How to Make Videos an Integral Part of Your Content Strategy

Content marketing today, needs visual elements for it to garner interest and generate engagement. With Facebook driving content engagement through videos, visual content has found a new avenue that content marketers can explore to the hilt.

For a content marketing strategy to succeed, it must offer consumers what they are looking for, when they want it, and how they want it. Content interactions are now taking place through smartphones and tablets, and as the cost of video digital technologies goes down, the possibilities of interactions and engagement for even small business marketers through video are infinite.

Growth of video content

Incorporating video into your content marketing strategy is a must, as these statistics show:

  • By 2019, 80% of all web traffic would be driven by video.
  • Landing pages with embedded video on them lead to 80% increased conversion rate.
  • The click-through rates of marketing emails go up by a whopping 300% when a video is added to them.
  • Purchasing decisions of 90% of customers revolve around product videos.
  • After watching a product video online, 64% of customers are likely to buy that product.
  • YouTube reports that every year, consumption of video on mobile is growing by 100%.
  • Video content is currently used by 87% of online marketers for their digital marketing strategies.
  • One-third of the time spent online by people is on viewing videos.
  • 59% decision-makers of companies prefer watching a video over reading a blog post or an article.
  • 35% of online ad spending is accounted for by video ads.

As a marketer, ignoring the above numbers would mean rendering all your content marketing initiatives void.

Advantages of video content

Improving brand recall

The video makes it easier for customers to remember the content, and 80% of customers recollect a video they have watched over the course of a month. If customers remember your video content, it means they remember your brand as well, which further results in more leads and sales. With customers willing to share a video they liked, the online presence and reach of your brand also get enhanced.

Make sure that your videos are in sync with your business needs and brand strategy. This makes customers remember your video for longer. Sticking to the same voices, logos, and colors used in your articles or blogs for your video content as well goes a long way. Even though videos work differently from text-based content, a specific recall of your brand’s format and style is essential in your online videos.

Better SEO optimization

Relevant, high-quality video content leads to significant improvement in the SEO of your site with more homepage visitors. 65% decision-makers in businesses visit your website after they have watched your video, while 39% get in touch with a vendor after watching a branded video. When you add videos to content offerings, website, and landing pages, it becomes easier for you to increase click-through rates and the SEO value of your company.

Cross-device performance

The advantage of video content over other formats is it doesn’t need to be device-responsive. If the content format cannot adapt to a browser or device, conversion rates, and traffic dip. Video content can perform across smartphones or desktops, and their wider reach and user-friendly format will ensure better conversion rates.

Enhanced brand messaging

The addition of video to a brand’s digital strategies offers great opportunities to elevate your messaging and build a persona for your company. Branding ideas and designs render well in videos and with advanced features like AR/VR now coming up in video marketing tools, it’s easier to create differentiated brand identities for easy recall by customers.

Video content creates better engagement

Estimates suggest that 92% of people share a video once they see it. Also, a video is shared 1200% more than text and links put together. A video post engages 60% of viewers more than a text-based post. When your videos go viral, you can engage with a new, wider spectrum of audiences and extend your brand resonance.

Handy production tips to get your video content right

The success of an effective video marketing content often lies in the backend production practices followed before the video even reaches the audience and is viewed. Ensuring the below checklist of production essentials is adhered to while incorporating video into your content strategy can help for a better video output:

  • Clearly, define your audience
  • Get complete clarity on the message you want to deliver
  • Plan and fix your budget
  • Always have a script in place and keep revising it until the messaging is accurate
  • Ensure your video has greetings and a warm (or cool) sign off
  • Average human attention span is 8.5 seconds, so get to the point before that
  • Be clear and wise on the duration of your video
  • Stay real, original, and transparent with your video content
  • Storyboards and shot lists always help in saving time
  • A production schedule is a must-have
  • Estimate time with upper limit considerations
  • Decide early whether you want to shoot on-location or in studio
  • Visit the locations beforehand and not on the day of the shoot
  • List down your equipment requirements after considering your inventory equipment
  • The best company representatives need to be involved
  • Keep your call sheet handy
  • Imbibe a team spirit so that your entire production unit feels like one team

The above will ensure your team has a seamless production experience, which will clearly reflect on the quality of video content that’s put out.

