In the last few years, video marketing has become increasingly important. It has grown so much that the medium has completely taken over the digital world and is now an essential part of the marketing strategy of any business, regardless of its size.
The old-fashioned way of using written content and images is no longer sufficient — it no longer engages today’s consumers, who are constantly exposed to streaming media, virtual reality, and 360-degree videos. The digital video marketing industry is worth $135 billion in the United States. This means brands across the nation are realizing the power of video and increasing their investment in its production and distribution. Due to the exponential growth of branded video content, you will soon fall behind if you do not put out engaging videos regularly.
However, planning an effective video strategy can be quite challenging, especially if you have never done it before. For that, we have created this guide to get you started.
With this guide, you’ll learn about all aspects of video marketing, from choosing the right type of video format for your brand to distributing it effectively. Read on to learn everything there is to know about video marketing.
What is Video Marketing?
It is essentially the use of videos to market and promote your products or services in a way that encourages the audience to buy the said product or service. It is a way to communicate with your audience, engage them, educate them, and ultimately convert them.
Video, however, must be used strategically and creatively for that to happen, as opposed to simply using it to “cross it off your list”. You must utilize this tool to enhance your promotional efforts, communicate effectively, and achieve your marketing objectives.
You can choose from a wide range of video formats – each serving a particular purpose – and there is no end to the possibilities of how you can utilize them. It’s also crucial to keep in mind that, although video content is one of the most critical components of your marketing strategy, it must be integrated throughout and complement other marketing strategies as well.
11 Different Types of Videos Used in Marketing
Decide what type of video you want to make before you start filming. Review the list below to get a better understanding of your options.
1. Demo Videos
These videos demonstrate the functionality of your products — from showing them how your software works to unpacking and trying out a physical product.
2. Event Videos
Are you planning a seminar, a conference, a fundraiser, or some other type of event for your business? Make a highlight video or share the whole event.
3. Brand Videos
An advertising campaign usually includes a brand video, which highlights the brand’s mission, vision, or products. Brand videos are meant to generate awareness and interest in your company among your target audience.
4. Expert Interviews
Interviewing industry experts or thought leaders can help you establish a level of credibility among your target audience. The key is to identify the influential people in your field and interview them — regardless of whether they share your perspective or not — and then share those conversations with your audience.
5. Explainer Videos
The purpose of this video is to let your viewers know what your company offers and why they need it. An explainer video often depicts a fictional journey of a business’s target customer experiencing a particular issue. Through the the business’s solution, they are able resolve the issues.
6. How-to or Educational Videos
The purpose of instructional videos is to impart knowledge to your audience or to provide the understanding necessary for them to comprehend what you do as a business. Your sales and service teams can also use these videos in their interactions with customers.
7. Animated Videos
An animated video can be a powerful marketing tool for difficult-to-understand concepts, visual support, or when describing a product or service that is abstract.
8. Case Study and Customer Testimonial Videos
The potential buyers of your product are looking for assurance that your product can resolve their specific problems. You can demonstrate this “guarantee” through case study videos that talk about one of your customer’s journey in detail. These customers are your most loyal supporters. In the video, ask them to describe the issues they faced and what your company did to help.
9. 360° & VR Videos
Viewers can rotate 360° videos to view content from all angles — almost like being there physically. This video style lets viewers immerse themselves in an experience, whether it be an expedition to Antarctica or an encounter with a hammerhead shark. The VR technology enables viewers to interact with the experience. Most of the VR videos are viewable through VR headsets like Google Cardboard or Oculus Rift.
10. Live Videos
You can provide a behind-the-scenes look at your business to your customers through live video. Moreover, live video generates higher engagement and longer streams — people spend an average of 8.3x more time watching live video than watching a recorded video. Livestream events and interviews and ask viewers for comments.
11. Personalized Messages
In some cases, videos can be used to communicate with people via text or email. Your prospects will enjoy watching these videos and will be encouraged to make a purchase.
How Can Video Marketing Benefit Your Business?
In addition to video content being popular, there are numerous reasons for having a strong video strategy in place. The following are some of the key reasons for making video content:
Boost Conversions and Sales
Creating informative and engaging videos can help you increase conversions and maximize your return on investment. HubSpot reports that just adding video to a landing page can boost conversion rates by 80%. Moreover, studies have shown that people are more likely to buy a product (or service) if they view it in a video first!
Build Trust and Credibility
With video content, you can eliminate the “for-profit” component of your brand. When you appeal to the emotions of your target audience with a narrative, you can reach them more intimately and personally. A strategy that, in the end, allows you to strengthen consumer trust, build credibility, and humanize your brand.
Increase Engagement
As our world becomes more hurried and chaotic, capturing people’s attention is becoming increasingly difficult. Videos, however, offer the opportunity to do so in an original way. Whether you’re showcasing your brand’s mission, demonstrating how your product works, or educating your audience, video content can help you reach your goals.
