A video marketing strategy is critical for raising brand awareness and recognition, especially since most online users are more interested in and engaged with video content. Large audiences are more drawn to videos, finding them more entertaining and spending a substantial amount of time consuming a wide range of video content types.
What does this mean for your business and your marketing initiatives? It highlights the value of a video strategy. You can no longer wholly rely on images and written content alone. Video marketing tactics are imperative now more than ever.
Whether creating and distributing video content on your brand website, your socials, or YouTube, a solid, adequately executed video marketing plan is a must to optimize and maximize visibility.
Table of Contents
The Importance of a Video Marketing Strategy
- Video Content Is Highly Sharable
- Videos Boost Conversion Rates and Sales
- Video Content Appeals to Mobile Users
- Videos Spread Information
Before getting into the details of video strategy creation, first, let us look into the importance of having a video content strategy. As brand owners and marketers who aim to excel, you should know why videos are a dominant format in advertising and communicating with your target audiences.
Video Content Is Highly Sharable
Video content is part of the top digital marketing trends, always making it to the list of the most popular content forms that are widely utilized owing to their effectiveness.
With YouTube as the leading search engine for videos, the emergence of TikTok, Instagram and Facebook quickly catching up with the trend, emphasis on the value of viral video marketing strategy is extensively evident. Even business owners and digital marketers whose principal platforms for online presence are Pinterest and LinkedIn now take advantage of videos.
Videos are a genuinely powerful medium, capturing and retaining the attention of many online users who largely contribute to your social shares.
Videos Boost Conversion Rates and Sales
Video marketing tactics support social media content strategies and search engine optimization (SEO) in general.
E-commerce websites integrate a video marketing plan to increase the quality, and the time visitors spend navigating their page, witnessing an impressive search engine boost. This results in a higher customer acquisition rate and a steadier lead generation stream.
Video Content Appeals to Mobile Users
There are billions of mobile users actively tapping and swiping on their smart devices on the go while passing the time on a long train ride or hanging out at the café waiting for a meeting. This overwhelming number of mobile and tablet users is the leading driving force behind widespread video consumption.
In this light, when you harness the limitless possibilities a video marketing strategy offers, you extend your audience reach further. A video strategy encourages brand visibility.
Videos Spread Information
You can educate your consumers about your business through a video content strategy and build trust among prospective clients. One excellent example is incorporating edutainment into your small business video marketing tactics.
More than promotional ads overtly persuading people to buy a product or subscribe to a service, consumers care for the quality and authenticity of web content and social media posts. They do not want you to offer and convince them to make a purchase all the time.
Your customers prefer informative content from which they learn, such as how-to videos, fun facts, industry news, and trivia. That is why they are quickly engrossed in videos because they want to be in the know and make good use of what they watch. This is a critical part of their online consumer journey. And you will want to take advantage of their desire for great content to help you make a sale.
Incorporating video marketing into your strategy can greatly enhance the visibility and engagement of even the top enterprise software companies, effectively showcasing their solutions to a broader audience.
How To Create a Video Marketing Strategy
- Step #1: Set Goals
- Step #2: Define and Understand Your Target Audience
- Step #3: Choose Video Types and Content
- Step #4: Plan Your Video Distribution & Optimize Your Videos Accordingly
- Step #5: Develop a Content Calendar
- Step #6: Perform A/B Testing
Hiring a video marketing agency to formulate your video content strategy is always a great way to boost your business from the jump. These are some of the most important points they use to go in to video briefs:
Step #1: Set Goals
Start by identifying the purpose of your video strategy. What do you want to achieve with your videos?
Common objectives may include increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, lead generation, improving conversions, or educating your audience. Your goals will determine the type of content you create and the platforms you use.
Use these guidelines to outline the objectives of your video marketing tactics:
- Are you looking to introduce your brand and raise awareness? Then, your video marketing plan at this stage should involve catching interest.
- Would you like to showcase how your service or product can make life easier for your target market? Create informative videos underscoring the benefits of your brand offering.
- Are you close to persuading your potential customers to buy? Influence their decision-making and make them choose to do business with you over your competitors. Present social proof in your video, plus rave—yet authentic—reviews by existing buyers.
Step #2: Define and Understand Your Target Audience
Targeting is a vital phase in any marketing funnel. It is essential to do your due diligence. Research your target market and learn where your prospective customers hang out online, so you know where to distribute your videos.
Develop your ideal buyer persona and include the following attributes in your sketch:
- The online channels they typically use
- Their gender
- Their age group
- Their location
- Their professions
- An estimate of their average earnings
- Other brands they follow and patronize
- Their needs and wants
- The common pain points your product or service offering can potentially solve
Once you identify your buyer persona, you can proceed with finding actual leads. If possible, narrow down the details of your leads so you can classify where they are within the marketing funnel. Are they on top of the funnel (ToFu), in the middle of the funnel (MoFu), or already at the bottom of the funnel (BoFu)?
