Are you curious about getting into the video marketing game? Confused about where to start or how to maximize the potential of video in today’s digital marketing environment?
If so, then you’re in the right place. Keep reading for a deep dive into how to create the best strategy to get the most from video marketing for your business.
Did you know that the average person watches 100 minutes of video content online each day? If your business isn’t creating videos you’re falling behind.
But before you grab your iPhone and start shooting let’s take a moment to create a cohesive video marketing strategy so you get the most ROI for your efforts.
Creating Your Video Marketing Strategy
When you think of video marketing, you might want to jump straight to figuring out which camera to buy, what sort of lighting you need, and which is your good side. But before you pick sides (and it’s your right side) you need to take a step back.
Before you shoot a single minute of your videos, you need to have a strategy. Before you can start to make operational decisions, you need to understand the foundation by which those decisions will be made.
Your marketing strategy is the roadmap for everyone on your team and in your business to follow. And your video marketing strategy, can’t be simply incorporated under the umbrella of your entire marketing plan.
Video is too important in today’s digital marketing environment. In order to compete, you need a robust, data-driven, written video marketing strategy. And having it documented for everyone to access and understand will ensure higher success.
When your employees understand the framework for your business strategy, they can make operational decisions. This will, in turn, allow you to spend more time working on your business and less time micromanaging the day-to-day.
Whether your inbound marketing is through your blog or your vlog, you need to follow specific steps to ensure a unified message. It will also be easier to create when you have a unified process and your message and call to action are already established and written out.
Start With Who
Simon Sinek famously coined the idea of starting with your why in business. This is a great message and one that applies to the overall mission of your business. But when it comes to creating your strategy, we would argue you should start with who.
Meaning, who are you serving in your business? Who is your target market for your product or services?
If you’ve developed a strong brand message and strategy, then you will have a head start on this section in your strategy. Each video will need to not only move the customer forward in their customer journey, but your videos also need to be consistent with your overall brand.
Your potential clients want to know that you understand them and their problems. They want to hear real-life stories that prove your solution solves their problem. We are visual creatures, and videos are a great way to convey your message.
Tell a story through your videos to your audience. When you know specifically who you are targeting for your ideal demographic then you can better tailor your message to your audience. People want to see videos of people who have been where they are and are now where they want to go.
What Are You Marketing Through Your Videos?
What is the end goal of your videos? Before you can start to create your video strategy, you need to know where you want to go. You can’t take your customer on their buyer’s journey and guide them towards the purchase if you don’t know where your end goal is.
As you create your video strategy, it is imperative that you know what you’re selling or asking your viewer to do. Each video campaign might also have its own end goal. And each individual goal for your videos will drive towards your larger goal for your marketing campaign.
Some of your videos might be leading the viewer towards signing up for your email list so you can nurture the relationship further before asking for the sale. Other video campaigns might be touting an affiliate product and so you’re going to focus on reviewing that product in your videos.
When you know what you’re marketing in your business then you will create a better and more targeted strategy for your video marketing.
Where Will You Run Your Video Campaign?
There are several options for you to post videos online these days, and where you run your campaign will determine your strategy. Will you create curated content for YouTube? Or will you be focusing on live videos on Facebook or Instagram?
The most important question you need to be asking yourself is where are your customers hanging out when they’re online. Since you’ve already established your buyer persona in the first step above of establishing who you’re marketing towards, this step should be easy.
Once you know where you’re going to run your campaign, this is where you need to concentrate your efforts.
The platform you choose to use to publish your video marketing campaign will determine the type of video you need to create. TikTok and Instagram will be much shorter videos than Facebook or YouTube. Additionally, these platforms will give you distinctly different audiences.
You could also choose to post on all the platforms. To do this you will create one main video and house it on YouTube. Then you will need an editor to break down the original video into shorter versions for the other platforms.
You can then start to create videos tailored to each platform’s specifications. To have the best results you will need a regular publishing schedule. We suggest you aim for creating a video of the day, every day.
Why Should Your Audience Listen to You?
One main tenet of creating your marketing strategy will be to establish authority. Your videos can show your audience that you are a thought leader in your industry and that you are an authority they can trust.
Each video should give value and educate your audience. And if you want to grow a large following you will need to educate will also entertaining your audience.
You can’t do this is you decide your video topics at the moment. You will need to have a strategy in place to determine your video topics. This will allow you to work ahead and schedule your videos while also keeping a unified voice and overall message for you each video.
Every video you create will need to serve a purpose to drive towards the end goal established above. This will show your audience they can keep coming back to your channel to get great information they can use.
How to Create Stellar and Strategic Content
Lastly, after you’ve answered the questions above you can start to create your plan of action. Many business owners make the mistake of jumping straight to figuring out their tactics without first having a plan of action based on a sound strategy.
But you’re still reading this, so we know you’re a smart business person who wants to ensure a successful video marketing campaign. Now that you’ve taken the time to answer the above questions and wrote out your strategy. Finally, you need a written plan for how you will accomplish your goals.
So, how will you reach your strategic goals? Through specific, targeted, actionable, optimized videos. To ensure you’re creating such videos, here are six tips to create a great video marketing plan:
- Provide value and educate
- Keep it short
- Tell a story
- Hook them with a great intro
- Have a specific call to action
- Optimize your title and description for search
Each video will have one specific goal in mind that will lead to the overall goal of your campaign strategy. And you’ve already created this strategy above, so everyone on your team knows if the videos they’re creating are leading your potential client towards that goal.
Using Your Strategy to Create Your Plan
So, before you worry about going viral, you need to be able to answer the who, what, where, and why of your strategy. And better yet, when your employees can articulate your vision then they will be able to better execute the plan.
Once you have your strategy in place you can start to create your video blog. This is where you will house the main videos mentioned above. Then you can have an editor create shorter snippets for social media from the original content on your vlog.
Being able to effectively communicate with your team members the vision for your company they can then be given more autonomy. This will allow you to continue to focus on strategy and growth while your employees handle the daily tasks of running your business.
And if you don’t have a team of videographers or editors at your disposal, you could always choose to outsource this feature.
However, regardless of if your videos are created in-house or outsourced, you still need an outlined plan for everyone to follow.
Outsourcing Your Video Marketing Services
So, if all of this sounds overwhelming, and you know you don’t have time to do this correctly yourself, then you should choose to outsource your video marketing services. An expert in the industry will walk you through the steps of creating your strategy, defining your goals, and then creating stellar videos that convey your message and attract your audience.
Here at Local Finder, we can help you turn your already existing blog content into short, actionable videos that will help your audience. So, if you’re ready to take the leap into video, we are here to help you.
Create your strategy, assess your current website content, and let’s work together to create a great video experience for your viewers. As you work with students every day, you understand that everybody learns differently from each other. And you want to provide valuable content on your website with the maximum amount of reach possible.
By providing short videos for your students and future students to watch and learn, you are providing an alternative learning format that will fit the needs of more students.
Don’t miss out on providing this great feature because you don’t have the resources to create your own videos. Instead, outsource your video blogs and let us take on the work for you.
Lights, Camera, Action!
It’s finally time to get to work. You’ve done the hard work of mapping out your strategy so that your team can begin to create your videos. Now you can start getting ready for hair and makeup.
Remember, when it comes to video marketing strategy, keep in mind who you are helping, what your end goal is for each video, and how can you create amazing content that will establish your business and brand as an authority in your industry.
Doing these things will build your audience organically and authentically. Your vlog will bring your business customers daily so you can build and grow your business to the next level.
So, if you’re ready to truly scale your business with video marketing then reach out to us today. We can help you create videos that will move your business forward.