Video Content Marketing

We’ve seen many trends in the world of marketing over the last few years and decades. If there’s one that stands apart for its popularity and effectiveness, it’s the rise of video.

People are simply watching more and more videos on YouTube, Facebook, or elsewhere. You can find many stats that prove the effectiveness of video marketing. People enthusiastically embrace video, so businesses targeting this audience need to reach them using this medium. This article will cover various topics to help you get the most out of video marketing.

Why Video Marketing is So Effective

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Video content has higher engagement than any other form of media

With so many marketing strategies to choose from, why should you focus on video? To begin with, we’re not saying that you should only use video. The best approach to content marketing is to engage with your audience in a variety of formats. However, there are several vital reasons that video content is so effective. Videos provide both visual and audible information. Anything you can do with text or photos with videos, only more forcefully.

You can use video marketing to communicate all educational and promotional messages.
Video is the medium best suited for affecting emotions. There’s a reason why people spend so many hours consuming YouTube videos, Netflix, and other streaming movies, and movies on the large screen.
You have many video formats and styles from which to choose (e.g., whiteboard, animation, webcam, live streaming, 360). You can tailor your videos to fit your unique needs and those of your audience.

Video Increases Conversion Rates

One of the best reasons to use video is that it offers some of the best conversion rates. Unbounce reports that putting a video on your landing page increases conversions by 80%. Here are the top ways that video helps your conversions.

People love videos. The number one reason to emphasize video is that people are consuming more and more videos. Cisco estimates that video will account for 80% of all consumer internet traffic by 2023
People share videos. According to Orion21, videos are shared 1200% more often than links and text combined.
SEO benefits. Google and other search engines tend to favor video over other types of content. Google, of course, owns YouTube, the largest video-sharing site of all. YouTube itself is the world’s second-largest search engine, second only to Google itself.
People watch videos for product research. According to Google, almost 50% of shoppers watch a video about a product before visiting a store.

“Companies that use videos in their marketing have 27% higher clickthrough rate and 34% higher conversion rates than those that don’t” – Buffer

Rolling Out an Effective Video Content Strategy

Great video content can be wasted if there is no strategy behind it

With any marketing approach, you need a clear strategy if you want to succeed. Otherwise, you end up haphazardly trying one thing after the other. Video marketing is getting increasingly competitive. Let’s start with four key general tips before embarking on your video marketing campaigns and then delve into ways to improve SEO for your videos.

4 Tips For Planning Your Video Marketing Campaign

Identify your audience. Knowing your audience before a content marketing strategy is always helpful. This is particularly important with videos, where you have such a wide choice of styles and formats. Create a buyer persona and decide what kind of videos such a person will respond best to. Consider your viewers’ demographics, interests, concerns, and what type of approach they’re likely to prefer.
Create a schedule. Consistency is critical in video marketing. You want to get your audience accustomed to seeing videos from you regularly. Keep in mind that not every video you make is going to hit the mark with every viewer. By covering a variety of subjects and using a variety of formats, you maximize your impact.
Choose your platforms. One of the best things about video marketing is that you can get lots of mileage from a single video. You can post it to your website, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and other platforms. You can share video links on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social sites.
Track your analytics. One of the keys to video marketing success is tracking your numbers. It’s easy to do this with YouTube and Google Analytics. In addition to views and likes, it’s important to track engagement. Views alone are not going to help your business grow. You need to identify the videos that motivate people to take action.

Tips to Improve Video SEO

SEO strategies should be focused not only on written content but on Video too

One of the best reasons to use video is that it’s an excellent way to rank your content in search engines. At the same time, video marketing is quite competitive, so you have to do everything you can to ensure your videos are SEO-friendly.

Use keywords in your title and description. Video titles, like article headlines and email subject lines, are significant for SEO and attracting the right audience. Descriptions give you added space to include keywords, including long tail keywords. YouTube provides you with plenty of space to add a description, so you should take advantage of this.
Create transcripts for your videos. A transcript is good for SEO and makes your video accessible to a broader audience. People who are hearing-impaired and anyone watching with the sound down or distractions nearby can more easily follow videos with transcripts. Additionally, a transcript gives search engines more content to index. While you can use various tools and services for this, you can also create video transcripts for free on YouTube.
Use a compelling thumbnail. The thumbnail is what viewers see before clicking on your video. Using a custom thumbnail rather than a default one picked by YouTube is best. To create custom thumbnails, you need a verified YouTube account. Choose an image (which doesn’t even have to be a shot in your video) that gives people a good sense of what your video is about and entices them to watch.
Submit a video sitemap. Video sitemaps are a valuable tool for making it easier for Google to find all your embedded videos. You may need to enlist help for this if you don’t have coding skills. However, it’s worth it to maximize your videos’ SEO.
Promote your videos with paid ads. YouTube and Google favor videos with more views, likes, and shares. This creates a catch-22 for people without large followings. That’s why using some of the above-mentioned paid advertising strategies (i.e., YouTube & Facebook) is also suitable for SEO. As more people watch and hopefully interact with your videos, they’ll also get ranked higher.

