You know you need to make videos for your business, but deciding what videos to make and what to do with them after you’ve created them can be a little trickier. It’s all about having the right strategy – but where do you begin?
The fact is, you need video now more than ever. Every day, YouTube gets over 5 billion views and more than 500 million people watch videos on Facebook. That means people are consuming video content faster than ever before, but many brands are struggling to keep up. And without the proper strategy in place, keeping up will be near impossible.
Your video strategy, or your systematic plan to use branded video to drive more business, will help you not only create and distribute the perfect video, but help you attract more customers, engage your viewers, nurture more sales, and delight your customers who’ve already bought from you.
To help, we’ve created this easy-to-use, one-page template that guides you through developing the perfect video marketing strategy.
Ready to dive in? Let’s get started.
Questions to Consider When Creating a Video Marketing Strategy
Who Is Your Audience?
This is the most important question to ask yourself. Who is this video for? Most businesses have more than one target audience, but you shouldn’t use video as a catch-all for every type of consumer out there. In other words, your answer to this question should never be “everyone.”
Let’s say you sell socks. Pretty much everyone wears socks, so you might be tempted to say your audience is everyone. But you probably have socks designed specifically to be worn by women in revealing shoes, socks for the guy who wears a suit everyday, but wants to show personality, and quirky socks for the teen who wants to stand out. You shouldn’t create one video to cover all of them, and your video marketing strategy wouldn’t be the same for each.
Take time to think about each of your target segments and jot down some demographic information for each one:
- Are they male, female, or do they identify as something in between?
- What is their job title?
- What are their pain points?
- How old are they?
- Where do they live?
- Are they single? Married? Do they have kids? Are they divorced?
Once you have a clear picture of who your audience is, you can begin thinking about where they fall in the video marketing funnel.
Attract
In this stage, you’re introducing your brand to strangers. They may not even know what problem they’re facing and probably have little to no experience with your brand. Your job here is not only to introduce your product or service, but uncover the user’s problem, empathize with that problem, and present a solution. Make sure to show off your brand’s personality and provide useful, relevant information and education.
Typically, videos that attract new customers include educational videos, industry videos, commercials, and brand promo videos, among others.
Engage
During the engage stage, users are aware of their problem and are conducting research. That means they’re probably browsing your website along with others to find more information, gather reviews, and compare features. They’re forming opinions, so it’s crucial here to show exactly why and how your product or service can help them.
To engage potential customers, consider making brand videos, explainer videos, case studies, testimonials, or other videos that give the viewer more insight into your product or service.
Nurture
Your users in the nurture stage submitted a lead form or gave you their information – now it’s time to develop the relationship. They’re weighing their options very carefully and are close to making a decision, so here is where you need to do the most legwork and convince the user to buy from you.
Videos at this stage should be focused on providing value to your prospective customer, keeping your brand top of their mind, and continuing to showcase the unique benefits of your brand. Help them visualize using your product or service.
Because videos can display product functionality easily and connect to the user’s emotions, they’re especially useful in this stage. They can include testimonials, product demos, FAQs, and more personal, customized content.
Delight
Congratulations, you’ve converted a customer! Now you have to keep the dialogue open and provide further value, so these users become returning visitors and stay engaged with your brand. This is where customers become brand evangelists, spreading word about your brand online and convincing others to check you out.
Videos that delight include welcome videos, thank you videos, onboarding videos, educational resources, and more.
Once you have a clear picture of who you’re targeting, you can begin crafting your video’s message and get to the nitty-gritty of your video marketing strategy.
What Message Do You Want to Spread?
“Buy my stuff!” isn’t a very good message. Think of one to three different ideas you want the viewer to walk away with about your brand, product, or service after watching your video. These ideas, or messages, should be in line with your mission statement and connect directly to your audience.
Here are a few great places to start:
- What exactly are you selling? Is it a specific product/service or are you selling your entire line?
- What problem are you solving for your customer?
- Why is your product unique and/or better than the competition?
- If your message could be boiled down to one word, what would that word be?
These questions can give way to the core of your video messaging. Let’s see how our hypothetical sock seller might have answered these questions.
- Sock Company sells various lines of socks for men, women, and children, specializing in durability and long-term wear.
- Our users are hikers, rugged outdoors people, and active children who need tough socks that won’t wear and tear, will withstand countless washes, and won’t give way to stretching.
- Sock Company socks come with a 10-year guarantee, lasting 10x longer than any of our competitors.
- One word: Tough.
This quick exercise gives an incredibly clear picture of your video messaging. Whether you’re creating short video posts for social media or a more in-depth product demonstration, you can leave your user with a lasting impression and a clear picture of who you are.
Where Do You Want to Reach These People Online?
Where will you place the video when it’s finished? Video distribution and promotion is crucial to a video’s success. After all, you can’t expect to create a video and immediately have tons of leads and sales without any more effort.
Consider all possible methods of online distribution, including owned media, like your personal website and email list; paid media, like paid search ads and social ads; and earned media, like press releases and other companies republishing your content.
Matteo Gasparello over at Strategico created this great resource if you’re considering paid media for your videos. Video ads perform especially well on social media and should definitely be on your to-do list if they aren’t already.
Where you publish your videos will also affect the length and tone of your video. Reaching consumers on Instagram will require a fun, aesthetically-pleasing video of about 15 seconds. Email on the other hand, lends itself to longer and more technical product reviews, demonstrations, Q&As, and more.
Think about all your social channels (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube), your website, your newsletters and email segments, your ads, and everywhere else you might distribute your video before finalizing your cuts.
This will help you decide the length and tone of your video. For example, a video you plan to use on social media should be short and flashy (no talking heads). A video that lives on your website may be longer and more technical.
If you need help deciding where exactly you want to post your video, check out our free ebook, 8 Ways to Effectively Distribute Your Video Content. It’ll guide you through all the most crucial avenues of promotion and give you a clearer sense of where exactly your video can go.
How Will You Measure Success?
Your video marketing strategy relies heavily on the production and promotion of your videos, but without developing specific metrics for success, you’ll never know if your videos have actually moved the needle. What a waste!
Start by setting goals with some key performance indicators (KPIs). These are the numerical values that are easily measurable and provided by most video hosting or analytics platforms. They will give you a good idea of how interested your audience is in your video, as well as how likely they are to convert.
KPIs to watch include:
- Views
- Impressions
- Unique Users
- View-Through Rate
- Watch Time (or Drop-Off Rate)
- Shares
- Comments
- Clicks
- Sign-Ups
Track each of these KPIs and you’ll get a good picture of your video’s success. You may also be able to tie sales directly to your video, though this usually requires advanced tracking and CRM software.
Ready to Get Started? Here’s How.
If you’re thinking about using video as a new way to market your brand, these are the absolute essentials to get you started. With the strategy outlined, you’ll be miles ahead of the competition—and if you need help with video production or creative, give us a call! Our expert team is ready to help you create the video (or videos!) of your dreams.
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