Whitehat Inbound Marketing Agency Blog

How to Run Video Marketing [Video & Transcript]

Written by Clwyd Probert | 10-02-2019

Video Marketing: Hubspot User Group

Tired of creating blogs, ebooks and whitepapers that barely get a second glance? It's time to press play on a new era of video marketing. Video has rapidly become the medium of choice for today's digital consumers. 90% of customers now say video helps them make buying decisions and it's one of our key services.

Here at Whitehat SEO, we recognize video's immense potential to engage your audience and propel your business growth. But we also know simply pointing a camera at your product won't cut it anymore.

Instead, we take a comprehensive approach to video marketing. Working closely with you, we craft compelling videos tailored to each stage of your customer's journey. From attention-grabbing social media clips to educational tutorials driving leads, our video strategies convert viewers into delighted customers.

Ready to turn watch time into ROI? Let's team up to create binge-worthy video content only your ideal audiences can love. The age of video marketing is now.

 

 

 

Why Video Marketing Matters

Video content has become impossible for marketers to ignore. Just look at these statistics:

  • By 2024, video will comprise 82% of all internet traffic (Cisco).
  • 59% of executives say they would rather watch a video than read text (Forrester).
  • 90% of customers say videos help them make buying decisions (Animoto).

Video marketing is not just a passing trend, but a fundamental shift in the way people consume information and engage with brands.

So why is video so effective compared to other mediums?

  • Higher conversion rates: Viewers are 4X more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it.
  • Improved SEO: Videos increase landing page conversion rates by 80% or more. Google also favours pages with video in ranking algorithms.
  • Enhanced engagement: Videos generate 1200% more shares than text and images combined (Simply Measured).
  • Greater reach: Videos can be embedded and shared across multiple platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and websites.
  • More trust and credibility: Customers develop a deeper connection to brands through video's visual storytelling.
  • Cost-effective: Video marketing provides a 600% ROI compared to other mediums.

With such tremendous advantages, it's clear that companies who fail to incorporate video in their marketing mix are missing out big time. The savvy marketer of today must leverage video across platforms to attract, engage and convert their core audiences.

 

 

Types of Marketing Videos to Consider

Video marketing is certainly not a one-size-fits-all endeavour. The most effective video strategies incorporate a variety of video types tailored to each stage of the customer journey. Here are some of the most popular varieties to consider:

Brand Videos

These creatively display your brand personality, values and story. For example, an animated or live-action video that showcases your company's founding, mission and impact makes audiences more inclined to engage with your brand.

Product/Service Videos

Demos, tutorials, and explainer videos that highlight your offerings' key features and value proposition. These how-to style videos help convert interested prospects into paying customers.

Customer Testimonial Videos

Showcasing positive reviews from satisfied customers in video format builds trust and credibility for your products or services.

Behind-the-Scenes Videos

Give audiences VIP access to what goes on in your business through office tours, employee interviews, production sneak peeks and more. This humanizes your brand.

Live Videos

Broadcast live streams of events, AMAs, tutorials or company announcements to engage followers in real time across social media.

Explainer Videos

Use animated or motion graphic videos to quickly explain and simplify complex concepts, products or services.

Promotional/Ad Videos

Create customized social media video ads, YouTube pre-rolls, or other formats designed specifically to promote offers, events or campaigns.

A strategic combination of different video types provides a multidimensional way to capture attention and convey why your brand is worth engaging with further. Test and refine to see which perform best with your audiences.

 

 

Creating a Video Marketing Strategy

The most effective video marketing requires strategic planning, not just random acts of video making. Follow these best practices when creating your video strategy:

  • Align with Overall Marketing Strategy and Goals
  • Ensure your video content efforts support your broader marketing objectives around brand awareness, lead generation, customer acquisition, etc. Videos should work cohesively with other mediums.
  • Research Target Audience Video Preferences
  • Analyze demographics and psychographics to determine what video styles, topics and lengths your audience is most likely to engage with. Surveys, interviews and focus groups can provide further insights.
  • Map Out Customer Journey and Video Integration Points
  • Identify key stages in the customer lifecycle where video content would be most beneficial. Promotional videos work for awareness building, while tutorial videos drive leads and sales.
  • Build a Video Calendar and Budget
  • Plot out a production schedule and allocate a budget for video creation and promotion. Factor in costs for equipment, software, talent, distribution and advertising.
  • Promote Videos Across Channels
  • Distribute videos natively on platforms like YouTube and share across social media, email marketing, website, SEO and more. Leverage paid promotion where advantageous.
  • Track Performance and Optimize
  • Analyze metrics like views, completion rate, clicks, conversions and sales driven by each video. Refine based on top performers.

