5 Tips for Video Marketing Success
Video is crucial to an effective marketing strategy. Nearly 90% of website visitors spend more time on sites with video than without. With the improvements in technology and popularity of video, integrating video into your marketing is more accessible than ever before. Video use to be cost-prohibitive for a lot of companies, but the advances in video production mean video marketing success can be achieved even on smaller budgets. Using video is key to driving conversions and increasing reach and engagement. How can you ensure that your video marketing efforts are successful? We have compiled the top 5 tips for ensuring the effectiveness of your marketing video(s).
#1 Know Your Goals
Before you choose a video production company or start recording, lay out your video strategy goals. Are you trying to attract new customers? Boost engagement? Do you need an internal educational video or a recruiting video? Do you need a product demonstration or explainer video?
Videos embedded in landing pages boost click-through rates by 200-300% and increase conversion rates by 80%. Videos are shared 1,2000% more than text content or links combined. You video marketing success and priorities depend on your overall marketing strategy. Knowing the objective for your video will help you select the right kind of video.
There are several different types of video, from company introductions to demo videos. Choosing the right kind of video based on your overall strategic aims is the very first step in the process.
#2 Know Your Audience
If you don’t already have a good grasp of your target audience, stop and collect that information. One of the biggest mistakes a company can make is creating videos without knowing their audience’s interests and preferences.
Find out if your audience prefers in-depth explainer videos or short product highlights. Which platforms do they use? Posting a video on a platform that none of your audience uses is a waste of resources and money. Most Facebook users watch videos with the sound off, meaning more and more videos have subtitles so that viewers get all the necessary information without the voiceover.
Once you know your audience, you will be better able to create the kind of video that is the most relevant and valuable to them.
#3 Focus on the Story—Not the Sale
Too many marketers make the mistake of creating marketing videos that are glorified sales pitches. This can seem like a tempting way to reach new leads and convert potential customers, but it can be off putting. There is a place in the sales funnel for a video focused on sales, but for customers earlier on, the videos should provide information, advice, or explanations.
Your video should tell a story. Branded content is now competing with entertainment and videos have to provide value for the viewer. The best video content connects with the viewer. If you know your audience well, you will better be able to create videos that capture and keep their attention, driving loyalty and conversions.
#4 Include a Call to Action
Videos should be part of an encompassing strategy, not a standalone marketing piece. Once you know your goals, you can develop the correct CTA for your video. Do you want viewers to share it with their friends? Like it? Comment? Send in their own response videos? Contact a representative to learn more? Your call to action should reflect the overall goals you have for your video.
There are three common positions for calls to action within video. You can place them at the start to ensure every viewer can see the CTA and click it. Mid-roll CTAs can be placed anywhere between the start and end—they target viewers when they are the most engaged. Placing a CTA at the very end ensures that the viewer is highly interested in more likely to engage. Most videos feature the CTA at the end, but mid-roll CTAs can have the highest conversion rates. Experiment with the placement of CTAs in your videos to show what works best.
#5 Optimize for Mobile and Search
Video marketing success can only be achieved if content is well optimized. 80% of all time spent on social media is spent on mobile devices, which means your videos will likely get most of their views on mobile. Be sure that your video performs well on the platforms on which it will appear. Each platform has slightly different settings and layouts so test your videos before sharing them to your entire audience.
While you may be familiar with SEO for written content, videos are a great source of SEO too. This means carefully crafting your video title, description, tags, and metadata. It’s important to find titles that are eye-catching but still SEO friendly. Google and YouTube are the biggest search engines and both search video metadata for keywords and phrases. Making sure your video is easily findable in search will improve search engine rankings and boost awareness and engagement.
The majority of marketers know that video is a powerful tool for reaching audience, building loyalty, and driving conversions. High quality video is more accessible than ever with the recent improvements in technology, but to ensure the success of a video, marketers need to know their strategy and audience. Knowing your audience allows you to focus on the story instead of the sale, optimize your content for the necessary platforms and devices, and hook your viewers with relevant content. Other optimization tips are in the video below:
Video marketing success is hard to do but with clear goals, the right audience and great optimization techniques it is simple! Comment below any tips you may have to help others find the right tools to achieve video marketing success.
