Over the last few years, the importance of video marketing has been in full swing. This medium of marketing has dominated the entire digital world & emerged as the most powerful marketing tool for every brand.
According to Wyzowl’s research, 93% of marketers say that video has become an important part of their marketing strategy.
Are you too into video? Well, who isn’t considering the traction it’s gaining these days!
Take a peek at the statistics HubSpot released stating about video marketing. [ Boring but important y’all! ]
Planning a solid video marketing strategy can be very daunting, particularly if you do it for the first time. Hey! don’t worry, that’s why we’re here with this video marketing strategy guide today. In this guide, you’ll find what you need to become a pro! From what digital video marketing means, planning an effective video strategy, SEO video strategy to everything in between!
Enough small talks, let’s take a look at what you’ll learn today:
- What is the importance of video marketing?
- What are the benefits of building a video strategy?
- How to build a video marketing strategy?
- Types of marketing videos
4.1 Explainer Videos
4.2 Commercial Videos
4.3 Branded Videos
4.4 Social Media Videos
4.5 Product Videos
4.6 Training Videos - Video marketing production process
- Video marketing SEO
- Video strategy promotion
- Measuring video strategy
- Parting words
1. What is the importance of video marketing?
To put it simply, video marketing uses videos to promote and market your services & products, reaches out to the target audience, increases engagement, educates clients & customers, and effectively boosts conversions.
However, in order for this to happen, it is vital to use video strategy ingeniously, rather than simply creating to be ahead in the market. You need to concentrate on using the medium to improve efforts, deliver messages, and achieve your marketing goals.
The problem being there are different types of videos, each with its own intent & a plethora of ways to achieve your goals using it! Which we’ll discuss in a bit. But, for the time being, keep in mind that, while video content is relevant, it should be incorporated into and work in conjunction with the rest of your video marketing strategy.
2. What are the benefits of building a video marketing strategy?
We already know that there are a plethora of ways to build a video marketing strategy. But, don’t forget the fact, audiences love video content. That said, having a video strategy is equivalent.
We’ll go over some important benefits of video marketing for businesses:
Builds trust & integrity: Video content is the perfect way to differentiate a company from the brand. Use narratives to humanize the target audience’s pain points, connecting in a more personal way. When it comes to building trust, testimonial videos are often the first choice.
Improves engagement: Billions of people watch video content on a daily basis! With the right video, captivating & hooking your audience on the screen can be a real spin-off. Whether your goal is to explain your product, share your brand’s mission, educate audiences, it’s a matter of snap with video content. A compelling narration immediately takes the audience’s attention and holds it until the end! Look at the example of how this brand creatively used a whiteboard animation explainer video for a commercial real estate company:
Boosts conversion & drives sales: This is related to our first point – an engaging & informative video that builds a sense of trust amongst the audience helps in boosting conversion & increasing your video strategy ROI. Also, it’s proven that people are more likely to make purchases after watching a product or service video.
Helps you rank on SERPs: It’s no secret that Google just loves videos on site. Well, just not google even you’ll love it as it keeps your audience hooked to your site. Visitors tend to stick around if there’s a video content in it. Further improving your bounce rate! Not to forget, YouTube is the second largest search engine, a video simply increases your chance of appearing on SERPs. Something that, as we’ll see later on this video strategy guide, is very important!
3. How to build a video marketing strategy?
Now that you’re aware of the importance of video marketing for businesses, let’s get started with developing a video strategy:
Analyze your competitors: In order to build a successful B2B video marketing strategy that will make your brand stand out, you need to evaluate your competition – who they are, what kind of products and services do they offer, how they market their products, how they implement videos for the same, & how you vary from them.
Check their blogs, social media, emails or any medium available to understand how they use the power of video content to communicate their various messages. This will help you discover business strategies and recognize the strengths or shortcomings of your competitors’ video strategies.
Set goals: In any digital video marketing strategy, identifying a goal is the foremost step – it defines what you want to accomplish out of the video.
Do you want to attract a new set of customers? Do you want to engage or retarget your audience? Need potential customers to take action?
Well, to achieve all these you need to decide on important videos for your business to grow. Tip: Take into consideration your buyer’s journey. I guarantee you defining goals would be a breeze.
