Video marketing isn’t just uploading videos to YouTube and hoping people stumble across them. It takes a concerted effort and a solid strategy to get people watching your videos and then to turn those video watchers into customers.
Having a purposeful video marketing strategy is akin to having a road map so you know where you’re going. Your strategy doesn’t need to be super detailed to start out since it’ll probably need some tweaking after you release your first couple of videos. But, it should be detailed enough to align your video content with the goals of your business.
Let’s say that you have the following functions you want to use videos for:
Regardless of how you decide to proceed, make sure you outline how the work will flow by determining:
Although it’s perfectly fine to have a YouTube or Vimeo channel and host your videos there, or upload them straight to Facebook for that platform, you will also want them to live on your site. Like any website, the likes of YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook all want to keep people on their site. That’s not good for you because they can easily get distracted. You need to try and get people onto your site and keep them there.
Put links back to your site in your video description boxes and have a landing page ready for people to start them on a content journey where they become increasingly immersed in your branding experience and hopefully end with them converting to a sale.
A lot of big brands have entire video sections where they either host their own videos or have their YouTube videos embedded on their sites. You can embed your videos on your site in relevant blog posts to start off and then when you create enough of them, you can create a space on your site, organized by category, where they can all live.
Your Mission
As with any marketing strategy (or pretty much anything you’re trying to accomplish), you should have a mission statement to help guide you. Not some 500 word creed, but just a one-line statement that covers:- The type of content you will be creating.
- Mainly educational?
- purely entertaining?
- super artistic?
- A mixture?
- The general tone of your brand and the needs of your audience will help you decide.
- Who you’re making these for.
- Outline your target audience in as much detail as you can muster.
- Having individualized customer personas will help you with this.
- What this audience should get out of your videos.
- What is the value of your videos for the people who watch them?
- What will your videos help your audience do?
[Company name] makes [adjective] video content for [target audience] to help them [what you want your videos to accomplish for your audience].
For example: Company X makes educational and entertaining video content for people who want to listen to their favorite music while living an active lifestyle.
Often when companies start using video, it’s not just for sales and marketing. Large enterprises may use them for many reasons across many departments, both internally and externally. You may need multiple mission statements for each department that is going to use them. Obviously, your internal videos for your employees will be for different purposes than your externally facing ones. For example, you may have videos for sales, HR, corporate events, internal communications, products, etc.Your Topics
Once you know what you will be using your videos for and you have your mission (or missions) clearly outlined, you should decide what types of stories you will need to tell to fulfill each of these roles.
Let’s say that you have the following functions you want to use videos for:
- Sales
- Support
- Human Resources
- Corporate Events
- Recorded webinars
- How-to videos
- Thought leadership interviews
- Product explainers and demos
- FAQ answers
- Behind-the-scenes corporate culture videos
- Customer testimonials
- Documentary-like case studies
- Corporate event recaps
Your Creators
Who will be making your video content will depend on what kind of production quality you want and how much of a budget you have. If you aren’t that concerned with quality and you are on a shoestring, you may be able to just get away with some phone-shot videos. If you want high production value and you can afford it, you might be able to get your own in-house videographer and some equipment. For maximum flexibility, going with a videography agency is a good call. If you’re going to mix in some animation (and you totally should), it’s probably best to go with an animation agency. (We can recommend a good one.) We’ll just leave this here …Connect with us for a FREE consultation.
Book a time and date that works for you and we will be happy to discuss options for your very own video. An explainer video will take your business to the next level. Click here to book a free consultation.- Who is responsible for coming up with creative concepts
- Who writes the scripts
- How final approvals are procured
- Who organizes the logistics of video shoots or creation
- How you get feedback for the videos
- Who distributes the videos when they’re complete
Your Content’s Home
Although it’s perfectly fine to have a YouTube or Vimeo channel and host your videos there, or upload them straight to Facebook for that platform, you will also want them to live on your site. Like any website, the likes of YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook all want to keep people on their site. That’s not good for you because they can easily get distracted. You need to try and get people onto your site and keep them there.
Put links back to your site in your video description boxes and have a landing page ready for people to start them on a content journey where they become increasingly immersed in your branding experience and hopefully end with them converting to a sale.
A lot of big brands have entire video sections where they either host their own videos or have their YouTube videos embedded on their sites. You can embed your videos on your site in relevant blog posts to start off and then when you create enough of them, you can create a space on your site, organized by category, where they can all live.
Your Performance
Your brand isn’t just creating videos for the heck of it. You’re creating them to act as a content gateway for people to draw them into your brand. To see if what you’re doing is working, you need to dig into your analytics and make sure your investment is generating a strong ROI. Look at your video data to see which ones are being watched, how long they’re being watched and what platforms draw the most eyeballs. Some of the more important numbers are:- Drop-off rates – How much of your audience watches all or or most of your videos?
- Click through rates – How many people click your CTA link at the end of the video?
- Consumption rates – How many of your videos do your individual leads watch in a given time period like a day, week or month?
"The video looks great, thank you!"
