Video marketing is now one of the most powerful marketing assets you can use. It’s trendy, eye-catching and engaging, but also the medium of choice for many audiences nowadays. For this reason, 86% of businesses include video in their marketing strategy according to explainer video experts Wyzowl.
On the other hand, building a video strategy is not as easy as it may seem. It requires some skills and approaches. We’ve created a quick guide to video strategy here but this article is more about how to build a strategy around this powerful medium.
Why it’s time to build a video marketing strategy
The high engagement rates of video marketing make it the perfect tool to incorporate into your marketing strategy. It also provides better visibility and brand awareness than other marketing tools. Video marketing has also become relatively cost-effective in recent years thanks to lower-cost recording hardware and editing software.
Still, building a video strategy is more than buying a camera and filming. A detailed plan is necessary, from your marketing goals to details such as the music or special effects you’re planning to include.
9 secrets to make your video marketing strategy successful
1. Invest in storytelling
Creating a video just for the sake of selling something is not the way to go. You need to focus on telling a compelling story that will make your audience stay with the video until the end. That means a solid understanding of narrative and the video form.
The key is creating value for your audience. That means giving your audience something that will help them connect with your brand, increasing awareness and reinforcing your brand identity. A good story causes your audience to spend time inside your brand and understand it better, hopefully seeking more opportunities to do the same.
2. Focus on the first few seconds
This tip applies to most video content and platform, but particularly YouTube and especially with ads. The first few seconds of the video are crucial to persuade your audience to keep watching. Remember that most ads are an interruption of something the audience wanted to see, so you need to win their attention quickly.
It’s also fairly well known that attention spans are decreasing in this new age of social media. You can’t expect audiences to “wait for the good bit.” You need to hook them immediately and promise the rest is worth waiting for.
You might think that short videos such as TikToks or Instagram Stories are easier, but the opposite is true. Viewers of short-form video are highly attuned to the different forms of micro-narratives and will move to the next video within seconds if you don’t grab their attention.
3. Add subtitles
Don’t rely too much on music and audio effects. According to streaming video site NextTV, 83% of online videos are watched without sound, and this percentage increases on mobile devices, with 92% of videos watched on mute.
For this reason, closed captions/subtitles or other kinds of text are essential if you want the audience to fully engage with your video content.
4. Create engaging titles and thumbnails
This tip is especially important for YouTube. Headlines are one of the most important aspects of any post because they are condensed summaries of the content and determine whether a person clicks on the link.
Different title strategies include clear descriptions of the video or creating curiosity with questions and cryptic statements to persuade users to watch.
Thumbnails are equally important, as they are a preview of the content. They need to be eye-catching and accurately convey the topic of the video. You know the saying: a picture is worth a thousand words!
5. Optimize for SEO
Don’t forget that Google also ranks YouTube videos on its search engine. This means you need to choose effective SEO terms to help increase the reach and views of your videos, gain backlinks, and get ranked on search engines.
YouTube SEO, in particular, is especially important, as it is the second largest search engine after Google. You need to SEO optimize titles, thumbnails, captions, hashtags and descriptions. Keywords are the most important part of SEO strategies, so leverage them by putting them in titles, captions and descriptions.
See our article on YouTube marketing to learn more info about how to grow your channel.
6. Adapt to each app algorithm
Adapting to each format and app is crucial if you want your videos to be pushed by their respective algorithms.
What works on YouTube doesn’t work for TikTok, and what works on Instagram doesn’t necessarily work on LinkedIn. You need to know how each platform works and which aspects you can use to your advantage.
7. Create a schedule
The best way to create an audience is to be consistent! By creating a schedule, your viewers will know exactly when you’re going to post and it will create an expectation for forthcoming videos. This familiarity will help you in the long run as it will encourage your audience to watch previous videos as they wait for new ones.
If you need to change your schedule, don’t forget to inform your viewers so they are always up to date.
8. Follow your brand voice and identity
Make sure that people can recognize these to feel part of your brand. Again, consistency is essential across your content. Be sure to include brand elements such as the logo or colors in your videos and thumbnails.
9. Share your videos widely!
Promote the videos you’ve created on other channels, such as other social media platforms or on your website. If not, your audience could miss out on your content.
It’s also critical to add call-to-action buttons at the end of your videos and to ask viewers to share the video, increasing your reach while also building engagement.
Video marketing can be a very useful tool and will help you improve your digital marketing results. Best of all, it’s a great opportunity to be creative and connect with your customers.
What is video marketing?
Video marketing is a marketing strategy that uses videos to promote a product, a brand or a message in order to reach a specific marketing goal.
How do I create engaging videos?
Using storytelling is a great way to create engaging and compelling videos. You need to catch your audience’s attention at the beginning and keep it interesting to make sure they want to watch the rest of the video.