Step #3: Choose Video Types and Content
Based on your goals and audience research, decide on the types of videos you want to produce. For example, you can choose from:
- Explainer videos
- Product demonstrations
- Customer testimonials
- Behind-the-scenes
- Educational content
- Interviews and Q&A
- Event coverage
- Brand storytelling
- Webinars and live streams
- Animated infographics
- Case studies
- Humorous content
Of course, you can also mix different video types to keep your content fresh and varied.
Step #4: Plan Your Video Distribution & Optimize Your Videos Accordingly
The channels your videos will go to are a significant consideration for your video marketing strategy. Here are some examples:
If you are posting on Facebook, keep in mind to upload short videos with creative and compelling captions. When you get enough organic traction and engagement, take advantage of your eligibility to use paid ads.
For YouTube, ensure consistency — from the thumbnail, title, tags, description, transcripts, and closed captions to the subject discussed in the video.
For promotions on Twitter, use short clips containing highlights from a longer video. This is engaging and sparks curiosity in the viewers, inviting them to find the complete version. It is a perfect opportunity to redirect them to your website. Also, ensure you optimize using relevant hashtags in the tweet.
Step #5: Develop a Content Calendar
Create a content calendar to schedule your video releases since consistency is crucial in maintaining your audience's interest. Plan video topics, production timelines, and promotional activities in advance to avoid last-minute rushes.
To develop a content calendar, you should:
- Set your time frame, be it monthly, quarterly, or even annually
- Identify key dates and events such as product launches, holidays, industry events, or any other occasions that present opportunities for themed content
- Outline your content themes and make sure they align with your business goals and your audience's interests and pain points
- Assign production timelines while considering scripting, filming, editing, and any additional post-production processes
- Ensure a balanced mix of content types throughout the calendar
- Consider seasonal and trending Topics to enhance the relevancy and shareability of your videos
- Schedule promotional activities for each video and decide where you'll promote your videos
- Leave some buffer time in your content calendar to accommodate unexpected delays or changes in your video production process
Step #6: Perform A/B Testing
Test your video strategy. It can help you figure out the components in your content that are performing well and which are not. You can experiment with the video length and the schedule of uploading. Check out these indicators of a successful video content strategy:
- Engagement rate measures all interactions with your video, including reactions, comments, shares, skips, and watch time.
- View count refers to how many times your video has been watched.
- The play rate is equivalent to the number of clicks your video has earned.
- Social shares determine how often viewers have shared your video on their socials. Note the social platforms across which the video has been shared.
If all this feels overwhelming, hiring a video marketing agency to formulate your video content strategy is always a great way to boost your business from the jump.
Different Content Styles for Your Video Marketing Plan
- Explainer Videos
- Client Testimonials
- Educational Videos
- How-to Guides
- Company Origin Story
- Behind the Scenes
- Animation
Once you have your video content strategy in place, you can move forward and get creative with the content pieces you will produce. There are numerous video types you can dabble in to meet your business goals, and here are the most popular ones—and proven effective, too:
Explainer Videos
As the name suggests, an explainer video aims to teach your viewers about your brand, how your products work, or what benefits they will likely gain from your services. In an explainer video, it is best to focus on how your business addresses particular pain points which online users want to resolve.
Client Testimonials
A testimonial video is one of the most potent video content types you can produce. It showcases the positive experiences of satisfied customers with your company. Capture your happy clients talking about their five-star transactions with you spontaneously and genuinely. People generally love honest, unbiased reviews.
Educational Videos
Let your audience know that you care about their concerns and needs. An educational video talks about a specified topic or tackles specific issues. These videos can be:
How-to Guides
- Industry-specific news
- Informative materials
- Answers to frequently asked questions
Company Origin Story
People are fond of a success story. In a company story video, instead of emphasizing your products or services, you put the spotlight on how your business came about. Focus on:
- Your humble beginnings
- How you built your enterprise from the ground up
- Your company culture
- The values your business swears by
- Your brand identity
This type of video marketing strategy and storytelling reveals the human element behind the brand.
Behind the Scenes
A behind-the-scenes clip is one way to be accessible to your audiences. It denotes transparency and humanity, similar to a company story video. With this video strategy, you open the doors to your organization so people can get up close and personal with your brand. Let them witness how you carve your niche in your industry and make them feel that they are a big part of your business journey.
Animation
Exciting and captivating animated videos are an effective video content strategy. It is flexible and versatile, combining them with your other video marketing tactics. For instance, you can spruce up a lifestyle video or a how-to video guide using animated visuals, cutaways, and other graphics.
Wrap-Up: Getting Started With Your Video Marketing Strategy
A robust video marketing strategy undeniably helps boost a brand of any size in any industry. It is an innovative way to reach out to different markets, audiences, and online users. Leveraging a definitive video strategy can dramatically ramp up your promotional programs and projects.
People’s attention is being competed over by billions of online videos. Stand out and win their attention. It all starts with crafting superb content that is honest, relatable, and easily digestible. Top-notch video production companies can provide this.
Video Marketing Strategy FAQs
Is video a good marketing strategy?
Due to its highly-sharable nature, video is one of the most effective marketing strategies. It engages audiences, increases brand awareness, and enhances conversion rates, making it a valuable tool for businesses to connect with their target customers and achieve their marketing goals.
