Why you need video marketing?
Video marketing is about using video to market your product or service. It is not enough to generate video content it needs to be part of a video strategy that helps you achieve your goals.
Video content is ideal for an audience who are constantly on the go and moving from one device to the next as they live their daily lives. Video is easy to consume and ideal for busy lives where the audience is constantly moving from one experience to the next.
How to succeed with your video marketing?
“For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.”
Walter Scott
Success with video marketing comes from planning your video strategy and having video for every part of your customer’s journey. Knowing the type of content that is relevant for every customer interaction is vital to your success with your video content.
When planning your video content you need to think about the following and deliver video content that engages your audience.
1) Know what you want to achieve
Knowing what you are trying to achieve is the key to succeeding with your video content. When you understand your objectives it makes it easier to decide on the type and style of your video content. It also makes it easy to measure the success of your video strategy.
2) Understand who your audience is
Key to success with any video project is to know who your audience is and where they reside online. This information will help guide you through the video planning and execution stages. Understanding whom your audience is and what they expect from you will ensure you give them content that they will value and engage with.
3) Provide unique content
There is no point in providing the same video content as your competitors as this provides no value to your audience. What you need to do is look at what everyone else is providing and spot the content gaps. A content gap is video content that is not being provided by anyone at the moment but if produced would provide value to your audience. The key here is that new content would provide value to your customer. When you provide unique content that has specific audience value they will engage with your video content.
4) SEO Is Important
Optimizing your video content will ensure the search engines have a chance of finding your video content. The basics of video SEO mean you
- Use a meaningful relevant title
- Have appropriate key words
- Create an “eye catching” thumbnail
- Create a video transcript
- Optimize your video for mobile
- Use sitemap on your website
- Choose your video hosting carefully
- Encourage audience interaction
The most important final tip is to remember to market your video content on every platform you use. The more people in your network that know about your new video content the more successful it will be.
5) Tell a compelling story
An engaging video is a video that captures the attention and imagination of the viewer and this is achieved through compelling storytelling. When planning your video be clear about your story and what it is about your brand story that will capture the attention of your viewers.
6) Target mobile viewers
It is not enough to ensure your content is viewable on mobile you need to actively engage with the media. Design video content for mobile devices; try techniques such as vertical video. Create videos that can be consumed easily on mobile, tailor the length of your content for mobile viewing, think about mobile viewing patterns and adjust your mobile content to fit in with these viewing patterns. Think about the type of video content that is easy to watch on the move. Remember the “one size fits all” approach to video content will not deliver a successful video marketing result.
7) Focus on one Social Media Platform
Unless you are a large brand with large resources I suggest you concentrate your limited resources on one or two social media platforms and become proficient on these. Pick the social media platforms that the majority of your audiences are on. Maintain a limited social media presence on other platforms but concentrate your energy on your two main social media platforms. Tailor your video content for the platform you use, for example Twitter is best served by short videos that are easily consumed. Mashable.com is an example of a company that takes this approach on Twitter.
8) Vary your video output
One of the best video marketing strategies is to vary your video output. There are various interesting approaches you can take such as interactive video content, live video, 3D video, Virtual Reality, 360 Degree videos, animation and Ultra High Definition content. The key is to think how can you present your video in a new and novel way that can capture the imagination of your viewers.
9) Add a “call to action” to all video content
All your video content must have a “call to action” that is easy for the viewer to follow up on. Video marketing is all about getting your viewer to take the next step and if you do not clearly lay this out for the viewer your marketing has not succeeded.
10) Review all video content metrics
Success in video marketing comes from constantly tweaking your approach to your content creation. It is impossible for you to move forward if you are not consistently reviewing your video metrics to see what is working and what needs improvement. Video metrics give you some of the best marketing feedback you are likely to get and you need to use this feedback to improve your video offering.
How to achieve success with your video marketing?
“Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.
Oscar Wilde
There are many elements to achieving a successful outcome with your video marketing. The best way to ensure success with your video marketing is to have a complete video strategy. Treat your video making as a work in progress and continually learn from your mistakes and failures. Create video content that can bring your audience on an emotional journey and give them value for the time they have invested in watching your video content. Finally be as creative as possible and strive to give your audience a unique experience that exceeds their expections.