The use of videos as a marketing strategy has become popular in the last decade. It is actually gaining attention from businesses of different types and sizes. Its rise in popularity can be attributed to its capability to engage easily with prospects and customers across different platforms.
Even small businesses can benefit from video marketing because of its ability to allow a marketer to connect directly to customers and prospects and establish a relationship. It doesn’t need a huge budget either.
Video marketing has the capability to level the playing field between businesses of different sizes. The result could depend on how you present your content to promote your brand.
According to a 2020 video marketing survey from Wyzowl, 92% of marketers say videos are an important part of their marketing strategy. The 75 million Americans who watch online videos everyday are a living proof that using videos is a key to exciting marketing opportunities.
What is Video Marketing?
Video marketing refers to the use of videos to promote or market a brand, product or service. It is an effective marketing strategy because it is a combination of audio and visuals which is a powerful marketing thrust. As a matter of fact, the retention rate for information that is both seen and heard is 80%.
Video marketing is different from video advertising. The latter is designed to capture and stimulate the interest of a target market while video marketing is intended to let you, the marketer, engage with a targeted audience to make your presence felt online. It is an effective way to promote brand awareness and build audience trust.
A strong online presence means your target audience can easily find your content that describes the benefits and advantages of using your product. If they can’t find it, they’ll certainly go elsewhere including your competition to see what they’re looking for. When this happens, you’ve just missed an opportunity to connect to a potential customer. You can avoid this problem with effective video marketing content. Making it real should not be a problem for you. You can always seek help from trusted providers of content marketing services to produce optimized and engaging marketing videos that could give your business a lift in terms of traffic and conversion.
The Advantages of Using Video Marketing
Video marketing is one of the many aspects of content marketing. It uses video content as a tool to tell a story or convey an idea or information. It allows you to broadcast your message to create a bigger impact on your audience, and it carries a lot of salient benefits especially if you use it as a marketing strategy:
1. Videos Allow You to Connect with People Easily
There are many types and purposes of video content. They can be made to educate, inspire, motivate, console, or uplift the spirit. It puts a face to a name and enables your audience to get connected to your business on a more personal level.
2. It Makes Selling Easy
Videos catch people’s attention quickly and they can be processed easily. They offer both visual and auditory content to send your messages across. People retain information from videos more easily than plain text. It is an important factor in bringing about brand recognition.
According to research, videos have a lot more to offer as a marketing strategy than other types of content. This is supported by 71% of B2B marketers and 66% of B2C marketers who say they use video content to promote their brand.
3. You can Use Videos to Promote Your Business
Videos are effective tools that can help you promote your services and raise your conversion rates. You can create videos to educate your audience about the efficacy of your product in solving specific problems, or highlight features of your product that make them better than competition. It is an important attribute that makes videos a useful tool for building a relationship with your audience. Overtime, this relationship will develop into trust.
4. Videos Help to Increase Traffic
Videos you have uploaded on YouTube or your social media pages can help to drive traffic to your website. You can use video content like tutorials, how-tos, and product reviews that are posted on social media platforms to direct people to your website. It is an effective way to increase your site’s traffic and improve your potential to reach out to potential customers, some of which may not have known about your online presence.
Here are some of the most popular types of marketing videos. You will certainly find some of them useful in your marketing outreach:
- Customer Testimonial Video
- How-To Video
- Demo Video
- Product Review Video
- Webinar Video
- Explainer Video
- Podcast Video
- Advertising Video
- Interview Video
- Training Video
- Animated Video
- Top 10 List Video
- Recipe Video
- Videos from Photographs
- Live Video
- Personal Message Video
Creating the Marketing Video
Videos are easy to create. They can certainly help you as far as marketing your product or service is concerned. Here are the steps you need to do to create a marketing video:
1. Determine the Purpose of Your Video
Before you even begin to turn that video recorder on, you should first determine your purpose for creating such content. Since you are creating a marketing video, the best possible content you can come up with is a one that offers these three elements:
- Content that helps your audience solve a problem
- Content that supports your company’s goals
- Measurable results
When creating a marketing video, you must be able to emphasize the benefits your prospects can get from your product. It should actually be the essence of your marketing video.
