How to Use Video to Better Your Social Media Marketing
Engaging videos are highly sought after on social media. Viewers share, engage, and discuss videos that speak to them. So, give the people what they want - more video! Here are five different ways to incorporate video into your social media marketing and create better experiences for your followers.
According to Social Media Today, video posts on Facebook have 135% greater organic reach than photo posts. Videos yield crazy engagement on social platforms… and there’s no slowing down. People are consuming videos from their mobile devices at rapidly increasing rates. It is key you position your brand to capitalize on this movement.
Adding video to your social media marketing offers huge benefits such as increased brand exposure, better follower engagement, and more opportunities to drive traffic to your webpages.
Your audience will appreciate the variety you bring to their newsfeeds while giving an alternate approach to engaging in your content.
Five Ways to Create Video That Engages Consumers on Social Media
1. Your Story is Important…Share it!
Storytelling is a time-tested tactic that works great at pulling your audience into your brand message. People connect with you through your story. It helps you establish common ground with your followers, making you relatable and real. Stories also separate you from other brands which give you that competitive edge in the industry.
Humanize your brand by communicating its story on video. Delve into the “why.” Who do you desire to inspire and what problems are you solving through your products? What charitable contributions do you make to your community? Share what motivates your team to get up and go every morning. Sharing your story will add greater meaning and purpose when people do business with you.
2. Offer Short Instructional Videos for Your Followers
An excellent move to promote your brand with social video is to create short, instructional videos demonstrating how your products can be used to solve a problem for the viewer. How-to videos are extremely effective because you’re showing people how to achieve a specific result. As a result, you’ll keep viewers engaged while strategically placing your brand in front of your social following.
Reduce your video to the most basic steps of the process then speed up your video in production (editing), so it only lasts for about 30 seconds. These social video snippet can be product-related or simply something relevant to your niche. The beauty is they quickly solve a pain point for users.
3. Answer Your Viewers' Questions
Consider the FAQs that often hit your inboxes or are typically prompted by your prospects. These are excellent content pieces for your blog, email campaign, social media posts, and of course, videos. You see, you’re giving the people exactly what they want because these inquiries derived from your audience. By addressing their questions, you’ll boost thought-leadership and be viewed as an expert in the industry. Plus, it gives you endless content to share across your marketing platforms.
Enhance your credibility by posting videos that highlight one question then offers an in-depth response.
Since many social users are leveraging search as a way to connect and discover new brands, be sure to include keywords or hashtags that your audience is actively searching for. Hashtags reign on networks like Instagram and Twitter, but keywords perform better on Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.
4. Go Live!
Live-streaming platforms such as Facebook Live, Periscope, and Instagram Stories are driving tons of engagement on social media. There’s something special about connecting with someone in real-time. People get to see and experience the real you! Live videos quickly build trust and can accelerate your brand’s presence fast on social media.
Use these tools to your full advantage. Invite followers into your world by taking them behind-the-scenes at the office, in the field, or company event to share a taste of your brand’s culture. Host live Q&A sessions where you give your audience a chance to ask you anything industry or product related to getting on-the-spot responses. Report breaking news and share your insight and opinion. This gives your followers a chance to do the same to foster conversations.
Commit to making live-streaming a regular content strategy in your social media marketing. With consistency, you’ll experience a significant boost in engagement and followership.
5. Highlight Fan or Influencer Content
Did you know that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation? Positive testimonials and reviews are killer ways to foster trust with your audience especially those who haven’t heard of you before. Prospects want to see if your products or services actually bring results. Sharing others' experiences with your brand is a great way to show it! Content featuring influencers and brand ambassadors has a similar effect.
With that said, use your fan’s content as a form of an online review. User-generated content can be creatively compiled into one video as a promotional tool or multiple videos to build up your content vault. Give influencers credit by mentioning them in the post. Growing this strategy can prove to be a valuable tactic in your inbound marketing as you highlight your customers and give social proof that you’re making a difference.
Ready to amplify your social media marketing with video? We know how to create compelling video marketing campaigns that humanize your brand and gives you the slight edge. Reach out to us today and let’s chat!
How to Plan Effective Video Marketing To Engage Customers
Video marketing is the most compelling way to promote your brand in an ever-evolving digital age. Effective Video Marketing helps you get in front of your audience, raise brand awareness, and it leads viewers to take action. The key to an effective video strategy is ensuring that your content aligns with each stage of the buyer’s journey.
You see, your marketing will attract different prospects who are at different phases in your sales funnel. You may have a visitor who is ready to invest in your service yet another who simply wants information. It’s important to create content that suits these needs at each stage that moves them to the next stage in your funnel.
