By Caroline Manning
If you aren’t already using video to promote your business, it’s not too late to start. Follow this smart advice for adding video to your company’s overall marketing strategy.
1. Making a video for the sake of having a video is not a good strategy
No matter what industry you’re in, you have seen countless articles goading you into producing video content for your brand. The truth is until you have identified a specific problem that video content can solve, it’s better to wait until you can flesh out your wider marketing strategy, and then flag the areas where video fits in.
Video can be a big investment of both time and resources, so don’t just reiterate the “About Us” page of your website. Instead, answer the questions your sales team is asked frequently, show other companies using your product successfully, and explain your USP in the least technical/jargon-free way.
Bottom line: Know your why.
2. Make it trackable
Beyond simply knowing why you’re making a video, you need to establish what is going to make the project a success. Just like any piece of marketing material, simply having a video is not the be all and end all.
Luckily, the digital aspect makes video marketing relatively easy to track. If you are using video as part of an email campaign, you’ll want to reach a certain open rate or click through rate. If you’re creating a video for social platforms, then you’ll want to know how many people who see it visit your site. If a video is hosted on your website, perhaps success will be a certain number of contact forms completed.
Every campaign will be different, but no matter what you’re tracking, it will be more difficult to do after the fact, so get your ducks in a row before you hit record.
Other Articles From AllBusiness.com:
The Complete 35-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs Starting a Business
25 Frequently Asked Questions on Starting a Business
50 Questions Angel Investors Will Ask Entrepreneurs
17 Key Lessons for Entrepreneurs Starting A Business
3. If you are going to invest in video, you MUST distribute it properly
The internet is a wild and wonderful place, and with over 36 hours of video uploaded to YouTube alone every SECOND, there is a lot of content to compete with. This is why you need to formulate a watertight distribution strategy from the get-go.
First things first, ask yourself, Who is my ideal audience? Are they more likely to be spending their time on LinkedIn or Instagram? Is it better to reach them by email or through another channel?
It is vital that your team knows which social media platforms you will be using, and dedicates some time to build up your audience (with real followers, not bots) in the run-up to publishing the videos. While it’s not totally necessary, it is definitely beneficial to dedicate some of your budget to paid advertising and, once the videos go up, engage with your viewers.
4. See what your competitors are doing, and then do something different
Odds are you’re swimming in a red ocean right now (meaning all of the sharks are fighting for the same fish), but even if you’re a unicorn in a blue sea, it’s tempting to follow what the kings and queens of the internet have deemed to be the “top trends for (insert industry/year/medium here).”
Before you join the pack, consider how your potential customers feel while clicking through a number of very similar videos in their pre-decision phase. Which video is going to stick in their head? Probably the one that is most off-the-wall.
It’s okay if your brand isn’t necessarily funny or colorful or poignant. Your video still can be. Remember this sage advice: “The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it’s conformity.”
5. Follow the advice of the “creatives”
Maybe you’ve hired an in-house producer to take the lead on your video strategy, or perhaps you partnered with a video production agency. Either way, when you start on a video marketing journey, it is best to find out what you don’t know.
In other words, you have vetted and entrusted these people with the task of creating a beautiful and intriguing image for your brand online—now let them do it! Know that when a video marketer gently suggests a slightly different direction, it is likely rooted in not only experience in the field, but also in an artistic aptitude which you, the entrepreneur, may not fully grasp in the abstract.
This is not to say you should blindly follow all off-the-wall suggestions. As you are definitely the most knowledgeable person on the topic, it is important to get your message across. But when it comes down to the “creative” side of the project, let the creatives take the lead.
6. Different strokes for different folks
It is not uncommon for B2B companies to have multiple branches or products that cater to a variety of roles. Rather than trying to “smoosh” all of this information into one long, tedious video, that is likely to get paused a quarter of the way through, give each facet the space it deserves.
It should go without saying that CEOs, HR professionals, and marketing experts each have different priorities. Therefore there will be certain points that will be more compelling to some companies or roles than others. While you don’t need to worry about fitting everything into one video, be sure to showcase the full breadth of what you offer in your wider video marketing strategy.
RELATED: Video SEO: 5 Ways to Optimize Your Videos for Search Engines
About the Author
Post by: Caroline Manning
Caroline is the Business Development Manager at TopLine Film, a video production agency that specialises in end to end video strategies for B2B tech companies. For more information, please visit TopLine Film. Follow @TopLineFilm on Twitter.
Company: TopLine Film
Website: www.toplinefilm.com
Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The post 6 Smart Tips for Successful Video Marketing appeared first on AllBusiness.com
The post 6 Smart Tips for Successful Video Marketing appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Guest Post.
To discover more visit: allbusiness.com
