Video Marketing has made waves this year. Facebook has even made video a priority when showing advertising to users. But why and what is all the hype?
Video marketing is a relatively new internet marketing strategy
As we have stated in a previous article, sales start with a search. Google is our first and foremost concern as digital marketers – you’re only successful if Google, the biggest search engine, “sees” you. YouTube follows closely behind Google – it is the second largest search engine after all – not Bing or Yahoo. YouTube is a great platform to drive awareness for your brand and traffic to your website.
With video, you can help your customers with their buying decision, show off your products, exhibit your workplace and employees, and even your locale. It enhances the user experience and encourages engagement.
A video is versatile. For example, creating a video that telling your brand story for your ‘About’ page; may also be used as a Facebook video advert. You get the point; you can publish in many places with other related content. Google “sees” and will deliver your video to its users. Video marketing, when done well, can put you on top of a search engine results pages (SERPs), creating more opportunities for people to discover your brand.
Should I Make It Viral?
Many companies ask an agency to make a “viral video”. Yes, businesses with viral videos have seen immense growth in sales because of the awareness. People share, comment, etc. A video ‘going viral’ can further your brand awareness campaign very fast. That is well and good, but a viral sensation is not an orchestrated movement, it just happens. Instead of focusing on a video to be viral, what should you do?
Making video a part of your marketing strategy means a focus on user engagement. The best results for business starts with high quality, interesting and engaging content. Perhaps you can achieve brand awareness while improving customer service at the same time. Try answering common queries via a video on YouTube. You’ll soon have a video library you can reference people to in the future. There are many possibilities for video usage in marketing your business if you’re willing to think outside the box.
Make it interesting
Any successful video marketing campaign starts with high quality and compelling content. Video as a medium is visual and viewers will decide whether they want to watch or not within the first few seconds. These initial moments are crucial – you’ll need to capture the viewers’ attention with the goal of retaining it throughout. Not only should it be captivating, but informative too, speaking directly.
Make sure your approach is relevant to your target market. Using humour is appropriate if your customers are young and your product is trendy. However, if your audience different, maybe they are older or your product is a legal service, you will likely want to use an authoritative voice.
Avoid making direct sales pitches – focus on demonstrating your product’s unique qualities. Highlight best features by showing, not telling. If your video does this in less that 2 minutes, you’re on the right track to creating strong video content.
It is possible to create high-quality videos on your phone now so no need to invest in high-quality cameras, tripods, lights, etc. Your content will work best if you talk directly to your viewers: make it personal, slightly informal, and natural. Communicate your brand through your visual style and tone. Try to create a foundation format for your future videos, doing this will provide consistency.
Publish it – socialise!
Yes, YouTube is probably the best place for your videos, it is the second-biggest search engine after Google. When you combine both the reach of Facebook and YouTube videos, your sales will benefit from this exposure.
There are billions of people using Facebook globally every day. Facebook videos display in Search Engine Results Pages. Meaning the more videos you publish on these platforms, the better it is for SEO ranking. Furthermore, Facebook is a “segmented” population; it’s easy to target a particular market. Thus easier to create viral content because it’s easily shareable between friends.
Use Facebook and other social media platforms’ popularity to reach more people.
Target your marketing objectives
Making a video is not a magic trick that can help your business grow instantly. But looking at the statistics, video marketing will help growth exponentially, as long as there is careful planning involved. Let’s look at the numbers (Hinson, 2016).
- Hosting a video on your website (or creating a YouTube channel) increases the chance of appearing on the front page of a Google results by 53%.
- 71% of marketers say that videos outperform other content regarding conversion rates.
- Audiences are 10x more likely to engage in video content vs. text-only content or photos.
- Using videos in email marketing has shown to double click-through rates. It allows people to ‘feel’ your brand.
Videos help your customers care, remember and connect to your business. When content has a voice, it makes it memorable and therefore, more likely to succeed.
Take these facts:
- Videos presented as stories are 22x more memorable than facts alone (Aaker, Stanford).
- Positive emotions derived from watching videos can impact viewer-buying decisions (Scheibehenne).
- The human brain processes visual stimuli 60,000 times faster than text (HubSpot).
In short, videos make for a better medium for connection in ways photos and text cannot. Take, for example, the John Lewis Christmas ads. They are positive, heartwarming stories, with a definite meaning, and appeals a person’s sentimentalities.
Encourage a click
To maximise chances of your viewers watching to the end, keep it short. Include a call to action (CTA) button, directing viewers to your product or more videos.
In conclusion:
If pressed for time and ideas, consider reaching out to a marketing agency. They will create a video that speaks to your target demographic using your brand and voice. All it takes is a few meetings regarding your vision; the agency will do the rest. Contact AA Marketing for a no-obligation video marketing consultation now.
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