The ultimate goal is to convert prospects into buying customers. Video marketing is a top tool in inbound marketing to help you achieve this objective.
In this guide, we’ll outline the three stages to the buyer’s journey and how to use different types of video marketing in each phase for maximum success in your strategy.
Awareness Stage
In the awareness stage, the prospect is in the discovery process of your brand. They understand they have a problem and begin researching ways to resolve the issue. As a result, they land on your content as the solution. Your prospect is simply looking for educational content that will help them quickly overcome their pains and challenges.
Your goal in creating video content for the Awareness Stage is to do just that build awareness of your brand. Here, you’re positioning your company as a resource, expert, and solution in the industry. It’s where you let your audience know what you offer so buyers recognize what you do and how you can help them.
Therefore, you want to engage your visitor in a way that encourages them to indulge more in your content by focusing on their pain points, not your products or brand.
How to Use Video Marketing for Awareness Stage
Here are the typical content types that work best in the Awareness Stage using video:
1. Social Videos:
Social promotion is an excellent medium for building a following and community around your brand. It’s also a huge asset to getting your video content in front of an engaging audience.
There are three types of videos to consider when posting on social media:
- Sharing videos from your YouTube channel – As the second largest search engine, building your channel is smart towards growing brand awareness. Be sure to optimize your videos for better ranking
- Uploading organic videos directly to social media – you’ll obtain greater reach with your audience using organic videos (Source: Social Media Today)
- Live-streaming video – Facebook Live, Periscope, and Instagram Stories are generating massive engagement on social media. Excellent tactic to build exposure to your brand fast
2. Include Video in Blog Content
Your company blog is the perfect platform to create quality rich-content that educates your audience while increasing visibility to your brand. Add videos to these posts to enrich website-experience and keep people on your page longer (this also improves your SEO).
Consideration Stage
Good news! Your prospect has warmed up to your brand and you’re now viewed as a credible source. They’re also clear on their goals, are committed to addressing it, and now looking at options on how they can handle their issues. At this stage, they’re actively looking for content related to solutions.
Content in this phase needs to be incredibly informative and help the prospect gain clarity on how to solve the problem they are experiencing. In the Consideration Stage, you’re also focusing on capturing qualified leads by leveraging compelling lead magnets to get them in your sales funnel.
How to Use Video Marketing for Consideration Stage
The beauty of using video here is that they’re highly successful in moving viewers to action. This is especially important for growing your email list. Giving a clear call-to-action in your video that directs users to the next step will have a tremendous impact on your conversion rates.
Here’s how to put it to use:
1. Video on Landing Page
Landing pages that include video can increase conversions by a whopping 80% (Source: Hubspot)
2. Webinars
Webinars allow you to showcase your knowledge and expertise. You can dive deeper into topics and give people a chance to ask questions for further understanding. It also bolsters your lead generation as each participant must register before joining your broadcast
3. How-to’s and Instructional Videos
YouTube and live-streaming are ideal platforms for how-to and instructional videos.
4. Promote Your eBook
eBooks are ideal sources for product comparisons, how-to’s, or giving detailed instructions. Shoot a video that promotes your eBook and shares how viewers can opt-in to get their copy
5. Mini-Video Series
Consider repurposing your popular, evergreen, or long-form blog post into a mini video series that you can distribute on social media or use as a lead magnet. Repurposing content fills your content calendar, giving you ample content to share with your audience.
Decision Stage
Your prospect is now closer to making the financial decision to solving their problem. Through your email nurturing tactics, they’ve been cultivated by your content (whether blog posts, videos, infographics, etc.) and perhaps ready to make the purchase. In fact, nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads (Source: Emma). Your video marketing strategy is about to pay off big… but we’re not finished yet!
The content used to help close the deal will be different from the content leveraged in the previous stages. Your focus here is to make the sale, so it’s vital to create a smooth transition to the transaction.
How to Use Video Marketing for Decision Stage
Videos will help get the job done. Hubspot also shares that after watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy that product online. You’re using the right tool to convert leads into customers.
The following ways show how:
1. Gather Customer Testimonials
User-generated content and sharing testimonials are extremely effective in boosting sales revenue. It builds trust with your audience and shows that what you have, works! Compile your customer’s social videos into one, compelling marketing video to share with your list
2. Live Demo
Show prospects how your products work live and in living color by hosting a webinar or live-streaming video on social media. Outline the benefits, features, and how people use it as their solution. Allow an opportunity for participants to ask questions for immediate response
3. Share Your Story
Storytelling is a powerful strategy to pulling your audience in and connecting them with the vision of your brand.
4. Product Videos
Create an extensive video for each of your products and services. This can be evergreen content that you can use forever that highlights the details, advantages, and how viewers can purchase.
