Our outsourced marketing strategists love adding video to our clients’ marketing plans. Not only are videos dominating social media platforms, but also the statistics prove they are effective.
According to HubSpot’s research, 87% of consumers polled reported wanting to see video content from businesses or brands they support. HubSpot also published that “Video is useful for more than entertainment, too. Video on landing pages is capable of increasing conversion rates by over 80%, and the mere mention of the word ‘video’ in your email subject line increases open rates by 19%. 90% of customers also say videos help them make buying decisions.”
LinkedIn recently released an “Action Plan for Small Businesses” that encouraged users to include custom videos in their posts, noting short and authentic video is 5 times more likely to drive engagement than other media types.
Not to mention, YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world, trailing only behind Google. In a Think with Google survey of 12,000 global viewers, respondents reported watching video content that relates to their personal interests and passions. Learning new things was more important to respondents than watching videos with high production quality.
What Time is It? It’s Video O’Clock!
In a nutshell, what this boils down to is that now is the right time to bring video into your marketing. If cost has held you back, you don’t have to spend a fortune in production costs to generate results because viewers are more interested in being taught something new or watching videos that help them dig deeper into their interests.
LEARN MORE: Marketing Videos Need Not be Blockbusters to Grab Attention
The Marketing Video Plot Thickens…
Nathan Apodaca recorded himself riding his skateboard to work, sipping Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice from the jug while lip-syncing Fleetwood Mac’s song “Dreams.” Within an hour of posting the video, 100,000 people viewed it. As of this writing, the number of views has increased to 35 million and growing. Ocean Spray gifted Nathan a new truck with a stocked bed of juice. Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 hit song hit the charts once again, and celebrities, including band members Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks, shared their own videos in response to Nathan’s.
Fleetwood Mac, their record label, and Ocean Spray raked in the publicity from a potato warehouse employee who decided to skateboard to work because his truck broke down.
The point is that your videos don’t have to be Martin Scorsese quality. They just have to resonate with your audience to be effective. If you’re scratching your head wondering what’s interesting enough about your business, service or product to warrant a video, here are some starting points.
Do a demo: Highlight how your product or service works.
Showcase your brand: Create a story using your vision, mission, culture and history in context of your audience, products and services.
Capture an event: Especially relevant in COVID times, video any events your business is involved in or hosting.
Interview people: Interview customers, employees and experts in your field.
Share life/work hacks: Show your knowledge, product or service makes life and/or work easier.
Sift through your blog posts, PowerPoint and Prezi presentations and sales/marketing collateral for more video topic ideas. Images and presentations can be turned into a video with voiceover, text and music using software—no actual “videoing” involved.
Seconds-long snippets can be created from longer videos, perfect for social media platforms and getting maximum mileage from your videos. For example, you may capture a 30-minute webinar and edit one point of the presentation into a 15-second LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook post that links to the longer version.
Where to Post Your Marketing Videos
As indicated by the statistics mentioned above, your customers want to watch your videos. The obvious platforms where they can be reached are:
- Your YouTube channel
- Your website
Just like images, your marketing video will require keywords in its title and description tag to help with organic SEO. Encourage viewers to share your video. The more views and shares, the more relevant it becomes to the search engines and the better it ranks in search engine results. A quicker way to get your video in front of the right eyeballs to “boost” it or use it as a paid ad. You’ll also want to host your video on YouTube to take advantage of being found in the search engine.
READ MORE: How Much Should I Pay Someone to Manage My Social Media Marketing?
Set Specific Goals to Compare Analytics Against
Define specific actions you want viewers to take with your video. One or two goals are sufficient and could range from filling out a contact form or sharing the video to making a purchase.
Each platform where you post your video has ways of gathering analytics, including:
- How many people viewed
- How many people watched (and for how long) or didn’t watch at all
- How many people shared and/or commented
- How many clicked on a call to action
- How many completed your call to action
Adding video to your marketing strategy can be as easy as picking up your phone. Your fans are waiting for the big premiere.