It’s time to make video part of your marketing strategy. No matter what your product or service is, there’s always a way to make video marketing work for you. Implementing video into your business promotions is among the best strategic moves you can make to attract and engage your customer base. Just consider that 78% of people watch online videos each week. Your video marketing could be among those that people are watching.

When it comes to creating shareable content, video is shared 1200% more than text and image content. 

For companies looking for more direct results from their marketing campaigns, video has been shown to increase conversion rates by 80% when used on the landing pages of a website. 

These statistics offer proof of the power of video for your business marketing. You’ve seen for yourself that other organizations experience high success as they convert more leads into sales, grow their brand’s awareness, and build trust and brand loyalty through video marketing. The only question remaining is how can you achieve these results with your own video marketing campaign?

Glad you asked. Let’s get into it. 

Start Small With Your Video Marketing

If you’re new to using video as a marketing tool, it’s best to start small. There’s no need to go full throttle and invest up to thousands in expensive filmmaking gear, like cameras, lights, editing suites, gimbals, tripods, etc. when first introducing video into your campaign. In your early introductory stages, keep it simple. Your phone is a sufficient beginner tool for your filmmaking. If you need proof, consider that luxury auto brand Bentley filmed a beautiful video for their ad campaign using an iPhone 5s back in 2014.

A video camera is a lot like a stove; a good chef can create delicious meals on any hot surface if they’re truly skilled enough. A good videographer can create great  visual media with any type of camera as long as they have the necessary talent. 

When beginning, it’s important to remember that you will not become a master of videography overnight. Don’t be disappointed if your first filmmaking efforts aren’t up to the same quality as the pros. It’s important to allow yourself time to become familiar with the best tips and tricks and practice your video-making skills. That way, you can hone your craft and eventually produce a masterpiece worth implementing in your marketing campaign. 

You can actually use your lack of video knowledge to your advantage these days by taking advantage of video platforms that encourage an unrehearsed, unpolished approach. Start your video-making with creating content to be uploaded on platforms, including Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, or TikTok where amateur videos are valued, especially if they reflect spontaneity and creativity. 

Defining Your Video Marketing Goals 

As entertaining as video media can be to create and share, it’s important to remember that you’re working towards an objective. Like the rest of your marketing efforts, the video should be in the service of your bigger picture business goals. In a broad sense, your video marketing will likely be intended to increase your sales and revenue streams. So as tempting as it might be to jump on the latest TikTok trend, you need to ask yourself whether or not doing that is really making the best use of your video resources. And sometimes, the answer might be yes. 

With your video marketing goals in mind, consider how you could integrate video to achieve your outcomes. For instance, if lead generation is what you’re seeking, you could use a Facebook video to inform your audience about a new product, then collect engagement data to target your marketing to those who watched the video. 

Making a Video vs. Marketing a Video

When it comes to video marketing, there are two principles to keep at the front of your mind. First, remember that you’re making a video to meet your marketing objectives and expand opportunities for your business. Second, be mindful that once that video is made, you also need to market it to successfully achieve your objectives. Here are four strategies to follow so you can successfully initiate your video marketing campaign to promote your business and draw more clientele and sales:

1. Create plenty of content

Once you’ve committed to incorporating video into your marketing efforts, get busy making lots of different types of videos. You’ll be able to attract a variety of potential customers through this mix of content, but make sure to remain consistent and on-brand. Along the way, you’ll also figure out which types of videos resonate best with your target audience so you can focus your campaign toward creating more of that content. 

2. Embed your videos

It’s recommended that you create a YouTube account where you can share your videos and then embed them into other platforms, including your website. Once your videos are shared on YouTube, use the share function to get an embed code and place them on relevant pages on your website. Videos on product pages can help push people toward a sale, and explainer videos on blog pages can gain audience interest in your products. 

Having videos on your website also increases engagement and time spent on page, both of which are favorable for your SEO ranking, which will help your site climb up Google’s listings. 

3. Listen to your audience

Video media in your marketing campaign is an excellent tool for increasing engagement. Viewers will often leave comments on a brand’s video content, while they wouldn’t necessarily comment on a blog. With videos, it’s easier to begin a conversation and engage with your audience, making them feel more invested in your business. 

While implementing video marketing strategies is great for boosting engagement stats, you can take one step further and respond to comments with follow-up videos. This will help you to build a sense of community around your brand while also showing your audience that you are listening to them. 

4. Pay-to-play

YouTube and Facebook both offer options for boosting your video’s reach through paid ads. This pay-to-play approach can help to boost the reach of an organic video, but there’s another benefit as well. The targeting capabilities of both Facebook and Youtube’s paid ad campaigns mean that you can make sure your video is specifically placed on the timelines of your target audience. 