Let’s go through the funnel stage to ease your troubles:
Awareness stage: If you want to introduce your brand to customers or want to attract a new set of audiences, you’ll want to create video content suitable for the awareness stage.
Consideration stage: If you want to engage or retarget with the audience, clarify why your product & services are better served, you’ll want video content in line with the consideration stage.
Decision-making stage: Finally, explained everything about your products & services? Now you want your potential audience to take action, you’d want to develop a decision-making video.
Now, regardless of the video strategy you choose, take into account that all the pieces you develop should have things in common.
Dig-up your targeted audience: The audience is the king of your video marketing strategy. Perform deep-dive research – from demographics, age, gender, location & above all their pain points (requirements).
Understanding the pain points of your audience can help find out what kind of video content you should create to place your product or service as a solution to their problems. How do you view yourself & your company sorting their problem? Take time to identify this question & how you can use them to improve or change your own video strategy.
Stay intact with the creative flow: Let’s make the point simpler for you with these aspects:
- Aligning character & story’s emotion with target demographic.
- Establish visual design in the same tone – color palette, typography, characters & aesthetic
- A story meeting the pain points of the target audience.
- Pursuit how will you introduce your product & services.
- Lastly, a resolution to how your product & services can solve a problem.
Overall, identify your product idea linked to your overall video content strategy and brand identity.
The number of videos required: By this stage, you’ll be decked up with your video marketing strategy & actionable plans. But you must be wondering “how many videos do I need?”
Well, one video isn’t enough! However, the number of videos depend upon your – video strategy goal, your ROI expectations, & your budget. In order to get a realistic measure of your video content, always consider creating one which meets all your goals & covers each stage.
For instance, if you’re creating a video to introduce a product or service, you should keep in mind the awareness, consideration, & decision- making stage, don’t just leave your audience high & dry with just one. Also, keep in mind, there are several social platforms with their own time limits.
Being versatile with a video marketing strategy can level up your game. Start with basic & keep adding more video content aligned with goals & budget.
Be prepared with a schedule: For a digital video marketing strategy to be successful, scheduling is a must. Alas! It’s neglected most of the time.
Most people don’t know that putting together video contents is time-consuming – videos take between 8 and 10 weeks from the start to the end of the product delivery. One with high-quality & persuasive bits.
In order to get the actual production with enough time, it’s vital to set deadlines beforehand. From evaluating the concept strategy, outlining goals, types of video to budget, just set a deadline for each task & stick to it for fruit-bearing results.
The right video production company: We know how challenging this task is! You can go for a freelancer, DIY production & even in-house production
But, when it comes to stepping up your video marketing strategy for businesses to the next level, you’d definitely want to work with a professional video production company. They are the experts of their art, with talent, knowledge & experience to transform a simple notion into a captivating piece!
Being a video production company, we understand one can get overwhelmed with too many options. However, we have some tips that can help you connect with the right video production company:
- Go through their portfolio. Analyze the company’s feedback, reviews, testimonials & ratings.
- Check their video production process.
- Analyze their storyline & characters.
- Last, observe if you can resonate with them.
4.Types of marketing videos for businesses
Now that you’ve decided on the strategies of video marketing for businesses, let’s move to the interesting part: what type of video to produce!
Explainer Videos
Explainer Videos are short animated pieces that businesses use to easily introduce themselves, what they do & how they resolve audiences’ queries in 1 to 3 minutes. What makes it powerful is its – fast & unforgettable way to make an impression on your audience, all while catering to their pain points & introducing an ideal solution needed for decision-making. This is critical for your conversion rate.
Explainer video strategies are to boost “conversation” of your products or services. Assisting you in generating leads by straightforward, focused, and successful communications that move prospects down the sales funnel.
Among many other benefits, explainers are best known to attract potential customers, increase average on-site time, build awareness & increase conversion.
Commercial Videos
Commercials are short, eye-catchy videos that depict the company’s best features with a dramatic scene, brilliant pictures, or a rundown of exciting features and conclude with a clear call-to-action. Since the primary objective is to attract potential buyers, advertising is widely appealed and provides useful information to the audience.
These typically short, 30 seconds to one-minute-long videos aren’t much trying to educate your audience rather advertise your brands and products. They are mostly promotional with the intention of igniting spark among the viewers, generate interest for the product, and boost brand recognition.
