Video content marketing is becoming ever more important and is proven to be one of the most successful ways to drive traffic, boost conversion rates and increase ROI. You also have a lot of different options for how to use video content, keeping your marketing activity fresh, engaging, relevant and useful. Ultimately, video can make people feel something in a way that is much more instant than any other medium.
Why should you invest in video marketing?
Let’s look at the statistics:
- 80% of customers remember a video they have watched in the last month
- 65% of business decision-makers visit a website after watching a branded video
- 39% of business decision-makers contact a company after watching branded video content
- 92% of people who watch mobile videos share them
- 60% of social media users will engage with a video post rather than a text-only or image post
And if these stats aren’t convincing, a Forrester Research report even goes as far as to say that, “a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words.”
So you know why you need be using video – but how do you maximize the value of your video content?
Getting the most out of video marketing
It’s important to have a solid video marketing strategy as you would with any type of content, especially as producing video content can be time-consuming and expensive (although it doesn’t have to be).
You need to ensure you’re leveraging the video content you create to increase clicks, conversions, ROI, web traffic, SEO rankings – whatever it is that you have set as your video marketing KPIs. There are various ways you can do this (one of them is investing in video marketing services…see what I did there?!).
Create video content your audience can connect with
Gone are the days when a brand could put up a façade – today, it’s all about authenticity, honesty and interaction. Video is a great medium for this as you can really get to the core of what your target audience wants, and how you can help them. You can create a connection with them in a way that’s very credible.
It is important to be targeted – if you have a niche audience, don’t feel like you have to produce a viral video or create the same types of video as everyone else. What works for them may not work for you. Your video content should be something that your target audience finds engaging and relatable. That way, you’ll attract prospects who are genuinely interested in your brand and products.
Use video to increase conversion rates
Using a video on a landing page increases the amount of time a consumer spends there by 80%.
80%
That’s why it’s so important to make sure your video connects with your audience. Step one is to create the right type of video, whether that’s your brand story, a tutorial, a webinar or an animation.
Step two is to have a clear call to action – make it obvious and easy for your viewers to do whatever it is you want them to do once they’ve watched the video. That will probably be different for different types of video – you might want them to sign up to your email, order a sample, or simply purchase.
Optimize your video content for SEO
Don’t neglect the technical SEO side of video. While Google loves video content – especially video that’s embedded into your site – it’s important to send Google the right signals to maximize your chances of better ranking positions and therefore more quality traffic.
That means you need to give your videos relevant titles and meta descriptions, create a thumbnail that tells viewers what the video is about, make sure the video is in the right format, and add captions (amongst other things).
Choose your distribution channels carefully
Video content creation isn’t just for YouTube and social channels. It’s important to establish all the possible channels your video content will be suitable for and use them in combination.
This will almost certainly mean YouTube and social platforms, but you should also embed videos into your website and you can use them in email campaigns and at events. You could also consider using short snippets and still images from your videos to promote them, and it’s also an idea to transcribe your content.
Encourage social media sharing
Video is a dominating force on social media – we watch more than 500 million hours of YouTube every day. You can really expand your reach by posting video content that’s not only suitable for social media, but also shareable. In turn, this will drive traffic back to your website.
You should also consider how to encourage viewers to share your video, rather than letting it happen organically. You can do this by including links to your social channels at the end of the video, by simply asking people to share, or by including an incentive for sharing (although we’d recommend letting it happen more naturally.)
Leverage user generated video content
One of the overarching objectives of content creation of any type is to produce great content on a regular basis. Realistically that’s not always possible, but with user-generated video content, your customers can be your content creators.
User-generated content is great because it’s authentic and it helps to build a community of your loyal customers. You could run competitions or challenges to get your customers to create content.
Use different types of video marketing
Not only are there different ways to use video, but there are also different types of video content:
- Vlogs
- Interviews
- Webinars
- Events
- Brand videos
- Presentations
- Animations
- Customer testimonials
Different types of video are best for the different stages of a customer journey. For example, if a customer is in the awareness stage they will want to know more about your brand. Once they know that and they’re considering a purchase, they’ll perhaps want to watch a more product-focused video.
Whatever the stage in the customer journey and whatever the type of video, it’s worthwhile to think about the story you’re telling.
Repurpose existing video content
You may already have a back catalogue of video content. If that’s the case, you can breathe fresh life into it and extend its shelf life. These few simple tips can help you improve SEO, reach a wider audience and create deeper connections with your audience:
- Break up existing video content into smaller snippets to use in different channels
- Combine snippets from different video content into one new video
- Re-work videos for different platforms
- Produce a ‘behind-the-scenes’ video using internal company video content
- Use clips from video interview videos on your FAQ page
Set goals & measure how well your video content works
It’s really important to put metrics on your video marketing – after all, it can be expensive and you need to know that you’re getting the most out of your investment. You can use metrics such as:
- Time spent on page
- The click-through rate, i.e. the percentage of people on your page who watch your video
- How long viewers watch the video for
- The conversion rate from your call to action
- Which type of video content is the most successful
- Which of your distribution channels work best
- Shares, likes and comments
Once you start seeing results, you will understand how engaged your audience is and what type of video content works best. You can then use this knowledge to tweak and improve your video marketing strategy and plans.
Video content can really engage consumers with your brand and products, regardless of your industry or type of business. Video marketing will evolve with changing times and technologies, which means that you can be creative and experimental to find out what type of video content works for you – and your ROI.
If you need help to maximize the value of your video content and want to discuss our video marketing services, let’s chat.
