YouTube revolutionized video marketing in 2005 when it was launched. Now, 18 years later, the platform boasts a record 1.7 billion unique monthly users, with 90% of its revenue coming from selling ads and 10% from subscription fees.
But YouTube isn't the only platform with an insane video marketing portfolio. Many other social platforms that have risen in its wake, such as TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, have changed the way users on the internet consume content. Video content is getting front seat on these platforms. On Facebook for example, original video content is given ranking priority in the feed compared to other content formats.
Even Twitter introduced Instagram-like reels in a bid to tap into the growing industry of video marketing. What all this means is that users on the internet are constantly exposed to hours of video content every day with an aim to;
1) Educate
2) Entertain
3) Sell
The data surrounding the rising dominance of video as a mode of advertising is clear and undeniable. If your business isn't already doing so, it's time to consider video marketing.
Keep reading to understand what video marketing is all about and how your business can harness its power.
What is Video Marketing?
Video marketing is the use of videos by businesses and companies to promote and market products and services, increase engagement, educate customers and generate leads.
Benefits of Video Marketing
Social reach
The most popular social sites (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest) are all optimized for video content. Video is the second most popular content type on social for increasing engagement.
People watch almost 1 billion videos each day on Pinterest alone. On Twitter, tweets with video content attract 10 times more engagement than text based ones.
Improved SEO and Sales
The search engine algorithm has been reported to interpret websites with video content to have higher quality content in general/ Also, sites with videos have a higher visitor retainer rate than those without.
In fact, 31% of marketers have been reported to use video content on their sites to boost SEO.
Videos can be used throughout the sales journey. From increasing engagement, to generating leads, to converting prospect customers into buyers and even business analytics.
Reach your audience on Mobile
Most sites are optimized for video on mobile devices and tablets. A survey by Statistica revealed that 77% of surveyed people use mobile or tablet to watch online videos. This means businesses can easily reach their customers on mobile through targeted video content.
Build trust
Customers prefer low quality "authentic" videos over high quality video that seems artificial and inauthentic according to a survey by Hubspot. This explains the bump in the influencer marketing to a 16.4 billion industry in 2022.
Product reviews, how-to videos and customer experience videos help you communicate your business' value without seeming like you're desperately trying hard to make a sale.
Creating a Video Marketing Strategy
Your strategy works as a template you will use throughout your campaign to keep you on track and save time that would otherwise be spent tending to trivial or irrelevant tasks.
Here are key steps to follow.
Step 1: Decide on your target audience and set goals for your campaign
As goes any other marketing campaign, your first step is picking your target market for your particular capaign. You ought to be as specific as possible, making sure to descibe the key personas and segments of the market your strategy is aiming to target.
Ask yourself these questions;
What audience am I trying to market to?
What kind of content do they like to engage with?
Where do they spend most of their time?
You can check out our article on social media marketing to help you understand the different demographics to target for the different social platforms available to you.
For your campaign's goals, are you trying to;
Raise brand awareness?
Market a new product?
Tell your company's unique story?
Drive traffic to your site and generate other leads?
This step of your campaign will dictate the direction of the rest of your strategy so its important to take your time and obtain enough data while answering any of the above questions.
Step 2: Branding/Messaging
This builds on from your first step and draws from both your campaign's goals and audience but also your overall brand's goals. Knowing your audience and where to find them, you can decide the brand voice, tone of messaging and format of your videos.
The branding/messaging you choose should reflect in all your videos to communicate consistency to your target audience which help your brand stand out by commanding respect and trust.
All this should align with your buyer personas. Will you use communicate in a professional and more technical tone? A playful and simpler one? Long form or short videos? What camera angles will you use throughout your campaign?
Step 3: Set a timeline and work out a budget for your video marketing campaign
One of the biggest decisions to make is this especially for small businesses, because let's face it, good quality videos are tedious and require a lot of resources to make. So will you opt for the in-house and more affordable option which might compromise the quality of videos or will you set aside funds to hire a professional to help you create the quality content on your behalf?
While making this decision, keep in mind the buyer personas from your first step. What does your audience expect from your brand? What is your competition offering?
Once you've settled with a budget, now you can set up a timeline for the different tasks to undertake in your strategy. Remember to factor in occasional delays in your timeline.
Step 4: Optimize for different platforms
Different platforms process and display video content differently. For example, TikTok, which is almost entirely consumed on mobile will optimize for vertical videos, while YoutTube which has a significant number of destop viewers will optimize for horizontal videos.
Is the content intended for mobile or desktop? This will guide how you shoot and edit your videos.
Horizontal (landscape) video formats will work well for desktop and YouTube
Vertical (portrait) video formats will be better suited for mobile devices hence social platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
However, some will work for both. You can also transform some. YouTube videos in the horizontal format can still be used as YouTube shorts which are in the vertical format.
Step 5: Track your campaign
Pick which metrics are important to track for your campaign. It's good to use more than one metric to track your performance. Analytics will help you measure your key performance indicators (KPIs), guiding your strategy towards what works and what doesn't.
Here are some key metrics to consider;
View count
Engagement rate
Social sharing
Interaction (Comments, Likes, Clicks, subscriptions, etc.)
As your campaign progresses, zero in on what works and discard what doesn't.
Good luck on your video marketing journey!
