your target audience.
Send your video to as many online platforms as you can to increase viewership. Here’re ways you can revamp your video content strategy:
- Post the video on your website to get new views and enhance the performance of your site.
- Upload your video content on Vimeo and YouTube to get started.
- Share the video directly on social media platforms as follows:
- Google+
- Embed your video in emails
- Introduce your video on SlideShare for your video presentations.
Keep sharing your videos and discovering new promotional channels.
Optimize your video’s maximum impact and reach. Here’re tips to consider when creating a winning video strategy for your brand:
- Pay to promote your views – customize parameters and know your target audience.
- Engage your viewers for comments, notifications, and their opinions; create a compelling description or introduction, tailor your parameters.
- Grow your subscribers and expose them.
- Include it in a general promotional campaign.
6.) Assess your video performance
Analytics is an important part of online marketing. Deliberately improve your marketing campaigns.
Use Google Analytics or YouTube Analytics to track the performance, traffic, views, shares, mentions, and total watch time of your videos.
With total shares, mentions and views, you can measure your general brand awareness. Choose clear measurement methods to develop a successful marketing plan.
7.) Do something you love to relax
Take part in a fun activity that you enjoy to relax your mind. For instance, you can play indoor games before getting back to reviewing and finalizing your video.
With proper maintenance of your body and mind with physical activity, you’re bound to be better at your content.
Conclusion
High-performing videos take efforts and time to create. With the right plan and creativity, you optimize the potential of your video to share inspiring stories. Encourage your users to watch your video and take action.
