A Guide to Online Video Marketing

When Bill Gates first coined the phrase “content is king,” and described the future of the internet as a marketplace for content, he wasn’t far wrong. However, content doesn’t just refer to the written word anymore, and it is more than blogs, case studies, and eBooks; it can also mean podcasts, infographics, and, of course, video.

There has been a surge in the number of people who watch video content, and this is down to several reasons. Videos can be more engaging, easier to understand, and can add an element of interaction that simply can’t be achieved with the written word. As a result, within the digital marketing industry, there has been a huge surge in video creation, and so this demands that focus be put on producing a strong video marketing campaign that will ensure you have excellent quality content.

What is online video marketing?

Online video marketing is easy to understand, and it isn’t too dissimilar to any other marketing strategy you might have already implemented. The ultimate aim of online video marketing is to promote and market your brand to your customers and hopefully pick up some new ones at the same time using video content. It is also the perfect way to promote new products or services, but it can just be a great way to help your customers understand more about your existing services or products.

Why is video marketing important?

Video marketing is crucial for every business as we settle into 2020. But what exactly can it do for your business? Let’s explore this and the video marketing statistics in more detail.

Sales will increase: Studies have shown that 74% of people are more likely to purchase your products or services after watching video content. This is because video content is easily digestible. People don’t mind watching a short 1-minute video that details a complex subject matter compared to a wordy blog.

Google will love you: It is estimated that by 2022, 82% of consumer traffic will be from video content. Google loves video content! So producing high-quality content that adds value to your customers and embedding it on your website will result in Google rewarding you by moving up your position ranking. This makes it the perfect SEO tool for when you want to boost your backlinks and drive traffic to your site.

ROI: The CTR (click-through rate) and conversions that you will experience will increase as a result of the number of backlinks you receive from the video content that you post on social media.

Builds trust with your customers: For every business that is looking to find new ways to develop better relationships with the customers, video can help do this. You can start to show the more human side to your business, which, in turn, will result in a better connection with your audience as a whole. Having a product review video, for example, will enlist trust within your audience.

Perfect for mobile users: 90% of people will watch videos on their mobiles due to the convenience. As long as it is optimized properly, your video content will be able to reach more people on mobile, and so you will be able to increase your traffic.

The video marketing statistics speak for themselves when it comes to why it is important to implement this in your marketing efforts. However, you will only receive these benefits if you properly optimize your content with a detailed content marketing strategy.

Devising a content marketing strategy

As more and more video content starts to flood the internet, you need to find ways to ensure that your content is found. This is why you need to put together a content marketing strategy. Like with your regular content marketing strategy, you need to follow a step by step strategic plan to ensure that your promotional marketing videos are successful online.

What are your goals?

Before you do anything, you first need to determine what your goals of the video marketing campaign are. Know what you want to achieve, and you will create better content as a result. For example, do you want to reach new customers? Do you want to develop a better relationship with your existing clients and customers? Or would you like to get more traffic and conversions on your website? To answer these questions means you need to have a real understanding of what your brand is and who you are. Don’t underestimate how important this step is.

Research your audience

You can’t just produce video content and publish it. You first need to conduct research that helps you tailor your content to your specific audience. If you decided that your goal was to develop a better relationship with your existing customers, then you need to determine what kind of content they need. Understanding your audience is vital. Although video is more engaging than most forms of content, it also has to appeal to the right consumer. Somebody who works in the health sector isn’t going to be interested in learning about how a software system can aid accountants when your service is about digital marketing. It needs to be relevant to both your brand and the audience you are targeting.

Not having an understanding of who your audience is or what they like or care about and where they spend most of their time online will affect your ability to turn a lead into a sale. You need to compile data about your current customers; this allows you to target more people similar to your existing customers (i.e., age, location, language, interest, etc.) To find out what they want from video content, you could do the following:

• Send out surveys
• Conduct interviews
• Social media analytics

Research the competition

As well as understanding your audience, you should also research your competition and complete keyword researchKeyword research helps websites unearth the best keywords to drive traffic and visibility. This research is supported by a number of powerful web-based tools, the best of which we’ve listed here.. You might need the help of a digital content marketing company at this point, as it can be difficult if you don’t have any prior knowledge.

For those that are interested in increasing traffic to their site, this is important to carry out early on before you start to think about the type of content you want to create. However, no matter what your end goal is, you would benefit from carrying out keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. research, as it will help you curate ideas for content and also optimize your content.

You can use the keywords within the title of the video, the description, and the transcript. This will help Google find your content and know what it is about, which allows them to present it to potential customers. You can take this one step further and embed the video on a landing page that also makes use of the keywords.

Top Tip: Focus on long-tail keywords and phrases. Because of the rise in the number of people using mobiles, long-tail keywords are more likely to be used than short snappy keywords.

Decide on the type of video content

Once you have your keyword (s), you will be able to start generating ideas on the type of content that you will be producing, and this all ties back into the research you did on your audience.

From the research you completed on your audience, you should have some idea of the type of video content they would be interested in. If, for example, your audience is between the age of 16-25 and they spend most of their time on Instagram, creating a video that goes into great detail about your company and that is designed for Facebook will simply not work. However, a short ad that showcases and reviews your new products would be much better suited to the audience. Finding out where they spend their time online will dictate the type of content you produce.

So what types of video content are there?

There are many different types of content that you can create, including:

• YouTube vlogs
• Interviews
• Explainer and how-to videos
• Showcasing your company
• Product videos
• Live streams and live video content
• Q&A
• Ads
• Webinars
• Animations

If you are interested in developing your own video content marketing ideas, then it would benefit you to get in touch with our team of experts. They will be able to help you every step of the way.

Optimize your video content

Now comes the fun bit! Creating your content.

The following tips will aid you in that process:

Title is important

The titles you choose for your videos should not be unestimated. People will make an immediate decision on whether they want to watch your video based on your title. So, you need to think carefully about whether the title will attract customers. Remember to try to include your keywords, if possible.

Don’t make it too long.

Videos that are more than 2 minutes long can lose up to 60% of viewers. Therefore, don’t make the videos too long. If you do, you risk people getting bored and going away.

Make it shareable

The great thing about video is that it is a fantastic way to promote your brand due to being easily shareable. This is why you should always provide an HTML link to your website whenever you post your video online. People can share your video across a number of different platforms and can access your site at the click of a button.

Consider branding

If you want to be recognized, then you might benefit from embedding your logo within the video.

Make it stand out!

Finally, you want to make sure that you stand out! Be sure to use your content marketing strategy, but use what makes you different from everyone else as well. Establish who you are as a brand, and that will help you stand out!

For more information on how video marketing services can help you out, please get in touch with our dedicated content marketing team, as they will be able to get you started on your video marketing strategy.