Improve Your Ranking in the SERPs
Google analyzes and ranks websites based on the amount of time spent on a website, i.e., the amount of time spent browsing the site. A website tends to have a longer dwell time when it contains videos. Moreover, since YouTube is the second most popular search engine on the internet, you are more likely to appear in SERPs if you have a video.
Developing a Video Marketing Strategy
Video marketing requires a lot of work. To succeed, you must plan what you will make, for whom you will make it, the method you will use, and how you will reach the audience after it is made.
Identify Your Audience and Determine Your Campaign Goals
The foundation of any effective marketing effort begins with research – whose needs are you trying to meet? Are they more likely to be receptive to certain types of content, and what are their preferred channels? It makes little sense to make great video content and pay for it to appear on websites your target audience doesn’t visit.
Finally, what is the purpose of the video marketing campaign? In your marketing efforts, do you strive to build awareness, increase sales, boost traffic, or all of the above?
If you want to engage your customers through videos, you will need to use the appropriate style and content. You should take the time to gather consumer insights before you launch a video since they will determine what videos you should create and how much to invest in them.
Ensure That Your Videos Convey the Same Message across All Platforms
Using video as a marketing medium may seem different from traditional marketing tactics. It is an opportunity to refresh your brand image. But, you must make sure that the people viewing your videos – even if they are surprised by what you have to say – understand who you are and what your message is.
In a recent study by McKinsey and Company, there is a 20% greater success rate among companies that have consistent branding. For example, if you post videos to YouTube or Facebook, your videos must link back to your website, featuring consistent branding and messaging across all channels. When users see different videos in emails and on Facebook, your brand’s image may be diluted and that could harm it significantly.
Set a Reasonable Budget for Videos
It is a common misconception that investing heavily in a video will guarantee success. Alternatively, underspending on a large-scale campaign could damage the image of your brand by making it appear unprofessional.
As you create your video content, ensure your budget is being spent wisely and stay focused on your campaign goals. For example, if you’d like to attract more millennials or Gen Z buyers, it might not be necessary to invest heavily in videos.
Alternatively, you may want to consider producing videos for platofrms like Snapchat and Twitter. This will be more instant, causal, and interactive. If you have a larger marketing budget, use influencers to narrate your brand’s story.
You don’t always need big celebrities to use as influencers in your videos. Keep your budget in check by partnering with people whose following is the audience you’re trying to reach, such as industry experts or YouTube stars, but ensure they are qualified to represent your brand. Make sure their reputation, social media profiles, and the posts on their own platforms are not detrimental to your brand or products.
Make Sure Your Videos Are Optimized for Each Channel
When it comes to launching your campaigns, it’s crucial to optimize your videos for maximum engagement. Facebook advocates short videos, adding captions, and uploading videos directly on the platform. YouTube recommends waiting two weeks after your video has been published to tweak it and tailor it to your intended audience.
For Twitter, optimizing video campaigns involves finding the right mix of targeting strategies – from interests to keywords to devices – without over-targeting, so it’s easy to see which campaigns are doing well.
Keep Testing and Reviewing Results
You can use A/B testing to determine which aspects of your video marketing campaign are effective, and which are not. Perhaps the problem lies with the message rather than the creative, or perhaps it’s the timing of your campaign or your choice of channels. You might even be posting videos that are too lengthy or too short. Whatever the case may be, be sure to test repeatedly in order to determine what kind of content to use and when to use it.
Besides A/B testing, you can also use different tools like Wave.video and SE Ranking to measure the performance of your video marketing campaigns. But make sure you have a reliable internet connection in a place like the one offered by MetroNet Internet to use these platforms effectively.
Now that we have that covered, consider the following four metrics for measuring campaign success:
Engagement Rate
This is a measure of how much people interact with your video. Approximately how long did people spend watching it? Are they watching the entire thing, or just skipping it? By analyzing this number, you can get an idea of how well your message is coming across, the creativity of your video, and whether the length of the video is appropriate.
View Count
A video’s view count measures how many times it has been viewed, but the metrics vary based on the channel. The duration of a view on YouTube is 30 seconds, whereas on Facebook it’s just 3 seconds. The more you know about how viewers engage with your videos across a variety of platforms, the better you will be able to measure engagement, which in turn lets you plan your future campaigns and content accordingly.
Play Rate
This is the number of people that clicked on play to view the video. Having this information gives you a better idea of how well the video advertisement performs on particular websites and social networks. Perhaps it does not do well on Slate but is heavily played on the New York Times. It indicates what your audience is like. Several factors can influence the play rate, including the size of the video, the copy, or even the thumbnail you have.
Social Sharing
It is a measure of how often people share your video on social media. Most people aren’t interested in sharing content they don’t like, so when your videos are shared frequently, this means they are resonating with others.
Wrapping Up
There are various platforms available to users now, that they can use to find entertaining video content. Some of these include SVOD platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, IPTV services like MetroNet TV, and live-streaming platforms. Given the increases in sources where viewers can enjoy watching their preferred video format, marketers need to use this as an opportunity and integrate videos into their marketing plan.
We hope this guide will help you devise and implement an effective video marketing strategy so you can achieve your marketing objectives.
