As we’re approaching 2020, the video format continues to be one of the most effective digitals marketing tools for companies to gain exposure and increase their customer base. That’s in no small part, due to the fact that human beings are hard wired to focus on and retain information presented visually rather than through text or audio.
Research done by Cisco indicates that by the year 2021, 80% of all internet traffic will involve videos and, according to TechCrunch, web users watch around 1 billion hours of YouTube clips on a daily basis. That makes video advertising no longer just a nice option, but more of a necessity if you want to get noticed in the digital world.
Here are the steps you should take to promote your company through video content, engage potential customers and increase your bottom line.
Step 1: You Need Clearly Defined Marketing Goals
Before you start investing in your video marketing efforts, you need to have a clear idea of what it is you want to achieve. Your aim might be increasing brand awareness, boosting your sales, strengthen customer loyalty or tap into another niche. Whatever it is, you’ll want to direct your resources towards achieving a precise objective.
Step 2: What Is Your Target Audience?
Now that you have established your objectives, the next step is defining your target audience. Whether you decide to make your own video content or hire a Web video production company, you won’t be able to trigger an emotional reaction powerful enough to influence their buying decision process, unless it “speaks to them”.
One option is to focus on the same type of customers you’re already familiar with and aim to increase their loyalty to your products or services. But maybe you’re looking to tap into a younger/older demographic or enter a foreign market.
You’ll want to figure out who your viewers are, their values and what moves them, so you can customize your message to something they can identify with.
The most effective way to get a high ROI (Return on Investment) is to conduct an analysis and find out what kind of people buy your products the most and why. That’s your niche. It can be something broad like millennials or very specific such as single dads between the ages of 35 and 45.
In your campaign, you may prioritize this narrow audience, but that doesn’t mean you can’t sell to most anyone, it’s just more efficient to highlight their advertising needs so you can improve your chances of catching their attention.
Step 3: What Kind of Video Content Do You Want?
Ok, so by now you know your marketing goals and your target audience, so the next logical step is to decide what kind of videos will be most “seductive”, what will fit best into your game plan.
These are some of the most popular options you can choose from:
- Brand films – this type of films acquaints your viewers with the core values and vision of your brand
- Company culture videos – they’re quite similar to brand films but they give you a chance to show what happens behind the scenes, what kind of people you work with and the kind of atmosphere you strive to create
- Product promotion videos – the aim is to explain the tangible benefits of using your products versus the alternatives
- Explainer videos – short and informative, designed to explain a concept in simple terms, usually through engaging animations
- Interview videos – show you’re knowledgeable so you can build trust and authority in your niche
- Product reviews – you pay influencers to review your products for their subscribers, it’s a good way to reach an already existing large audience since they’re more likely to trust the source of the information
- Funny video content – potential customers are more likely to remember your advert if it’s catchy and funny
- Announcement video – you basically share news regarding changes in your company such as beginning to collaborate with another brand, launching a new product or participating in an event.
Based on the factors we discussed above, marketing goals and target demographic, you narrow it down to the most suitable one.
Step 4: Where Will You Place Your Video?
For this step, you need to figure out where your target audience is most likely to see your advert. What platforms do they already routinely visit?
Social media seems like an obvious choice. Facebook alone gives you access to more than 2 billion users and, as of 2018, Instagram has amassed one billion active users per month. That makes 3 billion potential customers from just two platforms, and you still have Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn.
Another big one is YouTube, the most popular video content platform with over 2 billion people. The best part is that you can pay to have your ads shown to users that have searched for subjects linked to your products and services, and you’re charged only if they watched for at least 30 seconds. A further possibility we already mentioned is collaborating with prominent Youtubers.
You should also post the video on your company’s webpage as this will make it more attractive to our ever-decreasing attention spams and it will make visitors spend more time there which, in turn, increases your search engine ranking. In fact, a website which includes a video is 53 times more likely to reach the front page of Google results.
It also shows that your company has enough financial resources to set up a professional looking home page which lends it credibility and makes people feel more confident that spending their money on your products is a good investment.
If you don’t have a company blog already, we recommend you start one. Through comments, you will be able to “talk” to potential customers and this gives you a better idea of how they think and what they want. It’s also a great platform for showing off your knowledge and experience. These two factors lead to increased confidence in your brand.
