Not so long ago videos were just a small part of a marketing strategy; now they have become an indispensable part of it for many businesses starting from small businesses to enterprises. A little well-structured story can bring a highly-valued audience to your brand.
This is not surprising due to the fact that the world is becoming mobile-centric. Social media is making it much easier to share videos through the Internet.
According to Cisco, videos will take content marketing by storm making up 80% of all internet content by 2020. Impressive right?
And yet despite all these facts, there are still businesses that do not implement videos into their marketing strategy. Either they don’t have enough budget, time, or just appropriate staff. Anyway, they are holding back from businesses that use video marketing.
Still have doubts about including videos in your business’s marketing strategy? Let’s see why you need video marketing and how it will help skyrocket your marketing efforts. Bear with us for more stats about video marketing.
Why do you need videos for your marketing strategy?
Videos are becoming the main medium of content marketing. The recent report by HubSpot is the evidence of my words. In the State of the Video Marketing Report for 2018, HubSpot claims:
- 97% of marketers say videos has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
- 76% say it helped them increase sales.
- 76% say it helped them increase traffic.
- 95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
- 81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.
- 85% of people say they’d like to see more videos from brands in 2018.
Well, are these stats enough to consider video as a part of your marketing strategy? I guess so. If you need more you can check out the article here.
One more thing. Among all types of Internet content, visual content performs as second to none. And what do we share the most in social media? Articles? Images? Maybe videos? Exactly! Videos are more likely to be shared across social media channels. Usually, videos provide exact answers to our questions in a more entertaining way than images, for example, do.
Last but not least, should we talk about how much Google likes videos? It loves anything that people love. So consider that shareable content will ensure higher ranks in Google search as well and improve your SEO.
How can videos be used to boost your marketing strategy?
So everything is clear, the stats are quite reassuring, but how are videos going to improve your content marketing strategy?
First thing is brand awareness. Videos make a business seem bigger even if it is not quite big. A consumer thinks that investing in video marketing is not a thing that every business can afford (we will tell some budget-friendly ways to create high-quality videos don’t worry). After all, you show your customers that you care about them and use the best ways to keep in touch with them.
Parts of a video marketing strategy are live videos and on-the-fly recordings. These types of videos ensure that your company is more personable and likes to share company culture. Consumers do like to see real videos of brands they use.
Remember, if you decide to implement videos in your marketing efforts, you need a clear strategy that will define how you are going to use videos to achieve desired results, not the opposite.
How do you build a video marketing strategy?
Of course, this is the next question that you will ask. You decided that eventually, you will use video in your marketing strategy. We have gathered some questions for you to help you efficiently plan your video marketing strategy.
1. What is your video marketing goal?
Don’t be afraid to implement videos in your marketing strategy; it’s easier than you think. But, remember that you can’t start any strategy without setting your main goal.
It’s clear that your ultimate goal is a sale, but if you want your audience to share your content it must be educating, entertaining, inspiring, and helpful. This way you will ensure that your content will be shareable across the Internet.
2. Who is your target audience?
I am sure that you know the answer. But keeping in mind this crucial step is important when building your videos. After defining your audience, understand their needs. These will give you ideas and topics on stories that your videos will tell.
Do you remember that note about educating, entertaining your audience? Perfect! Let’s go on.
3. What video formats will you include in your marketing strategy?
When it comes to video formats, you can easily get bogged down in the wide range of options. When choosing your topics, you should understand which video formats you can use. For example, if you decide to show your audience why they need your product, you can use an explainer video model. Here are some ideas for video formats:
Demo videos, brand videos, how-to videos, explainer videos, animated videos, live videos, etc.
4. Where will you promote your videos?
You might think that you already know where you are going to promote your videos, but just FYI YouTube is not enough. Of course, it will work, but if you can gain more attention, why not to benefit from this opportunity?
A partnership is a great way to promote your videos. Find relevant bloggers, other businesses, or in the beginning, just your friends. It won’t be difficult to find people who are willing to share valuable videos on their blogs, even for free.
5. What platforms can you use to make great videos?
As promised earlier. How can you or your team build successful budget-friendly videos? You can do this on online video making platforms that have hundreds of video templates which will facilitate the process of making videos. Using these tools you will be able to build videos from scratch, choosing from the wide variety of scenes and characters or just building on a ready template.
Are you ready to implement videos in your marketing strategy? Follow these steps; I am sure you will more than succeed. Videos can help you connect with your audience more than any type of content. Make sure that your videos correspond with your marketing strategy and use different video formats to see which works well for your business. A valuable video will reach its target audience. Good luck!
