Create a Video Marketing Strategy with 5 Easy Steps
Would you believe that people spend 33 percent of their time online watching videos? What’s more: nearly nine out of ten marketers used video in their 2020 marketing strategy. Oh, and let’s not forget that over one billion hours of video is consumed on YouTube every single day.
If your prospects are watching videos, and virtually all of your competitors are publishing videos, then it’s time you created a video marketing strategy to get your products and services in front of potential buyers. And we’ve got 5 steps to help you get there.
Step 1: Know your audience
At its most basic level, the idea of marketing is simply to push out a message and pull a response. For instance, If you run an HVAC company, you might tell people to prep their air conditioners for a hot summer and ask them to schedule a tune-up. If you run a retail store, perhaps you’ll send an email campaign to promote an upcoming sale with hopes that it will bring in extra revenue.
But what if you ran both the HVAC and retail businesses, and you mixed up your lists? Can you imagine if you told your retail customers to fix their air conditioners? It would probably cause mass confusion, and your message would fall flat. That’s where the importance of knowing your audience comes in.
Whenever I’m teaching a virtual marketing class, I’ll ask the audience to close their eyes and envision their ideal buyer: the person who would visit their storefront, call their phone, or click to their website with no hassle or haggling. This mental exercise is the beginning of building a buyer persona, and it’s critical to developing the right content for your audience.
Your buyer persona is going to be the linchpin of your video marketing strategy. In essence, you’re defining your viewing audience, and you can start to think about what they want to watch and learn from your videos. Everything you script, film, and upload should speak to your buyer persona. Your video content needs to answer their questions, resolve their pain points, and provide targeted calls to action that relate to them.
Pro Tip: Your viewers want to learn from you! According to Think With Google, “How-To” videos earn the most attention of any content category on YouTube.
The buyer persona will also determine your brand’s tone, which is very important when recording your videos. Will you be fun and entertaining, or does your ideal buyer prefer a serious, more professional approach? Just know that your buyer persona will evolve over time, and you may even develop multiple buyer personas. Always keep these top of mind when designing your video marketing strategy.
Step 2: Outline your video content plan
Before you do anything, I want you to look at your calendar. Knowing that there are only 24 hours in a day, and you are spinning multiple plates as a small business owner, how much time can you dedicate to video? Can you take some of the time you may have spent posting and scrolling through Facebook and spend it on making a fun video instead?
The key to outlining the content in your video marketing strategy is to look at a calendar and determine your content schedule. How many videos do you plan to publish and at what frequency? Can you cover one video a week, or do two videos a month make more sense? Be honest with yourself because the key to creating a video marketing plan is consistency. Your audience will come to expect your videos at certain times of the week or month, and you want to be sure you can deliver.
Once you figure out your content schedule, you’ll want to diversify the types of videos you offer. For inspiration, click the links below to see each type of video in action.
Types of marketing videos
Don’t get overwhelmed. You don’t need to create ALL of the videos above. When starting, choose two or three types of videos and create a bullet list or spreadsheet with proposed topics, a brief outline, and the estimated length of the video. Keep in mind that videos up to 2 minutes long tend to get the most engagement, but some of your videos maybe 15 minutes to over an hour in length (yes, people will watch longer videos if you provide continuously valuable information).
You also want to make sure that each video has a specific call to action for your viewers like subscribing to your email marketing contact list, calling your office, or purchasing a product on your eCommerce storefront.
After planning out your video content, you need to figure out how you’ll publish your videos. Will you increase the authenticity by filming live video on a platform like Facebook or YouTube, or would you prefer to record, edit, and upload your final product to ensure perfection? Of course, there are benefits to both, but it all depends on your audience and message.
Step 3: Divide and conquer to produce your video content
Once you pinpoint your buyer persona and finalize your content strategy, you’ll need to delegate tasks to get the videos recorded. Assuming you have the luxury of a team to help you, critical tasks will include:
Outlining scripts or talking points
Choosing your background and/or green screen
Testing lighting and sound
Recording the videos
Editing the videos
Uploading the videos
If you are a one-person crew, you can still make your video marketing strategy a reality, but you’ll need to plan and schedule these different tasks. One thing I need to stress here: your videos aren’t going to be perfect. In fact, my good friend and YouTube creator, Adam LoDolce, once told me that my first video would be horrible, but he advised, “Don’t give up! You’ll get better with practice.”
