Nearly 52 percent of marketing professionals around the world agree that video offers the best ROI. It’s probably why research shows 80 percent of internet traffic will be made up of videos.
Marketers love video because
- It drives higher engagement
- It boosts SEO for first-page ranking on Google
- It costs less to drive a lead
With the surging demand for video, there’s also greater demand for creating video at scale. So how do you do this, and build a thriving channel that drives views, boosts engagement, and attracts new customers to your brand? Here are some tips to get you started.
1. SOLIDIFY YOUR VIDEO STRATEGY
Start by asking yourself a few questions: Why are you creating this video? What problem is it going to solve? What area of your business is it going to support? What questions is it going to answer? What story do you want to tell?
The why of your video is a pivotal first step. It will allow you to determine everything from the script to the look and feel. It’s best to be as detailed and prescriptive as possible here, which will help set expectations and prevent issues later on in the video process.
Some common areas of business you might want to support with targeted video content include
2. DETERMINE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
In the same way you decide on an audience before you write content, knowing who you’re targeting with video content is crucial. Are you targeting new or existing customers? Customers at a point along the sales funnel or general awareness? This can inform everything from the style of the video to where it’s published.
This will inform…
- Your tone
- Whether your video content is in-depth vs high-level
- What’s relevant and valuable to them
- The channels where you publish the video
3. Identify Pain Points and Opportunities
Videos can be creative solutions to challenges, entertaining ways to engage with your audience, or a fun approach to boost brand awareness. They can also be great ways to leverage already high-performing content, such as articles or infographics.
“When content takes off, drives sessions, and is a winner: that’s quality. What you do with that quality content should be a big part of your marketing strategy.”
— Larry Kim, 8 Tips for Crushing Content
Don’t know where to start when exploring video concepts? Here are a few jumping-off points:
- Address customer issues your product will solve. For acquiring new customers, address the problem, serve up a solution and ask for action (i.e., register on your website.)
- Repurpose written content into video content. Context expert Larry Kim recommends turning your most successful content into video.
- Partner with user research to address customer pain points
- Answer FAQs to reduce the amount of support calls you receive by answering questions on a video-supported help page
- Bolster search queries for your website and drive SEO traffic
- Promote your product or service with a promo video
With your primary direction in hand, it’s time to decide how best to execute that vision to support your goals. To get your gears turning, here are some videos to try:
Product Videos & Demos
Live Action Branded Video: “Who We Are” & “What We Do”
Turn a High-Performing Article into a Video
A Quiz
Inbound Marketing
Personal Introduction
A Screen Capture How-To Tutorial
Whiteboard Video Explainer
Personalized, Targeted Ads Based on Customer Data
GIFs or Ads for Social
Customer Testimonials
Broadcast from a Special Event (e.g., Live video)
4. CHOOSE THE CHANNELS FOR YOUR VIDEO
Your strategy should dictate the channels you end up targeting. For instance, if you’re answering FAQs for existing customers, your video will likely live on a help page; whereas if you’re promoting your product or service, your distribution will be much wider.
The channel you choose can impact your video’s length, aspect ratios, music rights, calls to action, and more. Upwork video producer Harry Yu says: “Keep in mind the channel you’re creating for. Although some transitions can be made elegant and smooth, that pace isn’t always what you want on social, for example, where consumers are viewing and scrolling through content at a rapid rate. Your transitions should happen faster to make sure your viewer stays engaged.”
Channels to consider include:
- YouTube
- Vimeo
- Your website or landing page
You might even need to create different versions of your video for different channels.
Yu says, “It’s tempting to take a one-size-fits-all approach, creating one video to push out on all your channels, but that’s challenging to do effectively. While it may be cost-effective, if a video is better suited for broadcast scenarios, it might not be diverse for social channels.”
5. CHOOSE A VIDEO FORMAT
Determine which format of video makes the most sense for your topic. Take into account that each will have different personnel requirements, skillsets, phases and timelines, and budgets.
Yu suggests, “When thinking about explaining a complex product solution, you might want to consider conveying this in two ways: through a live action problem/solution route which can humanize and create a relatable problem with the viewer, or a more animated version in which you can break down difficult to explain scenarios in a very easy and consumable way.”
Consider these three main types:
- Live Action: Any video with real people and real locations. These can be stock clips sourced online, or video you capture yourself.
- Animated/Motion Graphics: Videos created on a computer by an animator or motion designer.
- Hybrid: It’s not uncommon to layer some motion graphics on top of your live action video, or have portions of your video animated to explain complex topics or processes.
With all of the above laid out, you’re ready to write a thorough creative brief that will guide next steps. Keep the ball rolling: next, you’ll want to work up an idea for your budget to hire a video editor, then craft a detailed job post to help attract the perfect video talent for your project.