This type of video marketing for businesses is best for launching a product, increasing sales, and establishing brand awareness.
Branded Videos
In today’s world where the internet is flooded with video content on a daily basis & creating something which is outstanding, educational, and adds value not only portrays your brand as a thought leader but helps audiences’ connect with your business on a regular basis.
Branded videos are an excellent way to communicate with prospects and potential audience. These are advertisement videos that are sponsored or produced by a company without explicitly mentioning their name.
So, while branded video contents are not a traditional ad or marketing promo, it often shares the same end goal of driving audience engagement, increasing ROI, boosting conversion & purchases.
Social Media Videos
Designed especially to be shared with audiences spending time mostly on social media! Everybody just loves social media & videos. These videos come with no specific form, from explainer & corporate to commercial & product videos. Just name it!
Social media content is mostly short, straightforward & uniquely effective for building trust. But you gotta make it appealing, such videos live or die by their first few frames to work.
Creating videos to inform, educate, or entertain? It should be short, dynamic, and provide value quickly. Using these videos in your video marketing strategy will help you increase viewer interaction through likes, shares, and comments, as well as raise brand awareness.
Product Videos
Product videos are intended to demonstrate how a product or service functions in the most practical and authentic way. Using appropriate, high-quality, and enticing content to highlight its main features and benefits.
These video contents are developed for both physical products as well as digital ones. A demo video boosts conversion rates by delivering a creative and intriguing story demonstrating product usage in the real world and its effects.
Use this type of video strategies to close sales, as no one leaves a product video in the middle unless interested! Planning out the content effectively and putting the message across can do wonders in your sales tactics.
Training Videos
Training videos are suitable for internal communication and can be one of the most effective methods for communicating with the staff. Businesses all over the world have switched to video content format for their Learning and Development programs.
They engage your employees throughout, are easily digestible, cost-effective, and can simplify complex ideas. Traditional L&D programs which constituted more of printed documents have been totally swept by Engaging Video Content. They can easily translate the corporate culture to the new employees, develop product or service awareness, or train remote work teams.
5. Video production process
We finally made it to the video production process – yay!
There are several methods of the video production process. But don’t worry we’ll walk you through the mandatory processes needed for this video marketing strategy guide. Ready, Steady & Go!
Concept
First things first, whether hire a video production company or make a video yourself, deciding on the concept is vital. So, get your team on board with a cup of coffee & start brainstorming ideas. Jot down every point & analyze which concept suits best for your video content strategy.
Don’t forget about your target audience. After all, you’re making these videos for them to watch, right? Consider what subjects are most important to them and what type of story will help you communicate with them more deeply.
Creative brief
Whist working with a video production company, you’ll be provided with a creative brief with basic questions – What is the video about? Who’s your target audience? What’s your audience’s pain points?
These briefs will assist the agency get a clear idea of your projects – core values, brand message & goals – before developing a video.
Remember that video production is a two-way conversation each part nurturing the other. As a consequence, being transparent and trustworthy with your creative partner is important for your video marketing strategy.
Script
Now that your agency is all aware of your brand, core values, color palette, & mission, it’s time for script approval.
Now all those concepts & goals will turn into an engaging & unforgettable script. Make sure that your script is easy-to-digest, & with a conversational tone. Also remember to keep it short & simple, spreading across important messages.
Voice-over
Voice-over helps deliver messages that connect your audience in a deep & intimate manner. It’s basically as important as breathing (you get it, right?)
The narrator will bring empathy to your piece and a “human touch” that will strengthen the message you’re trying to convey by using the right tone & pace. Hence, growing its credibility and trustworthiness.
Be it a cheerful or serious subject, with the right voice artist, you can deliver a message aligned with the brand’s personality & reflecting target audience.
Storyboard & design
Storytelling, also known as storyboarding, is the visual depiction of the video’s key activities from beginning to end.
Looks much like comic strips & provides a better vision to the final piece. A well-crafted storyboard allows you to find flaws ahead of time before the actual development begins. Allowing time to adapt or correct what is necessary to ensure that the project is moving in the right direction.
Animation
We finally reached the last stage of our video marketing process. Once everything’s approved, let’s give life to the video!
Animators begin the magical process of bringing movement and creativity to the illustrations and any graphic element used in the video using the animatic as a guide that marks the time.