Final Insights For Effective Video Marketing
Video marketing is a powerful tool in the inbound marketing box! By honing on your video strategy, you can significantly boost brand awareness, get more eyeballs on your content, grow your leads, and increase revenue. The key is ensuring that you’re leveraging the different types of videos appropriately to effectively move your audience.
Use this blueprint as a guide to creating your video marketing strategy. Be consistent and patient with your results. Regularly test your outcomes to discover what’s working best with your audience and what needs to be modified. In due time, you will experience the desired growth in your business with video.
Are you ready to ramp up your video marketing in 2017? We are equipped to help you get in front of your audience and achieve results in your inbound marketing. Reach out to us here and let’s chat!
How to Create a Strong Video Marketing Strategy
Implementing a video marketing strategy is a must if you desire to reach today’s consumer. The popularity of video is undeniable as more consumers are using it to discover, engage and stay connected with brands.
Video marketing can enrich every aspect of your digital inbound strategy. From growing brand awareness, improving lead generation, boosting engagement and driving revenue. Videos can be the secret sauce you need to amplify your inbound efforts. The key is creating a video strategy that aligns with your ultimate business goals and the needs of your customer.
Are you ready to add video marketing to your inbound marketing mix or looking to improve your current one? If so, here are five steps to creating a robust strategy that gets in front of your customers and generates results.
1. Be Clear on Your Audience and Goals
Knowing who your target audience is and the results you desire from your video marketing campaign are essential to your strategy. It sets a solid foundation and serves as a guide to ensure that the content you publish aligns with your goals and speaks to its intended audience.
Create Buyer Personas
Perhaps you’re already clear on your target audience from your inbound marketing plan. If not, the best way to gaining this clarity is by creating buyer personas. This process allows you to paint a clear picture of your ideal customer which positions you to produce content that appeals to their needs.
You’ll glean data such as their job description and responsibilities, the problems and pain points they have, what their role is in the buying process, keyword phrases they’re likely to use when searching online, their unique goals, and more. It helps you create the content that your audience wants to see. Therefore, making your strategy highly effective.
Know Your Goals
What exactly do you want to achieve from your video marketing strategy? Are you seeking to build brand awareness? Capture leads? Increase your sales?
Whatever the goals, it’s important to know upfront to keep your campaign centered on achieving them. When your business understands why you’re creating video stories, the content becomes intentional and purposeful.
2. Brainstorm and Decide On Your Video Content
There are a plethora of video content ideas. From how-to’s and product videos to customer testimonials and video email marketing, the options are many when considering the video topics you want to publish for your audience.
In addition to key videos, every business should have that highlights their brand and purpose; it is important that you create content that supports different points in the buyer’s journey to hit all targets in your audience.
You see, some may be familiar with your brand through social media or as an email subscriber. Others are more in the discovery phase. Having videos tailored to each prospect maximizes your reach and impact. Viewers are likely to move in your favor (opt-in or purchase your product) when your content relates to their specific journey.
With that said, here are different types of video content every brand should have in the vault and ones that relate to each stage in the buyer’s journey:
Videos Every Brand Needs
- Explainer Video – videos that explain your product or service or offers an in-depth explanation of a specific facet of your product empowers future clients to make educated buying decisions
- Product Videos – each of your products and/or services should be featured in its own exclusive video. Highlight the benefits and the results your customers have achieved through your business
- How-to Videos – showing your customers how your product works is extremely beneficial for customer success
- Customer Testimonials – did you know 88% of people trust reviews as personal recommendations? Posing your testimonials using video can be a power-packed strategy to building trust and converting leads into customers
Videos for the Buyer’s Journey
- Awareness Stage - Prospects are simply looking for educational content that will quickly solve a problem. You want to position your brand as an expert. The best videos here include social videos, YouTube (for search), and ones shared in your blog articles
- Consideration Stage - Prospects are looking at options on how they can handle their issues. They view you as a trusted, credible source and looking to stay connected. Optimal videos in this stage include webinars, instructional, mini-video series, and adding a video to your landing page to boost conversions
- Decision Stage - Your lead is closer to making the buying decision. Make it easy by sharing demonstration, product, and customer testimonial videos
3. Decide How You Will Create Your Videos
With clarity about your audience and content topics ready, it’s time to create and publish remarkable videos that capture attention and WOWs your audience. You have to decide whether you’re going to make your videos in-house or leverage a video production team that can bring your ideas and vision to life.
Using both approaches to creating your videos is highly suggested as you can designate professional ones for evergreen and promotional content and others such as live videos and webinars can be performed by your team.
