Video marketing is an essential part of your marketing mix. And there are many types of video to choose from, including explainer videos that introduce your brand or demonstrate complex products, landing page videos, educational videos, email GIFs and About Us videos. No matter what type of video you choose, these are the steps you’ll want to apply to keep your video content marketing strategy on point.
1. Set goals.
What are you trying to accomplish with your video marketing? Brand awareness? Lead generation? Whatever your goals may be, identify and document them for use as a measuring stick for success. You might have different goals for different videos. In addition to identifying you goals, be sure to include how you’ll track success, whether it’s number of views, shares, or conversions.
2. Consider your audience.
Know the audience you’re trying to reach and make sure your video is relevant to them.
3. Clear call to action.
Make it crystal clear what you want your viewers to do after they watch your video. Track how long people tend to watch your video, and make sure your call to action is available both visually and audibly in the most-viewed portion of your content.
4. Be creative.
From crafting content to creating strategy, always employ creativity.
5. Stay on-brand.
Make sure your video content aligns with your brand values and identity. Maintain the brand strategy you’ve set for your website, email marketing and every other channel where you have a presence.
6. Build for mobile.
Almost half of all video content is viewed on mobile devices, and those videos are more likely to be watched all the way to the end. Capitalize on this trend by ensuring your videos are viewable on small screens. Create companion experiences built especially for smartphones to accompany content for TV or other channels.
7. Create supporting materials.
Consumers often seek out additional information after viewing videos. Have that additional information ready to go, in the form of supporting assets like white papers and case studies, and make it easy to find on your website.
8. Host it on your site & YouTube.
You can either post video content to YouTube or host it on your site. Posting to YouTube not only offers greater reach, but also a greater chance that viewers will get distracted by cat videos before they follow your call to action. If your video is hosted on your site, you decrease the chances of distraction while decreasing your reach. Either approach will improve your search engine rankings. Your best bet is to use a mix of both approaches and on occasion use them simultaneously by posting the same video to both, albeit with slight variations.
9. Optimize your video description.
Video offers many SEO benefits. You can optimize video content for search engines by writing clear and concise video descriptions that include CTAs, keywords and, if hosted on YouTube, links back to your site and supporting materials.
10. Distribute via social media.
Make it easy for your audience to find and share your video content by promoting it widely on social media.
11. Track & refine.
Once you’ve created that must-see video and sent it out in the world with social media, be sure to track engagement to get more information about what your target audience wants to see. This step also loops back to step 1 and your goals, letting you analyze how effective your video content is and identify what changes need to be made.
Have you included video in your content marketing strategy? Share your dos and don’ts in the comments section below.
Get in touch with Filament to find out how we can help you expand your reach online and build lasting relationships with your target audience.
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