Social Media & Video

Watch your conversion rates explode when using video in your Social Strategy

One of the best ways to reach a wider audience is to integrate video into your social media marketing strategy. Videos are getting more and more popular on social sites. Recent statistics reveal that about 500 million people watch Facebook videos daily, while YouTube has over 5 billion views daily. With so many social media users clicking on “play” buttons every moment, you want to do everything possible to get your videos in front of them.

Make the most of Facebook native video. While there’s nothing wrong with linking to YouTube videos (or ones you’ve made for your website) on social media, you’ll often get better results by using native video platforms. One study revealed that Facebook native video gets ten times more shares than YouTube videos.
Reach your audience in real-time with live streaming video. Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Instagram Stories, and other live streaming video platforms let you connect with people in real time.
Keep up with the latest and most innovative video marketing solutions. New platforms and apps are being released all the time. Twitter, for example, just came out with Timestamps, a way to showcase a particular moment in a video.
Invite your followers to submit their videos. You can do this formally by creating contests. You can also simply invite people to post videos on a particular topic, such as showcasing them using your product in various ways and in exciting locations.
Track your results and find out what your followers prefer. You can do this using the analytics tools of social media sites such as Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics.

Facebook Video Lead Ads

Facebook provides another viable option for promoting your videos. While Facebook offers many advertising options, lead ads are one of video marketers’ most helpful ad types. These are ads specifically designed to help you capture leads on both Facebook and Instagram.

Not long ago, Facebook announced changes in its algorithm to prioritize social content over commercial posts. If you want to reach your audience on this huge social media site, supplementing your organic content with paid ads is more necessary than ever. Facebook lead ads work well with videos to help you get new leads.

The benefit of using this type of advertising is that you can acquire people’s contact information without them having to leave Facebook. You can create a compelling video that gives viewers an introduction to your business and ends with an enticing offer that motivates them to leave their info. The Miami Dolphins football team provided a perfect example of generating leads with Facebook ads. In this viral campaign, they managed to get more video views than any other football team. Here are a few ways that they accomplished this:

Rather than trying to sell tickets in their videos, they focused on telling compelling stories about the players, fans, and community in a series called The Life.
Received many leads by using Facebook Lead Ads.
Targeted the most receptive audience with ads using Engagement Custom Audiences.

Instagram and Video

You shouldn’t overlook Instagram when planning your video marketing strategy. This image-based social media site, owned by Facebook, is viral among younger audiences. Here are some of the possibilities to consider.

Create videos directly on Instagram. Keep in mind that Instagram limits you to 60 seconds. But this is still enough time to impress your viewers.
Publish simultaneously on multiple social media sites. Use a social media automation app or service that lets you post to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and possibly other sites.
Broadcast live with Instagram Stories. Along with Facebook Live, this is a powerful way to engage with your audience in real-time.
Use video ads. You can invest in video ads as part of the Facebook advertising platform.

Promote Your Video Content With YouTube

One way to magnify your results with video marketing is to promote your content on YouTube. You can advertise on YouTube, which is connected to Google AdWords. Relying entirely on organic methods can be a slow process. With advertising, you can quickly get more targeted viewers. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of YouTube advertising.

- YouTube publishes helpful guidelines for promoting your channel with advertising. Study some of their tutorials.
- Learn about the different types of video ads. TrueView ads operate on the same principle as PPC ads, which you only pay for when readers click on your ads. With TrueView ads, you only pay when viewers watch at least 30 seconds of your ad (they have the option to click away after only a few seconds). Video Discovery ads appear when people search on YouTube. Bumpers are concise videos that play before selected videos.
- Set your budget. As with any paid advertising, creating an affordable daily budget is essential.
- Identify your audience. You can specify who sees your video ads by location, language, device, and interests.

Preparing For the Future of Video Marketing

There’s little doubt that video will play a more prominent and significant role in the future of marketing. However, in a world where 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube each minute, it’s also true that video marketing is fiercely competitive. If you want people to notice and engage with your videos, you must do certain things to set yourself apart. Let’s look at ways to get the most out of your video marketing.

“64% of consumers say watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchase decision of theirs in the last month.”

Get Creative

Focus on quality video content that stands out

Despite all the aforementioned virtues of videos, the fact is that corporate videos are often dry and dull. This doesn’t have to be the case, though. Here are some ways to make your corporate video more exciting and creative.