For videos produced on your own, use these tips to help you in the creation process:
- Get to the point quickly, keeping it short and concise
- Showcase your personality to stand out. Allow viewers to relate to your brand through your style and message
- Make great eye contact. Refrain from looking at yourself in the screen but rather gaze into the lens, so it appears you're looking directly at your viewer
- Give a call to action. Tell your audience what to do next to improve engagement. Whether it's to opt into your list, give a comment, or share with their friends, make it clear, so people follow your instructions
4. Create Your Video Promotion Plan
Getting your video in front of as many targeted eyeballs as possible is crucial for brand awareness and meeting your goals. Traffic, lead generation, and sales opportunities are dependent on how successful you promote your video content. In fact, you should spend 54 minutes promoting your content for every hour you spend creating it (Source: CoSchedule).
Although there are tons of ways to spread the word about your video, be sure to include the following tactics in your promotion plan:
- Social Media Promotion - Each network has a different tolerance of how often you should post and the way you tailor the headline for that specific network. It’s okay to share your video more than once to increase exposure. Just be sure to switch up your headline, so it appropriately speaks to the audience when you’re promoting your video
- Video Email Marketing – Your subscribers should be the first to know about your video as your fans. Keep them connected by including your videos in your email strategy. Create your campaigns if your videos are designed for the buyer’s journey
- YouTube – Although a no-brainer, simply uploading your video on YouTube is not enough to drive engagement. Optimize your video and its title, description, and tags for SEO to improve ranking in Google and YouTube search. The title should include the full keyword you’re aiming to rank for. Also, consider uploading a transcript for further optimization
- Influencer Marketing – Leveraging influencers can play a big role in getting your video in front of new people. They already have a large active following that supports their content. Build relationships with influencers in your niche to create winning partnerships where they promote your video in exchange for something (whether intangible or tangible)
5. Decide How You Will Measure Results
The final step to creating a strong video marketing strategy is measuring your results to test effectiveness. There’s too much invested in “hopes” that your video generates desired engagement to meet your business goals. You must know what’s working and what isn’t so you can continuously make improvements to your strategy to yield favorable results.
The good news is, deciding on how you’ll measure your efforts isn’t complicated. You can create a simple system of questions that analyzes and gauges your outcomes. Here are a few to consider to test your video marketing strategy:
- What keywords are people using to locate my video in search (on Google and YouTube)?
- Which content topic generates the most shares (i.e. explainer, tutorials, social videos, etc.)?
- How long are viewers watching my video? Are they staying for most of the video or leaving after the first few seconds?
- How many views did my video receive?
- Which content topic produced the most social engagement (combination of likes, shares, and comments)
- How many leads did my video generate?
A Strong Video Marketing Strategy Engages Your Customers
Video is a game-changing tactic to capture attention and increase engagement with your target audience. Engaging video helps your brand become more visible in search results. Best of all, it converts prospects throughout the funnel. It’s one of the best tools you can leverage in your inbound marketing.
Use this blueprint as a guide to building a strong video marketing strategy in 2017. You will appeal to today’s consumer and find your company quickly meeting milestone goals for your business.
Much success.
Are you ready to publish compelling videos that sell your product, educate and delight your customers? Reach out to us here to discover how we can help get you to your next level through video.
3 Strategies to Leverage the Power of Video in Your Inbound Marketing Campaigns
Study after study confirms what common sense suggests: when it comes to influencing customers and prospective customers, moving them through the buying cycle or increasing any of the metrics associated with growing your business or boosting your sales, video has no equal. Video has consistently demonstrated its ability to outperform every other medium in reinforcing brand messaging and driving business.
Consider these statistics compiled by HubSpot:
- Video included in landing pages boosts conversion rates by 80%
- When videos are embedded in emails, they increase click-through rates by 200-300%
- 64% of users are more likely to convert after watching a video
- Combining videos with full-page ads boosts user engagement by 22%
- Real estate ads which include videos receive 40% more inquiries
Of course, these metrics reflect average performance, and not all videos are created equal. So, what makes some videos so effective, while others fail to meet marketers’ expectations? The videos which achieve or exceed their marketing objectives have three traits in common:
1. They Grab the Viewer’s Attention and Defy Expectations
The increased popularity of online videos means there’s much competition. Creating another so-so video might get viewers to begin watching, but it is no guarantee they will finish, or that they will think more of your brand or your product. Grabbing the audience’s attention requires creativity and taking some calculated risks—risks which pay off handsomely when they are successful.
Think of Google Android’s “Friends Forever” video. The concept is simple enough—Google put together some unlikely animal pairs, like a monkey climbing on a horse’s back and a parrot feeding spaghetti to a husky. The video was successful because viewers did not expect it—and because the message of shared experiences linked seamlessly into the company’s brand promise.
