If you are considering providing your customers with premium content, doing so through a blog, written article, news release or other type of written source may no longer be the best way to go about it. Instead, consider the powerful new trend of video marketing that has become increasingly more accessible due to modern, more portable, technology. While you personally may not be the most adept at creating new and exciting videos, there are plenty of Apps, websites and professionals you can use to get your content published quickly and effectively. As you explore this topic with us, we encourage you to read the first section of this article to understand why Video Marketing is so important for your business to consider. Then, once you have done so, feel free to read into the second half of our discussion because we will teach you the necessary steps to successfully market your business through video! Enjoy!
Are People Interested in Video Marketing?
If you are like many business owners nationwide, you want to know whether creating a few videos for your business will be worth your initial time investment of time and energy. We are here to assure you that you will most definitely see a return on investment but only if you follow some of the tips we have outlined in this article. According to comScore, a company which tracks internet user’s engagement with different content, over 45% of internet users viewed at least a single video per month while on average a single user is exposed to over 32 videos per month. If you dive into that data a bit further, you will soon come to find that over 90% of shoppers indicate that videos played an important role in their decision to purchase a product. That is a very significant percentage! You can’t ignore this fact when you are deciding whether or not to make videos a portion of your marketing campaign.
Who is my Competition?
When entering into another marketing territory you need to consider who your competitors will be. With that being said, consider a survey conducted on over 400 marketers by a company called Demand Metric. This survey indicated that over 69% of respondents had already begun to make use of video marketing. While that number is fairly high already, consider the fact that an additional 31% of people involved in this survey were intending to implement video marketing in the near future. With so many people moving towards this new trend, it is hard to ignore the fact that video marketing is the newest way to provide valuable content to your readers. Don’t get left behind by sticking to the old ways of distributing information to your audience.
What Types of Videos should be Produced?
The same company who brought forth the data mentioned above also stated that video is the preferred form of content for building brand awareness (52%), followed by lead generation (45%), and then online engagement (42%). If your company is considering providing content in any of these areas, know that they are ripe for videos. Additionally, it is important to note that where you place these videos is just as important as creating them. Continue reading to find out where the best places to put videos are with regard to your company.
Don’t Create Videos without Considering Interaction
If you have visited YouTube recently, you will see that the ability to leave a comment on the video is half of the fun of watching it in the first place. Research has proven time and time again that the ability to interact with companies allows them to become more personable in the eyes of consumers. It is for this reason, that businesses should consider placing quizzes, surveys, forms, and other interactive devices into their viewer’s experiences so that they can test their knowledge of your product. While you may be tempted to place several of these activities within your video remember that moderation is key. Customers don’t want to feel like they are taking their SATs all over again, they just want a fun way to interact with what you are selling.
Outsourcing is a Viable Option
- Consider hiring a professional to help you create your video message. Working with a small video production company can be the best solution to putting your thoughts into action – telling your story!
- There may be some of you out there thinking to yourselves that your business is doomed because you can’t afford a professional and you don’t know how to create videos that will get your company’s message across. That mentality is actually far from the truth due to the fact that there are many freelancing websites available for you to outsource your work to. These websites included Freelancer.com and Fiverr.com to name a few. Simply create an account, specify the work you want done, then select one of the people who is willing to assist you. If outsourcing isn’t your thing, consider looking for free apps that assist you in designing your video ideas. In most cases, these applications will allow you to publish your videos online without many issues. Whatever method you decide to try, video marketing can be accomplished.
Now that you understand why video marketing is absolutely vital to your business’s success, read on to determine exactly how you can make your own video marketing campaign stand apart from your competition.
Keep Videos Short and Sweet
Several Video Marketing Committees in successful companies around the world struggle with the temptation to provide excessive amounts of information in a single video. This temptation is understandable as it is often a less time consuming process to edit, splice, and input voiceovers into a single video than it is to do the same for multiple videos. However, when these individuals consider the fact that the BBC News reported the average web user’s attention span to be around eight seconds, why would they want to put their efforts into something their viewers likely wouldn’t watch? Instead, the rule of thumb most Video Marketing Committees work under is creating videos that are less than three minutes with a compelling call to action at the end!
Connect with your Target Audience from the Start
In business settings across the world many leaders operate with the old philosophy of “if a big enough net is cast into the ocean, then we will have an abundance of fish to choose from”. While we don’t mean to compare our customer base to fish, we do want to illustrate the point that many leaders have this outdated way of thinking. Instead, consider the following perspective: create videos where the first sentence or so of the message identifies the audience you are trying to reach. If you pursue this option of video content marketing, you are bound to attract those people in your niche who are actually interested in what you have to say. If you consider the “8 Second” statistic above, having viewers of your videos stay longer than 8 seconds could also be a good indicator that you are appealing to the right audience.
Distribute your Videos Intentionally
In order to reach a high level of acclaim with your audience, you must avoid sticking to only one form of video marketing such as posting your videos on YouTube. Instead, consider embedding those videos on your website, placing them inside relevant blog articles you have written, posting them on other social media websites, and talking about them in press releases. Through diversifying the way you market your videos, you are more likely to reach your intended audience, which most often results in you increasing your bottom line.
Assessment is the Key to Success
In order to understand how great of an impact your video marketing campaign is having on your audience, you need to tie it to actual business goals. Once you have determined that you would like to have 350 new leads and 600 people actively engaged with your video, you can determine through website analytics whether or not those goals have been met. As your organization attains its goals more often, you can start seeking out more lofty goals such as having over 60% of video viewers watch until the end. Through consistent and purposeful assessment, you will begin to notice patterns from your viewers that you can then predict to make better business decisions.
Through doing your own research into this topic and reviewing these extremely practical steps to ensuring your next video marketing campaign is successful, you will inevitably grow your business by leaps and bounds. We encourage everyone who is pursuing video marketing for the first time to consider the fact that the road to creating the perfect video will be long and fraught with challenges. With this in mind, know that it is still possible to be successful in this area. Experimentation is the key to success. While you may not get it exactly right the first time, continuing the press on will perfect your skills and help your company become the next big video content provider.