Video Marketing: An In-Depth Guide For Every Business Owner Today

Video marketing has become a crucial part of the marketing mix for businesses of all sizes.

It’s an effective way to grab attention, build trust and engage with your audience.

In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at video marketing and explore how it can benefit your business.

What is Video Marketing?

Video marketing is the use of videos to promote your brand, products, or services. It can be used to create a variety of content types, such as product demos, brand stories, customer testimonials, explainer videos, and more.

And there’s no doubt that video marketing is becoming increasingly popular because it is an engaging and versatile way to communicate with your audience.

Why Use Video Marketing?

There are many benefits to using video marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy:

Boosts engagement –Video content is more engaging than other types of content, such as text or images. It helps you grab your audience’s attention and keeps them interested in your brand.

Evokes emotions – Through impactful storytelling using visuals and audio, videos definitely stir emotions in viewers. And research shows that emotions are far better selling tools than facts. Remember that people purchase based upon emotion, and then justify their purchase with facts.

Builds trust – Video can help build trust with your audience by showing them the human side of your brand. It can also help demonstrate your expertise and authority in your industry.

Increases conversions – Video content can increase conversions by providing more information about your product or service and demonstrating its value in clever, memorable ways.

Improves SEO – Video content can improve your website’s search engine rankings, as it increases the time visitors spend on your site and the number of backlinks.

Reaches a wider audience – Video content can be shared on social media platforms which allows you to reach a wider audience and increases your brand’s visibility.

People love video – Our brains process visuals faster than words. An MIT study found that we identify images in as little as 13 milliseconds.

Better retention – Videos, combined with printed words, improve memory. Studies have shown that visuals or video combined with key words helps people to remember what they’ve seen and more easily recall it later.

2022 Stats to Put Video Marketing in Perspective

Consumers watched an average of 19 hours of online video per week – that’s an increase of 1 hour per week compared to 2021 and an increase of 8.5 hours per week compared to 4 years ago.
87% of marketers say videos have helped them increase traffic.

81% of marketers said video has helped them increase sales.
86% of businesses used video as part of their marketing strategy.
94% of viewers have watched explainer videos to learn more about products or services.

Looking at these numbers, it’s clear that video marketing is here to stay. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that some people still prefer to read rather than watch. For example, if you’re using a video sales letter, it’s a good idea to provide a written version for those who prefer that option.

Video Platforms Dominating Marketing Now

If you're about to add or expand your use of videos in your content strategy, you'll want to think about which platforms to use. There are a wide range of formats and platforms to choose from, with some of the more popular being...

YouTube videos (how-to videos, behind-the-scenes videos, product intro videos, etc.)
Instagram Reels
YouTube Shorts
Animated videos
Livestreaming videos
TikTok videos
Webinars
And more.

Types of Video Marketing

There are many different types of video content that you can create for your business. Here are some of the most popular ones:

Explainer videos – These videos are used to explain products or services in a simple and easy-to-understand way.

Brand videos – Build trust with your audience by showcasing your brand and its values.

Product demos – Show your products in action and can help demonstrate their value to potential customers.

Customer testimonials – These videos feature satisfied customers sharing their experiences with your brand and can be a powerful tool for building trust with potential customers.

Live videos – Engage your audience in real time with videos streamed live on social media platforms.

How-to videos – These tutorial videos demonstrate how to use your products or services and can be a helpful tool for educating your audience.

Answers – Customers send you questions and you create a video giving them the answers.

Listicles – These are lists of just about anything, such as the top 10 sitcoms or the top 5 ways to drive free traffic.

Behind the scenes – Take your viewers behind the scenes and show them what’s happening.

Unboxings and reviews – Show a product being unboxed and used for the first time or give a product review.

Questions To Ask Before Creating a Video Marketing Strategy

1: Does your audience consume video content? If not, then there is no need to move forward.

2: Do you have or can you create compelling stories to tell your audience? If you don’t already have stories, it’s time to get some. It could be the story of how you came to start your business, the stories of customers who have found success with your products, and even the story of how you want to use your company to make a difference in the world.

3: Do you have the time and resources to do video? While it’s getting cheaper and easier to create all sorts of different types of videos, it can still be time intensive, especially when you’re new to video making.

You might want to begin with small goals of just a couple short videos per month and then work your way up to a more comprehensive strategy.

4: How committed are you to running video campaigns? Are you all in? Or just testing the waters?

5: What do you know about your audience’s likes and dislikes? Can you create a customer avatar and use that to target your videos?

6: Can you afford to get help if you need it? Hiring someone who is skilled at making videos can cut your own production time in half or less.

7: Who will write the outlines or scripts for your videos? Rambling is not going to win you any viewers. You’ll need tight scripts that are entertaining and to the point.

NOTE: If there were only one rule to video marketing, it would be this: NEVER be boring.

Creating a Video Marketing Strategy

A well-designed video marketing strategy can completely revolutionise your business. You can improve brand awareness, increase website traffic, generate leads and subscribers and of course make more sales. To create an effective video marketing strategy, follow these steps:

Set goals – Determine what you want to achieve with your video marketing, such as increasing brand awareness, building your email list, driving traffic to your blog or landing page, driving conversions or even going viral on social media.

Identify your target audience – Determine who your target audience is and what kind of content they are interested in. You want to understand your audience’s challenges, content preferences and even demographics.

Choose the right types of video content – Choose the types of video content that will be most effective for reaching your goals and engaging your target audience. Short videos or longer videos? Animated, talking head, studio shot, outdoor, event, etc. Are you going to tell stories? Give updates? Talk about the latest developments? Educate and teach?

Develop a budget and timeline – Determine how much you can afford to spend on your video marketing and create a timeline for producing and distributing your content. What tools will you choose for creating your videos?

Plan your distribution strategy – Determine how and where you will distribute your video content. Will it be through social media platforms, email marketing campaigns, or on your website.

Measure and analyse your results – So, how do you know if your video marketing is actually helping you get closer to achieving your goal? By monitoring your results with data. Choose a few key metrics related to your objective to track. For example, if your goal is to grow your audience, set a goal for new followers per week.

Each social media platform offers its own analytics, and you can use these to track your progress.

Experiment with different topics, formats, lengths, and other elements to see which get the best results for your videos. This will teach you about your audience’s tastes and preferences, and you can then refine your marketing strategy.

Video marketing on social media is a super-effective strategy to engage your audience and grow brand awareness. Know your audience, create engaging videos, and monitor your results, and you’ll craft the perfect plan for your target audience.

Categories: : Business tips