If you ask a marketer about their video marketing strategy, they’ll probably roll their eyes. Indeed, many marketers know very well the importance of video and regularly publish this type of content, but they have not always defined a real objective behind it.
Yet people today spend a third of their time watching video content online. And where videos are seen, advertising investments follow. According to a Wyzowl study on video marketing, in 2018, 81% of businesses used video as a marketing tool, compared to 63% in 2017. And 81% of users were led to buy a product or service by watching video. A brand. So how do you launch a video marketing strategy that drives more engagement and results? Here are some tips to understand.
1. Identify your audience and define your campaign objectives
Any successful marketing campaign must start with a strategy. Who are you targeting? What types of content tend to correspond with the needs of your target? What channels are they most likely to be on? There’s no point in creating great video content and then spending money to show it on websites that your audience doesn’t visit.
And most importantly, what goals are you trying to achieve with a video marketing campaign? Do you want to generate awareness, sales, traffic or all of the above?
To leverage the benefits of video to reach your prospects, be sure to use the right tone and messaging to reach them. It’s a good idea to gather information about your consumers before you launch your video, because it’s this information that will inform what types of videos you’ll produce and how much budget you’ll spend to make them.
2. Build your video identity in line with your brand
Video can sometimes seem different from other marketing tools, but it’s important that viewers watching your videos know who they are dealing with. A video production company in India can be helpful to make a perfect video that shows your brand identity.
According to a McKinsey study, companies that have consistent branding are 20% more successful than those that don’t. For example, if your videos are hosted on YouTube, they should connect to your site or a landing page, whose creative and messaging are in line with your brand. If the visual identity of your video that users see in your email communications, for example, is different from what they see on Facebook, it will not reflect the consistency of your brand and your communication will not be optimized.
3. Make sense of your video budget
Many marketers make the mistake of thinking that putting a huge budget into a video project will automatically make it a huge success. On the other hand, not spending enough on a big campaign can also hurt your brand image.
When it comes to creating video content, keep your campaign goals in mind and make sure you get your budget right. For example, if you’re looking to gain more Gen Y or Z customers, you might not need to spend a lot of money on video production. In this case you can make short videos for social networks such as Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram, or reuse user-generated content. If you have a larger budget and want to show your leadership, you can create a compelling story like Hollywood series and use influencers.
But using influencers in your videos doesn’t always mean getting big celebrities. To limit your budget, feature industry experts or even YouTube celebrities who already have access to the audience you’re trying to reach. Study their social media profiles, reputation, and make sure the topics they present on their own channels are consistent with your brand or product values.
4. Optimize your videos for channels
Depending on the channels you choose to launch your campaigns, you will need to ensure that your videos are optimized to drive the most engagement possible. For example, videos on Facebook receive twice as many engagements as videos on Youtube. On Facebook, be brief, between 60 and 90 seconds maximum. Internet users discover content by scrolling through it. The message must be clear, precise and straight to the point.
You can add subtitles. On YouTube, have a catchy title and custom thumbnail. The first video must be successful because it will set the tone for the channel to convert and retain its audience.
On Twitter, you can natively embed video from Twitter’s Media Studio
To access it, go to Twitter: click on “More” then “Media Studio”.
5. Test and test again
Similar to display ad campaigns, AB testing should help you determine which elements of a campaign are working and which are not. You can test the creative, message, tone, broadcast time, or channels you choose. Maybe your videos are too long or too short. Either way, be sure to test and then test again to determine the optimal content and timing for your campaigns.
Here are five metrics to measure the success of a video campaign:
a. Engagement rate
Engagement rate measures how engaged a person is with your video. How long did the person spend on the video? Did she watch all or some of the content? This number should give you an indication of the quality of your message, your creation and the correct length of your video.
b. Number of views
Views are the number of times a video has been watched, but is measured differently by channel. On YouTube, a view is 30 seconds, while on Facebook it’s only 3 seconds. On Facebook, if a video is shared publicly, the number of views is displayed below the video. Understanding how viewers are interacting with your videos across different channels is knowing how to use each platform’s analytics tools to help you determine your video’s true engagement.
c. Reading rate or average viewing time
This is the number of visitors who actually clicked to watch the video. Thanks to this indicator, you can know if your video has helped keep the user on your site long enough, and therefore if it will go up in YouTube rankings.
d. Social sharing
This measures the number of times your video has been shared by people on social media. People don’t bother to share content they aren’t interested in, so if your videos are getting a lot of shares, it means your content is popular.
e. Comments
Paying attention to comments is important for any campaign. If viewers leave comments on your social media channels, see if they’re positive or negative, and consider both. Either way, the people who take the time to watch your video and comment on it, customers or not, now know your brand and could very well become customers down the road.
6. Don’t Forget Connected TV (CTV) Ads
Advertiser interest in CTV Connected TV advertising is growing. CTV’s advertising spending in the United States is expected to reach $20.1 billion in 2020, according to Tru Optik. When we talk about connected TV, we are talking for example about Smart TVs (Samsung, LG, Sony, https://www.cucumber7.com/ etc.), game consoles (Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation, etc.) or multimedia devices (Apple TV, Amazon, etc. .). Amazon, for example, is able to know precisely what products its users consume and what series they watch.
CTV ads are a great way to reach your customers where they spend a lot of their time. When developing your video marketing plan, consider whether CTV advertising might be a good solution for getting your videos out there.
If you want to create a breathtaking video marketing strategy, hiring a creative agency will be a great option. Buffalo Soldiers is an award-winning creative agency in India that provides branding and advertising solutions to B2B & B2B companies. Talk to their marketing experts and discuss your requirements.
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