What should you expect here?
This long-form content will be your best guide to getting started with video marketing. It starts with the basics to build a solid understanding of video marketing, and then goes on to cover the other nuances. There is no best way of reading this content. You can read it now or download it for reading later. We recommend reading it at your own pace, at your time of convenience. Video marketing is a vast area to explore, and it takes time to be good at it. That’s why we manicured the content in a way that you don’t get overwhelmed by any of the chapters. Moreover, we have added comments from industry experts in between and at the end of the passages to give you a real deal about video marketing.
Towards the end of this page, you will also find a video content calendar. The role of this calendar is to help you plan your video content schedule for the whole year. The rationale behind doing this is to give you the final push to get started without overthinking about how to keep publishing or posting content. The start can be dreary, but it becomes fun when you have the resources. On that note, wish you an enriching experience and best wishes for acing video marketing.
What is video marketing?
First, start by understanding what is not video marketing.
Making videos in an unplanned manner just because everyone is doing it is not video marketing. Instead, video marketing is a very thoughtful process of using videos to educate your target audience, and helping them learn about your product. It’s a process of creating videos regularly to build an engagement with your audience.
Video marketing is about getting your products or services in front of your audience in a way that goes beyond traditional means.
It follows the same conventions as traditional marketing techniques - create a hook, define the features and benefits and provide a call to action - but it does it in a much more colorful and creative way. Why tell when you can show!
- Gael Breton, Founder - Authority Hacker
That’s why, making a video marketing strategy in haste will do no good for you and your business. It’s a responsible job and should be done with all seriousness. Brands who get this at the initial stage tend to survive for a longer term with favorable results on their video marketing initiatives.
Evolution of video marketing
To trace the earliest signs of video marketing, we have to go all the way back to 1941, when Bulova aired a 10-second commercial before the Boston Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies clash. It was broadcast on black and white television, and it was viewed by 4,000 people in New York.
There are three areas where you have to pay closer attention to in the last paragraph: commercial, television, 4,000 people.
Video commercials were synonymous with video marketing for a long time. However, in the present context, video ads and video marketing are different sides of the same coin. Video ads directly focus on selling the product. Video marketing, as we saw in the definition, focuses more on building relationships with customers. Earlier, people were aware that if they see a brand making a video it’s for selling their product. However, companies now invest in videos not just for ads, but for building a narrative around their product. Brands are stressing on the overall experience of users, and not just the selling part.
Television is no longer the only medium for companies to reach their audience using videos. According to Think with Google, 6 out of 10 people prefer watching videos online. This changed exponentially after YouTube was launched and subsequently got acquired by Google. But, it’s not just YouTube. There’s Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok that also generate huge traffic through videos. Your target audience has more options for watching videos than before. Therefore, your marketing can longer be unilateral.
In 1941, only 4,000 people in New York could watch Bulova’s TV ad. Today, more than 2 billion people watch videos online. New York has a population of more than 8 million people. To be successful in video marketing, you have to reach a wider audience. Your target audience is everywhere, and unless you’re prepared for it, you could be losing a vital share of your market.
Get our free video content calendar & start plotting your video ideas instantly
Why is video marketing important?
Numbers are interesting, and they do give abundant insights about video marketing. But, video marketing is not just a number game. It’s more serious. When you decide to go forth with video marketing, you’re making a commitment towards bringing a change in the way you market your business.
Video marketing brings a shift in the culture of the organization. You have to share your vision with your employees, show them the way, and then lead your team through a step-by-step process. This is necessary because, unless you’re willing to transform the intrinsic structure of your organization, your video marketing goals will remain unattainable.
This is just one phase of the importance of video marketing. Like video marketing attaches itself to the working dynamics of your organization, it also transforms your relationship with your customers. And, the fulcrum on which this relationship is built is personalization.
Personalization - marketing has thrived on customizing and tailoring your message to the audience. The closer you are to the buyer persona, the better conversions you'll experience
- Tony Minh Do, Associate Marketing Manager - HubSpot
You can be successful in video marketing when you stress on personalizing the video experience of your customer. But, how does this personalization take place? It happens by impacting the storytelling
How videos impact your storytelling
The moment you start incorporating videos into your marketing activities, you start seeing changes. It might take some time to get an idea of the whole picture, but few areas start getting affected right from the get-go
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More show, less talk
The immediate impact that you will see in the messaging is the addition of visual elements in your marketing. Instead of telling more about your product, videos will help you to start focusing on the showing part. While long-form content will have their place in your strategy, you can add videos to supplement them. Adding videos to landing pages can improve the conversion rate by 86%. Besides, you can use platforms like YouTube and Instagram Reels to make how-to and explainer videos to show your customers how your product works
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Easy to scale
Other than being a new move in your marketing plan, videos can be really helpful for scaling your efforts. Repurposing content is one of them. If you have just been relying on SEO, backlink building and social media promotion for content distribution, then you can also add videos to this list. You can convert your blogs to videos and publish them on different platforms. So, your single blog can actually get traffic from multiple sources without spending money or overshooting your budget
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Improved branding
As you get deeper into video marketing, and get better at it, your videos start becoming the face of your brand. Your target audience can find you on different platforms, and with increased visibility, they will start trusting your brand. If you’re attentive toward the quality of the video content, your audience will also engage more with the videos
The most important part of video marketing is delivering on your promises. Pick a topic, find a content type that works for you, and make as many great variations on that theme as possible.
