You don't have to be a professional filmmaker to win big with video marketing
Marketing might be the toughest part of your business. It can cost you a mountain of investment (money, time and energy). With all your other marketing efforts, video production might seem too difficult. But, I'm here to tell you it doesn't have to be.
First, let's look at the stats that show video marketing is worth your time.
According to
Hubspot, 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service through a video than other mediums.
Invisa tells us that customers retain 95% of what they see in a video, compared to 10% of what they read in text.
When I decided to start writing this topic, a number of video promotion channels started echoing in my mind. I remember some videos which compelled me to purchase a product or service.
Now, the question is, what did those videos have in common?
What kinds of videos perform well?
Personalized (Know your customer personas)
What if I told you videos can account for almost 80% of your client traffic?
It’s true!
Now, when you know that your customers love to watch videos, then the next step is to create videos that appeal directly to your customer personas.
Remember one rule!
“If you try to sell your product to everyone then you will get no one.”
Think like a client. Think about what motivates them: their needs, hopes, fears and goals, and channel those feelings in the video. You should be clear (crystal clear) about the needs and demands of your potential audience.
Also, ask yourself these questions:
Where is the audience? (Which video platforms grab the most of your target market)
What type of messaging do they prefer? (Emotional, informative or both)
What are the problems they're facing?
Could you be their problem solver? If yes, then how?
Add these ingredients in your video and never ignore any of the factors above. Don't just sell your services. Tell customers how you can solve their problem.
Takeaway?
Personalized videos perform well!
Vlogs
Creating a vlog is cheap, and it's a powerful marketing tool. That's a win-win.
The creation of a vlog doesn't take a lot of time, and you don't need a lot of preparation. Just get a good quality camera, pick your subject and start filming.
Remember, vlogs perform well when you speak to the audience like their friend, not like a brand ambassador. People don't like a person wearing a branded shirt and talking about a product in a scripted fashion.
Instead, talk about issues relevant to your industry. Give viewers a behind the scenes look at day-to-day life in your company. Address common problems your target market has and offer solutions (without pushing your product). In short, keep your videos as natural as you can and enjoy the client influx.
Takeaway
Vlogs that don't hard-sell perform well to win more clients!
Interviews
Interviews with other industry experts can be a great way to leverage their audience to your advantage. Just find an expert in an industry related to yours, sit down and have a casual chat. Then you can promote the video to their audience.
When you interview a person, he/she gets connected to your brand and becomes the face of your product/service. It gives you more credibility as you start associating your brand with the experts of the specific niche.
Pro-Tip: Keep the interview conversational. An overly scripted interview can be offputting.
Takeaway
Unscripted video interviews perform well to have an instant reach to the clients!
Webinars
This is another targeted and low-cost video type that performs well to win more clients. Like vlogs, webinars don't need a script or advanced technical skills. What they do need is value. Webinars are all about the value you deliver to the client.
A weekly or monthly webinar can attract a number of clients. It can be any Q and A session, or you can target some specific feature of your product which provides solutions to the problems of your potential clients.
Promote your webinar on social media (with paid promotion) and then drive the audience through the rest of the funnel.
Pro-Tip: Q and A Webinars perform better than the other types of Webinars, as they get your clients actively engaged.
Bonus Pro-Tip: Don't use every answer to promote your product. This is about delivering value. Doing this and you'll show your sincerity to potential customers.
Takeaway
Webinars give you a chance to personally engage with leads.
Now you've got a plan for the types of videos you want to create. What’s next?
Go out and tell the world that you have something unique!
What are the best channels for distributing video content?
Let’s dive deeper!
I’ve divided the best types of channels into two segments:
Organic video marketing channels
Paid video marketing channels
Organic video marketing channels
Your in-house channels
You must have an email list, right? Send them your freshly created piece of video. I believe marketing begins at home!
But what if you're a new business and you haven't built up an email list?
Fortunately, there are a number of other channels you can use to promote your video content.
Social media
Leverage different platforms.
Facebook,
Twitter,
LinkedIn,
Instagram, YouTube and many others are there to give you a helping hand to boost your QUALITY video content.
YouTube is a must in this regard!
Create your channels, upload videos and focus on tagging your videos with the keyword terms relevant to your target demographic.
Your own blog
I looked for the search term “blogging for business” and here are the results. The volume for this search has been remarkably consistent over the past five years.
What does this imply?
Businesses are still focusing on this area, and they start blogging to get more organic traffic and bring in leads.
Video is a great way to make your blog more engaging. In fact, according to
Wordstream, 59% of executives say they'd rather watch a video than read text.
If you do post a video on your blog, a good way to still bring in search traffic is to include a transcript. That means Google can still crawl the page and understand the content of the video, and you can rank for keyword terms relevant to the video.
Paid video marketing channels
Now, it’s time to get your wallet out. But don't worry. Paid marketing doesn't have to break the bank.
Start your video campaign from just $10, for example. If you see results, then invest more. If you don’t see the required results then increase the dose (meaning investment with the right technique).
Google AdWords and
Facebook ads are the main type of videos ads you can use. However, don’t forget the relevancy of the platform with your business while selecting the best video ads paid promotion platform.
Pro-Tip: If you're wondering which is the best-paid platform for you to promote video ads, have a look at what your competitors are doing.
Influencer marketing
It’s self-explanatory!
Reach out to some affordable influencers in your business domain and pay them for promotion. These influencers are everywhere on social media. And they don't have to be A-list celebrities or expensive Instagrammers. You can even
identify influencers among your own loyal customers.
How to measure impact
If you're investing a lot of effort and doing everything mentioned above, but not measuring the impact, you have no idea if your efforts are effective.
Here are some quick metrics to look at after launching a video campaign
Monitor views
See which platform gave you the most views for the least investment of time and/or money. Also, focus on the time people engaged with the video. It will enable you to make informed decisions about the launch time of your future video campaigns.
Watch time
No matter how engaging you think your video is, if the viewer isn't watching the entire thing then there's something wrong. So, monitor the watch time of every video and monitor where viewers are leaving. Make improvements and try again.
Demography
You have to see which type of audience is attracted to your videos. Monitor the impact of your video promotion both on male and female populations. See which countries it's resonating most in. Drill down into what devices are being used to watch it.
Final words
Video promotion is one of the most effective and engaging tools you can use to market your business. And don't worry: it might take some trial and error to get it right. But the dividends it'll pay make it well worth the effort.