There’s no doubt that video is an integral part of any business’s marketing strategy in this day and age. With statistics like ‘Video has 12 times more engagement on social media than static content.’ and ‘65% higher conversion rate on websites that include video’, it’s hard to ignore it.
But where do you begin with creating engaging content that gets you results? That’s where a proper video strategy comes in. Your video strategy should be a systematic plan to use branded video to drive more customers to your business. It should help you not only create and distribute the perfect video but help you attract more customers, engage your viewers, nurture more bookings, and delight your existing customers.
This guide will assist you in learning the ins and outs of creating a video strategy that will determine the right kind of video to produce and how to distribute it for maximum results.
- Step 1 – Goals and objectives
- Step 2 – Understanding your target audience
- Step 3 – Types of video
- Step 4 – Promotion and Distribution
- Step 5 – Budget and Resources
- Step 6 – Measurement
- Step 7 – Timeline
Step 1 – Goals and objectives
What’s the purpose of your video?
You can use video to market your business in the following ways:
- Sales videos to sell your products and services or generate bookings
- Raise awareness of your brand and what your business does. This can also include highlighting your culture and your people.
- Generate leads from potential customers that aren’t quite ready to book yet.
- Communicate information to your target audience about your business operations, such as FAQs, special offers or opening hours.
The goals and objectives of your video should fit within your business’s sales and marketing funnel or your customer’s booking journey. Deciding what part of your funnel you would like to target will help to determine the type of video you will produce.
- Top of funnel – Video Adverts, How-to and Brand Storytelling videos
- Middle of funnel – Product Showcase and Customer Journey videos
- Bottom of funnel – Testimonial and Behind the Scenes videos
What action to take?
Once someone watches the video, what action do you want them to take? The purpose of your marketing is to get customers to take action.
- Share the video with friends to increase your brand reach and inspire others.
- Use the information they learned in the video to perform a task for themselves.
- Visit your website to learn more about a product, service or activity.
- Book direct with you.
- Sign up to become an advocate and follower.
Step 2 – Understanding your target audience
Who is your video intended for?
To determine what kind of content you want to produce and how to produce it will depend on who it is intended for. You will need to research your audience or ideal buyers and refer to your customer personas if you have them.
Things you may want to know about your customers are:
- Their demographics such as:
- Gender
- Age Range
- Family status
- Location
- Motivations for booking
- Problems and questions they may want answers to. If you position your video around answering your customers’ problems, you will then be seen as the solution.
- How and where do your customers consume their content? Make sure you publish on the correct channels and in the correct format.
- Do you have multiple audiences that you need to appeal to? Decide whether you can use one piece of content to appeal to multiple customers, or you may need to create different videos for each.
By understanding your customer, you can align your video content with the information and services that will engage with them.
Step 3 – Types of video
There is a multitude of types of videos that you can create for your business, each with different purposes and outcomes.
The type of video will directly relate to what you have identified as your goals and objectives. These will be determined by your customer’s buyer journey or your business’s sales funnel.
Do some research and see what is currently trending and popular. Don’t just follow what is popular; make sure that if you do follow a trend, the end result still aligns with your goals and objectives.
You may also want to see what types of video have been successful for you in the past or look for the gaps in video types you haven’t tackled before.
Below is a list of types of branded videos that you can create for your business:
- Brand storytelling videos
- Educational or How-To Videos
- Social Media Videos
- Video Adverts
- Testimonial Videos
- Employment/recruitment videos
- Product showcase videos
- Guided Tours and Behind the Scenes Videos
- Reaction Videos
To learn more about these different video types and when to use them read this related article, ‘10 types of video content you can create for your brand right now’.
Step 4 – Promotion and Distribution
You need to consider how you will promote and distribute your video. You could make the most engaging video in the world, but if nobody sees it, it isn’t much for you, and all your hard work is wasted.
This step is just as important as producing your content.
