If you are thinking of getting involved in video marketing, but unsure of where to start, this video marketing how to will help guide you in the right direction. There is no better time to get started creating videos! There are over 500 million people watching Facebook videos every day and 10 billion watch videos on Snapchat, do not forget TikToc, IGTV, and YouTube videos, and this does not count people who share videos.
If you are unsure of what you are doing, video marketing can be one of the hardest types of content to create. However, at Blue Water Marketing we want your video marketing campaign to be successful. Therefore, we broke down some key points in this video marketing crash course.
What Is Video Marketing?
Video marketing is using videos to promote and market your product or service, increase engagement on your digital and social channels, educate your consumers and customers, and reach your audience. It is done with online marketing or digital marketing.
Why You Need to Focus on Video Marketing in 2019
Over the course of 2016 and 2017, there was a surge in the popularity of videos for content marketing. Video as a digital marketing tool was likely streamlined by your creative team as a one-to-many awareness play and little analysis to show for it.
However, in 2018 it transformed videos from a singular marketing tactic to an entire business strategy. Thus leading 2019 and beyond to be the year for videos as a holistic business approach.
Video is useful for more than entertainment. Having a video on a landing page is capable of increasing conversion rates by over 80%, and the mere mention of the word “video” in your email subject line increases open rates by 19%. 90% of customers also say videos help them make buying decisions.
But videos not only transformed how businesses market and consumers shop; it has also revolutionized how salespeople connect with and convert prospects and how service teams support and delight customers. In fact, you might even see some of your videos go viral if you play your cards right.
So, you’re ready to take your first steps into video marketing.
Make A Marketing Plan
Prior to starting with video marketing, you need to have a plan. Just like social media marketing, blogging, and GoogleAds you need to have a plan for the content, the target audience. Who is going to watching your videos? Knowing who is watching or who you want to watch will help guide you into the type of video you should create.
Any consistently effective marketing campaign is defined by consistent growth. Therefore, you have to make sure you are measuring growth and tracking your progress. Tracking your progress will allow you to be able to understand what worked and what didn’t and be able to make informed decisions.
Achieving consistent growth with video content comes down to two things:
● Finding what works and recreating it in future videos, and
● Finding what doesn’t work and making sure that it’s not in your future videos.
Those are the basics of consistently increasing the effectiveness of your video content.
As it relates to promoting your videos and ensuring that you’re maximizing your outreach potential, having a strategy in place will make a world of difference.
Even if you have a great video, just posting it on your blog or site will not bring viewers. You will need to be proactive by posting your video on social media channels. Blast in on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and other social media networks. Being blasted on social media will lead to more share videos that you have created.
People who follow you on Instagram may not follow you on Facebook, and vice versa. That is assuming you don’t have completely overlapping audiences, if you want to be sure that you’re reaching every one of your followers, you’ll want to post on all your social media accounts.
In the long term, posting to all your social media accounts will give you a better idea of where your video is performing best. You will be able to use their analytics to see how a post is performing as well as the demographics to analyze the data. You can analyze the data to see if the video is increasing conversion rates and which channels are performing better than others.
While it might seem like a minor detail, this small piece of data can influence where you choose to invest more time and energy promoting your videos.
Go With What You Know
There are three widely-accepted forms of content in the marketing community.
Educational Videos
As the name suggests, these are the types of videos that are built around either actionable steps that your audience can follow or thought leadership that your audience can incorporate into their lives.
Inspirational Videos
In inspirational videos, you capture breathtaking views, reveal awe-inspiring moments, or produce motivational content designed to fire people up. Hence the name, inspirational.
Entertainment Videos
In this category, you are trying to get people to laugh or smile. The content should interest them to research your brand further.
Which Type of Video Should You Make?
Honestly, this should be an easy enough question to answer if you are already making other types of content. If you are creating educational content for your blog, you should start with educational video content. The same thing goes for the other types of videos.
As time goes on, you will develop a stronger understanding of what type of video content works and what does not, and be able to create better more appealing content.
You will have plenty of information to analyze. However, not all data will be through the metrics you are tracking, but also from the feedback that you are getting from your audience in the comments.
You should feel free to experiment with styles of content, of course. But if you’re completely at a loss, you might want to call in the experts to help with video creation.
Start Creating
There are several steps when you are starting the creative process. We have already covered step 1, which is planning your video. This actually encompasses the next steps as well.
1. Planning your video
2. Scripting your video
3. Understanding and using your cameras
4. Setting up your studio
5. Preparing your talent
6. Shooting for the edit
7. Organizing your footage
8. Editing your video
9. Choosing your music
10. Recording your voiceover
Creation might seem a bit intimidating at first, especially if you are completely new to the world of video. Do not worry, everyone’s first video is their worst, and undoubtedly yours will be the same. Therefore, every video you create will only get better and more polished.
