This article was originally published on 05/05/2022.
Video marketing is on the rise, and 86% of video marketers say that video content has been effective in generating leads. What then should marketers and content professionals in small to midsize enterprises (SMEs) do to react and set up an effective video marketing strategy for their business?
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If you have an active internet connection, chances are that you possibly consume video content in some form or the other. And why not? Video content marketing can be a great way to tell stories and build engagement! Numerous social media platforms have also started giving preference to videos in recent times. The introduction of new features such as Facebook and Instagram Reels and X’s (formerly Twitter) moves to allow longer-form video and video calling is indicative of these shifts.
Did you know?
In GetApp’s Decentralisation of Search Engines study it was discovered that 39% of the sample used social media to some degree to search for results online. In this group, we found that video platforms such as YouTube (75%) and TikTok (31%) were used for online searches demonstrating the impact video could have on a marketing campaign for your brand’s discoverability.
According to a study conducted by Social Films, video is becoming the fastest-growing digital medium in the UK in the past decade, and the average individual was estimated to have spent 100 minutes per day watching internet videos in 2021. The same study also presented the following data from the survey:
- 92% of marketers consider video to be at the centre of their marketing strategy, with 88% believing that videos significantly increase the ROI.
- 72% of customers prefer to learn about products and services through videos.
- 93% of marketers state that they have acquired new customers via video marketing.
- Videos on social platforms are shared 1200% times more than text and image posts combined.
With such numbers at hand, it may be safe to say that knowing how to make video marketing work and producing effective video content can potentially be one of the most sought-after ways of content creation in the future. We will now discuss some steps small businesses can take in order to build an effective video marketing strategy.
What is video marketing?
Video marketing is a communication strategy used by businesses to reach audiences via online visual media. In many cases, this will be in the form of video ads or product videos to raise brand awareness or inform potential customers of your firm’s offering. However, a video marketing campaign can also take the form of live videos or educational videos to engage social network users and build a following on online channels.
1. Define your marketing goal
Defining and summarising your marketing goals is possibly the first stage in developing your digital marketing video strategy. According to Smart Insights, applying the SMART mnemonic to identify specific marketing objectives can help teams support and measure the long-term goals of their marketing strategy. SMART stands for:
- Specific – do I have the relevant information to measure challenges and opportunities?
- Measurable – how do I quantify and track the metrics related to my goals?
- Actionable – based on our current abilities, resources, and timeline, how can I make my goals realistically attainable?
- Relevant – is the goal pertinent to my business and marketing objectives?
- Time-bound – how to set targets for different periods, and how much time will it take to reach the goals?
An important decision is also deciding what type of content to produce and where it should appear. Is the video intended to drive sales, build engagement or create interactions amongst your audience? These are all factors that must be considered when creating successful video content marketing goals.
2. Select your target audience
Now that you know the goal of your online video marketing strategy, the next step is to find out who your intended audience is. It may be helpful to know more details about your viewers and their expectations of your content. One way to do this is to define your buyer persona.
What is a buyer persona?
According to Shopify, a buyer persona is a fictionalised representation of one or more of your top customers based on facts about them and how they use your product or service. Buyer personas give a description that could assist brands in attracting additional customers by tailoring their marketing message.
While creating a buyer persona, you may want to ask yourself questions like:
- What is the demographic I am targeting?
- What problem is my brand trying to solve?
- Which platform do I want to utilise?
- How would I like to communicate with my customers?
Once you have the buyer persona chalked out, it will likely lead you towards your target audience. Having knowledge of what your ideal customer looks like can potentially make it easy for you to create content for them, and decide on the platform that would best suit your needs.
This is important as each online video platform caters to a different type of video audience and visual format. For instance, for longer more descriptive content that can promote organic search results, YouTube is probably the most appropriate choice of platform. However, for more instantaneous or shareable social video content (especially for younger Gen Z users with shorter attention spans) shorter-form video channels like TikTok or Instagram may be more appropriate for your needs.
Did you know?
In GetApp’s 2023 Social Media in SMEs survey it was discovered that more than half (56%) of UK SME owners and managers created short-form video content for their social channels.
3. Plan your content with a content calendar
Having a content marketing publishing schedule for your brand page can be very helpful as it gives marketers and other stakeholders a bird’s-eye-view of upcoming posts. The subscribers and viewers of your brands may also expect you to post regular content on your brand page instead of irregular posts. According to an article by Hootsuite, having an idea of the posting frequency on social media can help your business keep the audience engaged. Having said that, there may not be any one-size-fits-all approach to this since each brand is distinct in its own way with varying needs.
4. Create effective and relevant content
This is where most of the action will possibly happen. While creating videos, it may be best to consider the value your video will provide to the customers. According to an article by HubSpot, creating and sharing videos on social platforms should always assist you in achieving your current marketing objectives. The article also talks about different types of marketing videos, some of which are mentioned below:
In the section below, we will look at various steps involved in the creation of video content and the significance of each step.
Tell a story through your content
Your videos may have a lot of potential to convey a strong message or showcase your company values, apart from selling the intended product or service. Using your videos to tell a story is possibly a great way to connect with your audience and improve engagement. For example, if you own a restaurant, you can showcase your brand’s history or display customer reviews to target new and existing customers. This may make them feel more connected to your brand.
Did you know?
Social listening tools offer companies a chance to monitor and get a better feel for what will engage their audiences, which in turn could help assist in planning the most effective video content. In our 2023 SMEs and Social Media survey, we observed that 50% of our sample used social listening and the majority (59%) of this group used these learnings to get a better understanding of their audience.
Add visual and audio assets to your content
It is recommended to add visual and audio assets to your content to make it more appealing and interesting. According to an article by Biteable, having captions, voiceovers, and music is important for marketing videos. The article also mentions that:
- Presentations (65%), ads (57%), and explainers (47%) are some of the most common types of videos marketers make.
- 81% of marketers say that the performance of their videos is enhanced with the use of music.
- 66% of marketers say that voiceovers makes their videos perform better.
- Videos with captions perform better according to 64% of marketers.
Add a ‘Call to Action’
A call to action(CTA) is a prompt in your marketing communication that invites the audience to take immediate action, mainly for sales purposes. There are many ways to create a CTA. It can be text in your videos that links to your website or a link in your video description. Some examples of CTA text are:
- Explore more
- Check out our website
- Subscribe to our channel
CTAs can be placed at various points throughout your video. They can either be positioned at the start of your video, within the video, or at the end of your video. To see which CTA placement works best for your business, you can try experimenting by placing CTAs at different positions within your video content and then analysing the results.
5. Schedule your content on different platforms
The last step is to schedule your content on different channels based on the dates decided in your content calendar. To complete this task, marketers can consider using social media scheduling software.
An important factor to consider when picking a scheduler is where you’ll likely be posting your content and if you want to focus on a single channel or multiple channels. Once the content is posted according to their schedule, SMEs can also track the performance of their published content using various social media monitoring tools to analyse their metrics and plan ahead accordingly.
Key takeaways
All businesses are different and the outcome they expect from their video content is also likely to be distinct. Content creation, especially video content, may need proper planning and brainstorming before implementation. Having a video content strategy may help businesses better design their campaigns thoughtfully, and it can also potentially help them attract their target audience at various stages of the buyer journey and keep them hooked to the brand even after they have made a purchase.