2. They Convey Powerful Emotions
The combination of moving images and sound (in particular, music) create a unique platform to build buyer trust through shared emotion. Consider Reebok’s head-turning video, “25,915 Days.” The goal of the video is to link the company’s product to undaunted human striving in the face of our ultimate mortality.
Choosing the number of days (25,915) in the average human lifespan for their title was a marketing coup. Telling the story by playing out one woman’s athletic life in reverse was a stroke of marketing genius. Framing that story in video makes it compelling by evoking powerful emotions in a way no other medium could have. Note how the video flawlessly conveys its emotional message through images and music, without a single spoken word.
3. They Communicate More Information in Less Space
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a video is worth 1 million. A well-executed 1 or 2-minute video can convey more information about a company and its products or services than the majority of long-winded eBooks, white papers or product descriptions—a fact which busy consumers appreciate and reward through their purchasing decisions.
When Facebook wanted to educate current and future users of the social media platform about the site’s functionality, they could have delivered a series of lengthy disquisitions which likely would have left those users both bored and unimpressed. Instead, they created their “Tips” series of videos, each highlighting a particular Facebook function (like how to turn notifications off, add a friend to a group or use stickers to convey feelings that are challenging to express in words) as it relates to real-life application scenarios. This Tip on how to use labels says everything Facebook needs it to say in just 19 seconds—without fuss, without waste, and without an ounce of excess verbiage.
Video represents a unique opportunity to ramp up your inbound marketing campaigns. The best marketing videos, like the best inbound campaigns, communicate compelling messaging without an overt sales push. They present engaging themes which grab viewers’ attention without detracting from brand or products. They build trust with emotion and pack a great deal of relevant information into a subtle space.
As such, videos are a critical component of your inbound marketing strategy. To learn more about the ways you can grow your business and drive sales with engaging marketing content, contact us today.
What Does “Video Marketing” Mean?
Video Marketing is one of those things that all of us are aware of, but we do not think about what it is. With so many different forms, and cutting edge digital camouflage, the line between content and marketing has grown thinner and thinner over the years. In some places, it is impossible to tell the two apart.
If you are thinking about turning to video to fulfill your marketing needs, though, it is important for you to know what you are getting into before jumping in with both feet.
What Does “Video Marketing” Mean?
Before we go any further, it is important for everyone to be on the same page regarding what video marketing is, and what it is not. According to the Internet Marketing Dictionary, video marketing is when a company uses short videos to promote their products or services.
That is it. If you are a lawn maintenance company, who makes videos showing your employees in action to entice potential customers to hire you, that is video marketing. If you are a cafe showing your audience how to make the perfect cup of coffee on camera, then that is also video marketing. In short, if a company is making a video whose purpose is to hook an audience to promote themselves, that is video marketing.
Content Marketing, and Changing Perspectives
When most people think of video marketing, they think of commercials. Moreover, while there are certainly plenty of companies who are using the wider reach of the Internet to get more eyes on the sort of videos that look like television commercials, that is not the only kind of video marketing going on. There's also something called content marketing, which has had great success with video.
What Is Content marketing?
According to Content Marketing Institute, it is when someone makes valuable content and offers it for free as a way to build an audience. The hope is that the more people who follow the content, the more people the creator will be able to mobilize to use their products or services.
Let's put that in perspective. If a gardening supply store made a video about how great its products and customer service was, that would be a commercial. You would be trying to hook customers into coming in right away to make a sale. If that same store made a series of videos offering gardening tips, it would not sell any products right away. It is not meant to. However, the series would gain an audience and buy that audience's good will. Later on, when the audience is given a call to action to come to the store and buy their products, they are much more likely to do so.
Put simply, content marketing is a long game, and it is meant to build a following organically.
Why All The Buzz About Video?
There are all kinds of ways you can market yourself, your services, and your products, but why has video risen to the top of the heap? Several reasons, according to the Huffington Post.
First and foremost, video is engaging in ways that print, and still media are not. A picture is worth a thousand words, but video is worth even more regarding traffic and views. The sound, the motion, and the human faces also engage the brain, making people pay attention.
Video requires less effort for those watching, which makes it more likely to be engaging. Video has a better chance to go viral, it makes consumers trust the creator more, and it can be accessed from practically anywhere in our technology-driven world. So, is it any wonder more people than ever before are trying to get into video marketing?
If you need help with your video marketing efforts, simply contact us today!
What is Video Email Marketing?
When you incorporate video into email marketing, you have two mediums that exist in beautiful harmony to help you achieve marketing and sales goals and improve the user experience. Emails help video gain exposure, and video improves click-through rates on your emails and increases audience engagement.
4 Advantages of Using Video in Email Marketing
As you market a product, you want to show the target audience the benefits of your products and services. Before you begin transforming your email marketing, you want to understand the benefits of incorporating video.
