Years back, it was predicted that by 2021, 82% of Internet traffic would be driven from video content. Well, we can see most of the predictions come true in 2020itself, and we witnessed the surge in video content viewership. But what if, instead of just watching it, we leverage them for our business? For our marketing strategies? What if we piggyback on the massive potential of videos to drive traffic? Today, we are going to talk just exactly about that. More specifically on, creating a winning video marketing strategy!
Creating a marketing strategy is not enough. You need to make it flawless to see some visible change in your bottom line. What’s better than sprinkling some motion into your content and get started with an impactful video marketing game plan? So many brands out there have seen an admirable boost in their revenue, just by switching from plain texts of static graphics to a more detailed video experience.
The Consumer Demand for Explainer Videos
More and more users prefer to see an explainer video or some kind of a motion on a brand’s homepage. As it is easier to watch an explainer video to understand the nature of business of a brand than to read its lengthy About Us.
But you see, often, we start multiple ventures before even considering certain facts. For video marketing as well, you need to ask yourself a few questions, and only when you get their answers, get started! The first questions. What makes a video great? What content makes heads turn? What are the secret elements to create a killer video marketing strategy?
Marketing Video Production for Business
Once you figure out these answers yourself, there’s no looking back. And honestly so, if your marketing plans lack the support of engaging explainer videos or your product isn’t shown through an immersive 3D experience, you are missing out on the mark.
And moreover, when today we have the best gadgets at our disposal, that has made video production unimaginably low. The Smartphones we use now can shoot high quality 4K videos. They even come with a built-in high-end microphone and audio system. What more can you ask for! And that’s the reason 52% of marketers and brand enthusiasts believe video content to be the best ROI generator.
So without further ado, let’s dig into some of the secret tips to create the best winning video marketing strategy for 2022 and beyond. This Blog post will cover not only the technical aspects of making a video impactful, but also the marketing aspects of strengthening your strategy. Keep scrolling!
1. Use the First 10 Seconds Wisely. Make them Count!
The human attention span is gradually declining. At the present time, our standard attention span is a mere 8 seconds, that’s one second less than a goldfish. In the early 2000 millennium, the average human attention span was 12 seconds.
Considering this massive transformation, you need to gather interest in the opening scene of your video content. The best way is to hook the audience with something they haven’t seen anywhere else or something that talks about their immediate problems.
You may also try incorporating quirky thumbnails into your videos while you upload them on Facebook or YouTube. Thumbnails are basically the first thing that catches our eyes, so if that is made engaging, it is likely that the viewers would prefer to click and see what’s inside.
So, whether your video is a masterpiece, if you cannot hook your audience in the first 10 seconds, it will go unwatched.
2. Create a Logical Budget and Adhere to it
Another golden rule while you craft your video-based marketing plan, always think of a budget prior and abide by it. Your budget is what controls any extra expense and keeps your investments in check. Create a preliminary budget and set some realistic, achievable parameters, and follow the same.
Creating videos might look expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. You do not have to invest hefty bills on high-end gears and cameras while you start. If your budget permits, connect with a professional team for a short marketing video and give them your creative brief, and let them take care of the strategy making.
Alternatively, if you have a shoestring budget, you may start creating short video content on your Smartphone. Let your budget determine the kind of videos you want to invest in.
3. Build Relevant Audience Base on Facebook to Target
If you ask yourself how to build a video marketing strategy, building a robust audience base is highly significant. Ensure to create a buyer persona based on your target audience and existing user behavior. This will help you create the exact kind of content that will appeal to your audience.
And considering content distribution, nothing can beat Facebook. Its super in-depth targeting can be leveraged to create an ideal target audience base. Segment your audiences based on age, gender, geographical location, and language. Once you zero down your target audience, curate your video strategy based on that.
4. Focus on a Storytelling Approach. Never Sound Salesy
This might be the thumbrule for marketing strategies per se, as it is always recommended not to sound salesy or pushy in your emails, social media posts, or any other marketing collateral.
Likewise, it is a mandate not to sound too salesy in your video content too. Otherwise, you might lose value in your pitch rather than adding. Instead, focus on providing actionable and valuable advice in a storytelling fashion. Stats say more than 80% of consumers prefer when brands tell stories instead of directly promoting their products or services.
A storytelling narrative can easily present a real-life situation easily to the target audience. Your script must have emotions, humor, and brand essence. So connect with your audiences like a storyteller and not a salesperson.
5. Determine the Content Type
Not every content you create would be liked by your audience, owing to the variety in taste. Some might like How-To videos or DIYs. Some may like explainers or promotional content. Some may even prefer watching behind-the-scenes or Vlogs.
