[Part 4 of our Video Marketing Toolkit]
If you've been trying to make your business stand out in the crowd, but just don't know the best way to get there, you're not alone. If you're like most businesses, you're probably relying on social media, possibly posting on Facebook once or twice a day, or less likely, Instagram. If you're savvy, you may have even found success with Facebook ads, and even tried advertising on Google or LinkedIn. With so many options out there for marketing your business, it's hard to know where to start. One thing is for sure though, video should be one of the methods you use for reaching your customers.
If you already know that, great, jump to the next section. But if you're still unsure, take a look at some of the stats from HubSpot that we linked to in an earlier blog about different ways to use video in your marketing efforts. Or, for a quick glance, see the charts below:
As you can see, video is a must for brands. For an in-depth look at the possibilities available to promote your business with video, and a Free Planning Guide to get you started and keep you on target--and hopefully make the process a lot easier--read on.
How are your current videos working for you?
Have you published videos on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram and gotten less than stellar results? Well, that's not unusual. In fact, in a very informal study of some of our market most of the YouTube videos we checked had fewer than 20 views over of the course of a year or more. That's bad news. But like most things, a lot of the reason for that is because most businesses simply don't know of the many ways that video can be used. There's so much more to the story than meets the eye. So let's think about this for a moment.
We've talked about this before, but it's worth mentioning again that videos need to be promoted to get seen. That promotion can be done in multiple ways, but be done it must. To avoid Video Distribution Neglect Syndrome, (yeah, we made that up) here is our "Short List" of ways to promote your videos once they are done:
Add your video to a dedicated page on your website, maybe reinforced by a transcript of the video.
Embed the video on your homepage with a call-to-action (CTA) to find out more.
Add the video to landing pages where the aim is to convert visitors or generate new leads.
Email a link to engaged leads to help convert them, or to existing customers who may not have been keeping up with what you have to offer.
Use your video on social media as case studies to show how you've helped your clients achieve their goals. (Tag everyone involved!).
Send the video to your sales team to help close sales.
Use the video in one-on-one presentations as an example of the problems you help your clients solve.
Show your video at events your target audience will be attending, such as trade shows, networking events, and open houses.
Now hopefully most of you had at least some idea about what you wanted to accomplish with your video(s) but maybe weren't quite as sure about how to promote them when they were done. Tying what people are looking for to what your company is offering (with video) and getting those videos seen where your customers live is what good Web Video Strategy is all about.
So What ARE Your Goals?
Here are three common goals that companies tend to focus on when deciding to create videos:
Brand Awareness—commonly measured by video views.
Lead Generation and Conversion—typically measured by lead generation count and impact on conversion rate.
Viewer Engagement—typically measured by watch time (the average length of time viewers watched the video)
If you've tried and still didn't get the results you were looking for, chances are you failed in one of these ways:
You didn't spend enough time on your audience research
You didn't spend enough time on your audience targeting
You didn't produce a video that answered a need or a question
You didn't have a powerful enough headline or lead image
You didn't reuse and repost often enough to get it in front of enough people
You didn't spend enough money (or effort) to promote your video once it was done using either paid or organic promotion
Or, like most companies, you didn't use Video SEO correctly, if at all
Paid vs Organic Video Promotion
It might seem obvious, but one of the best ways to get immediate views on your videos is through paid advertising. While getting your video on your Landing Page is a priority, getting potential customers to your landing page is the next priority -- because let's face it, your website is probably NOT where most of your customers are hanging out.
And that, really, is the big question when it comes to getting your videos seen. So where ARE your customers hanging out? For many B2C companies, that might be Facebook, Instagram, or even Twitter. And for most B2B businesses, you're probably talking YouTube, Google, and LinkedIn.
Youtube is a major player out there, especially if you have a video that would help people looking for help on something--like How-To videos, Top 10 Reviews or other genres that are popular on YouTube. If you're a parts supplier, for example, consider buying ads targeted toward DIYers looking for info on how to fix their own vehicles. If you're going to publish videos on YouTube consider these top 5 video categories based on research by Mediakix.
Product Reviews
How-to Videos
Vlogs
Gaming Videos
Comedy/Skit Videos
There is also a lot of research supporting the cost-effectiveness of in-stream advertising on YouTube, PPC advertising on Google, and even commercials or shorter in-stream "preview" ads that your local TV stations offer on their news feeds and weather updates. Rates vary greatly for all of the above, and the local news feeds each have their own niche, while YouTube and Google Ads can be targeted very specifically.
And depending on the time of year and what's happening in the movies, you might even consider advertising at your local movie theater. For an in-depth look comparing video with other more traditional advertising options--and their associated costs--check out this research report from Hubspot. Compared to other media, video seems like a pretty damn good value.
So the best way to get eyes on your videos is really quite simple: Use them! Use them here, use them there, use them everywhere. Treat your videos like a tool in your marketing toolkit. Repurpose 15-second videos multiple times in your Facebook Feed, buy video ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Post articles with video links on LinkedIn. Use them in your emails, sales calls, one-on-one presentations, and everywhere you can. Videos are an investment. The worst thing you can do is NOT use them to get a return. Try the following for starters:
Online:
Website Index page
Landing page(s)
e-mails
Blogs
On Social sites
YouTube
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
Planning Your Video Campaign
In a study by Vidyard's Video Marketing Strategy: Benchmarks for Success, marketers were asked what their main pain points were when producing videos. No real surprise, but some of the most common answers were "lack of an effective strategy", an "inadequate video budget", and a "lack of buy-in and leadership commitment". Our own study found that difficulty in putting videos together and managing all of the details of video production were also factors. We'll be blogging about that in the future, but for now, suffice it to say that most people honestly just don't use video to its fullest potential.
Adding more videos to your arsenal and promoting them doesn't just mean hiring someone to come and shoot some video, it means finding someone who can help you strategize and create a plan that works to tell your story and get them in front of the right people. The storytelling and connection to your audience is what gives your videos staying power, but you'll want to have a plan to get them seen before going into meetings with in-house staff or freelancers. An established video agency can help.
Video Marketing Toolkit - What’s Next
So where do you start? How do you go about getting started with one of these videos? And how much do they cost? How can you save money? And how can you get them seen to get a great ROI? Download our FREE Video Planning Guide to get started. It will guide you through the process and give you some ideas on what type of video to produce, factors to consider in budgeting, and questions to ask your team to get started on your next video project.
Wondering if there's a way to re-purpose what you've done already into a variety of new videos for other marketing opportunities? We’ll be talking about that in our next few blogs. Stay tuned, or give us a call at 715-858-0454 to schedule a consultation and we can help you figure out which type would make sense to help you reach your goals.
Booking for Q1 and Q2, 2020 We’re scheduling shoots for Q1 and Q2 now, so if you’re thinking of getting going on video before summer, contact us now to get on the schedule!