“It’s not what you upload, it’s the strategy with which you upload.” – Will Keenan

Think you just need video for your social channels? Video is more than just a social media campaign! While these channels are incredibly important, video is essential across the entire marketing funnel to reach prospective clients wherever they are. After all, when’s the last time you purchased something after seeing one short video and nothing else?

You need potential customers to see you as many times as possible and always provide them a steady steam of content (read value) so your brand not only stands out, but engages and nurtures them – ultimately converting them into those coveted sales.

The best part? There are tons of tools to help you distribute and measure your video wherever you use it, so you can have the data you need to prove your video marketing is as effective as it can be.

At TwentyThree, we’re big believers in using video at each and every stage of the buyer’s journey. Whether it’s a 30-second clip for Twitter, an hour-long webinar, or a case story video, video can fit perfectly into any stage – but it takes the right tools to run the right video on the right channel.

Today, we’re breaking down how marketers can use a video marketing platform at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel to effectively distribute video, measure its effects, and drive more sales.

Top of the Funnel

At the top of the funnel, you’re looking to attract new customers. Here, your prospective clients are just figuring out they have a problem and aren’t sure how to solve it. They have little to no information and haven’t begun their research, so they’re not actively looking for companies like yours necessarily. That’s why it’s important to use video here to cast a wide net – you want fun, bold, creative video content that’ll reach users in a variety of places online.

At this stage, social channels can have a big impact on your overall messaging. And there’s no way better way to tell a story quickly than with a video. According to Wordstream, social video generates 1200 percent more shares than text and image content combined. But we also found in our State of Online Video report that the average Facebook view is only six seconds, compared to an average view time of four minutes and 59 seconds on a website video.

This means you need to treat social for what it is – a crucial touch point that doesn’t communicate tons of information, but captivates viewers quickly. Use shorter clips on social and longer, more engaging content on your website.

A video marketing platform can help with this in three ways:

1. Editor – A quick  and easy-to-use editor allows you to clip, multiply, or trim longer content down for social.
2. Social Integrations – Through these native integrations, you can directly distribute your videos on your social media channels and get all of your video analytics back in one platform.
3. Branded Player – This allows you to host and customize video on your website to match your brand.

These three aspects allow marketers to run all of their top-of-the funnel social and website videos from a single platform. No more manual uploads or waiting for a video producer to create shorter clips. Running your videos everywhere is important, but so is having the right tools at your disposal to effectively implement and measure your video strategy.

Middle of the Funnel

At the middle of the funnel, you’ve got the consideration stage, where your prospective clients now know they have a problem and are considering their options. They might be doing their own research online or talking to friends and family members looking for personal recommendations.

This part of the funnel is the most ambiguous of all the stages, touching both the bottom and middle of the funnel. That means your best bet is to create engaging, informative content that actually touches on how your company can solve your viewer’s problem, while still being eye-catching, fun, and bold.

Once you know your audience is in the middle stage of the funnel, you should focus on tools to help convert them and allow them to be nurtured toward your goal. A number of different video marketing platform tools can help you implement middle of the funnel tactics:

1. Video Landing Pages and Hubs – By having all of your video content on your website, you encourage audience engagement.  This eliminates third-party hosting services that typically operate with a “walled garden” approach, with distractions to keep users on their platforms.
2. Collectors – These are forms that can be directly overlaid onto a video to convert users into leads.
3. Webinars – Having a webinar tool integrated into your video marketing platform allows you to run webinars in-browser (keeping it on brand), customize the landing pages, and integrate that data directly into your marketing tech stack. Bonus tip: it’s also beneficial to have live webinars automatically uploaded on-demand to your video or webinar hub.

All of these tools encourage engagement and conversion while keeping analytics at the forefront, so you can know exactly how much return a single video or a specific video campaign is driving for your company.

Bottom of the Funnel

You’re so close to a sale now! At the bottom of the funnel, your audience is purchase-minded. They’ve done their research and are ready to commit to a product or service, they’re just (unknowingly) looking for that final nudge that’ll convince them one way or the other. Getting users here is tough, but at this point, you’ve already done the hardest part – now, that final nudge might come in the form of a discount, coupon, added benefit or feature, or something else entirely.

Often, the most forgotten aspect of video is how impactful it can be at the very bottom of the marketing funnel. Whether it’s a case story video that proves how effective your product or service is, or a product-driven webinar (yes, webinars are video) that shows your audience how to use your product, video have bene proven to help convert leads into customers. Think about it. Fifty-nine percent of executives said they’d prefer to watch a video than read text and 62 percent of consumers watch product review videos before making a purchase.

In 2019, it’s just as vital to have content for each stage as it is to distribute it properly. A few tools can help marketers measure and run this bottom-of-the-funnel approach:

1. Integrations – Video data can be integrated directly into platforms like Google Analytics, HubSpot, Marketo, or Salesforce. Doing so improves lead scoring and attribution models, and gives marketers a full understanding of how close a potential customer is to converting. Then, this data can even be used to set up sales sequences. For example, if a lead watches 75 percent of a product video, that data is sent to a marketing automation system and kicks off a nurture campaign.
2. Analytics and Audience – With the right video marketing platform, it’s possible to identify leads and aggregate video metrics. From engagement to conversions, it’s essential to make sure you’re tracking the right data on each channel.
3. Email GIFs – We found that embedding a GIF in an email can increase CTR by as much as 62 percent and should be used in nurture flows and marketing communications.

With these marketing tactics – and a great video to boot – you’ll more effectively target your customers and ensure they not only find you, but travel down the marketing funnel quickly, remain engaged, convert, and ultimately become brand ambassadors.

Interested in learning more about a video marketing platform like TwentyThree? Sign up for a free trial here.

Written by Todd Patton
Head of Comms & Story at TwentyThree