- Improved Click-Through Rate. Regardless of the email type--newsletter, follow-up with prospects, automated alert--an email that mentions a video gets 3-4 times more click-throughs than ones that don't.
- Increased engagement. Getting people to your site is nice. Getting them to stay and engage in your content is better. Those who click through to a video spend substantially more time on your site than regular web traffic.
- Finding the right message. Tracking which videos your audience watches and which part they watch will help you deliver better content. If for example, the data shows your target audience prefers how-to videos instead of videos showing the benefits of your products and services, you know what types of videos to do to increase engagement.
- Better insight. The more data you collect, the more effective marketer you will become. Video allows you to collect better data. For example, if the only information you receive is who clicks through, then everyone who clicks through is equal. If, however, the data you receive identifies who clicks through, who clicks through and watches a video, and who clicks through and watches a video multiple times, then you have insight into who in your audience should be given the most attention.
Building an Audience through Email and Video
Before beginning or altering any marketing campaign or method, it is important to have specific, measurable goals, so you know whether the campaign wins or loses. Regardless of specific goals, all marketing campaigns carry the mandate to grow and build engagement with the target audience.
Here are five simple steps using video and email that will grow your audience.
- Compose an email that includes an attractive link to a video on your website
- Send the email to your email subscriber list
- Your audience shares the video or forwards the email
- New viewers discover your engaging content
- Your audience grows
These steps are, of course, contingent on a couple of very important factors. The most important consists of creating engaging, valuable content. If the content is not relevant and engaging to your target audience, then it will not matter how many people you send it to. The second important factor consists of having at least a small engaged email list to send it to, a list that has been created by offering valuable, engaging content to your target audience.
Identifying the Goal of Your Email
What exactly are you trying to do with the email? The most common purpose is to get people to visit your site, consume content, and share content with their sphere of influencers.
If your goal is expanding your audience and encouraging conversions, certain email and video tactics work better than others.
- Tell recipients there's a video. You can mention the video in the email subject line, in the text of the email, or with a video thumbnail that includes a play button. The easier it is for the recipient to see there's a video, the more likely they will engage and click through.
- Choose an enticing thumbnail from the video to show in the email. Friendly faces entice clicks.
- Link the thumbnail to a page on your website. You should have a play button on your thumbnail. The play button will get viewers to click. Clicking on the thumbnail should not play the video. Instead, it should link to a page on your website that contains the video. Unlike a video playing within an email (which can encounter all sorts of technical issues), a video playing on a company website is surrounded by complementary elements that strengthen the company's brand.
- Keep the number of calls-to-action limited. You have a high-quality, engaging video. Your goal is to get people to click on it and watch. Stay focused.
HARNESS is a team of digital marketing innovators with a unique focus on inbound marketing combined with video marketing. Whether as a complement to your content marketing team or as your entire marketing department, HARNESS consistently generates leads and drives sales through engaging marketing content.
Video Marketing: Top Reasons Why It's Highly Effective
It is projected that global Internet traffic from videos will make up a whopping 80% of all Internet traffic by 2019. Additionally, 78% of people watch videos online every week while 55% do daily (Source: Hubspot). These numbers illustrate the growing trend of video marketing and the importance of leveraging video in your business strategy.
You see, if you do not currently have a video marketing strategy in motion for your website and social media, you are missing a grand opportunity to reach and engage with your audience. Videos are incredibly effective in capturing attention, maintaining engagement, building relationships and getting viewers to take action. These are key metrics to any effective digital marketing plan.
In fact, here are the top six reasons why video marketing is so effective and the significance of honing this strategy in your inbound marketing.
#1 Consumers Vote Video over Text
Did you know that four times as many consumers prefer to watch a video about a product versus reading about it? Videos allow prospects to see your product in action, getting a full grasp on how it works, the features and its benefits. They can digest the information easier and faster when it is demonstrated through video.
Your customers are better positioned to make an informed decision quickly by watching your video than reading a blog article or social media post. Therefore, give the people what they want by implementing more product, how-tos and demonstration videos in your content marketing strategy.
#2 Moves Viewers to Action Quickly!
After watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online. When optimized for conversions, videos are incredibly compelling in moving viewers to follow directions and take action quickly. You can bolster your lead generation and sales tremendously by giving a clear call-to-action in your videos that direct your audience to the proper link.
#3 Increases Brand Awareness
Video marketing is also effective in creating more awareness about your brand. From telling your story, sharing customer testimonials, to answering common questions relevant to your industry, your video strategy is the ideal tactic to increasing exposure and expanding your reach online.