With strategic planning and execution, video marketing can deliver tremendous value. Partnering with video marketing experts like Whitehat SEO ensures your strategy and content are engineered for maximum impact.

 

Best Practices for Video Content Creation

It takes more than just pointing at a camera and pressing the record to develop video content that engages audiences. Use these best practices:

  • Focus on Storytelling and Emotion
    • Build narratives that evoke emotion, centred around key brand or product benefits your audience cares about. Entertain or educate in a meaningful way.
  • Keep Videos Concise Yet Impactful
    • Typically 2-3 minutes is optimal. Get to the point quickly while still delivering an engaging arc. Shorter for social media, and longer for tutorials.
  • Ensure High-Quality Production Value
    • Invest in proper lighting, audio equipment, editing software and talent to give videos a polished, professional look and feel.
  • Leverage Experts
    • Hire talented videographers, animators, editors and voiceover artists when needed to take quality to the next level.
  • Optimize for Search
    • Include target keywords in the title, description and file name. Transcribe videos to make the content searchable.
  • Promote Across Website and Social
    • Embed videos on key pages of your website. Share natively on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Powerful video content combines visual storytelling mastery with production quality and distribution best practices. Whitehat SEO's video team brings all of these skills together to create videos that captivate and convert.

 

 

Measuring the ROI of Video Marketing

The benefits of video marketing go well beyond vanity metrics like views and likes. Be sure to track performance against these bottom-line business goals:

  1. Video Views
  2. Important for awareness, but focus on views of full videos for real impact.
  3. Watch Time and Completion Rate
  4. Signals an engaging video when viewers watch until the end.
  5. Traffic from Social Media
  6. Track referrals to your website driven by social video shares.
  7. Leads Generated
  8. Connect video performance to lead conversion rates.
  9. Ranking for Target Keywords
  10. Optimize videos to rank in SERPs and drive traffic.
  11. Website Engagement
  12. Monitor site interactions and conversions initiated by video.
  13. Sales Directly Influenced
  14. Attribute and track revenue generated from video marketing.

By digging into metrics like these, you can accurately measure the tangible ROI of your video marketing efforts. Whitehat SEO has in-depth expertise in tracking and optimizing video performance to maximize business impact.

 

 

 

Optimizing Videos for Search (Video SEO)

Ranking videos on critical keywords can massively expand your reach and visibility. Optimize your videos for discovery in SERPs with these tips:

  • Research target search queries and focus your video topic around ranking for those terms.
  • Include keyword phrases naturally in the video title, description, subtitles, captions, and file name.
  • Transcribe videos and embed schema markup to make the content searchable.
  • Embed videos on website pages that already rank well for related topics.
  • Promote videos on authoritative platforms like YouTube to accumulate views, likes, comments, embeds and signals of trust.
  • Use tags and playlists to associate videos with relevant search terms.
  • Leverage cards and end screens to link videos together for improved watch time.

With strategic optimization and promotion, your videos can rank at the top of key searches, earning you more traffic from high-intent users. The video marketing experts at Whitehat SEO know exactly how to improve visibility and drive qualified viewers.

 

 

Conclusion

The future of marketing is video. There is no more powerful, engaging, and cost-effective way to reach and convert your ideal audiences.

But video marketing isn't as simple as uploading a video and hoping for the best. To maximize your ROI, you need comprehensive video strategies, professional production, and performance optimization.

At Whitehat SEO, we recognize video's immense potential as part of your digital marketing toolkit. We don't just create clients' videos - we craft videos audiences love watching and sharing. And we don't just post the videos online - we optimize and promote them to reach qualified viewers.

Our team of experts will help you determine which video formats and topics match your goals, produce compelling videos tailored for each stage of the buyer's journey, and track performance to guarantee your videos achieve the desired business impact.

Don't let your brand miss out on video's dominance. Let's discuss how video marketing services from Whitehat SEO can attract, engage, and delight your customers. The show must go on. Your ideal audience is waiting.

Resources

Additional reading

Video marketing increases brand engagement

Video Marketing Statistics to Guide Your Digital Marketing Decisions

How Can Video Marketing Increase Your Conversion Rates

Video As An Inbound Marketing Tool

How Video Marketing Affect Your Potential Customers’ Buying Decision