Ready for Your Close-Up? 8 Tips to Get Started With Video Marketing
Even if you’re a small business, you should still be a global star – and you can be with the right video marketing strategy.
Now, thanks to social media and the high-quality cameras on cell phones, everyone can get in on the movie making game. It’s fun, it’s easy – and it can really pay off as a part of your marketing efforts. So what are you waiting for?
What’s that – you’re not sure how to get started? No worries – just follow these professional tips for video marketing and you’ll be walking the digital red carpet in no time.
Why Having a Good Video Marketing Strategy Matters
Video marketing pays off, plain and simple. In fact, 92% of marketers who use it say that video marketing produces a positive ROI. A good video increases dwell time, leads to conversions, and can help you reach new members of your target audience. Landing pages with a high-quality video on them show an 86% increase in conversions.
If you aren’t using videos as a part of your marketing efforts – the time to start is now. And if you’ve been struggling with creating videos that appeal to your potential customers – well, we can help.
How to Make Video Content That Boosts Conversions
You don’t need overly fancy equipment to develop an effective video marketing campaign – you just need to be smart. There are plenty of types of videos that can be shot with just a cellphone camera and still increase your click-through rates if used well. In fact – most social videos are shot on a smart phone and use nothing else.
Videos are a huge part of social media marketing – and starting your video content strategy off on your socials is a perfect first move. But – we’ve gotta stress this again – you’ve got to be smart about how you do it. Which leads us to our first tip.
1. Know Your Target Audience and Social MediaI Platforms
The key to any good marketing strategy starts with research. You need to know your ideal potential customer, what is going to appeal to them, and where they are online. To do so, you need to develop a buyer persona – an imaginary ideal customer that you want to engage with your video content. You should know their:
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- Age
- Interests
- Location
- Financial and marital status
- What social media platforms they use
Once you have your buyer persona developed, you should spend time where they spend time online, viewing what they view, and researching what type of video content they engage with.
Remember to use video content that is suited for the social media platform you’ll be publishing it on – both in terms of content and time. Instagram reels are short – only 60 seconds, so those are great for teasers and promos. That seems relatively short but when it comes to building brand awareness keeping it under 30 seconds is actually best.
When it comes to longer content, educational videos for LinkedIn or YouTube are a great way to go – these would be fantastic spots for tutorials, case studies, and how-to videos. YouTube videos are likely to have a wide reach, seeing as it is the second most-used search engine in the world, so you want to make sure you have your own YouTube channel.
Live streaming on Facebook can also be an effective way to reach customers in real-time. You can use live videos to conduct webinars or interviews, then repurpose clips of them into short videos. This requires minimal video editing skills and you can use those clips for blogs, as a part of an email marketing campaign, or on your different social channels.
2. Don’t Fear Influencers
As you begin developing your video content, don’t be afraid to look to the experts for inspiration. By experts – we mean influencers. Influencers are trend setters when it comes to social media video content, so having an eye on what they’re doing can give you clues to what kind of video content you should be producing.
But remember to be watching influencers who appeal to your target audience. If you’re making brand videos that appeal to 15-20 year olds on TikTok when your potential customers are in their 40s and 50s it could come off as pretty cringe (as the kids say) and hurt your conversion rate.
3. Get People’s Attention – Quick
Look – attention spans are short. You need to put the important information up front, and you need to catch people’s attention within the first 3 seconds. After that, you’re likely to lose them.
When it comes to social media videos – people are scrolling, swiping, and moving with relentless speed through their feed. An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless something forces it to stop – so force them to stop. Get something explosive up front.
Also – as a little extra tip that relates to this – make sure your social videos are sound-off friendly. Meaning, don’t forget the captions, and make sure the copy for the captions is eye-catching and attention-getting.
4. Include a Call to Action
Remember, the videos you’re making are part of a marketing effort – meaning they should be telling your customers what you want them to do next. Be it to follow your socials, visit your website, or make a purchase – you should be pushing them toward something. Without a clear CTA in your video, you’ll be missing out on getting conversions.
5. Repurpose Customer-Generated Content
It’s no secret that the younger generations don’t trust ads anymore. The best way to build trust with your audience is through customer testimonials – which means you should be building this into your product videos.
You can get customers to submit content they make about your product and service by calling for user-generated testimonial videos or demos, and repurpose these into your own brand videos. People love seeing themselves featured in videos – so when they see themselves in yours, they’ll be likely to share it, thus expanding your reach and building trust with your potential customers.
6. Educate With Explainer Videos, How-To Videos, and Webinars
Another great way to build trust with your target audience is to educate them. A key part of inbound and content marketing strategy is to take common pain points your customers have and provide solutions for them. This is commonly done in blogs – but you can also do it in educational videos. Educational content is a great way to reach customers at the top of the marketing funnel.
7. Optimize Videos With SEO Content
Don’t forget to include target keywords in the title and descriptions of your videos. SEO is just as important to your online video strategy as any other digital marketing effort. Google indexes YouTube videos – and YouTube has its own algorithm that selects what videos it pulls up for viewers – so if you aren’t crafting videos and their metadata to be SEO-friendly, then you’re losing views.
8. Monitor Your Metrics
Your job doesn’t end once the video is posted. You’ve got to keep an eye on how well your video performs. For videos, it’s important to note not just video views, but how long people actually watched it for. If people are bolting during the first 10 seconds of your video, or they’re all jumping away from the video at a similar time – take a look at what happens during that period of the video.
You also want to keep track of how often it was liked, shared, or commented on versus how many people watched it. If the majority of people who watched it engaged with it – you know you have a successful video.
Professional Video Production Made Easy
Not sure you have the creative drive or the know-how to make online videos a part of your marketing plan? Or are you feeling lost when it comes to how to utilize the different social channels? Or maybe you just don’t have the time to plot out an entire content strategy – after all, you have a business to run.
We get you – even armed with pro tips for video marketing, it can be hard to actually get to filming. But don’t worry – we here at Lift Marketing can handle the lights, camera, and action for you. Content marketing, email marketing, video marketing – we’re pros at it all. Reach out today and find out how we can elevate your digital marketing goals.
