Did you know that consumers prefer videos over text when discovering more about brands and products? In fact, four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than to read about it (Source: Hubspot).
Marketers have noticed a surge in engagement, conversions, brand loyalty, and customer experience when leveraging videos in their inbound marketing strategy. Videos have a fantastic way of capturing attention and drawing your audience into your message. It’s one of the best tools to humanizing your brand and getting people to take action.
Let’s review what video and inbound marketing are and why it’s essential today
What is Video and Inbound Marketing?
Let’s begin with inbound marketing. This strategy focuses on attracting ideal prospects and customers to your brand through valuable content that solves problems, educates and informs. Rather than using traditional outbound marketing like cold calling, buying email lists (spam), and ads, inbound embraces sharing content that your audience will find useful and relevant.
As a result, you’ll be viewed as an expert and valuable resource. In a digital era where a search is a top source for finding information, inbound marketing positions you to show up when your audience is looking for you. Therefore, you’re utilizing platforms like your business blog, social media pages, video and podcast channels to share your expertise and give value.
This is a much better approach than chasing prospects…you’re drawing them in, making them more qualified and receptive to your content.
Now, video marketing is a part of your content marketing strategy which is a subset of inbound marketing. You see, your content includes blog articles, images, infographics, email messages, eBooks, checklists, videos and much more. A video is a tool leveraged with the intention of either increasing brand awareness, capturing leads, or generating sales.
Why Videos Are More Effective in an Inbound Marketing Strategy
The benefits of using videos in your inbound marketing strategy abound when you consider the impact and influence it has on moving viewers to action. Videos give your audience a chance to experience your brand’s culture, making you relatable and trustworthy. It significantly bolsters the know, like and trust factor which are key ingredients to getting people to do business with you.
Here are several top reasons why videos are incredibly useful in an inbound marketing strategy:
- It dramatically improves lead conversions. Including one on a landing page can improve opt-ins by a whopping 80% (Source: Hubspot)
- Creates more opportunities for customers to find you on Google and YouTube, boosting brand visibility
- 62% of B2B marketers rated videos as an effective content marketing tactic in 2016
- Adding video to an email accelerates engagement, leading to a 200-300% increase in click-throughs
- Allows you to build genuine relationships with your social followers, email list, and potential customers
- Video appeals to mobile users, a significant benefit since more people use their smartphones than desktops
- Videos can help explain everything. Whether you’re launching a new product or idea, attempting to explain a difficult concept or need to dive deep into a topic, you can be as creative as you want to help viewers understand
How to Implement Videos in Your Inbound Marketing
With a clear understanding of what video marketing is and how it can positively impact your numbers, the following provides a step-by-step blueprint on how to incorporate it into your inbound marketing strategy:
#1 Be Clear On Your Audience
Having clarity on your target audience and knowing their pains, problems and challenges is the prerequisite to a solid content marketing strategy. One of the best ways to understanding your market is by developing buyer personas. This process will help you to create winning topic ideas that you can share in your videos that appeal to your audience.
#2 Brainstorm Content that Aligns with the Buyer’s Journey
Your viewers will each be at different junctures in the buyer’s journey. This is important to recognize as you want to create videos that target each stage to increase your reach. These include the Awareness, Consideration, and the Decision stage. Think of video content ideas for each stage to have a well-rounded video marketing approach.
#3 Use an Editorial Calendar
Plan, organize and schedule your video content by utilizing an editorial calendar for consistency. By mapping out your topics, you’ll get a holistic view of when your content will publish, so you’re constantly feeding your audience with quality-rich content. Google Calendar is an excellent tool to schedule your videos.
#4 Create and Publish Your Videos
Videos can take on many forms such as YouTube videos, webinars, social videos, and live-streaming video. Decide on the types of videos you will use for your topics and begin publishing.
To create stunning videos that capture attention and exudes your brand personality, leverage a team of experts that can help you stand out in the crowd!
#5 Promote Your Videos
Get more eyeballs on your content by promoting your videos. Synchronize them in your social media, email and blogging strategy for maximum impact. Effectively promoting your videos improves its viewership, SEO ranking (if on YouTube) and brings more significant exposure to your brand.
Conclusion
Videos are one of the best tools you can implement in your inbound marketing strategy. Adding them today can catapult your business goals, increasing brand awareness and generating engagement from your audience. Given the way people consume content online, amplifying your video marketing will position you to reach more of your audience.