Here are some of the top ways to share your content with your target audience:
Your website
This one seems obvious, but many businesses don’t consider or forget about this. Depending on your video type will determine where on the site you will place it. A brand story video would be placed on your homepage and about us page, whereas a series of how-to videos may make up your FAQs page. Your blog is another great place to add your videos, but be sure to transcribe the talking into page content for extra SEO juice. Embed your video from a video hosting provider site such as Youtube or Vimeo.
Social media channels
This is another obvious one, but there is some strategy on how to do it correctly for each channel. Conder the following before posting directly on your channels
- Create an attention-grabbing thumbnail.
- Add captions to your video as many users scroll through social media without audio turned on.
- Resize your videos to suit the social media channel you are posting on. Your video may need to be horizontal, square or vertical, depending on the channel.
- Research what video length is allowed and what works best on each platform.
- Tailor the content in your posts to each individual channel, as people consume content differently on each.
- Use the correct titles and tags if you want your content to be found on hosting platforms like Youtube and Vimeo, as their prime function is search engines for video.
Use your existing networks
Share your content on any personal or company networks you are a member of. Use your other network members to share your content for you. Use any influences you may know to share your content to connect with their already established audiences. Remember to tag and share any people or businesses included in your video’s content.
Forums
Search for forums that are specifically for your industry and post your videos there.
Paid advertising
With organic reach being on the decline due to changes to social media algorithms, you may want to consider paid advertising. This may be as simple as boosting a post on Facebook, but it is best have a strategy for your campaigns.
You can create targeted campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Youtube, to just name a few channels. Make sure to include strong Calls To Action in your averts to drive users back to your website where they can buy. You can also retarget people who have watched your video if you set up your campaign objectives for video views.
Step 5 – Budget and Resources
Creating quality video production can be an expensive exercise. Not only do you need to have the available funds, but you need to consider sourcing the talent, location and other resources you need to tell your story.
Here are some key factors that you need to consider when allocating your budget:
- Who is shooting the video
- Who is going to edit the video
- Who is going to promote the video
- Do you have the time and resources to do it yourself
- Do you need to employ talent to star in the video
- Are you requiring a script to be written
- Where are you going to shoot the video
- Do you require a travel budget
- Who is going to produce and direct your video
- How much money are you willing to spend
It doesn’t matter what you decide in the first four steps of your video strategy if you don’t have the budget and resources to be able to cover them. Answering the questions above will help you understand what is possible for you to achieve.
Step 6 – Measurement
Do you have the ability to track whether your video has achieved your goals and objectives?
You need to be able to confirm whether the video you have produced has helped you achieve your business goals. Has the video increased the following:
- Additional traffic to your website
- More brand reach
- An increase in bookings directly from viewing your video
- More sales
- More leads
- Increase in revenue
- Educating your customers to make a decision
- Customer feedback and comments
- Or any other objectives you set
Some other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you should be tracking are:
- How many views have you received
- The watch time
- View retention
- Audience retention
- Likes
- Shares
Each channel you publish on has different ways of tracking the performance of your video, so it is important to learn how to read and compare the data. You can track your click-throughs and user journey by implementing google tracking codes to your links. This will allow you to see if users are completing the goals you are wanting them to complete.
Step 7 – Timeline
You need to work out how long it will take to produce your video from start to finish. If you have a specific deadline to work towards, it is integral that you map out a timeline for each part of your project.
The key steps you will need to include in your timeline are:
Pre-production
- Completing you strategy
- Storyboard
- Script development
Shoot
- Dates and locations
- Arranging talent
- Equipment and staff hire
Editing
- When to expect drafts
- Feedback and changes
- Delivery of the main production
- Editing for different social platforms
Promotion
- Uploading to different channels
- Developing titles and descriptions
- Creating supporting content for your post
- How long will you run campaigns for
Ensure you set a realistic timeline and allow enough time in each section to review and assess progress with the relevant people involved in your production.
Make sure that you’re prepared for your next video project
In this article, we have learnt that to make sure your video project runs on time, within budget and achieves all of the goals you are hoping for, you need to plan ahead. You could waste a lot of time and money if you don’t have a sound strategy for producing your video.
If you require some help and want to talk to someone about elevating your next video project to new heights, get in touch to start a conversation.
