A Complete Guide to Curating Video Content

What is video content marketing?

Most marketers will be familiar with what video content marketing is even if it’s not something they work on every day. That said, it’s worth indulging in a brief overview before we get into the juicy details of how, why and where to use video.

Put simply, video content is any type of video a brand uses in marketing or advertising across any channel. It can be a hugely powerful tool – over 50% of consumers want to see brand videos, and that’s more than any other kind of content.

The goal of video content marketing is to convert browsing consumers into leads and customers, and from there to convince them to become repeat buyers.

Benefits of video content marketing

It’s no secret that video content marketing is on the increase and has been for the last few years. One reason for that is because of the benefits it can bring a brand:

Firstly, the (pretty amazing) stats that will make you want to update your video content marketing strategy:

• 88% of video marketers say that video content marketing provides a positive ROI
• Video content on landing pages can boost conversion rates by 80%
• 94% of customers better understand a product or service after watching video content
• You can increase email open rates by 19% and click-through rates by 65%
• Videos are shared on social media platforms 1,200% more than images or text
• It’s predicted that in 2020, 82% of all internet traffic will come from video
• Most importantly, a massive 90% of consumers say watching videos helps them make a purchase decision

And if this engagement with video isn’t convincing enough, it also:

• Is actionable and measurable
• Boosts brand awareness and reach
• Improves SEO
• Reaches to the heart of your consumer and connects them with your brand, making them want more – it tells a story
• Can be cost-effective – simple, authentic videos are more meaningful and honest than big-budget promo videos
• Is accessible
• Is a great tool for sales and customer service teams to use to convert leads into customers and to support existing customers
• Provides competitive advantage

Of course, all this is only possible when the video content marketing is right, and is used in the right way. So, how do you do that?

Video as part of your content marketing strategy

Video content is no longer a single element in a marketing plan, included as a ‘nice-to-have’ or a ‘maybe one day’. With one minute of video equating to an estimated 1.8 million words, it should be an intrinsic part of your content strategy, central to your outbound marketing, campaigns and social.

7 things to consider in your video content marketing strategy

1. Creating different types of video content – mix it up so your audience keeps coming back for more
2. Producing lots of content marketing videos – a few videos throughout the year will not build enough momentum or create the power that video can wield. Consistency is key, as it is will all types of content
3. Using your videos across your marketing channels – not just on your YouTube site, but embedded in your company website, on email, and especially in social
4. How to deliver value, whatever that may mean in your industry – it could be useful, relevant content that consumers learn from, or it could be inspiring, funny or simply interesting
5. Setting some KPIs – what are your overall objectives and targets for video? Continually measure and learn from your results
6. Paid video ads – including remarketing
7. Budget – some videos can be expensive to produce and it’s important to find a balance of quality, cost and amplification

Leveraging video content marketing to increase ROI

Video content marketing can help your bottom line if done right.

There’s not only an increased intent to purchase when a consumer has enjoyed a content marketing video, but more importantly an actual increase in purchase rate. There are also a few different ways in which you can support your video content to ensure that it’s maximizing viewers, engagement and ROI.

• Increase visibility by sharing your video content across platforms to expand reach
• Optimize your video content based on the platform you’re using – many users are loyal to the platform they spend the most time on
• Repurpose, or upcycle, evergreen content so more people see it
• Follow the best strategy for number of posts according to the platform – and test and learn
• Reach new audiences by promoting social sharing

How (and where) to distribute video content

It’s tempting to spend lots of time and energy (and budget) on creating video content, but the reality is that even if you have a great content marketing video, you need to get it in front of your target audience.

How do you do that?

By making sure you maximize all your distribution channels. It’s no longer enough to put a video on YouTube and hope it goes viral. It’s important to use multiple channels to not only gain maximum exposure, but also to increase your video’s longevity.

As the world’s second largest search engine, YouTube is the obvious place to start. A good objective for YouTube is to drive awareness and push traffic to your website where they can really focus on your offering – and where you can track them. This article shares 23 YouTube facts, figures & statistics for 2023 that should inform your video content marketing strategy.

You should also embed your video into your website – that could be on the home page, landing pages or even product pages. It’s very persuasive, helping to increase time spent on your pages (something Google loves) and increasing conversion rates by up to 80%.

Email is also a great way to get your video content out there – it’s still one of the best-performing marketing channels and including a video can result in a much higher click-through rate. In fact, a study of almost one billion emails showed that those containing video had a 96% higher click-through rate.