With YouTube being the second largest search engine, building your channel with valuable video content is huge towards growing your presence, boosting visibility and getting in front of your target audience.
#4 Live-Streaming Videos Generate Tons of Engagement
People are spending three times longer watching live video on social media versus those that have been prerecorded. Live-streaming apps like Facebook Live, Instagram Stories and Periscope are generating crazy engagement on social media and brands and are taking full advantage.
The beauty of live-streaming is that it allows your followers to join you in real-time. You will quickly build the know, like and trust factor with your audience with these “at the moment” experiences. Whether you are hosting a live Q&A session, taking your followers behind-the-scenes to an event, or reporting breaking news, live-streaming is an excellent way to keep your social audience in the know and connected to your brand.
#5 Highlights Your Brand’s Personality and Culture
Videos have an amazing way of drawing your audience into your brand’s culture, giving them a taste of your personality and passion for what you do. It further humanizes your brand, making you relatable and reachable. People are craving authenticity and transparency, and your video strategy allows you to do both which significantly builds trust with your viewers.
#6 Positions You as an Expert
At the heart of inbound marketing likes sharing valuable content that solves problems, educates and inspires your intended audience. As a result, you will bolster your thought-leadership and position your brand as an authority in your industry. Your video marketing strategy serves as the perfect platform for showcasing your expertise, giving solid advice and tips, and addressing common issues that concern your audience. It is the best way to building credibility fast in your niche.
Video marketing is highly effective in boosting brand awareness, generating leads, increasing sales and connecting with your audience. With more consumers leveraging video, it is crucial to begin implementing a video marketing strategy to get in front of your audience. Doing so will yield positive returns for your business.
Much success.
Ready to use video to drive sales? Reach out to us here and discover how we can help you create a solid plan that gets your videos in front of your audience.
How to Sell Video Marketing To a Skeptic
Although you may be hard-pressed to find someone unfamiliar with YouTube, that is no guarantee that the majority of people realize the value of video. If you want to know how to sell video marketing to a skeptic, you need to know the surprising statistics associated with the power of the strategy. Share the numbers, and you are sure to win over any skeptic.
The Numbers
An industry study released data this year that is incredibly compelling for the power of video marketing:
- 1200% - That is how many more times a video is shared compared to text and image only ads.
- 403% - Increase in inquiries for real estate listings with a video.
- 200-300% - Ratio of growth for click-through rates in email leads featuring video.
- 157% - Organic traffic increase to a site from search engine results when sites feature video.
- 100% - Rate of annual video consumption rising for YouTube.
- 92% - How many consumers share mobile videos.
- 80% - Conversion rate increase when featuring a video on your site's landing page.
Who's On Board With Video?
Once you have gotten the skeptic's attention with those phenomenal numbers, you may still have another hurdle to clear. They may not yet be convinced that their particular industry can benefit with video marketing. That is when you reveal that everyone is using video.
- 96% - That is how many B2B organizations use video marketing campaigns.
- 86% - That is how many institutes of higher learning have a YouTube presence.
- 80% - Expected amount of all consumer traffic to be video traffic by 2019.
Particular to B2B video advertising:
- 50% - How many executives prefer reviewing product or service information through video ads.
- 65% - Of executives who view video ads, this is how many follow through with a visit to the website marketed through the video.
- 39% - The number of executives that call a vendor after viewing their video ad.
The Effects Of Videos
The final word should always be about the audience. If nothing else gets a skeptic's attention, revealing just how many consumers care about video should. It is time to share the data of how video ads affect the consumer experience.
- 139% - The increase in brand association with consumers because of video ads.
- 92% - That is how many consumers are sharing videos through mobile devices.
- 90% - That is how many viewers use video in making a purchasing decision.
- 80% - That is how many consumers recall a particular video watched within the last month.
- 75% - Out of all video users, that is how many interacted with video ads.
Videos To Dollars
By now, you should have captured the skeptic's interest. It is time to seal the deal with a recap of how all of this video marketing data can translate into revenue.
- 144% - Increase in product purchases for e-commerce sites featuring video advertising.
- 77% - Consumers who become convinced to buy a product or service after watching a video ad.
- 75.5% - Number of marketers and small business owners who report a direct impact on the bottom line by video ad campaigns.
- 73% - That is how many companies report a positive ROI on video marketing campaigns.
- 64% - Number of video consumers who are likely to purchase a product after viewing an ad.
- 49% - Growth rate increase annually for businesses using video marketing strategies.
- 4.8% - Conversion rate for websites with video ads, which is nearly double the conversion rate for sites featuring no video (2.9%).
Videos That Sell
The skeptic should now be convinced and asking the question, "What are the elements of a great video ad?" The good news is that the same studies that reported these impressive numbers included that information as well:
- 97% - The degree by which consumers' purchase intent increases as a result of a video ad that is a pleasure to watch.