How to incorporate video into your marketing in a structured way

Audience or consumption-based funneling can give great direction to structure your video marketing strategy to fit well into your marketing campaigns. Brand films, educational videos, documentaries, explainer animations, and videos with entertainment elements should be aligned with the top of the funnel audiences. The middle of funnel audience videos would include product, culture, and case study videos. And, since the bottom of the funnel videos has a narrowed down audience, FAQ and instructional videos should be aligned for their consumption.

The above structuring not only delivers the relevant video content to the right audience, but it also allows you in strategic targeting. While an instructional video has higher chances of consumption from a key decision-maker, an entertaining video is likely to be viewed across demographics. You can, therefore, segment the audience. The former can be a potential buyer but the latter can be your ticket to increase brand awareness and recall.

Videos in landing pages and emails

Having a video embedded in an email or landing page improves engagement drastically. Marketing teams can either have an internal team to manage their email and landing page videos or opt for SaaS vendors or third-party service providers if they have budgets and the quantum of deliverables justifies the investment. Most platforms have similar offerings and are quite user-friendly, and marketing teams can choose based on their requirements and budget allocations.

It’s quite simple to add video to emails and landing pages via YouTube or embed your own videos using a URL. There are settings within various software that allow you to auto-play and edit videos within the tool. Marketers need to take care that no major edits are made in the videos after it has reached or has been viewed by a large audience. This is where you should patiently wait till the next campaign, and make changes in terms of any mistakes or misalignments that occurred in the content of your previous video marketing campaign.

Leveraging the immense possibilities

Owing to its built-in value, simple accessibility, and viral nature, video marketing is an outstanding way to increase your brand’s visibility. Video marketing is a truly incredible way to develop and deliver content that is highly-personalized and impacts audiences in real time. Videos also have the power to evoke strong emotions, and they can result in improved sales and brand association. There are no brownie points for guessing that brands can enjoy substantial online attention through video content that is easy to interact with, accessible, and rich in information.

The real world has enough examples of brands and marketers, who have increased the ROI on their campaigns using video marketing. Gamification of video content is also a great way to boost engagement. Few takeaways from successful video campaigns include ensuring that your video has elegance, appeal and the ability to get the attention of viewers and keep them engaged. Knowing that the emotional content of your videos is what will draw customers or buyers and ensure the feel-good within video content is how you can fashion an apt video marketing strategy.

To learn more about ‘How to Make Great Videos and Incorporate Them into your Marketing Campaigns’ hear speaker Stacy Adams, Head of Marketing at GoAnimate at her session during Content Marketing World Forum on September 6 at 12:20 pm at Cleveland, Ohio Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland. The session will cover why it’s critical for marketers to make their content resonate in a sea of messages competing for the attention of your prospects and customers, as experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 advertising messages each day. Using video as part of your content strategy is critical in arresting attention and engaging your audience. And, it’s easier and more cost-effective than you think. In this session, you will learn how to easily create videos that drive campaign results and focus on:

  • Key production elements to consider.
  • Best practices for incorporating video into your marketing.
  • How to add video to email and landing page editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Content Marketing World 2017
Where: Cleveland, OH, USA
When: September 5-8
Register Today: http://bit.ly/MTA_CMW

Content Marketing World is the one event where you can learn and network with the best and the brightest in the content marketing industry. You’ll leave with all the materials you need to take a content marketing strategy back to your team-and-to implement a content marketing plan that will grow your business and inspire your audience.

We offer more than 150 sessions presented by the leading brand marketers from around the world covering strategy, integration, measurement, and more new ideas that you can shake an orange stick at. 

Use code MARTECHADVISOR to save an extra $100 on registration.To see what #CMWorld is all about, check out this video: https://youtu.be/AgRee6sqags

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