There’s a ton of advice out there telling businesses how to supercharge their video marketing. Some of it is good advice. Some of it’s not so good.
The truth is, a lot of this advice is old tips rehashed and presented in a slightly different way. There’s nothing new about it, which stinks.
With that in mind, we’ve decided to create something fresh. These eleven NEW tips are taken from Viddyoze’s expert video marketing team to help you succeed no matter what you’re selling.
Keep reading, and we’ll show you how to improve your business’s performance using these exclusive tips. Let’s get into it.
1. Nurture Leads With Video Content That Matches Their Customer Mindset
Video marketing is not a “hit and hope” strategy. In fact, it’s much more scientific than most people think.
If you really want to build a successful video marketing strategy, you need to get the right video in front of the right person at the right time. To do that, you need to understand how to build a marketing funnel.
In short, a marketing funnel is a journey a customer makes from the first time they hear about your brand to the moment they hit “buy” in your checkout. This funnel is broken down into 3 or 4 stage; at each stage, there are specific marketing videos you need to use.
These marketing videos target the customer based on their mindset at that exact moment. Without this level of detail, your video marketing efforts will not yield the best results. Simply put, you need to post video content for each stage of the buyer’s journey.
Here’s an example: You’ve got a cold lead. They’ve never heard about your brand before, but they’re looking for a product like yours. You serve them with educational videos, such as how-to videos and explainer videos. Not only does this introduce the lead to your brand, but it also piques their interest.
2. Film your videos during golden hour to give them a studio finish
Want to give your video a high-quality finish without spending a penny extra? Shoot your videos during the golden hour.
The Golden Hour is a window of time, either just before sunset or just after sunrise, when the light is softer (technically, it’s also redder), which makes for ideal filming conditions. This is a staple for photographers and filmmakers, but video marketers often overlook it.
During this period, the light takes on a glorious aesthetic, boosting the look and feel of your entire video. Creating videos during the Golden Hour is like a cheat code because it can upgrade footage quality, even on mobile or budget cameras.
On the flip side of this, try not to film outside in the middle of the day. This is when the sun is at its brightest, and it can leave your video content looking washed out and low quality. If you can’t wait for Golden Hour, aim for a few hours on either side of midday.
There are many cool apps (Golden Hour Photography, for example) on the market that tell you exactly when the golden hour will be. The only drawback? This hack is very weather-dependent.
3. Speed Optimize Your Website By Using Video Facades
A fast website is vital for a digital business. So much so that 70% of consumers say that it affects their willingness to buy online.
Just look at Amazon. For every extra second it takes a page to load, they could lose around $1.6bn in revenue annually.
In short, the faster your website, the more likely it will be to convert consumers. If you are using video marketing on your site, there’s a chance you could slow down certain pages. To combat this, you must optimize your site for video content.
One way you can do this is by using a video facade. This is an image that looks just like an actual video, but it’s actually an image: usually a still frame from the video, with a large triangle (or play button) in the center. Once the user clicks the image, the facade is replaced by the video.
These videos can be hosted by third parties, usually with YouTube videos or Vimeo videos. This method keeps your landing page speed high because the video isn’t loaded until it’s needed.
Depending on which platform you use to host your site, there are several ways to embed a facade. WordPress, for example, offers a series of simple-to-use plugins. Other platforms, such as Wix and Squarespace, have similar.
For more info on video conversion rate optimization for your website, read our guide from CRO expert John Butterworth.
4. Use Animations To Ensure Viewers Remember Your Brand
Effective video marketing must be engaging, memorable, and eye-catching. Animated video marketing ticks all three boxes and then some.
By using a few simple animations in your content, you can elevate your video style with little extra cost and effort.
This could be as simple as an creating an animated logo intro at the beginning of a product video or dynamic lower thirds in your customer testimonial videos. If you’re unfamiliar with what lower thirds are, they appear at the bottom of the screen and are typically graphics used to provide information, such as who is speaking in an interview.
Other animation ideas you could use include animated outros and transitions between clips in your brand videos. Animations in video marketing add a higher level of production quality to your content, which inspires confidence in your product or service.
5. Launch A UGC Video Campaign To Boost Your Organic Reach On Social Media
It’s no secret that organic reach has dropped off a cliff. These days, the average organic post manages just over 5% of reach on Facebook.
Despite this, organic posts still play a big part in solid video marketing strategies. There are two reasons for this:
1) A solid organic social media following is a tremendous foundation for any brand.
2) Organic social media marketing is very cost-effective.
A user-generated content (UGC) video marketing campaign is an awesome way to pump some life into your social media marketing strategy. Here, you encourage your followers to create and post videos based on a set of frameworks you have already outlined.
Let’s take a make-up brand as a simple example. Rimmel London launches a new line of eyeshadow. To promote the product, the brand asks its followers to create a look using eyeshadow and post videos of the results online. The winner gets a year’s supply of eyeshadow.
This kind of marketing strategy allows a business to increase its organic reach by posting video content across multiple social media platforms. At the same time, you gain traction as more and more people participate by posting their videos.
Really want to push the boat out? Use an influencer to help launch your campaign. BuzzSumo is a great place to find influencers in your niche. Check out our blog post for more advice on running a UGC video marketing campaign.
6. Bring New Leads Into Your Marketing Funnel By Hosting Free Webinars
When it comes to creating leads, few marketing techniques work, as well as free webinars. There’s a reason 95% of businesses say that webinars are a vital part of their marketing strategy (On24).
Meanwhile, the average webinar generates between 500 and 1000 leads. Of those leads, there’s an average conversion rate of 55% (Zippia).
To get your target audience’s attention, you’ll need to provide educational content that covers topics relevant to their pain points. Once you have your topic, promote the webinar through social media, paid ads, and email marketing.