Now, whether you’re creating an explainer video, whiteboard, 3D, or motion graphics, keep in mind that animation takes time. Especially if your digital video strategy involves a number of animated segments. So, patience is important!
6. Video Marketing SEO
Everybody wants to be on top of google’s page! So, video marketing strategies for your businesses have innumerable benefits that will assist you.
We’ll quickly go through the pointers:
- Analyze keywords & infuse them into your video contents titles, descriptions, transcript & tags.
- Add videos on your website where necessary. Have a product on your site? Add a video alongside.
- Embed your videos on a page full of relevant & informative content. Just be sure that the video contents are relatable.
- Add videos to your blog to keep visitors engaged.
Video is a great way to keep your visitors intact on the site, educate them as well as improve your SEO. Do follow the pointers for better results!
7. Video strategy promotion
You’ve got it all: a strategy, goal, and an awesome video. It’s now time to spread the video and secure your place in your audience’s hearts.
Owned media, paid media, and earned media are the three primary networking channels by which you can promote your content. If used properly, it will help you raise brand recognition and convert prospects at each point of the sales funnel. Can you see the importance of video marketing for businesses?
Owned Media: “Owned Media” refers to publishing content in any medium your brand has full control. These include every channel:
- Website
- Social media channels
- Blogs
- Email Marketing
- Apps & many more
Paid Media: Just as the word implies, you’ve to pay for video distribution – simply, advertising! You can reach a larger audience, increase your online presence, and improve conversions by advertising your pieces in the right places.
List of paid channels for your video strategy:
- Search Ads
- Social Media Ads
- Sponsored Content
- Influencer Marketing
- Native Advertising
Earned Media: It’s where people share your content, note the: you don’t pay them to do so. This is the trickiest form as the results are unpredictable, unlike other mediums. It’s just a matter of time and commitment that you must continue to put in.
Some of the earned mediums:
- Social Shares
- Product Reviews
- Traditional PR
- Influencer Marketing
8. How to measure video marketing strategy?
Who doesn’t enjoy watching viral videos? But what’s more critical and fascinating about those videos are the RESULTS!
We’ll tell you 7 KPIs important for video marketing for businesses:
- View Count – Being the first step it determines the success of your video strategy. It denotes the extent to which your video material has been viewed. However, bear in mind that counts differ between platforms; for example, on YouTube, a view is counted once every 30 seconds, while on Facebook, it is only counted once every 3 seconds.
- Play Rate – This is the percentage of page visitors who actually pressed play and watched your video. It’s a good way to assess the usefulness of your video content.
- Engagement – It’s the percentage of how often your video content has been viewed. With this information, it is easier to assess the video’s quality and utility. If you have a call-to-action at the end, you want to ensure that people watched the whole video.
- Social Share – It shows how many people have shared your video. It is an excellent tool for assessing how often your target audience is interacting with your video content.
- Click-through-rate – It’s the percentage of the clicks on your call-to-action added along with your video. Your CTR will indicate how successful your video is to promote actions by viewers. Always keep in mind to place your CTA relative to the topic.
- Conversion Rate – It’s the indicator to measure how many leads or customers converted through your amazing video. This metric is a little more difficult to monitor, and will certainly require some setup with a separate analytics app, such as Google Analytics.
- Feedback – These are the reactions & comments received on your videos. It’s a great way to listen & communicate with your target audience as well as pay attention to their pain points.
Parting Words
The importance of video marketing for businesses has dazzled brands of every size & industry! Its rousing nature connects existing & potential customers in the most intriguing & innovative way possible.
To put it mildly, this growing trend represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for companies to build deeper relationships with prospects, cultivate confidence, improve online visibility, and increase conversions.
However, the video is just the tip of the iceberg! It takes time to create a solid video strategy – there’s a lot to evaluate, discuss, assess, and settle on. If you want to achieve profitable results and develop your company!
Fortunately, you can use this detailed video strategy guide to begin outlining your next strategy and completely benefit from this fantastic type of material!
However, if you’re looking for an experienced video marketing agency, let’s partner up!
Your success is our success!
As you embark on this journey and every step of the way, we focus on your success. Our project managers act as your trusted partners who know how our videos would connect with your audience to make magic.