Brands need a video marketing strategy — this idea isn’t new. What has changed is how important video has become on every platform and channel. Simply posting old webinars to YouTube is no longer going to cut it.
If you want to stand out from the competition and truly attract, engage, and convert new customers, then you need a solid video marketing strategy.
Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about creating a successful video marketing strategy for 2023.
Step One: Understand your audience and set goals
All successful marketing campaigns must start with research – who are you targeting? What type of content tends to resonate with them, and what channels are they most likely to be on?
To help answer these questions, take a minute to close your eyes and envision your ideal customer: the person who would visit your storefront, call your phone, or click to your website with no hassle or haggling. Have a mental picture of this person? Good. This is the beginning of building a buyer persona and is critical to developing the right content for your audience.
Whether your goal is to drive awareness, boost traffic, increase sales, or all of the above, everything you script, film, and upload should speak to your buyer persona(s). It’s also crucial to create a variety of videos that target your buyer persona at different stages of the buyer’s journey. If you’re not sure what kind of message is best at each stage, align your video content with the flywheel and make sure to answer their questions, resolve their pain points, and provide targeted calls to action that relate to them. By keeping this top of mind when designing your video marketing strategy, you’ll have the best shot at resonating with your audience and achieving your goals.
Step Two: Outline your video marketing content plan
The key to outlining the content in your video marketing strategy is to look at a calendar and determine your content schedule. How many videos do you plan to publish and at what frequency? Can you cover one video a week, or does two videos a month make more sense? Be honest with yourself – the key to creating a video marketing plan is consistency. Your audience will come to expect your videos at certain times of the week or month, and you want to be sure you can deliver.
A video marketing content plan should also incorporate different video styles for different video projects, depending on the objectives, the intended audience, your goals, and more. Some popular video styles include:
- Educational videos
- Practical or how-to videos
- Tips and tricks videos
- Interview videos
- Recorded webinar videos
- Product explainer videos
- Customer testimonial/case study videos
By testing out different style options for your videos, you can see what best suits your brand and its tone and discover what your audience responds to most.
Step Three: Promote your video content
Every major social media platform has its own form of video, so there is plenty of real estate to incorporate it into your strategy.
Studies show Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are the top platforms consumers and brands anticipate to use the most over the next year. Start by focusing on the ones where you already have audiences established, then build on your strategy to eventually incorporate all platforms.
Depending on the channels you choose to launch your strategy, you’ll need to make sure your videos are optimized to get as much engagement as possible. For example, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are more susceptive to short videos uploaded directly to the channel, whereas YouTube is better for long form videos shared through other platforms.
It’s also important to remember videos on social media aren’t just one-and-done. One fully produced video could be uploaded to several networks over a month-long period, depending on your social schedule, as well as used on alternative channels like paid ads, email marketing, on your website, and more. (For more ideas on how to get more out of your video content click here!)
Step Four: Monitor your video marketing metrics
Launching a new video doesn’t mean you’re done. The last step in any successful strategy is to analyze performance. You won’t know if a video is successful or not unless you look at the statistics associated with it.
Some common metrics to monitor include:
- Total views
- Average Watch Time
- Clickthrough rate (on email or social)
- Conversion (on landing pages or website)
- Social media engagement
- Likes
- Shares
- Comments
Once you collect the data, spend time analyzing it to make informed decisions for your future videos.
For example, if your videos have a high number of views but a short average watch time, then you touched on the right topic, but maybe you droned on a little too long and lost your audience’s attention. Or, if your videos have a high level of social media engagement, your audience is telling you they enjoy your delivery and are interested in the topic of the video. But if your conversion rate is low, then maybe you need to bolster your call to action.
By monitoring your video performance, you’ll have data-driven insights that will help you continuously optimize your content and strategy and achieve your goals.
Start Planning Your Video Marketing Strategy
The growth of video marketing is presenting a unique opportunity for brands to capitalize on the tool and stand out to consumers. But you don’t have to do it alone.
At Video Parachute, we provide stress-free video production, editing, and virtual event services so you can easily create a winning video strategy. Whether you know what you want your final product to look like or need some assistance with the creative direction, well will help you stay on brand, meet your goals, and inspire your audience. Give us a call today to learn more.