Well, create a balanced mix of your content types and start framing the script accordingly. Even if you shoot a Vlog just on your Smartphone, think of what exactly you would say to the camera, to your audience. If you are presenting any interview video, ensure the lights are perfect on your subject, the audio is clear, and there are no visual jerks.
Studies say that 80% of people prefer watching a Facebook Live over a non-live pre-made video. So make sure your video content strategy has a good room for livestreams.
6. Ensure to Incorporate Closed Captions within your Video Content
85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, and this trend is pretty similar across other platforms like Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. So if you want to generate some hefty ROI from Facebook, make sure you include closed captions in the video posts.
Including closed captions has a high chance of taking your content to a wider range of audience, even to the people with hearing impairment, who constitute over 5% of the world’s total population. Closed captions can also be translated and you can have multilingual subtitles for your videos. This majorly helps the non-English speaking audience, increasing your viewership further.
And not only this, but captions also help people watch a video in problematic situations, such as a noise train, in libraries, etc.
7. Schedule Regular Video Uploads
Google always prefers regular updates, which is a vital thumbrule for your strategy. Remember, consistency is key. Your viewers would love it if they see you maintain a dedicated schedule for publishing your content.
Since videos are a pivotal part of your online marketing activities, it is always better to schedule your content beforehand to avoid any date slips. Many popular YouTubers even tend to lose their audience for being irregular in uploading content. So make sure your strategy focuses on consistency and regularity.
8. Plan your Content Ahead of Time
The previous point brings us to this one. Planning your videos not only saves your time, but also keeps your audience base intact, and safeguards your SEO quotient. Marketing strategies that will help your business grow, must be chalked in a way that ensures prior planning of your script, schedule timing, hashtags and keywords analysis, so and so forth.
Also, planning your content beforehand prevents any last moment rush job or missing out on any crucial point. A winning strategy should never keep anything for the last moment.
9. Edit your Videos Effectively
So you have shot or compiled your animation masterpiece. Great! But what next? Does your strategy include editing your video? Video editing might seem daunting, but fortunately, there are multiple video editing free tools available online that effectively edit your content.
Connecting with your audience depends a lot on a polished video, so you must be aware of the video editing tips no matter which industry you are in. Include video editing as one of the crucial points in your strategy.
10. Get your Videos Optimized by the Pros
Forget everything you knew until now about regular SEO when it comes to optimizing your video content for search engines. Video SEO algorithms have changed drastically in the past years, and if your strategy doesn’t include the updated practices, there goes nothing!
Well, it goes without saying that certain works are better to be left with the professionals, because it is their job. Likewise, for your brand/marketing videos, it’s better that you reach out to a professional video production team and let them take care of your regular projects.
Optimizing your videos for SEO and making them compliant with your target audience is an extensive job that only professionals are good at. And agencies with positive online reputations and vast industry experience can only make your efforts a real success!
Bonus: Choose a Reliable Video Hosting Platform
Creating a robust video SEO plan starts from choosing the right video hosting platform. Each platform is dedicated to attain different marketing objectives. For e.g., while YouTube and Vimeo are more focused on augmenting brand awareness, Facebook and Twitter can bring you traction and traffic to your website.
More specifically, Wistia can help you gain a lot of organic traffic along the way and push those leads towards your site. Wistia comes with an SEO metadata – JSON-LD, which it inserts within a video automatically, which increases the chance of the content being found and seen (indexed). JSON-LD stands for JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data that annotates and structures data through schema.org vocab.
However, not all hosting platforms offer this feature, so choose your platform wisely. Also, ensure you have an engaging thumbnail that compels the onlookers to click on your video. A strong and appealing thumbnail can significantly impact the click-through rate and ensures an almost 30% higher play rate.
Another serious aspect of optimizing your content is to include the right keywords in your title and description. Do a thorough keyword analysis based on the topic of your video and find the effective keywords with the most volume. That way, there will be a high chance of your audience finding your video post right on their feed or search results.
Signing Off!
If all this does feel overwhelming to you, fret not. Planning for a full-proof strategy seems to be a daunting task, but things become easier when you have the required help around you. It’s all about practice, patience, and perseverance. And from these three comes perfection.
Remember, never make your content too “salesy”; of course, you need to convey what you do, but never overdo your UVP. Hook your audience within the first 10 seconds showing their pain point sensitively. Once they relate to the problem statement and are hooked, start showing what’s in for them and how can your services/products benefit them.
So, start filming today. You can either pick up your camera/Smartphone or find a free video-making software online. Or you can reach out to a professional team who will manage everything on your behalf, reducing your efforts to a minimum.
You shall get an in-depth video marketing strategy guide to execute, also hundreds of choices between custom-made videos. Don’t delay; start with your video strategy for social media journey today and establish yourself as an industryexpert.
Happy Marketing!
