Video marketing is quickly becoming a standard for companies in every industry. 87% of marketers in 2019 use video marketing, which is up from 63% in 2017. A video is a valuable piece of content that helps you engage more authentically with your audience.
There are several variables to consider when adding video to your overall marketing strategy. It’s a large investment that needs a strategy to build and execute. It’s our goal as video marketers to make our readers as educated as possible before diving into video marketing.
Whether you’re just getting started or launching your next video marketing campaign, following these tips will help you ensure your video marketing investment is giving you an ROI for several years.
1. Know your brand’s story
Creating marketing videos can be incredibly beneficial for your business, as long as you’re delivering the right message to your consumers. This is much different than a 30 second TV ad. You are trying to capture the attention of your audience for several minutes amidst all the noise that’s happening on their phones and laptops.
This is why storytelling for businesses has become so popular. Our brains are naturally wired to understand and visualize ourselves within a story that is being told. It’s the easiest and most efficient way for our minds to collect and retain a large amount of information.
Figuring out your brand’s story isn’t hard, because it already exists. Getting it on paper takes some work. We recommend listening to the podcast Building a StoryBrand with Donald Miller to gain a better understanding of how to craft your company’s message in a way that resonates with your audience.
Having your brand's story is the first major step when developing your video marketing strategy. This will be the foundation for all the videos you create. It’s what further separates you from your competition, and it creates a stronger appeal for your core target audience.
2. Develop a strategy
Video marketing needs to be driven by a goal. Creating brand awareness, driving traffic to a site, increasing conversion rates, or whatever you decide. This goal will mold the script of your videos and determine what message is delivered to your consumers.
Choosing the right platform will be a major part of your strategy. Not all platforms are created equally, they each have their own user behaviors and optimal engagement metrics. This gives your video creators a way to engineer the video to become a personalized experience for users on each video platform, which boosts conversions and engagement.
For Instagram, it’s best to make your videos short, concise, and dynamic. Consumers that watch the first 3 seconds of your video are likely to finish it, so it’s recommended to use a vivid first frame to hook your audience’s attention.
Twitter is a bit longer at 44 seconds. This gives you the ideal amount of time to establish a personal connection with your viewers. This should be used to inform and excite your consumers.
Facebook videos see a higher engagement around 60 seconds. The majority of users on Facebook will be watching videos on mute, so adding subtitles to your videos is a good way to succeed on their platform.
YouTube videos are best at 2 minutes or less. This is the perfect amount of time to cover a large amount of information. These videos can accompany a longer article, or be used for an informative first view of a landing page.
Shorter is better with video marketing. Your videos are competing for attention with everything else your consumer sees each day. If you’re able to educate your audience in a quick and concise manner, then your video has added value to your consumer’s day. You can create a series of videos and convey digestible amounts of information in an episodic format.
3. Work with an agency
Video marketing agencies have the expertise and resources to take your story, with your goal and platform in mind, and put it in a spectacular video format. Agencies also have portfolios, so it’s best to check out past projects to see the quality of work you should expect from each agency.
It’s ideal to interview a handful of agencies to see who you will have the best working relationship with. Put a list of questions together before the interviews begin. Some examples of some questions to ask are:
-Are the videos your team make based on a storytelling format?
-What types of projects are in your portfolio?
-How do you customize videos for YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram?
-How do you customize videos for each of your clients?
The number of services the agency offers is another factor to consider. Boutique agencies specialize in creating marketing videos, and full-service agencies offer a variety of marketing services along with video marketing. Both types of agencies have their advantages.
Interview agencies as if you were hiring an employee. Have a list of questions that are tailored to the goal you want to achieve and see who comes out ahead of everyone else. As a customer, look for an agency that delivers a customized video project that fits your exact needs; similar to the way your customers want a personalized experience when deciding if they want to do business with your brand.
4. Be authentic
When consumers are deciding which brands they want to do business with, authenticity is one of the top criteria they are looking for. A 2018 report shows that 90% of consumers find authenticity important when deciding which brands they like and support. This number is up from 86% in 2017.
Marketers agree. In that same study, 83% of marketers believe that authenticity is very important to their brands. As marketers, we all strive to be as authentic as possible. Are we though? It turns out, 51% of consumers say that less than half of the brands they've encountered create content that resonates as authentic.
Ouch…
Where’s the disconnect? As marketers, we’re putting out content that we believe is solid, story-branded material, but our customers are digging maybe half of it. What are we putting out there that resonates, and where are they tuning out?
User-generated content (UGC) is what consumers want to see. While some brand marketers may see UGC and brand-created content as equals, UGC resonates with consumers 2.4x more than brand-created content.
UGC works so well for two reasons:
1. It gives your consumers a chance to see what you’re selling in action, which enables them to visualize themselves using your product or service.
2. Consumers see it as a message that’s coming from people rather than a business. People want to do business with people, not a corporation. The more you can personify your business and create a community of followers, the more authentic your brand becomes.
This does not mean that your brand needs to go all in on UGC and ditch the brand-generated content. It’s all about striking a balance that works for your audience. Consumers expect to see brand-created content from brands, but the UGC is what resonates the most. Your team should strategize on the best way to build UGC into your content, and that applies to video marketing.
The most common objective with video marketing is to spread awareness and educate consumers about what you offer. When creating your videos, keep the perception of your consumer at the forefront of the conversation. Your videos should portray a customer benefiting from your product or service. Show it in action. Make it easy for them to see themselves as the consumer in the video.
5. Have a plan to repurpose your videos
Marketing videos are reusable. Have a plan to repurpose the videos after your campaign is over. It keeps your investment working for you longer, further increasing your ROI. Here are some ways to reuse your video content:
Turn your video into a blog
Writing a blog to accompany your video gives you a chance to write an in-depth narrative of the topics covered in your video. Having a blog with a video also adds to your organic ranking on search engines.
Create educational videos
Whether it’s client onboarding, answering FAQs, or employee training, marketing videos can be used to answer common questions your company receives. This frees up time for your company to focus on other customer experience areas.
Use them on eCommerce sites
Use the marketing videos you’ve created to boost your sales by attaching the video as an explainer on your product landing page. Answering more questions during the sales process will increase your conversion rate.
As long as your video content is relevant, you should always be willing to find additional purposes for it. Use your marketing videos to enhance all aspects of the customer’s experience. Better customer experience leads to higher loyalty.
Final Thoughts
Digital marketing is a very visual and educational process. A video is a way for your audience to connect with your brand. The stronger the elements in your video are, the stronger of a connection you’ll have with your viewers.
Defining your story, goals, and plan of action will set your company up for a successful video marketing campaign. Finding a knowledgeable agency that cuts no corners when creating your videos will pay off once you begin measuring your ROI after launching your video campaign.
There is so much noise out there today that it has caused every consumer to develop a B.S. meter. Your audience is going to be able to tell how much effort went into creating the videos and will know whether or not the message is authentic.
Finding the right agency to work on your videos is a very important process. We’re a boutique video marketing agency that specializes in storytelling marketing videos. Our team is here to answer any questions you have about your next video project!
