Video marketing, how do you use it?

Video content as part of a marketing strategy? Nothing new under the sun. What is new is the central place that video occupies within the marketing approach of many companies.

This is partly due to the rise of all kinds of tools that make it easy for everyone to edit videos, better cameras and the constant evolution of social media. In addition to the growth of video-only platforms, other companies such as Facebook and Instagram are also slowly transitioning to a video-first approach.

Let's look at the numbers first.

Content in the form of video is shared more than 10 times as much as text and images. Emails with 'video' in the subject line are opened 19% more. The average person watches about 16 hours of video per week and 90% of people search for video content before making a purchase.

In addition, an increasing number of people also indicate that video content is preferred over written texts and images. And compared to written text, information is also retained much better. More than 95% of a video is remembered, while people can only reproduce on average 10% of the essence of a text in a written text.

To top it all off: More than 82% of all online traffic worldwide is caused by watching video.

But video marketing can be challenging to get started. Because even though we live in a time where everyone has access to a smartphone with a good camera and modern production options, that does not mean that it is easy to make good videos.

How do you approach it? In this article we explain the basics.

Getting started with video marketing

The most important thing is good video content. However, some preliminary work is required before you can make this. As with any form of marketing, a good plan is half the battle. a video of course not a goal in itself, but in most cases part of a larger business strategy.

Determine your goals for video marketing

Let's start by defining the goals. It starts very simply with the question. What do you want to achieve?

Promote your company? Launching a new app? Want to create awareness around a theme or brand? Turnover growth? The conversion on the website increased? Would you like more people to fill out a form? All valid goals and all great as a starting point for a video campaign. You can easily determine goals based on the buyers journey.

The buyer's journey?

These are all the steps someone goes through before a customer makes a purchase.

The first phase is awareness. Someone has a problem. Problem is a broad term, but a problem could be that someone needs new running shoes. Or viewed from a B2B perspective: someone is looking for a video production company.

Then there is a good chance that the person will look online for (video) content about different types of shoes and what the best shoes are for running.

The next phase is the consideration phase. In this phase, the consumer has already made some progress with the problem and is starting to look into it more deeply. For example, product reviews and testimonials are viewed here.

Then comes the decision phase, in which someone is ready to make a purchase. In this phase, very specialist video content is needed to persuade someone to choose your product.

Know your target group

Then comes step two. Know who your target group is.

Ensuring that the right people view your content is the key to the success of all marketing campaigns. Map the target group and make sure you know which channels you can best use to reach them.

What are you going to say?

Choose a message that optimally matches the goals and at the same time appeals to the target group.

What type of video content suits this best?

Now that you have mapped out the most important elements of the plan, you can start looking at what type of content will best achieve your goals.

There are several types of video content that you can do something with. They all have their own application and work best on different channels. There may of course be some overlap and you can also use multiple forms at different times.

• Branding .
• have an explanation made .
• Educational video or interactive school tours .
• Employer branding .
• Branded content .
• Virtual reality .
• 360 degree video .
• Virtual tours .
• Vlogs
• Product demos .
• Testimonials.
• Storytelling .
• have animation made .

Creating video content

Then comes the best part (we think). Creating the content. You can do this yourself, but you can also outsource it to experts.

And then?

It doesn't stop after making it. The video must also be published, your target group must know that the video exists, your content must be able to be found and to determine success you also want to know what went well or not.

Publish video

A useful tool for publishing video content is a social media or content calendar. Here you can plan when and where to publish which video. Also keep an eye on the goals for each video and where all videos should be published.

Promotion and SEO

Two parts not to forget: Promotion and SEO. Just like with other forms of content.

SEO for video?

Think of cleverly chosen titles and well-written descriptions. This is also important for video content. Google decides on this basis whether or not your video will appear in the search results for certain keywords. In addition, the correct file name and subtitles help Google understand the film better. This way you help searchers find your video more easily.

Promotion of the video content

To maximize the chances of success, it makes sense to use both organic and paid traffic.

Measuring success of the video

If your video goes viral, it is of course clear that the video is a success. But if sales do not materialize despite this, and that was the intention, then no. It may also be the case that videos are poorly viewed, but the campaign as a whole was successful. KPIs help with this. Important KPIs are, for example:

•Views.
• View rate.
• Clicks.
• Website visits.
• CTR.

You formulate the KPIs based on the goals. These differ per video, but also relate to the broader marketing goals of which the video content is part. You also have to deal with a different type of KPI for each phase of the buyer's journey. The success of videos for the awareness phase is measured differently than when it comes to videos for conversion.

Important here: Keep it realistic.

Want to know more about video marketing?

We hope this has helped you get started with video marketing . Curious about how we approach it? Leave your details and we will contact you as soon as possible. Also check examples of work that we are proud of.

https://explain.ninja/blog/20-video-marketing-statistics-2020/ https://thriveagency.com/news/video-marketing-statistics-you-should-know-in-2021/ https:// www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/03/08/video-marketing-statistics https://www.wyzowl.com/sales-video-statistics/ https://www.vyond.com/resources/100-video-training-and-video-marketing-statistics/ https://www.omnicoreagency.com/video-marketing-statistics/