2. Write a Script
A great script is necessary because it will serve as your guide through the entire process. It is actually the anchor that keeps your content solid, coherent and sensible. When you write a script, you should have a solid understanding of the interest of your audience. The only way to make this happen is to do a thorough research on your topic. It can help you to create a simple and easy-to-understand content. It can also help you to project an aura of confidence once you start to shoot your video.
An excellent script is one that makes your video compelling, memorable, persuasive, and engaging. To be able to create great script, inspire yourself by benchmarking videos you are impressed with. A good script is one that is able to persuade users to visit your website, sign up for your newsletter, or visit your Facebook page.
3. Prepare the Tools You Need
For a start, you may use a camera or a quality cell phone to start creating video content. But if you are prepared to go all in, you can use a DSLR camera, some lenses, tripods, audio recorders, and other accessories to create crisp, professional-looking videos.
You will also need an excellent video editing software to help you enhance your production.
4. Set Up Your Equipment
Before you begin shooting, be sure to place your subject at the center of the preview screen. Using a tripod, station your camera firmly at a distance that is neither too close nor too far from the subject as it will disorient your viewers. If you want to include sound in your recording, test your audio to make sure that it is audible during playback. Do not start recording if there is background noise as it can cause disruptions.
5. Adjust the Lighting
Proper lighting is one of the most important elements you need to consider when creating videos. It should neither be too dark nor too bright. As much as possible, choose a location where there’s enough natural light as it would also make your video appear natural. Avoid shooting when there’s a strong light behind your subject as it can turn it into a silhouette. Find a shade when filming under the bright sun, and shoot with your light source positioned behind your camera.
6. Record Your Video
Recording a marketing video doesn’t have to be complicated. If you don’t have a camera at this point in time, use your smartphone to accomplish your task. You can no longer underestimate the power of modern smartphones as most of them are fitted with great cameras which can do well with on-the-go shooting. If you are recording a personal message or video blogs, a quality webcam can also be just as good as a regular camera. Look at the camera lens when you’re recording. It will make you appear like you’re facing your audience during playback.
7. Edit Your Video
Editing is a stage that allows you to put some refinements or finishing touches to your video production. It will be quite challenging for a newbie but it should become natural to you as you learn and get used to the job. Use free video editing software like Windows Movie Maker or iMovie to get started. You may also try basic video editing apps to improve your content.
8. Upload Your Video
Once you’re through with shooting and editing, your next task is to determine how to connect with your audience through your video. Your method of sharing content and which platforms you’re using to reach out to your target audience will have an impact on your marketing goals. If your video is directed at younger audiences, uploading it on Instagram or snapchat will make your content more visible. If you are doing content of general interest such as how-to videos, you may upload them on Facebook and YouTube for better viewership potentials.
9. Optimize Your Video Page
Like other forms of content, videos are intended to be opened, read, or viewed. To realize this objective, you will need to upload your videos in the right video sharing platform, and have them indexed and ranked by search engines. This should increase your videos’ viewership potentials. To make your videos drive traffic to your website, add a call to action in your videos asking visitors to visit your site.
10. Measure Results
Marketing videos are basically intended to bring about positive actions from your audience. You should be able to measure their performance to make sure that they are serving their purpose. Otherwise, they could just be wasting your time.
Use your website’s analytics and metrics to assess the impact your videos have made in terms of traffic to your website and conversions. You can use Google Analytics to get search and traffic data, and user behavior.
You can also use other online tools to measure the performance of your marketing videos. Social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, and Vimeo, for example, have their own analytics to determine how your videos performed in their platform.
There are essentially four factors that determine the performance of your video marketing strategy. These are:
- View Count – it refers to the number of times your video has been watched or viewed
- Play Rate – It is the ratio of the number of people who watched your video against the number of people who had the chance to view it
- Click-through Rate – refers to the percentage of viewers who responded to your video’s call to action
- Conversion Rate – measures the percentage of your video viewers who become your customers
Videos are currently taking center stage in the world of online marketing. It’s ability to remain in the minds of people better than written text makes them an effective tool for establishing relationships with potential customers. Changing customer behavior is leading people to watch more marketing videos than ever.
Videos for marketing are here to stay. You must adopt it in your business regardless of size – or be left behind by the rest.
We are a team of experienced providers of content marketing services. We can help you develop a video marketing plan and strategy for your business.
Call us at (321) 401-7700.