He was spot on. In fact, I just shared my first video fail from 2016 on YouTube, so subscribers of my channel could learn from it and see that everyone starts with humble beginnings. Some quick tips if you’re on your own:
Tips for producing video content on your own
Embrace the imperfection (learn and build from your past videos)
Block out at least an hour (you’ll definitely have multiple takes)
Speak slowly and clearly (you want people to understand you)
Keep your eye on the prize (these videos will help build your business)
Step 4: Upload your video content (or go live!)
Once you’ve recorded and edited, you are ready to upload your video content. It’s important to note that you won’t need to edit or upload your videos if you are filming a live stream.
Tips for live streaming
During a live stream, the video simply plays for your audience, and they can comment and engage with you as you present. Here’s a great example of a Facebook Livestream video by my good friend (and uber-successful real estate agent) Dakota Riley:
Notice how she’s unedited and speaking to her friends and clients as if they’re right there with her. That’s the beauty of livestream: it fosters a stronger sense of connection with your viewers and bolsters authenticity because this is your one and only take. The caveat being that you simply can’t edit or polish the video; it is what it is.
Expert Tip: Watch other live streams before you dive into your own. Watch competitors or other video creators and take notes on what you like and how you could incorporate that into your own videos.
You can live stream on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo, and TikTok. Be sure to do your research, as each of the platforms has their own requirements for you to be able to do so.
Tips for uploading your videos
If you are recording, editing, and uploading your video content, then you’ll want to choose an appropriate platform: YouTube, Facebook, or Vimeo.
YouTube
YouTube is the second-highest trafficked website in the world with over two billion users and more than one billion hours of video watched every single day. YouTube is also owned by Google, so you are feeding content directly into the world’s most popular search engine, which provides an SEO benefit.
Facebook is the third most-visited site in the world behind Google and YouTube. With 2.74 billion monthly active users, Facebook is a social media juggernaut. Facebook also loves its own flavor, meaning it rewards those who upload their videos directly to Facebook by increasing the visibility of the video, which translates into a higher engagement.
Here’s an example of a video we added to the Bryan Caplan Marketing fan page all about building brand resonance.
Vimeo
Vimeo is the world’s leading all-in-one video solution that enables professional-quality video for all. Their video maker tool, Vimeo Create, allows businesses to easily create eye-catching videos that drive sales. With over 1,000 video templates available, including stock images, music, and custom branding options, you can make high-impact videos in minutes — no experience required.
Constant Contact recently launched an integration with Vimeo Create that allows users to create and add video to emails and web pages right from Constant Contact. You can sign up or upgrade to a Vimeo Pro or Vimeo Business account and receive a discount exclusive to Constant Contact users.
Take a look at one of our latest Constant Contact emails where we incorporated a fun poll video (and animated gif) to engage our readers:
You can put a GIF in an email to entice your subscribers to check out your video!
Step 5: Keep an eye on your metrics
So, you’ve envisioned your audience, fine-tuned your messaging, planned your content, recorded your videos, edited to perfection, and uploaded to the appropriate channels. As they say, “If you’re not measuring, you’re not marketing,” so it’s important to keep an eye on your metrics.
Video metrics to keep your eye on
To help further develop your video marketing strategy, you want to look at metrics like:
Total views
Average Watch Time
Clickthrough rate (on email or social)
Conversion (on landing pages or website)
Social media engagement
Likes
Shares
Comments
Retweets
Once you collect the data, you want to analyze it to make informed decisions on your future videos.
If videos have a high number of views but a short average watch time, then you touched on the right topic, but maybe you droned on a little too long and lost your audience’s attention.
If videos have a high level of social media engagement, then your audience is telling you they enjoy your delivery and are interested in the topic of the video. If you see high levels of engagement, but your conversion rate is low, then maybe you need to bolster your call to action.
If videos don’t have many views nor engagement, then you want to find new ways to promote the video like social media posts or dedicated email campaigns. If, after the second round of promotion, your video metrics remain stagnant, then revisit your buyer persona and reconsider your video topics to make sure you’re providing genuine value for your buyer.
Again, pay attention to those numbers before you spend the time and resources to record your next set of videos. Measuring and analyzing will help you make a greater impact on your audience and build a more powerful video marketing strategy.
Get started with your video marketing strategy
If you have a smartphone, you can get started on your video marketing strategy. You don’t need an expensive camera or a Hollywood crew behind the lens. You simply need to follow the five steps above and know that as awkward as it feels at first, it will help you grow your business in the end. And ACTION!
This article was published by Bryan Caplan from constantcontact.com