Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Agency (And 7 Things to Look for in One)
Staying on top of your company's digital marketing can be challenging. From managing your social media presence to optimizing your search engine rankings,...
According to one recent study reported by Forbes, more than 82% of all content that people consume online will be video-based by as soon as 2022. If you needed one statistic to help underline the importance of your video marketing campaign, let it be that one.
All told, video marketing brings with it a host of unique benefits that can’t be ignored. Human beings are visual learners, and they tend to have an easier time understanding even complicated topics when presented visually. Likewise, the video itself offers intimacy and an urgency that text alone can never match.
It’s also beneficial, especially these days. Another recent study from Wyzowl.com indicated that about 84% of video marketers say video has helped them increase leads. 87% of video marketers say that video content, in general, gives them a solid return on investment.
But at the same time, there’s something of a learning curve involved in video marketing. If you’re new to this world, you’re bound to make some mistakes – and that might cost you.
Thankfully, putting together a successful video marketing campaign isn’t as difficult as you might think. It would be best if you kept a few key things in mind along the way.
By far, the most important thing to understand about your video marketing campaign is that it must be purpose-driven.
This means that you need a plan before you even think about creating content.
What exactly do you need your video marketing campaign to do? Are you trying to increase sales? Generate leads? Increase website traffic? How are you going to track your progress to know what is working and what isn’t?
These are all the types of questions you need to answer before getting started on the content itself.
Based on these unique objectives, you can create the type of content that is laser-focused on those goals. All goals should be specific, achievable (meaning realistic), and trackable for the best results.
Don’t just start creating content, and hope you start to see results, as it will rarely go the way you think it will.
Once you know what you need your campaign to do, you can get started thinking about the types of content you’ll need to create.
Educational videos may be a good fit for your audience, for example. They include actionable steps (like in how-to videos) or are thought leadership pieces that offer advice and insight that your customers can use.
Inspirational videos are motivational pieces designed to energize your viewers.
Entertaining videos can be funny or heartwarming, but they’re designed to get people to look into your brand further.
When creating video content, try to start using it as an extension of the content you’re already creating. If your website’s blog is filled mostly with educational pieces, for example, you would want to start making educational videos, too.
You can always branch out later, but you should always start with what you’re familiar with if you’re unsure where to begin.
Next comes the fun part – you get to start creating the video content that will fuel your campaign.
For each video, try to come up with relevant topics to the people who make up your “ideal” target audience. What do these people like? What do they not like? What questions do they have that you can answer? What problems do they have that you can help solve?
Don’t just create videos for the sake of it. Create them because you’re addressing one of those factors outlined above. Beyond that, try to create as much high-quality, relevant content as you can. The key to success in terms of a video marketing campaign is consistency above all else. Likewise, creating a lot of video content means you’ll only get better over time. Each video will show a meaningful quality improvement over the last.
While you create your video content, don’t forget to make sure each piece is optimized for search. Your video title, for example, will help determine your ranking on sites like YouTube. This, along with your video’s description section, should incorporate keywords and other SEO techniques to help increase visibility as much as possible.
Resist the urge to keyword stuff, obviously, but don’t throw out SEO completely just because you’re working in a new format. Likewise, make sure that your descriptions accurately explain what your video is to increase click-through rates.
Another great way to empower your video marketing campaign involves teaming up with influencers to expand your reach. Influencers are exactly what they sound like: those “Internet celebrities” who people in your target audience are already paying attention to.
Maybe they run a successful industry blog, or they have a popular interview show on YouTube. It doesn’t matter. Teaming up with them means that your message is exposed to their audience. This can help expand your reach beyond what you may be initially capable of on your own.
A word of caution, however. Always choose your influencers carefully. If your brand appeals to families, don’t try to build a relationship with someone who is very controversial.
Likewise, make sure you communicate with your influencers and let them inform you about the type of content you should both be working on.
Finally, understand that both organic and paid traffic will be the key to your video marketing success. On the paid side of the conversation, always use targeting metrics on platforms like Facebook Ads to your advantage.
Rather than going after the biggest possible audience, you need to go after the most precise one. Use the included tools to target people based on factors like age, gender, location, and more.
In other words, target the types of people who are most likely to become one of your customers in the first place. Use the information you have about your existing audiences to build “look-alike” audiences to target.
Yes, this will help you get your video content in front of people who are more likely to enjoy it. But it will also dramatically increase your return on investment, which is the most crucial goal of all.
Leamon Crooms is the CEO and Founder of Strategic Growth Advisors, LLC. For nearly 30 years, he has helped small and large companies with strategic advice, debt financing, company sales, mergers, and acquisitions.
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