The Beginning
Video has long been a popular tactic for marketers to reach their audiences. From the early days of broadcast television video conveyed messages about products. If you wanted to sell a product to women, you most likely aired a commercial during soap operas during the day. If you wanted to target men, you aired a commercial during sports at night. Video marketing was in its infancy and the strategy wasn’t too complicated.
Then, came the internet.
Most marketers kept the same video marketing strategy as broadcast television and placed their television spots on their web and social channels. YouTube and Facebook were simply a dumping ground for print ads, radio, and tv spots.
Yet, as time progressed generations grew up that were natively attuned to social media and its nuances. Millennials and Generation Z expected content that was custom made for these platforms and, gradually, audiences shifted. Now, content for web and social media platforms have to be native to be successful; particularly video content.
Video Marketing Strategy in the Age of Digital
Social media has presented an amazing opportunity for us to create video marketing strategies that are granular and specific to our audiences. We can fine-tune our messaging to meet our targets when we want and where we want. And, video allows us to hit them where it counts: right in the heart. Video can move people to action in ways that no other medium can. It can inspire, inform, and make people burst out laughing. When was the last time a piece of direct mail made you laugh?
When done well, video marketing can do wonders for your business. Here are the steps we recommend every brand takes in order to ensure that their video marketing strategies become optimized for engagement.
Step 1: Set Your Video Objectives
The first step in any successful video marketing strategy is to determine what your upfront goals are going to be. Not every produced video can be all things to all people on all platforms at all times.
Most of the time, where your target audience exists on their customer journey will determine the aim of your video.
Are they in the Awareness stage? If so, you are looking for a video targeting awareness such as a brand video or a branded documentary.
If they are in the Consideration stage, then a testimonial video is more appropriate. The lowest-level Decision stage may need something along the line of a product video or demo video of your product or service.
Step 2: Understand Your Target Audience
Once you understand the type of video that you want to create, you need to decide the audience that you will target with your video marketing strategy. To do this, it is best to create buyer personas of your customers.
Who are your customers? Are they men or women? What are their ages? Where do they shop? How are they most likely to engage with your brand? A very important question to answer: what platforms and channels do they use. If your customer is primarily 35-65 year old executives, TikTok is probably going to be a waste of time. Likewise, if your targets are females in their 20’s with disposable income… let’s get Snapchat and TikTok on the table for discussion.
Step 3: Identify Your Intended Channels
Every platform has a purpose and an audience. YouTube dedicates more than 70% of it’s content to “how-to” and instructional videos. If you operate a service brand or a product that requires some instructional component, you need a presence on YouTube.
If you are a B2B brand, Linkedin naturally makes sense. Native Linkedin ads are 5x more likely than other content to start a conversation among Linkedin members (Hootsuite).
Facebook and Instagram remain a must for B2C, DTC, and most other brands that want a strong connection with their customers. Plus, there is a tremendous amount of opportunity to be had with ad-buying, retargeting, and distribution when it comes to your video marketing strategy. When strategized and planned-for upfront, a thorough video ad-placement and retargeting strategy can do wonders for a brand and their ROI.
We are Passionate about Telling Brand Stories through Video
Step 4: Research Your Content and Gaps
The last thing that you want to do is produce content that already exists in your library. Overlap can be brutal when budgets are short and schedules are tight. Thus, you want to ensure that you go about a few processes beforehand.
An internal audit of all your content can be a life-saver for several reasons. First, many times repurposed content can create new exciting things. New interviews and testimonials can come from old b-roll and old footage can make new motion graphic overlays and social media posts.
Whatever the usage, previous content can be veritable treasure trove in the right editor’s hands.
Next, do a competitive analysis to see what others in your industry are doing. Are other brands getting engagement with content that you haven’t tried? Do they have gaps that you can fill? Is there lackluster content that you can do better? Observe the marketplace and get ideas that you can then use to improve your own content.
Step 5: Video Marketing Strategy and Distribution
It doesn’t matter how great a piece video you produce, if nobody sees it it, is a waste of time.
Therefore, you need to match the upfront effort with a strategic video marketing distribution strategy to ensure your video is found by its intended target.
For instance, if you upload your video to YouTube, ensure that you are implementing a proper SEO strategy. YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet. As such, you need to ensure that you are using proper search terms, hash tags, cards, tags, and thumbnails to optimize your videos and channels for your audience.
Likewise, the algorithms for all the various platforms have nuances that need to be approached accordingly. Facebook retargeting strategies are incredibly powerful and can greatly help to push customers through a funnel quicker, but you need to understand how to use the platform.
Instagram is an amazing tool for eCommerce and video remains one of, if not THE best tools to engage your audience. However, you have to have a thought out and planned distribution strategy to ensure that your content is found by your target audience.
How can Venture Video Marketing Help?
Venture works with brands of all sizes on their video marketing strategy and production needs. From strategic, upfront thinking to production, post, and distribution, Venture is your ideal partner to work with you on your video marketing needs.
Video has become more than tactic and is now a central piece of your marketing strategy, especially when it comes to social. It requires unique strategy and outputs for each platform, target audience, and stage of the buyer’s journey.
But, that doesn’t mean that video has to cost you and your brand an arm and a leg.
Let Venture show you how you can strategically create high-end and cost-effective video marketing strategies.