- 80% - Number of viewers who stay engaged in video ads less than one minute long.
- 80% - Number of viewers who click away should a video stall or take too long to load.
- 60% - Number of consumers who stop watching a video after 2 minutes.
Moreover, if the skeptic thinks that it is impossible to convey all the wonderful things about their brand in a one minute message, you have the skill to leap that hurdle as well. According to experts, a one minute video can contain the equivalent information of about 1.8 million words.
The final question from a marketing professional to a skeptic is, "When do you want to start production?" If you are ready to get started, please contact us to get equipped with the latest tools and innovative methods to maximize the marketing potential of your video campaign strategy.
5 Important Aspects Your Video Marketing Campaign Should Include
Are you using video marketing the right way? Video Marketing is an effective way to reach out to customers while keeping them engaged and interested in your material. Customers can get all of the information they need through a video in just seconds. So how do you optimize video marketing to make your campaign even better? Here are five methods:
Schedule your Videos
As you may have discovered, scheduling your social media is an effective way to release posts consistently and at the optimal time for engagement. You should do the same thing with your videos. Be creative with it. Instead of releasing unrelated videos, come up with a topic and put together a series of related videos that will tell a story to you customers. Remember, you can also utilize this tactic to lead up to a big announcement, launch or event.
Take Advantage of Micro-videos
Micro-videos are all the rage right now on social media. Making small videos through apps is a smart way to promote your product on social media as customers scroll through their social media feeds. Consider using Vine or Instagram to make videos. Make them entertaining so your audience will want to watch them.
Tutorial and Tips: Implementing tutorials in your video marketing campaign is a way to keep customers coming back to your site. Some may think that providing tutorials and tips is giving away your company’s secrets, but in actuality it makes customers look for you as a point of reference. This will also keep customers coming back because they will look for more videos hoping that there are a series of tutorials.
User-generated Content: Let your customers be on camera sometimes. This allows customers to be involved with your brands and give genuine thoughts on something related to your brands. Instead of making a script, customers can come up with their material. You can even incentivize users to create content by awarding the best video. This will show people how passionate others are about your product.
Call-to-Action: Tell your users what to do after watching. Provide a description of next steps in your video. Without this, your customers will have no idea what to do after watching. An example of a call-to-action can be a coupon code, or you can even offer a discount to customers who mention your video on their social media. Another method is to utilize a “turnstile” to capture emails to view the video if the content is particularly valuable. Finally, a call-to-action button, such as a “buy now” or “learn more” button, can be utilized to drive traffic to a landing page to drive traffic and increase conversions.
Now that you’ve learned how to optimize your video marketing campaign, you can stand out from other products or marketing companies. For more information on video, marketing stays in touch with Harness on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Why Social Video Is More Important Than TV To Generation Z?
Generation Z uses social video as not only a way to pass time but a way to stay connected to family and friends. By understanding this, you may better understand why social video is such a vital part of your video marketing campaign, and whether or not your audience will react well to social video.
Who’s watching social videos?
According to a study done by Defy, 13-24-year-olds were watching YouTube more than TV. These people were able to identify better with YouTube stars than celebrities on television. Video is now actually going beyond entertainment. Instead, it is educating today’s young adults, acting as a stress reliever, and keeps young people connected with their peers. Interestingly, 85% of young adults watch video via YouTube.
Young people and video consumption
Think of your video marketing campaign along with the videos you plan to produce and read these facts about how much video young people consume. Ask yourself if you’re putting out enough video and it you’re using the right platforms:
- The average young person consumes 12.1 hours of free digital video per week.
- Many young people consume an additional 8.8 hours of subscription digital video.
- Young people watch about 8.2 hours of television per week. However, there are fewer 13-24-year-olds watching TV compared to digital video.
Considering how young people are watching videos, this validates that a video marketing campaign is an excellent way to get your brand’s message out, especially to Generation Z.
The videos that Generation Z is watching excludes any video made by family or friends. This is because Generation Z is watching digital stars or people they don’t necessarily know personally.
Are you utilizing social video to the best of your ability?
Create social videos that become a reliable source for Generation Z. The philosophy behind this is that young people look up to digital celebrities and understand how advertising can help their content. If you can make your content appealing and trustworthy to youth, then you can get a loyal “fanbase” or audience.
About 62% of youth can’t live without YouTube, 52% can’t live without Netflix, and 48% can’t live without social media. Consider these platforms and how effective they can be in your video marketing campaign in reaching out to both Generation Z and other generations.
Read more about YouTube and how it will help you in your video marketing campaign in our book, “The Video Marketing Roadmap.”