The ultimate question for video marketers: how do I come up with a video strategy that will have maximum viewership and turnover for my company? Don’t worry—if you already have a content marketing strategy for 2018, all you have to do is apply that to video. Job done.
Well.
It’s not quite that simple, sadly. Video marketing is quickly becoming an imperative part of brand’s marketing strategy. One could argue basic marketing nowadays is video marketing. With this paradigm shift, it can be difficult to upgrade to something different from what you’ve done before. In this article, we’ll discuss steps you can take to create a video marketing strategy to start your 2018 off right.
Your video marketing strategy is essentially an extension of your brand into video. This means you must incorporate video fluidly into every aspect of your marketing strategy. It will require pre-planning, so that everything is connected and follows a theme that accurately reflects your brand.
We’ll explore the following steps:
- Research
- Plan
- Produce
- Build
Research
You can never do enough research when it comes to your video marketing strategy. Even when you have a good foundation, you will need to continually look at your audience, industry trends, and potential consumers to produce successful video content.
If you already have an effective content marketing strategy, half your work is done. If not, take a look at your audience and your business. You need to review your brand and consumers.
Consider the type of video content that will best appeal to your audience. Think about the style that will best represent your company. Assess your goals. What are you hoping to achieve with your videos? Do you want to drive traffic to your website? Do you want to sell a product or service? Do you want to promote an idea or initiative?
Answering these questions is a good start to fleshing out your video marketing strategy. Your answers will all affect the type of videos you produce or get commissioned.
Plan
Your next step is to apply what you’ve learned in the research stage to your video blueprint.
Keeping in mind what you want your videos to accomplish, outline the topics and types you will tackle. Here are some examples:
You are a business-to-consumer software company. You may want to split your video plan into different sections: How-To, FAQ, Support. These videos will probably need to be instructional, to help consumers ‘help themselves’ and reduce the workload on your customer service branch.
You are a non-profit company that helps small businesses get started. Your videos will likely be webinar-oriented. You may have a weekly ‘class’ you’d like to film and circulate to help entrepreneurs set a foundation.
You are a retail company that sells waterproof outerwear. You may want a variety of videos: ones in which consumers attest to how reliable your products are (testimonial), ones that advertise your products (promotional), ones that display your launch party (event).
Something else to think about when you are in the planning stage is where your content will ‘live’. Are you uploading to Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? LinkedIn? Each platform will require a different slant on each video. Knowing ahead of time where your video will go can help you prepare appropriate content.
Additionally, have an idea of how many and how often you would like to ‘put videos out there’. This will impact the next step in your 2018 video marketing strategy.
Produce
Once you have a plan in place based on your research, you can consider who will actually be creating your video content. Luckily, there are several options for this:
Yourself/Your Team: If you would like to produce numerous videos on a regular basis and have a modest budget, this may be the way to go. With today’s technology, you can self-produce videos at a decent quality. This will likely require more time researching video techniques, unless you have been trained in video production/editing. This strategy can go a long way towards producing multiple videos suitable for social media.
Agency/Production Company: This is by far a more expensive option, but the quality of video will be superior. If you would like a video made for television or for corporate use, this is the recommended avenue. You can hire a creative agency to create content for you. Agencies could work with you anywhere from a single project to your entire campaign. They will likely outsource any actual video production you require. It may be cheaper for you to go straight to a production company to create your video content, thus eliminating the ‘middle-man’ from the equation. If you’re looking for a small number of impactful videos, working with professionals will ensure you get what you pay for.
Influencers/Bloggers: An influencer is essentially someone who has a large following on a social media platform. A blogger or vlogger with a large audience can also be utilized in this option. Rather than creating video yourself, you could find an influencer/blogger with a relevant audience and work out a partnership. You can integrate your product or service into their content, thus advertising your business in a credible way.
Build
The building stage is perhaps the most important stage in your video marketing strategy. Once you have done your research, planned your content, and created your videos, you want to get people to watch them.
This requires strategic promotion. Obviously, you will want to circulate your videos on your company’s website, social, and video platforms. You may also distribute via e-mail. If you are a small business, you can encourage your employees to share your content on their personal platforms.
Another example to promote your content is to write about it in a corporate blog. This gives you another avenue with which to share your video: you can share the original video, write the blog post, publish it on your website, and then share the website link. You get at least two pieces of content with one video.
You will want to keep an eye on viewership. Look at what videos ‘work’, and which ones don’t. Look at the demographics of people that are watching your videos. See which videos are providing turnover to your website/product purchase. You can make adjustments with these observations.
Rinse and Repeat
Maintaining your video marketing strategy is just as important as making one in the first place. Constantly be on the lookout for new information that will give an advantage to your company. Research what works, what doesn’t work, what your audience likes, and trends in the market you can take advantage of. Create new video content. Promote that content.
These steps will help you make a winning video strategy for 2018!