Since you have already made a plan. You have an idea for your first video.
Instead of trying to figure out the perfect way to start your video content creation journey, just get that first video out of the way.
In the world of written content, you provide value by doing everything from offering tangible advice to being a great storyteller.
Even if you do not have the fancy equipment seasoned pros have you will still be able to make substantial videos. How? Using the smartphone you have!
While it might not be perfect, but that’s absolutely okay. You have a camera, video and even video editing tools available using your smartphone. Of course, as your video marketing strategy develops over time, you will be able to upgrade and invest more time and money into video creation.
And why stop there? You can hire professionals to put together your videos, buy professional camera equipment yourself, and so much more.
Search Matters, Use SEO
But there’s more to executing a successful video marketing strategy than what you can see on the surface. Behind the scenes, SEO is still massively important, whether you are a fan of it or not.
Let us be clear. If your video content is not being optimized for search, you are almost certainly missing out on free exposure. Search engine optimization might seem like a lot of work, but it will pay dividends when your video goes viral.
If you are familiar with SEO for your blog, this is all going to seem ridiculously familiar.
You should be utilizing the same tactics as when you write an article. Your video title should have keywords that you are looking to rank highly for, and that will determine your ranking on sites like YouTube.
Even if you are familiar with SEO through your blog, this next part might be new for you.
The description section that’s available for your videos is taken into consideration for search purposes as well. The general idea is still the same. Avoid keyword stuffing, make sure your keywords are actually relevant. Whether you are posting on YouTube, Vimeo, Vidyard, or other social media networks, you will need to make sure you are optimizing your videos for search engines.
Balance storytelling and metrics. It is the cornerstone of truly effective marketing, and it is especially important when it comes to video marketing.
Team Up With Influencers
It was not too far in the distant past that the ‘celebrity endorsement’ was something that only the world’s biggest brands could actually afford. Sadly, smaller brands and local businesses could only sit back and watch athletes and actors use their mass appeal to help these businesses sell more of their products.
But times have changed.
Thanks to the explosion of the Internet and social media, the modern consumer has changed and, therefore, so has the marketing landscape.
As an alternative to big-budget celebrities, smaller brands have taken to the Internet and found ‘micro-celebrities’. These micro-celebrities are typically online influencers who have their own loyal following and a unique understanding of how to appeal to the people in their industry. They are, frankly, quite effective.
The best influencers are able to run with your vision for content and provide you with unique and valuable insight into what kind of content to create.
Plus, there’s no denying that having your brand presented to a group of anywhere from 100,000 to several million dedicated followers can be massively impactful.
Effectively teaming up with influencers comes down to two things.
● Choose your influencers wisely! If your brand is family-friendly, do not reach out to someone who is known for being controversial to promote your video.
● Communicate! Don’t assume that you and the influencer are on the same page. It will inevitably lead to miscommunication, and you may end up with content you did not want.
Use Ads To Their Full Potential
Just because you are trying something new in the form of video content, that is no reason to forget the principles of marketing that you have always used with the rest of your content.
If you have already been implementing a well-rounded marketing strategy, you should be drawing from both organic traffic and paid traffic.
Let’s take a look at the Facebook ads targeting mechanics. Facebook ads can targeted to users based on their age, gender, location, interest, and much more. With Facebook ads, you’ll even know what your typical daily reach is. Another benefit, you can customize each individual ad to maximize its relevancy.
When you increase the quality of your targeted audience and you ensure those ads are targeted, you’ll inevitably convert more users into customers. You can do this targeting on different channels, more than just Facebook.
Now that you’ve collected enough information on which platforms work best for your video marketing content, it’s time to put that data to use, and start using paid advertising. Armed with metrics, you will be able to identify where your content is getting the most attention. From there, it’s as easy as investing more in paid ads on those platforms.
Therefore, if your audience likes to consume your videos on Instagram, Instagram ads it is; if they prefer Facebook, then promote on Facebook. If you’re getting the most exposure out of YouTube, create a YouTube ad.
The most important part of the video ad is the call to action, CTA. Just because you have an engaging video it will not convert with having calls to action. A CTA is an action to get them to either sign up for email marketing, purchase an item, click to your website, or whatever action you are seeking in the video ad you create.
Ride the wave of momentum, capitalize on your minor victories, and sooner or later, your video marketing content will take off.
Conclusion
Video creation can be an uphill battle, however, with work and a little planning your videos can be extremely useful in your marketing campaign. Start your strategy with Blue Water Marketing. Execute that strategy by creating content. Take advantage of the social media platforms and resources at your disposal.
Video marketing may not be an easy way to build your brand, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll wonder why you waited this long to get started. Contact us to schedule an appointment to see they can help with your video marketing.
