Everything You Need To Know About Starting A Video Marketing Campaign

86% of online marketers use video content, and marketers who use video grow their revenue 49% faster than those who don’t.  Is videography part of your marketing strategy? If not, you could be missing out on a ton of brand exposure and sales. Starting a video marketing campaign isn’t that complicated; all you need is an idea and a camera to get started! Videos are much more effective than written content to engage audiences; 80% of users remember a video ad they’ve watched online in the past month. Additionally, after watching a video 64% of people are more likely to buy a product online. Video marketing is the wave of the future (and the present!) so what are you waiting for? Get started today!

 

There are 6 main types of marketing videos:

• Brand Videos
  • The purpose of these videos is to promote brand awareness in order to drive traffic to your website. They share information about a company’s mission, goals and values, and products and services, among other things.
• Live Videos
  • Live videos are great for engaging your audience; they can participate in the video by typing questions in the comments section, and you can respond to them in real-time in the video. According to Oberlo, live videos are better than static videos for customer engagement. Viewers will spend 8 times longer watching a live video than they would a traditional video. Check out this post on how to make sure your live video stands out!
• Event Videos
  • Event videos are typically posted after a major company event and show highlights of the event in order to advertise the business and promote brand awareness.
• How-to videos
  • How-to videos are a great opportunity to build trust with your audience by showing them how to use your products or how to get the most out of your services.
  • 95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
• Highlight videos
  • Similar to how-to videos, highlight videos shine a spotlight on specific products or services. They show the benefits and typically include a call to action to encourage consumers to make a purchase.
• Customer feedback videos
  • These videos have multiple purposes: they’re great for responding to a customer inquiry in a more personal manner than an email. They can also be used to showcase customer testimonials which is awesome for building trust between a brand and its customers, which also encourages a consumer to convert.

• Explainers, product demos, and how-to videos are the most common videos produced.

 

Starting With Your Own Video Marketing Campaign

• Choose a target audience
  • Your video needs to be tailored to a specific audience, so figure out who that is before you do anything else. You can determine your target audience by using website analytics to see what group(s) of people commonly view your content. Then think about the content itself: who would benefit from seeing this? Who would be interested in it? Market to those people.

• Determine a purpose or goal for your video
  • What do you want to accomplish with this video? You need to set goals to keep yourself focused and organized, but also so you can determine the success of your video marketing. All your creative decisions should be made with the same end goal in mind, and then use those goals to determine whether your video was successful. If your goal is to increase brand awareness, measure your success by counting the number of likes, comments, and shares the video receives. The same metrics could be used if your goal is to increase customer engagement. However you choose to measure success, just make sure you have something in mind so that if you don’t meet your goals you know it and can make adjustments accordingly.

• Plan your budget
  • You don’t need a huge marketing budget to see a difference in sales, but you do need to know how much money you’re working with. It’s easy to lose track during the planning of a video (or any marketing campaign) and end up spending way more than you originally anticipated. If you have the resources to hire a professional videographer, do it. But if you don’t, save the cost and take some of the free videography short courses available online. Keep yourself organized, plan your budget ahead of time, and then stick to it. You should also factor in your ROI when planning your budget; you don’t want to spend a lot more than you’re going to get back.

• Choose a platform
  • Where do you want to publish your video? This ties back into the first step when you determine your target audience. Where do they hang out online? If it’s LinkedIn, then that’s where your video should be. Same with Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. Each platform targets a different type of audience, so choose the one that best meets your needs. Also, consider your goals and the type of video you’re going to produce. Instagram videos can only be 60 seconds long (unless they’re live) whereas YouTube doesn’t have any time constraints.

• Make and edit your video
  • Think about lighting, shadows, background noise, etc. when creating your video. A poorly produced video will reflect poorly on your business. Consider using a tripod or selfie stick so the video is stable. Try to film in front of a plain background so there’s nothing to distract from your content. And when all else fails, opt for natural light.
  • When you’re done filming, go through all your clips and choose the best ones. There are tons of free video editing software available, including iMovie and Movie Creator. Keep your transitions simple, and make sure all the footage you include is somehow related to your goals. People have short attention spans and you don’t want to lose them by going off on an unrelated tangent. 5% of viewers will stop watching a video after 1 minute, but 60% will stop after 2 minutes.

• Ensure it’s optimized for SEO
  • Before you publish your video, make sure you’ve followed SEO best practices to get the most views and shares possible. Include keywords in your hashtags, title, description, and anywhere else they might be relevant. Your title should be engaging and your description should accurately reflect the content of your video. You may also want to consider including captions- most videos are watched without sound, especially on Facebook, and this is another area where you can possibly include keywords to boost your rankings.

• Publish!
  • Finally, publish your video! Track your success by measuring the metrics you decided upon when creating your initial goals. Promote your video anywhere you can- share it on your website, through email, and on your chosen social media platform. After it’s published you can also adapt it to be shared on other platforms as well. Try to respond to user’s questions and comments as quickly as possible in order to promote engagement and social sharing. And finally, if you don’t get the results you were originally hoping for, don’t give up! You may just need some more edits, a new audience, or maybe a different video platform. Make the necessary changes and keep trying!

Video marketing strategies are extremely effective because they don’t feel like marketing; they give a more human, personalized touch to traditional advertising. If your content is stuck in a rut (or even if it’s not!) try incorporating videos into your advertising. Your business, and your sales, won’t be sorry. Contact us today for more information.