At this stage, the webinar needs to provide entry-level knowledge so that it appeals to a wider audience. While the webinar shouldn’t be overly “salesy”, it’s a good idea to introduce your product or service as a potential solution at some point.
As the webinar draws to a close, be sure to include a Q&A session (this creates a more memorable experience for the audience) and provide a clear CTA (call to action). For example:
- Sign up for our newsletter
- Try a product demo
- Sign up for a free trial
Check out our expert blog post for advice on executing a successful digital marketing webinar.
7. Retain Customers For Longer With Personalized Welcome Videos
The days of generic marketing videos are over. Right now, you must create personalized content if you want people to buy into your brand identity.
Without it, you could alienate an entire audience. Just take millennials as an example – 70% of this demographic gets frustrated when they receive generic marketing communications. And there’s a good chance other demographics feel this way too.
Take your videos to the next level with personalized welcome videos. This should be the first piece of content you send to a new subscriber. It doesn’t have to be super in-depth at this stage; your new subscriber’s name and a short welcome message will be enough to impress.
As your relationship with this person grows, you can develop your personalization based on their behavior and the data you collect from their interactions with your content. Big brands, such as Netflix and Google, are developing a super loyal customer base with this kind of video marketing strategy.
That means offering recommendations, relevant content, and bespoke services to each individual person. A welcome video is just the tip of the iceberg.
8. Use A Video Storytelling Framework To Guarantee A Memorable Viewing Experience
Stories aren’t just for movies and novels – the best marketing videos use the same principles to connect with customers. From video testimonials to product videos, a good story will improve your video’s performance.
After all, a viewer is 22x more likely to remember a message if it’s presented in a story (Harvard). You have a higher chance of converting, too.
Unfortunately, the mere mention of the word “storytelling” can send marketers into a panic. People tend to think of “storytelling” as an incredibly complex, time-consuming process. The truth is that every story can be broken down into a simple framework.
Take Pixar. It has become synonymous with emotive, award-winning storytelling. From Toy Story to Up, Pixar’s output contains some of the greatest children’s movies ever made – and they all follow the same framework:
- Once upon a time…
- Every day…
- Until one day…
- Because of that…
- Because of that…
- Until finally…
We’re not saying you need to create an instant classic with every one of your videos, but by following this framework (or others like it), you’ll have a great chance of creating a great video.
Want to know more about effective video marketing stories? Learn how to tell an epic story through your videos with this in-depth article.
9. Define Your Target Audience And Create Videos Specifically For Them
A video marketing strategy can only work if you’re making content with the right people in mind.
First, you need to figure out exactly who your target audience is. Then, you’ll need to figure out what they want and how you can help them get it. Of course, there’s a good chance you know a lot of this already, but we recommend using this information to create a customer avatar.
This is your perfect customer. Once you have this profile, you can use it to ensure that all your content is focused on this “person”.
To create this profile, you’ll need to do the following:
- Analyze customer data: Look at age, location, gender, interests, and buying habits.
- Questionnaires: Speak to your existing customers via email.
- Hold focus groups: A step further and more detailed than the typical email questionnaire.
Once you have this data, you can use it to figure out what your target audience really wants from you. Then, you can create video content that gives it to them.
10. Don’t Leave Your CTA Until The End Of The Video
One of the biggest misconceptions in marketing is that the CTA (call to action) must come at the end of a video. While it’s good practice to have a CTA as the last thing a viewer sees, this idea overlooks one crucial thing: most people don’t watch a video to the end.
Luckily, there’s a super easy way to combat this. Put multiple CTAs in your video: one at the end, one in the middle, and one at the end. With this approach, you’re three times more likely to get the message across.
Think of the last YouTube video you watched. Did the host ask you to “like and subscribe” at the beginning of the video? That’s a CTA in action.
Of course, each video marketing strategy is different. You may need to use video metrics to figure out exactly where your CTAs should go. By monitoring your video views and watch time, you can determine the point at which people drop off.
For example, if 70% of people stop watching one minute into a three-minute video, you know to put a CTA before the one-minute point.
11. Optimize Length for Positive Viewer Retention
Following on from the last point, getting the right length for your video is crucial to success, whatever your video goals.
For example, if you’re making ten-minute videos for your YouTube channel and viewers don’t make it past minute two, your content is either too long, not engaging enough, or both. In this case, you could test out a short-form video on the same topic; you will probably get a better result.
You can use certain analytics to gauge how your audience receives your videos. Almost every social media platform now has a dashboard from which you can monitor your video engagement. YouTube and Facebook are up there with the best.
Look out for the following:
- Average view duration: How long are people spending on your video?
- Audience retention: This shows the number of people that watch and leave your video at every point in the video. So, if 70% of people watch to minute 2 out of 10 and then leave, there’s probably something happening at that point that you need to look at
- Re-watches: Are people going back to watch a certain part of your video?
Not only will this improve your video planning, but it will also improve the quality of your videos and your postproduction process. Want to know more? We’ve done a deeper dive into audience retention here.
Final Thoughts On Video Marketing Advice
A video marketing strategy doesn’t just happen by accident. Without the help of a dedicated production company, it takes time, creativity, and hard work. But it can be done.
The 11 marketing video tips we’ve given you in this article work. We know because we’ve used them and because we’ve helped other businesses create videos that deliver these tips.
The point is that, when done right, a video marketing strategy can help you achieve more. Whether you want to build more awareness for your brand, tell your brand story, drive leads, or convert more consumers, video can help you get there.
Right now, you can sign up for Viddyoze for FREE. Try our 7-day trial and create every type of video for the 11 tips above. Don’t like it? You can opt out before the 7 days and won’t pay a penny.
