The what, how, and why of Video Marketing

Video marketing & its relevance

We live in a digital era! With the rapid adoption of smartphones as a tool for general use and with the availability of content across multiple platforms (Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc) in multi forms (Text, Image, Audio, Video), we have been consuming content more than ever before. Brands have started to prefer digital marketing over traditional marketing to reach out to consumers and video content has emerged as one of the most sort after content for marketing.As a result, marketers are incorporating video marketing into their overall marketing strategy.
Studies show that –

  1. People watch an average of 18 hours of online video per week, a 7.5-hour increase per week across the past 3 years.
  2. People are twice as likely to share video content with their friends than any other type of content.
  3. The number of businesses using video as a marketing tool has increased from 61% to 86% since 2016

So, what is this video marketing?

As the name implies, video marketing is a means of marketing products or services by leveraging the power of videos. In other words, it is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing useful, relevant, and consistent video content to attract and retain a defined set of audiences to drive profitable customer action.

Creating your first video marketing campaign

As videos will be your greatest marketing asset, having the right video marketing approach is a must. Here are a few key points to keep in mind before embarking on your first video or video marketing campaign.
  1. To begin, understand that video marketing is a subset of a brand’s overall marketing strategy. It is critical to align your video communication with the overall brand communication. Work on avideo campaignstrategy. This will include the purpose of the campaign, the duration of the campaign, the number of videos, and the channels on which you would want to promote these videos.
  2. Second, brainstorm! Storytelling is one of if not the most important aspects of video marketing.Decideconceptsfor each video anddetermine which stories you want to tell at what stage of the campaign.
  3. Third, select the appropriate video format: shoot-based, stock footage-based, animations, interactive videos, or a combination of all of these.
  4. Fourth, start working on the script or hire a professional video agency that offers end-to-end video services. Try and keep the script tight and crisp.
  5. Fifth, before getting into the production, visualize the script so that you have a clear idea of what the video looks like.Once the video is ready evaluate if it is effective and engaging.
  6. Sixth, distribute the video across relevant platforms at the right time. Analyzemetrics and statistics to find out which videos perform best and why.

Results of a successful video marketing

Millennial students, working women, corporate organizations, or manufacturing firms – regardless of the demographics you target, video content marketing helps brands engage customers (both existing and potential), generate leads, boost sales, and drive growth. Videos are also used in commercial advertising campaigns and are an essential component of any social media marketing and content marketing strategy. This is due to the fact that video content generates higher levels of engagement and brand awareness than static content.

Let's take a closer look at some of the most important advantages of video marketing.

1. Make your brand communication effective

One of the primary goals of marketing and advertising is to effectively communicate the features, advantages, or benefits of a product to increase revenue. A video is more effective because it captures attention, evokes emotion, and motivates people to take action.

Generally, websites and landing pages having highly concise and informative product-based animations or explainer videos have a better conversion rate than those with just static images and text.

2. Increase engagement with better ROI

Creating useful and relevant content for the target audience can take the brand a long way. Today, digital mediaplatforms like Instagram and Facebook have introduced features that enable users to browse only videos. These features have helped marketers to push the right content to the right market segment across geographies.

Several user-created content about the brands havegone viral thus helping the brands gain traction with little investment.Marketers are now trying to expand their reach by creating and distributingsuch user-centric, shareable video content. These videos not only help brands to gain visibility but also assists in brand building and customer acquisition.

3. Drive traffic to your website

A typical video structure includes a compelling introduction, followed by the main content, which consists of framing a problem and offering a solution, which in turn will be followed by a clear call to action. Videos with the right call to action can drive more visitors to your website.

This is especially true for online businesses that do not have a physical store where customers cannot touch, feel, hear, or interact with the products sold. Videos, in most cases, are an excellent way to alleviate this. They are a tried and true method of assisting your customers in becoming acquainted with the product and the company while ensuring the legitimacy of the business.
With video ads being an option to choose from while creating a campaign on Google, videos have proven to be one of the best content that increases the chances of people landing on the website or other relevant pages, thereby increasing the conversion rate.

Summary

To summarise, video marketing allows you to connect with your target audience. It’s an SEO gold mine that will increase traffic to your website. People remember more information when they watch videos. Look no further than your favorite brands’ Instagram pages or YouTube channels to identify effective video marketing strategies.