How to Establish a Video Content Marketing Strategy

Video has become ubiquitous in today’s digital world. Internet users are increasingly logging on to watch videos more than anything else. 85% of all U.S. users watch videos online within any given month. These often short, shareable clips are also taking over social media.

73% of users admit that videos on social media have influenced their purchasing decisions.

If you’re looking to invest in content marketing, video will help you win over audiences on virtually every marketing platform. From email newsletters to Instagram and landing pages on your website, creating videos allows you to quickly convey a message to your audience and demonstrate how your products or services work in real-time.

Learn the ins and outs of video content marketing with these step-by-step guides.

Create a Premise for Your Videos

The word “content” is key when it comes to video content marketing. Iron out your ideas before launching your first campaign. Ideally, you can turn these videos into a series, ensuring you can generate plenty of content for the foreseeable future. Your audience will also be more likely to subscribe to your YouTube channel or follow your Instagram profile if you establish a clear premise from the start.

Here are some common ideas to get you going:

• Webinars – Live, deep-dive discussions on virtually any topic of interest to your target audience.
• Product Videos and Demos – Highlighting the features of your products, how they work in real-time, product launches, etc.
• Tutorials – Fixing common user problems or how to install your products
• Entertainment – What’s trending, anything silly, informative, or story-driven
• Personal Stories – Interviews with staff, C-suite executives, your customers, or industry experts

Choose a structure that makes sense for your brand and your products and services. Consider the end goal of these videos. If your goal is to sell physical goods, help your audience understand how these products can make a difference in their lives. Seeing products in detail on camera shows them exactly what to expect when the product shows up in the mail.

If you want to drive traffic to your website, find shareable stories that resonate with a wide audience, including what’s trending in the news. Be creative and invest in original content that your viewers can’t find anywhere else.

Research the Interests of Your Target Audience

If you’re trying to reach a specific group of consumers, you can use a number of digital tools to zero in on the topics that matter to your target audience.

Just as you would for your SEO strategy, use keyword research tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to find out what kinds of questions people are asking online in relation to your industry. Enter keywords and look for phrases that contain the words that suggest a question, such as “how to“, “which”, or “what”. You’ll quickly discover a range of topics and questions that relate to your products and services.

For example, if you sell athletic equipment you can talk about preparing for a game, improving the athlete’s performance on the field, avoiding injuries and other sports-related topics. This gives you a chance to show off the features of your products and why your viewers should buy them.

You can also type in these keywords into Google and use the “News” feature to find out what’s trending in your industry if you’re looking to release content quickly and consistently.

Enter similar terms into the search bar on social media apps like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. See what kinds of posts register with your target audience and find ways to differentiate yourself.

Come Up with a Release Strategy

Once you have a series of videos in the works, it’s time to get the attention of your target audience. You should be using these new digital assets on all your marketing platforms. Create a regular schedule, so your audience can tune in regularly to catch new installments or episodes.

On social media, you can upload the entire video on Facebook or Instagram’s IGTV feature. You can also break them up into smaller clips and use these as teasers or posts for your social media feeds. If you’re launching a new social media campaign for these videos, brush up your skills by attending a social media marketing seminar.

You can start creating a video library on YouTube, Vimeo, or other video-sharing platform. Use the embed code to share the video on your website. The average user spends 88% more time on a website when there’s a video for them to watch.

You can post it on the homepage or creating separate landing pages for each of your videos. Use related keywords in the meta data, write short descriptions of the video, or even transcribe the dialogue on the body of the page. Include a CTA to drive your customers to subscribe or shop around.

When it comes to email marketing include the word “video” in the subject line. This has shown to increase open rates by 19%.

Make the most of these videos and try to harvest as much content as possible from each one. If you’re shooting on a set, take photos of the shoot and the crew. Cut up the video into smaller clips. Use trailers to stoke anticipation. And encourage your viewers to leave comments and subscribe.

Use these guides to boost your video content marketing strategy in 2019.