- Alex Berman - x27marketing
How to build your own video
marketing strategy?
Like any other strategic task that requires a thoughtful approach, a step-by-step process, and time, making a video marketing strategy demands all the above three. However, the toughest part is not planning, but getting started. With that in mind, here are 5 steps that will help you make your own video marketing strategy without getting overwhelmed.
1. Decide a goal
This is where you should start. Deciding a goal gives direction to your purpose for making videos. Many brands frustrate themselves too early in this process because they create videos without factoring in who they’re targeting and what they’re trying to achieve. It’s like shooting arrows in the dark. Instead of hitting a target, you would most likely end up hurting your chances of having successful returns.
All of this sounds great, but again, how do you start? The answer is the Marketing funnel. A marketing funnel (aka buyer’s journey) is a series of steps taken by buyers before they decide to buy a product or service. A marketing funnel can be complex because buyers are complex. Not everyone follows that same buying process. Having said that, you can still lay out the broad steps that define the flow, and create your funnel.
Here are the four broad stages in a marketing funnel: Awareness, Consideration, Evaluation, Decision
Typical Purchase Funnel
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Awareness
This is also known as the Top of the Funnel (TOFU). People at the awareness stage are aware of their problem, and are actively looking for a solution. For example, an ecommerce seller is having a tough time managing inventory, and now she is looking for inventory software. This is a great opportunity for an inventory software company to introduce their product using a video.
This video should focus on introducing the company, its values and how it tries to solve the problem of users facing inventory concerns. A short video with voice-over can help in establishing a connection with the audience.
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Consideration
At the consideration stage, your target audience has taken notice of your video at the awareness stage. They know your value proposition and how you can solve their problem. But, they want to learn more about your product. Create explainer videos by diving deep into your products, singling out your most important features. There are other ideas too, like uploading your recorded product webinar videos.
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Evaluation
At this stage, your target audience is closer to conversion. So, they’re more prudent. They know about your product, your features, but they are also evaluating a few of your competitors. You can still lose this customer, if you have ignored them in your video marketing strategy. To avoid that, invite your users to your weekly product webinars, send emails to set up a personalized demo, share user-generated content and your product ratings on different review platforms to convince them why they should pick your product.
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Decision
That’s it. You have convinced your audience that your product is the best solution for them. Deserting them here would mean making them rethink their decision. To avoid that, send them a personalized video about how you’re excited about having them onboard. You can also share some help videos and encourage them to write back to your team in case of concerns.
2. Choose the platforms
After you have figured out the marketing funnel, you know what type of videos you need to make to address the challenge at every step of the buyer journey. Now it’s time to focus on reaching them on different platforms. Keeping your video marketing strategy tailored for one platform will hurt your success. Because people have diverse choices. If they enjoy watching full-length videos, they also like to watch shorter videos like Instagram Reels, TikTok videos and YouTube Shorts.
Choose the platforms that work the best for you. You don’t need to be everywhere if you don’t have the bandwidth to focus on all of them. Focus on a few, and double-down on them. Here are a few best practices for each of the video platforms that you should know
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Use 4:5 aspect ratio:
This one comes straight from the Facebook team. Most of the Facebook videos are watched on mobile. So, unless your videos are in a vertical format of 4:5 aspect ratio, your audience will not choose to engage with your video
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Optimize for no sound:
85% of videos are watched on Facebook without sound. This doesn’t imply that you should not use sounds in your videos. But, it certainly signifies that the visual elements in your videos should be simple, and self-explanatory. You can also add a closed caption, so that the viewer can get the details without turning on the sound. This further optimizes your content for no sound. If you really need the users to tap on sound, add a pop-up in the video that doesn’t spoil the watching experience
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Make live videos:
Live videos on Facebook can help you build engagement. You can have live Q&A sessions, release exciting product features, share company update or invite a customer to share their experience of using your product. Facebook automatically publishes the video on your Facebook company page after the recording, which means people can still watch the video after the live session is over.
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Focus on video specs:
Instagram Video Specs
Instagram videos can be done in different ways. You can make Stories, Reels and Live videos too. But, you have to ensure that you optimize the video for each of them in terms of resolution and aspect ratio.
