From television to YouTube on mobile devices, video is everywhere around us. That is why so many brands have adopted video content in their marketing strategies. As many as 85% of businesses have already done that, according to Wyzowl, and are actively using videos to promote their products or services. But since video is relatively new to the online marketing world, it’s only natural that many professionals still need help with creating their video marketing strategy.
But don’t worry; we’re here to help. We’ve compiled a list of things to keep in mind when building your video marketing strategy to make your life easier. Here’s what you have to do before launching your first video campaign:
- Write Down Your Campaign Goals
- Identify Your Target Audience
- Determine Your Brand Message
- Figure Out What Types of Videos You’re Going to Make
- Set a Realistic Budget
- Promote Your Videos
- Track Your Videos’ Performance
Now let’s begin!
7 Steps Toward a Successful Video Marketing Strategy
Write Down Your Campaign Goals
Setting off on a journey without a destination would be pointless. So first things first, you’ll have to ask yourself what you want to achieve with your campaign.
Mainly, what you want to be doing in this step is deciding which part of the marketing funnel you’re going to target. “OK, but what do you mean by that?” you may ask. For those of you unfamiliar with the term marketing funnel, here’s a quick rundown of what it entails.
A marketing funnel is a set of three stages on your customer’s decision-making journey:
- Awareness — the stage where the consumer realizes they have a particular problem.
- Consideration — the stage where the consumer brainstorms how to solve the said problem.
- Decision — the stage where the consumer finds or has almost found the solution to their problem.
As you can see, since these stages vary so dramatically, your approach to targeting them will too. That is why it’s essential first to establish which part of the funnel you’ll focus on before proceeding.
If you decide to tailor your campaign to the awareness stage, you will have to make videos that will attract new users and introduce your brand to them. If you choose to target the consideration stage, since the viewers will be looking for recommendations, reviews, and overall affordable solutions, you will have to tailor your content to build trust. Finally, if you settle to aim for the decision stage, you’ll need content with a clear call to action that will convert your audience into paying customers.
Identify Your Target Audience
After you have figured out what part of the marketing funnel you’ll target, it’s time to ask yourself what your target audience is going to be. You will need to consider the following questions:
- What is my target customer’s persona?
- What kind of content would appeal to that persona?
- Which places or outlets does this persona frequent?
But why is that important? The answer is simple — unless you want your campaign to be a shot in the dark, you will need this information. By putting yourself in your customers’ shoes, you’ll be able to determine what they are looking for. That way, you’ll figure out the best approach to take when creating content. On top of that, you’ll get insight into where you should promote your videos by determining your audience demographics — for example, you’re not going to find many boomers on TikTok now, are you?
Determine Your Brand Message
Now that you’ve come to this point, it’s time to start thinking about your brand message. Once again, let’s begin by asking a few questions:
- What do you want to say to your viewers?
- What do you want them to remember you by?
- Which emotions do you want to evoke?
These questions are an excellent starting point when brainstorming about your brand’s message. Overall, your message should include a particular emotion you want to associate with your brand. After all, numerous studies have proven that emotions influence consumer behavior, so that’s a tool you’d be remiss not to use.
Just make sure to make your brand message consistent across the board. If you don’t, it might prove detrimental to your video marketing strategy.
Figure Out What Types of Videos You’re Going to Make
Now, before you begin making branded videos, you will first need to decide what kind of content you’re going to create. “But how hard can that be?” you may ask. Well, it’s much tougher than you might think. After all, there are many different types of videos out there, and they all have their unique purposes. That’s why you’ll need to use all the information you’ve gathered until now to come to a decision. Here are just a few examples of different types of video you might consider:
- Product videos
- Commercials & Video ads
- Explainer videos
- Interviews
- Testimonials
If you’re aiming for the consideration stage, you might choose to make product videos, for example. Similarly, if your goal is the consumers’ decision stage, you will find commercials much more effective. Overall, consider what your audience wants and your goals when determining which type of video you’re going to opt for.
Set a Realistic Budget
A budget is a cornerstone of every project, including marketing campaigns. However, with videos, it’s particularly easy to get carried away and overspend. You have to keep so many things in mind — video production costs, video editing fees, actors’ compensations (if you’re using any), etc.
Although, you don’t have to go all out and hire Liam Neeson or some other celebrity for your campaign. Instead, it’s often better to stay within a reasonable budget. But how do you know what a suitable budget is? Well, that depends on multiple factors:
- The size of your marketing budget
- Your target audience
- The platform you are making videos for
If you are a small or medium business, you might not have a huge budget to begin with. That is why it’s imperative to handle it with care and not waste it all on a single campaign. If your target audience is younger generations, for example, you could probably pinch a few pennies on video production. Finally, making short videos for social media sites like Facebook or Snapchat will cost you far less than creating videos for your website or YouTube.
Overall, make sure to keep these and all the other factors we’ve mentioned so far in mind when forming your budget.
You Might Also Like: Top Benefits of Video Marketing for Small Businesses
Promote Your Videos
It’s finally time to get your videos out there! At this stage, you have to figure out where and how you’re going to promote your content. The research you’ve done until now should help you decide, but here are a few concrete ideas:
- Promote your content as a video ad
- Get your videos on social media
- Include your video in your next email newsletter
- Upload your content on your website’s landing page
- Reach out to some influencers in your niche
Just remember — you won’t get results overnight. So be patient and consistent with your promotions, and you’re bound to succeed.
Track Your Videos’ Performance
If you thought you were done, you’re gravely mistaken. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of this final step for your video marketing strategy. Many marketers believe they’re done after promoting their content and entirely disregard performance tracking. Well, let us ask you — how are you going to know if your campaign was successful or not if you don’t do it? That’s right — you won’t.
So don’t make the same mistake many marketers do and disregard data tracking. Here are some of the key performance indicators you should keep a close eye on:
- The number of unique and total views — how many unique people watched your video and how many views were there in total.
- Engagement rate — measure all the interactions your audience had with your video.
- Play rate — number of users who clicked the play button on your video.
- Social shares — how many people shared your content on social networks.
- Content consumption — the number of videos viewed daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
- Feedback — what your users had to say about your video.
If you’re interested in learning more about these metrics, why not check out our article on how to track the success of your video? We’re sure you’ll find it insightful!
It’s Time to Get Your Video Marketing Strategy Rolling
In today’s world that’s overflowing with videos, not jumping on the video content bandwagon would mean missing out on a vast potential audience. But now, you too are armed with the knowledge required to build your first video content marketing campaign!
We hope our article helped you get going on the online video market and that you found it insightful. If you liked what you have read and are interested in learning more, we have an article with some tips for your video marketing strategy you might also enjoy.
We wish you lots of luck!