And of course, don’t forget your social platforms for highly consumable, instant sharing. Not only can you post to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but you could use shorter form video content on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok.

There are other great places to share your video content: email signatures, sales assets, blog posts, press releases and relevant external or partners’ websites.

When you consider the different distribution channels for your content marketing video, here are some things to consider:

• Break your video up into short snippets – these can be used as teasers, or to highlight something particular you’d like to focus on. Shorter snippets are also great for social
• Use images from the video, especially of stats, in other marketing material
• Transcribe your video content – this is great for SEO
• Create one or more blog posts which explore different elements of your video in more depth – this also supports SEO and you can populate your posts with direct calls to action

Why video content is so important for social media

Video content dominates social media. According to research, four of the top six channels on which global consumers watch video content are social channels.

The stats go on: globally, we watch over 500 million hours of YouTube videos each day. There are 10 billion views of Snapchat user stories each day. And astoundingly, “more video content is uploaded in 30 days than the major U.S. television networks have created in 30 years.”

If your brand’s target audience is millennials, this is particularly interesting. A massive four out of five millennials say video content influences their purchases – this is the same age group that watches an average of two hours of video per day.

This is why most social media platforms are moving toward video-first.

This huge consumption of video content on social platforms also means that over half of all video is watched on mobile devices.

We also watch video at any time of day, looking at our cell phones from the moment we wake up, on and off until just before we sleep. It’s therefore important to make sure your video content is technically mobile device-friendly, and from a marketing perspective is easily shareable.

Influencer marketing & video: vlogging uncovered

The strengths of influencer marketing lie in social platforms – and video content and now vlogging is a big part of that.

Vlogging is essentially a video blog post and as video has seen a surge in popularity, so has vlogging. Vloggers work within a particular niche, and are able to influence, persuade and ultimately sell to their audience, who trusts their opinion, authentic content and credibility.

Vloggers often create product unboxing videos, reviews of new products, and tutorial-style ‘how to’ guides – how to use a product, for example. This is about as ‘real’ as it can get for a brand and their audience without the audience being able to handle the product themselves. It’s massively influential, providing viewers with a relatable face-to-face visualization of your brand, a profile of who uses it and insight into why they enjoy using the brand.

That’s why influencer marketing can be an important part of marketing strategy. It provides credibility, relatability and authenticity, unique content, increased awareness and shareability, not to mention a strong ROI.

The many types of video content marketing

As we’ve seen, there are many different ways to use video, and that means there are many different types of video content marketing.

Company videos – used to showcase an overall feel for a company or brand for prospective clients or employees

Vlogs – mainly created by bloggers and YouTubers to tell a story, express an opinion, review a product or produce a tutorial

Interviews – with customers, employees, clients, relevant experts, celebrities

Webinars – these could be livestreams or recordings that are shared after the fact. They are normally useful, informative, value-adding and highly relevant

Events – a video summary of an event

Presentations – normally used to provide persuasive facts about a single topic

Animations

Testimonials from happy customers

It’s also worth considering which type of video works best at the different stages of the customer journey.

At the awareness stage, you will want to educate your customers about your brand;

During the consideration phase it’s better to focus more specifically on your products;

and at the purchase decision phase you can go deeper into detail, answering any final questions your customers may have.

Repurposing existing video content

If you already have video content, you can repurpose it for use in different channels, or simply to give it some fresh life and longevity.

Repurposing and repacking existing video content has many advantages; it can improve SEO rankings, reach a larger audience, and build deeper connections.

You can repurpose content in many ways:

• By breaking videos down into smaller clips
• Splicing snippets from different videos together
• Re-customizing videos for different platforms
• Creating ‘behind-the-scenes’ videos from internal company videos
• Using clips from interview videos on your FAQ pages
• Creating blooper reels or out-takes
• Turning your video content into a podcast

Using video content marketing to make a difference

Using video content marketing to give your brand a voice, to gain authenticity and trust, and offer a visually appealing and ‘real’ resource can really make a difference to your marketing and sales success – especially if it’s creative content which really stands out from your competitors and leaves your audience wanting more.

As a brand, you need to map out, test and measure what type of video content works for you and in which channels. When you learn what your audience wants to see and how they want to see it, you can tweak your video content, activity and strategy accordingly.

That brings you to the hard part – deciding which approach to video content is right for your brand, strategy and audience.

If you’d like help in putting together your video content marketing strategy, creating conversation-starting videos and generating leads, let’s chat!