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Keep your videos interesting:
Many users head over to Instagram to watch entertaining videos. If your videos are funny, people will most likely engage with your videos. This can lead to conversations, building a relationship in the long term
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Share video teasers:
One of the best things that you can do on Instagram to build an audience is by keeping things exciting. Sharing product teasers is one way of doing that. Teasers inform people about a big event coming up without revealing all the details which make them come back
TikTok
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Keep the video short:
TikTok is known for its short videos. In that case, if your videos are too long, they will probably not show up on people’s feeds. Try to keep the video length between 9 and 15 seconds
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Use background music:
Background music has a special effect on TikTok videos. There are ample examples of videos going viral on TikTok because of a catchy music track. If you want your TikTok videos to get famous, make sure you tune up the music
YouTube
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Make better thumbnails:
A thumbnail is like an invitation for viewers to watch a YouTube video. Investing time and effort in making a thumbnail will get more views for your videos. Focus on creating a professional looking thumbnail of 18280 X 720 pixel size and 16:9 ratio for mobile and desktop optimization
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Engage with your audience:
If you’re sharing great content on YouTube, your audience will like your videos and comment on them too. Reply to their comments, share more useful content links and tell them how their comments are important for your company
Add ideas for different social platforms using our video content calendar
3. Make a content plan
A content plan defines how you want to plan the video making process. Making a video requires group effort, equipment and aligning everything in a certain way so that you get the maximum results. All you have to do is keep repeating the same steps and get better results. You can completely outsource your content planning to an external agency and take the load off of you. While you can do that, it can also turn out to be an expensive choice. Besides, your control over the whole process is going to be less if you compare it with in-house planning.
It’s difficult to recommend whether you should go with in-house or outsource the content planning, but if you decide to stick to in-house video making, here are a few pointers for your reference
Write a script
Create a storyboard
Make a list of the equipments needed to make a video
Brief the team on the video content
Making sure that the light and sound systems are apt for the video requirement
Follow the rule of thirds while filming the video
Get the approval and keep the documentation up to date
Edit the video using video editing software
Make a list of places where you want to share the video
By no means, this is the final list. Your content plan list will undergo many changes from time-to-time as you gain more confidence in the process
4. Use a video calendar
A video calendar looks like a normal calendar - there are dates, days, weeks and months. It’s a very useful resource for planning your video content for a few months or an entire year. As we have been stressing from the start, video marketing can get overwhelming if done in an unplanned way. The first three points in this section tackle 70% of the overwhelming aspects. Video calendar helps to fill the rest of the gap.
Once you have a certain number of video ideas, decide on their timeline by plotting them on the video calendar. Assign them dates while making sure that you keep sufficient gaps between videos. This will give enough time to your team to work on the content without compromising on the quality of the video.
Video content calendar comes with a range of benefits, but here are a few pointers that should give you an idea -
By scheduling video ideas this way, you have already set a direction for your team. Knowing what is planned for the coming weeks, you don’t have to spend a lot of time brainstorming for ideas.
Moreover, because of this organized structure, you can keep track of your activities. This will be a document which you can refer to anytime to check if an idea has already been covered.
As you keep producing videos based on different ideas and publishing them on different platforms, your audience will remain engaged for a long time. Your videos will also gain more popularity with time as they start appearing in people’s feeds.
A calendar is a simple, but flexible tool. If you think your team is not ready for the “behind-the-scenes” Instagram Reels schedule for next Monday, then you can always switch it with another idea. It hardly takes any time.
A content calendar should be a part of your video marketing strategy. It brings more order to your overall plan. But, if you have never seen a video calendar before, try using templates.
We have designed one which you can download for free and get started with it immediately.
5. Decide the type of videos you want to create
You have a goal, your content plan is set, you know the platforms you want to target, and you have a content calendar too. The final part of your video marketing strategy is about the type of videos you want to create.
This section is not for restricting your video ideas, but more for informing you about the most popular type of videos companies make
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Explainer videos
Explainer videos are made for visually explaining an idea, concept or a product. These types of videos are extremely useful for brands to show their audience how their product or service works. They’re short, more engaging and 72% of customers prefer learning about a product or service by watching these types of videos. Explainer videos can be done in different ways.
Animated explainer videos are very popular with companies. Using abstract figures and demonstrations, viewers can have a better understanding of the product. Live videos, whiteboard explainer videos and screen recorders are other popular ways of making explainer videos and sharing them with the audience
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Short-form videos
Short-form videos are of less than 3 minutes duration. The attention span of the audience has dropped to a miniscule level. This has given a huge thrust to the growth of short-form videos. Companies include YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok videos in their video marketing strategy to build relationships with their audience. There is no particular type of video that works in this format, but many brands share challenges, user testimonials and product sneak-peek to keep the audience engaged.
