Video marketing is an excellent way to enhance your brand’s visibility on the web as it allows you to disseminate crucial information to potential clients much faster for more impact and higher returns. Recent studies have shown that your chances of ranking on the first page of Google are significantly increased (up to 53 times) when you use video to market your brand or business.
Video marketing falls under the category of relationship marketing which involves developing and building trust, loyalty and quality connections with customers which are very important for any online business out there today.
Advertising
To get the video right, you must pay careful attention to your marketing strategy. You must ask yourself a series of question that will help you to figure out your strategy. First, what is the video’s objective? What does the video aim to achieve? Who is the target audience and what do you want them to do after watching your video? Always work out at the marketing strategy before looking into the technology, equipment and tools.
Make use of the ‘Four Pillars’ formula to be certain that you are on the right path:
Purpose
Carefully consider your business objectives you aim to achieve with the video. The video can be used to sell a service, drive web traffic, grow your list, launch a product, generate leads, build credibility and trust with potential customers, increase online visibility, create product or service awareness and many more. Establishing your business objectives beforehand will allow you to easily determine issues related to distribution, platforms and the message to include in the video.
Premise
The next pillar of your video marketing campaign is all about establishing your story, script or message. Your premise is basically how you intend to pass on your message to viewers so that they can take certain action. What do you intend viewers to do after watching the video?
When writing your script or developing the message, always remember that online viewers have a very limited attention span. Your message must be direct, concise and clear. Make your point as fast as possible and keep the video short if you can. Most marketing videos posted to YouTube are usually 3 minutes long or less. The only videos that are allowed to be a bit long are webinars, training videos, and other longer-type videos.
Platform
While you may assume that there are two main types of marketing videos, off-camera and on-camera, there are actually many other different options out there today. Video making and production has evolved a lot over the years and is no longer limited to the conventional ‘head talking’ format. It is highly recommended that you use a platform that best suits your personal style and specific needs.
A majority of video makers tend to go for the popular on-camera video option which can be done in various ways such as a live webcast, a video tips series, an interview with two or more people or just the normal direct to camera video. On-camera videos are the preferred option if you are marketing a personal product or service and you want to establish a higher level of credibility and trust or you simply want a more engaging connection with viewers.
Off-camera videos do not demand that you be in front of the camera which is convenient for shy or reserved people. Off-camera videos are equally as effective as on-camera videos and can be very useful when it comes to sharing huge amounts of information as in the case of training videos and webinars.
Promotion
The fourth and last pillar is all about how and where you will promote, distribute, share or basically market your video on the web. You must know where to find your target viewers so that you can post your video there. If you post your video on YouTube, you can easily allow viewers to share the video to LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Facebook and many more.
You can also copy the embed code on the video page and paste it on your blog or website. Also, you can get a special link from YouTube that you can send to contacts on your list.
In addition, do forget about other social networking sites that accept videos such as Vimeo, Viddler, Slideshare, Instagram, and Pinterest. The more places you post your video, the easier it will be for your target viewers to find and watch it.
A lot of people are video hosting with vooPlayer nowadays too, as it means there are no advertisements, lots of potential for customization of settings and also it’s secure. These are things that for YouTube isn’t always available.
5. Consistency
Just like other forms of marketing, video marketing has to be done consistently and over a period of time in order to get desired results. You must come up with a plan on how to post videos regularly for maximum outreach. Here are a couple ideas that can help you keep up the momentum:
- Come up with an ‘expert-tips’ video series that is made up of short one or two-minute videos to share your knowledge and expertise with your viewers. You can create all the videos in one session, then post one or two every week. An ‘expert-tips series can help you build momentum and maintain consistency.
- For those with blogs, you can post a video-blog every now and then. This can help to diversify your posts so that you are not only posting the traditionally written posts that everyone is accustomed to.
- Make ‘face to face’ videos for better personal connections with potential clients. You can send personalized thank you, birthday wishes or video greeting videos to your clients. You can use video mail services such as Eyejoy, Vsnap and MailVu to quickly record these short messages.
- Have video events. Turning your video posting dates into official events is another way of attracting attention from your target audience. You can add your promotional video to a product or service launch to make it seem even more special and captivating. It is a really good way to get noticed.
- Use Live Video. Live video or webcast is available on Google Hangouts, Ustream.tv and Livestream platforms. These platforms basically enable you to record video using a webcam from whenever and wherever. The live video is highly interactive, engaging and dynamic.
So, go for video marketing if you want to accelerate and expand your business’s or brand’s marketing campaign. However, do not forget to get your strategy right and also maintain consistency. Anyone can make a video or two. However, not everyone can use videos to market their businesses on a regular basis.
