These days, it is essential to be clear about the importance of video marketing for your business. In this post, we’ll tell you all about it and how you can start using it in your marketing strategy.
After all, traditional marketing as we know it has been showing a significant drop in its effectiveness and, on the other hand, the popularity of video content continues to skyrocket.
Most likely, you feel the side effects of living in a hyperconnected and fast-paced society, in which the digital transformation has taken over your routine without you realizing it.
We are currently dealing with an enormous amount of information on our screens every day. By the way, much more information than we are capable of absorbing.
And, in this daily dispute for people’s attention, data indicate that developing a video content strategy can put you ahead of your competitors.
Brands need to stop interrupting the user’s routine and start entertaining them. For this, it is necessary to have a speech that is very aligned with the culture and that follows the spirit of the times.
And in this fight, video content wins.
Studies show that, as of 2020, video on the internet has become the main source of information for 88% of people worldwide.
Do you want to know a little more about the subject and become an expert in the world of video marketing? See everything you need to know so you don’t fall behind your competitors when it comes to producing video content.
Happy reading!
What is Video Marketing?
In essence, video marketing is the use of video strategies to increase awareness and reach of your brand, build engagement with your community, and ultimately drive sales for your business.
The digital marketing video is something relatively recent in the market. Currently, video marketing is becoming increasingly accessible for two reasons: the emergence of free video editing and production tools and the evolution of social media.
On TikTok, for example, people can produce video content in a matter of seconds within a single application. 10 years ago, it was unimaginable to do a rotoscoping process (changing people’s faces on video) in less than 24 hours. Today, you can do it in minutes and in a 100% free app.
In addition, the cost of this production, in the past, was one of the main factors preventing the creation of video content.
Today, it is absolutely possible to produce studio-quality video content without leaving your home (or office), spending less and in a very short space of time.
Another key factor in this growing digital video marketing is the high demand of social networks.
The future of digital marketing
According to The State of Video Marketing 2021 survey, people watch an average of 18 hours of online video per week. And 15% of users go further, watching videos for more than three hours a day.
The HubSpot team found that 78% of people watch videos online every week, while 55% watch videos every day. Google has presented data that states that 6 out of 10 people would rather watch online videos than television.
The preference for video content is evident when we look at what’s new in digital platforms. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter are moving towards a concept called ‘video-first‘.
In other words, the networks are developing and focusing on new channels within their own platforms, such as ‘stories’ and ‘lives’.
Similarly, platforms that were born focused on video content, such as YouTube and TikTok, have recently seen considerable growth in the number of users. This fact made them references in the online video consumption market.
In addition to the incessant search for entertainment, internet users access these online video platforms to get information, learn new things and buy.
Think about the last time you made an online purchase. Most likely, you watched a video before finishing it, right? In other words, today, video marketing is expected by consumers.
The importance of video marketing on your website
Having a video marketing strategy has several benefits, one of which is helping you rank on Google.
Insivia claims that a website is 53 times more likely to reach the Google homepage if it includes videos on its pages.
Cisco claims that by 2022, online videos will account for more than 82% of all Internet traffic – 15 times more than in 2017.
Now that you understand the importance of video marketing for your routine and all its benefits, you are ready to start developing your strategy. Let’s go?
The main video marketing formats
Before you actually start production, it’s critical that you know what types of content you want to create. And also, most importantly, what are the appropriate formats to use in your strategy.
In the end, each video format has specific characteristics and demands different resources. We have listed the 8 most important formats for you to use in your digital video marketing strategy.
1. Institutional
Any brand or company aims to communicate with its audience, propagate its values and show itself in a constructive and determined way to the market. In this sense, one of the most influential formats is institutional content.
The purpose of an institutional video is to spread the company’s culture and its positioning in the market. A strategy designed to consolidate the brand, creating a strong identification with the public and generating recognition and prestige.
2. Personal
It is not the exclusive task of brands and companies to create authority and generate value on the internet.
Marketers also need to understand the importance of video marketing in their daily lives. And video content is a fundamental part of that personal strategy.
It is through this video content format that professionals are able to highlight their main features in a more effective and participatory way. Thus, generating more value for the brands they represent.
3. Commercial
This format is perhaps the most traditional of all, but no less important. Commercial videos consist of advertisements in video format, designed to promote the products and services of a particular brand or company.
Fundamentally, this type of content has a clear intention: to sell your brand. And as a consequence of that, generate desire on the part of consumers.
4. Educational
As the name implies, these videos have one main objective: to teach someone something.
The internet has brought about the democratization of information. Combining people’s desire to learn with a relevant format, video lessons emerged, for example.