Transforming Existing Ideas Into Videos

When it comes to integrating video into a pre-existing campaign or adding video to a plan that’s already in the works, consistent messaging is key. 

Let’s say, for instance, that you have a physical marketing campaign running and you’d like to add a video into the mix. The video should use the same messaging, but you will also want it to have the same theme and tone so that when people see it, they can instantly recognize your video as an extension of the message they recently saw on a billboard, for example. This will also allow you to reuse assets, like images, graphics, and video media, which can save both time and money. 

For example, you could start with the static print ad and add some stop motion animation to bring it alive. This format works well in GIF form and on websites that automatically loop video, like TikTok or Instagram. It also is great inline with text to help with instruction.

Expanding on Existing Media

You might have plenty of images of a product that you’re promoting posted online, but a video can highlight the product in ways that a static image or text can’t. This approach is great if you’re looking to blend video into an existing campaign that hasn’t yet run its course. 

You could make a short video that shows the product being used, or you could create a longer video that shows how to make something using your product. These videos add context to your existing marketing efforts and can work well on your website’s product pages. 

Another benefit to creating instructional product-focused videos is that you can reach a new audience of potential customers. The audience will include people who are approaching a new task and want the best tools and supplies to complete it. 

Creating User-Generated Content

By tapping into your loyal customer base, you can add to your pool of available videos without much effort or cost. For instance, you could encourage people to show how they use your products or to show the results of using your product. Reviews, or shared content created by users promoting your business, etc. offer more video marketing content without requiring you to produce any of it.

Go Live With Your Video Marketing

Several platforms now offer the ability to broadcast live video to your target audience. There are several ways that marketers and businesses can make live videos work for them:

1. Answering questions

Viewers of live videos can ask questions in real-time, making live video marketing an excellent platform for connecting with your audience and providing immediate feedback. You could host a Q&A session about a product or about the business. Taking note of the questions asked can also help inform the tone and direction of further marketing efforts, which will increase their effectiveness. 

2. Share news or offer tours

If you have a retail business, live videos are a great way to show people newly arrived stock or to give them a tour of the shop while allowing them to get to know more by asking questions. This approach can directly lead to sales of products and help drive people to your store. 

3. Promote an event

Live video is also a great way to promote business happenings at your storefront. You can promote an upcoming event over your live video streams by engaging with those who may be interested in an event and encourage them to attend. This approach partly plays off of FOMO- the fear of missing out- which will draw more people to attend. Of course, this works best if you have a decent local following since it requires attracting people in your close area to drop by in person. 

If you’re still not sure how to use live video for your business, here are some additional ideas:

• Do a behind-the-scenes tour. People like seeing how things get made, so take them into the workshop, the factory, or behind the door that says “employees only” and show what happens.
• If your business involves making a handmade product at a single location, like a desk or workbench, you could set up the camera and just let it run while you work, answering questions as people pop in and out to check on your progress. 

Host a Class or Workshop as Part of Your Video Marketing Campaign

Thanks to the pandemic, online video classes have become much more popular. Restaurant chefs are offering cooking classes, experienced painters working at art supply stores share “paint with me” videos, craft stores are sharing workshops, garden centers are showing people how to plant seeds, and a variety of other classes being offered online. These classes are a great way to connect with your customer base. Watch the increase in sales pour in as the products used in your workshop videos become a new hot commodity.

Your Video Marketing Equipment

Once you’ve tried video and decided that you want to make it a regular part of your marketing efforts, you’ll want to step up the production values a bit. Video editing software will allow you to mix multiple clips together or to remove parts of your video that you don’t like. 

If you’re sticking with a phone for filming, investing in a gimbal will help to remove the shakiness of your video. Smartphone gimbals tend to be relatively inexpensive and go a long way to improving the quality of your video. 

When you’re ready to move beyond phone videos, most digital cameras now shoot video in addition to stills. Mirrorless cameras offer both quality and affordability and are fairly easy to use. Some even have wifi connectivity and the ability to live stream video. 

Beyond this, the sky’s the limit when it comes to your filmmaking gear. As you expand your video marketing efforts, you may want to continue upping the ante to elevate your branding and make a larger impact on your broadened target audience. If you choose to commit to keeping your video marketing focused toward internet sharing, a small camera that shoots stills and video will be enough to help you achieve results. 

Outsourcing

Of course, there’s always the option of letting somebody else take care of your video-making duties. Instead of spending money on gear and paying staff to take the time to learn and make videos, you can hire an experienced team of globally renowned professionals to deliver quality results. At Dream it Reel, we offer full-service video production made in-house. 

We’re ready to turn your vision into video. Get started now.