Focus on the human element. Your customers are people, no matter what kind of product or service you’re marketing. You’re ultimately solving human problems. Bring this out in your videos. Get people to talk about their situations. Or, if it’s just you, tell their story. The point is to get beyond numbers and abstractions and tell stories about people.
Make your videos visually appealing. While it may seem obvious that you should make the most out of a visual medium, many corporate videos have virtually zero visual appeal. For example, if you simply put up a series of PowerPoint slides with text, it will be hard to keep viewers’ attention. One approach is to film somewhere with an interesting background, whether a city skyline, a lake, a park, or even your backyard. The time of day makes a difference, with the time shortly after sunrise or just before sunset providing the optimal light. You can also make animated or whiteboard videos visually appealing if you take the time to choose striking images.
Add music. It’s just as important to stimulate people’s ears as their eyes. Having a soundtrack makes your video more appealing and professional. Make sure you have the right to use whatever music you choose. Another caveat is to use the music in a way that doesn’t distract from your message. Music is great for the introduction, transitions between sections, and at the close.
Use humor. Laughter is an excellent way to lighten the atmosphere and get people to lower their guard. Pay attention to how leading brands make dry subjects more entertaining with humor. For example, insurance companies such as Geico and Progressive take a boring subject and keep people watching. Humor is also a way to playfully make fun of the competition without coming across as a bully. With humor, however, you must be aware of your audience and its preferences. You don’t want to offend anyway.
Decide if leading-edge video techniques like 360 and VR are right for your business. These formats are especially compelling for industries where customers benefit by seeing close-up views of products and scenes. This includes businesses in real estate, hospitality, and interior design.

Lighten Up With Animated Videos

Animation videos are fun, engaging, and allow you to communicate a lot of detail

You don’t always have to appear in your videos to make them effective. Animated explainer videos are an excellent example of a video format that works very well for many purposes. Here are some reasons why this type of video is so good for content marketing.

Entertaining. You can explain even complex topics in a fun and entertaining way. Many people grew up watching cartoons, so they associate animation with entertainment. Animation is a great way to add humor to your videos.
A good way to convey facts and otherwise dry information. You can show screenshots, charts, infographics, a list of product features, and other essential facts in a way that holds people’s attention.
Economical. When you use the right video animation tools, you can make lots of these videos without spending a lot.
Easy to make and edit. Once you learn how to do it, you’ll find it’s pretty simple to create animated videos. It’s also simple to go back and make edits for product updates, new deals, and other updated information.

Automate Your Video Content Marketing

Great content. Automated

Marketing automation can make your business more efficient and profitable. A wide variety of services and software make it easy to create professional-looking videos. Here are 5 of the best tools currently available.

Vidyard is a video marketing tool made specifically for businesses. It integrates with many other services, such as Hubspot, Salesforce, Marketo, and others, to help you generate leads from your videos.
Animoto is one of the oldest and best-known tools for making animated videos. You can add your photos and images and add them to one of their templates. One of the recent additions is a mobile app to make videos easily from your smartphone.
Slidely has several plans for making great-looking videos. Slidely Promo is primarily for businesses. This service gives you instant access to attractive images, clips, and music.
Powtoon is one of the best tools for making animated videos. You can try it out using the free version. You can choose from many templates and simply drop and drag them into your video.
Wistia is another video service made especially for businesses. It lets you host videos with built-in SEO to help you rank them. It also includes lead generation features so you can capture viewers’ email addresses.

Keep Your Audience Captivated

Grab the viewer’s attention to convey your message

“53% of smartphone users feel more favorable towards companies whose mobile sites or apps provide instructional video content.”

As people consume more and more videos, their attention spans seem to get even shorter. According to some studies, you only have 10 seconds to capture your audience’s attention. You must do everything you can to make your videos stand apart. Keep these video marketing solutions in mind for optimal results:

Focus on telling a story. If your videos are mainly about selling, you’ll bore your audience. Instead, appeal to their emotions and aesthetic sense.
Start strong. The introduction of a video is essential, as this is when you either capture or lose your viewer. Begin your videos with a compelling image and a provocative question or statement, such as “Would you like to learn how to cut your energy bill by 30%?”
Optimize for your viewers and the search engines. Every word you use (in your title, description, and transcripts) makes it easier for viewers to find you. Research topics that your audience will care about and use keywords that help you get ranked.
End with a solid call to action. Getting people to watch your video is just the first step. You then need them to take action, whether signing up for your list or clicking on your product page. Use a clear CTA both in the video itself and the description (where you can put a link).
Be adaptable. Remember that only your audience can tell you what kind of videos are best for your needs. Study your analytics and make changes when appropriate. Test everything, including topics, titles, video length, styles, and more.