5. Use cases (Video case)
This is the ideal format for when you are looking to convey an idea of authority and, above all, credibility in relation to your brand or product.
Use cases demonstrate, in practice, how your product or service helped solve a real problem for a brand, bringing more credibility.
6. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
FAQs are certainly one of the easiest content to run. These are videos related to the most frequently asked questions your product or service has received during its journey.
As well as use cases, these content related to key questions can also (easily) be turned into video.
In this way, it is possible to use various resources of an audiovisual production to create a didactic and, at the same time, self-explanatory content. Strengthening the relationship between brand and target audience.
7. Demonstrative
This content format would hardly be left out of this list. Product demo videos are perfect for use on the home page of a website, for example.
In essence, their main objective is to demonstrate to a certain audience the functionality of a product and how it can solve a problem.
The most amazing thing about all of this is that this content format can be used in addition to physical products, it can also be applied to software, for example.
8. Live stream
Finally, the internet favorite of recent years, especially when we talk about online video consumption on social media.
Live broadcasts fit perfectly into people’s routine and have become a very important strategy for brands and companies.
When it comes to engagement, lives are among the formats with the highest and most surprising results. Featuring an 8x retention rate, according to Livestream.
There are several possibilities within this format. From going behind the scenes of a production, going through live coverage of a particular event to holding monthly webinars.
Video Marketing: starting production
Now that you’ve identified the format that best fits your brand or client’s moment, you’re almost ready to start outlining your video strategy.
Like any digital marketing strategy, producing video content requires very special attention and accurate planning.
After all, any mistake in the production of your content can generate strong noise between the public and your brand or service.
In order to make the video marketing process a little easier, we’ve listed 5 steps for you to get your ideas off the ground and start designing your strategy today.
Keep reading and check it out!
1. Plan, plan and plan
Before you even think about getting your team together and starting to produce your content, you need to think about the purpose behind what you want to produce.
All the decisions you make during the production of this content need to be very aligned with the objective of your strategy. And also what you expect from your audience.
If your goal is to promote a skin care product, for example, the format you choose will play an important role at the end of the process.
Without planning and clearly organizing your goals and desires in relation to the video, you will most likely be totally lost when it comes to producing.
So, first of all, get your team together (if you have one) and have an alignment meeting. Gather as many ideas as possible. Define what you hope to achieve with this content, and then you are ready to start production.
2. Choose performance indicators correctly
After defining the purpose of your video content, it’s time to choose the parameters for your video to be successful.
Getting clear on these key indicators in advance ensures that you don’t waste your time looking at metrics and numbers that aren’t going to bring you the expected return.
3. Study your target audience
Like any good digital marketing strategy, being clear about your audience’s profile is critical to the process. All content must be designed according to the preferences, interests and behavior of the previously defined audience.
For example, the videos that an adult woman who has Facebook as her main platform are significantly different from the most popular content among male teens who use TikTok daily.
Therefore, it is essential to understand your audience’s interests, what they like to watch and which channels they have the most access to.
Understanding your audience with a greater level of granularity helps you produce more relevant and, consequently, more assertive content.
4. Analyze your competitors
It is very likely that your main competitor understands the importance of video marketing and is applying it to the company’s day-to-day activities.
So, studying the market and your competitors is essential on this journey.
Start by looking at what your market opponents have been producing when it comes to video content. From campaigns that are getting good results to those that aren’t.
Monitoring periodically what other companies in your segment are producing ends up making your experience more fluid when thinking about a video marketing strategy.
But be careful at this point! Monitoring what your competitors are doing out there has nothing to do with plagiarizing other people’s content. The goal is to identify opportunities and not copy someone else’s work.
5. Track your results
This is one of the most important steps in the entire process. Right after you’ve followed all the steps and put your ideas out into the world, it’s critical to monitor and track the results.
This is how you will know if your strategy is performing well on the internet. During this follow-up you will be clear if you are following the right path or if you need to make some adjustments.
You must be wondering how to do this, right?
There’s no mystery! There is a huge range of data and metrics that you can (and should) measure. However, the most common in a digital video marketing strategy are retention, abandonment, conversion and engagement rates.
If the numbers are below what you expected at the beginning of the journey, don’t despair. Try to identify what is wrong with your campaign and, if possible, try to change your approach along the way.
Start your video marketing strategy
Now you know what video marketing is and, above all, how to implement it in your brand or company routine!
After a contextualization about what video marketing is and what the future of digital marketing is, gather your team, brainstorm, choose the ideal format and start producing video content. Don’t forget to follow the results afterwards.
It is past time to incorporate the digital video marketing strategy into your traditional strategy.
Get to work! 😉