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Product videos
Product videos are for the TOFU audience who are aware of their challenges and are looking for solutions to overcome them. Product videos give an overview of what the product is capable of doing. It neatly demonstrates how the product can solve the user’s problems and how it’s better than the other solutions. To have a better impression on your target audience, have a professional approach towards making product videos. Hire experts or consult them on what technical areas you should focus on to make your product videos stand out. Other than uploading your product videos on different platforms, you can also use them on your landing pages and blogs to improve their readability
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User-generated content
User-generated content(UGC) is created by your customers. They are fantastic for growing your brand because they act like social proof which many customers look for before buying a product. As a company, you can collaborate with your existing customers to create more UGC content. You can ask your customers about the best scenarios where they use your product, and then record it in the form of a video. Because your real customers are involved here, this will be seen as more believable, and not seen as another marketing gimmick. After you have recorded the video, you can repurpose it by making multiple short videos of it and posting them on different platforms.
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Educational videos
Educational videos are in the line of explainer videos, but have a broader spectrum. Explainer videos are short and talk about the product features. Educational videos can be longer, detailed, and educate the users about how to perform a task. For example, if you’re selling organic floor cleaners, you can make educational videos on how to identify if a floor cleaner is organic or not. You can subtly mention your product in the video, but not for the purpose of direct selling. The biggest advantage of making these types of videos is that you’re contributing towards growing the knowledge of your audience. There is no hard-selling involved.
A content calendar is an excellent tool for avoiding ideas from overlapping
What should you know about video SEO?
Not including video SEO in your video marketing strategy will hinder your videos from generating impressive results. Video SEO helps the search engine crawlers find your videos and index them. So that the next time someone is searching for a video, your content pops up. The higher the visibility, the higher the views.
Here are the five video SEO practices that you can’t miss
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Work on the video title
The title of your video should be simple and straightforward. If your video is about how to groom your dog in 3 simple steps, then make sure you keep the title that way. Using confusing titles will keep the audience away from clicking on your video. The other drawback of having bad titles is that people do not stay on your video for long. As the title doesn’t suggest clearly, they come with different expectations. Poor watching time on your videos will indicate to the search engine that your content is not relevant. This will make your video lose ranking.
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Use relevant keywords
To improve your chances of video ranking better, use relevant keywords. Keywords are search terms that people use to search for content. If your video ranks on the first page for a high volume keyword, you can generate more traffic to your website and YouTube channel. To find the relevant keywords, use a keyword research tool like Ahrefs. Enter the main keyword for which you want your video to rank, and ahrefs will filter the most relevant keywords based on volume and relevance.
Video SEO makes your content readable to search engines serving up your videos in relevant search results. Google wants videos that are purposeful and authoritative. Such videos are a powerful tool for your brand and they deserve the visibility that SEO provides.
- Sophia Solanki, Founder - Narrato.io
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Write video descriptions
Using the right keywords and writing a video title is not enough to make your videos rank. Video descriptions can help to empower your SEO strategy. Video descriptions appear right underneath your video where you can be more expressive about the video. YouTube allows you to write 5,000 characters here which is great for using more keywords. You can also plug in the link of your other videos or resources. If a viewer finds one video useful, they will most likely check out your other resources too.
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Use a thumbnail image consciously
A thumbnail image is a small rectangular frame containing an image which appears when a user searches for a video. A thumbnail gives an idea to the viewer of what they should expect. Ergo, choose a video thumbnail consciously. If you don’t decide on a thumbnail on your own, YouTube will do that for you. This sounds alluring, but don’t fall for it. It will randomly pick a moment from your video and add it as a thumbnail. In this case, your video might end up with an awkward thumbnail which will repel the users instead of making them feel interested. While adding your own thumbnail, make sure that it has a resolution of 1280 X 720, less than 2 MB size and a 16:9 aspect ratio
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Use video transcripts
The search engine algorithm prefers to rank content that is of good quality and helps users to understand the topic in the best way possible. A clear title, relevant thumbnail, thoughtful description helps with this, but adding a video transcript makes it even better. A video transcript is your video content in text form. Uploading your video transcript will help you rank better as they are crawled for SEO purposes. Moreover, if your audience has difficulty hearing or are not very familiar with your accent, they can read the transcript and follow the video.
Before you leave, don’t forget to download our free video calendar template
Final word
Technology has revolutionized our world in ways we wouldn’t have imagined. We are well-connected to the entire world through our gadgets and this has helped businesses market themselves easily and reach the target demographic.
The best way for brands to reach their desired audience is through Video marketing
- Nandini Sharma, Assistant Marketing Manager - Proofhub
Video marketing is the need of the hour and making a video marketing strategy is the way of excelling in it. There are many things involved in making a video strategy - how to produce videos, where to publish them, how to optimize them, what type of videos to publish and how to organize all the video ideas. This piece of content along with the free content calendar template will help you get started immediately.
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