Should You Pivot Your Video Marketing Strategy?
If you’re someone with a smartphone and ample internet access, chances are you’ve shared at least one YouTube short or video in the past week.
Maybe it was a funny cat video or a reel of your favorite fashion brand announcing a major sale, maybe it was one of ours (blushes), it doesn’t matter.
The point is video content continues to gain popularity across all platforms and channels.
But why is that?
On average, people on average consume 17 hours of video content online every week. That means the demand for video production is increasing across the globe.
Video marketing is at an all-time high with 91% of businesses using video content to promote their products and services in 2023.
With video accounting for a whopping 1,200% of social shares, that’s way more than the number of shares you’d get from text and image content combined.
Scratching the surface of an online video marketing strategy?
Don’t worry—you’re not the only one. And it might just be time to pivot and focus on reaping the value video offers.
Let's Dive In:
How To Create A Successful Video Marketing Campaign
Not all videos are created equal.
It’s important to have a definitive content marketing strategy for your videos.
If you don’t want your videos getting lost in a sea of content online, here are a few things that’ll help you get started:
1. Start with your target audience
This should be a no-brainer, but marketers often make the mistake of targeting the wrong audience. Consider segmenting your target market according to demographic and social factors such as age, gender, location, income, lifestyle and interests.
Once you know who you’re making your videos for, and where to find them online, you can develop a laser-focused approach to building your video marketing strategy. What’s more, you can even customize the settings of your video ads on social media, so they’re presented to the right audience.
2. Set measurable goals and objectives
Any successful marketing campaign needs to deliver results–results that can be measured. This is why it’s important to define goals for every video that goes up on your socials.
Choose specific metrics such as view count, watch time, play rate, clicks, shares and engagement to measure the success of your videos. Goals need to be aligned with the overall purpose of the video campaign. Are you trying to get more people to notice your brand? Sign up for an event? Or buy your product/service?
3. Choose a video type
This can be tricky especially if you’ve never made videos before. You’ll first need to select a theme for your content: informational, motivational or entertaining. This will eventually dictate the type of videos you create.
If your goal is to educate or inform your audience about how to use your product or service, explainer videos would be the best way to move forward. However, don’t forget to discuss your budget and deadlines with your production team before deciding on a theme or video type.
4. Optimize your videos
There is no point in making a video if nobody can find it online. Once your video is ready to be posted, remember to optimize it for search. A simple way to ensure this is to rely on effective SEO tactics including adding keywords to titles and descriptions.
Fun fact: Optimizing YouTube video descriptions can help bump up your content to the suggested videos section. This can be helpful, especially for small businesses with a limited marketing budget.
5. Collaborate with influencers
You no longer need to spend millions on celebrity endorsements. Instead, you can team up with niche influencers who have successfully built a loyal community of followers.
Niche influencers are considered to be ‘specialists’ about a certain topic of interest. They develop targeted content that helps them earn the respect of their followers over time. Brands that want to get the attention of a particular group of consumers usually rely on niche influencers to get their message across.
6. Create channel-specific content
One great thing about making videos is that once you’re done, you can edit the same content to make it suitable for any other platform. For example, if you have a 3-minute long video for YouTube, you can easily create a 90-second reel out of it and promote it on Instagram.
When repurposing works, it works! But. In the same way fried eggs are for breakfast and a ham sandwich is for lunch, sometimes creating videos bespoke-tailored to the platform can yield more impressive results. Longer, educational YouTube vids can be contrasted with short, zippy TikToks.
That's where things get a bit tricky — how can you possibly scale your video strategy to create channel-specific content? Well...that's where we come in. By partnering with Superside, we'll give you the bandwidth and production expertise to grow your video strategy, and cover all your bases (and channels).
7 Benefits Of Video Marketing You Can’t Ignore
The highlight reel above shows how Superside has helped ambitious brands scale their creative and video production.
Video production has become both easier and cost-effective for the modern-day marketer. But if you think the benefits of video marketing end there, wait till you have a look at these:
1. Boosts conversion rates
If you’re looking to make money without breaking the bank, simply add a video to your landing page. Explainer videos, especially on e-commerce websites, can even lead to increased sales–with 96% of people having reportedly bought a product or service after watching one of those videos.
2. Improves online visibility
One of the biggest advantages of making videos is that they can improve your ranking on search engines.
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and since it is owned by Google, your videos have a greater chance of being found on both platforms (as long as you’ve optimized them, of course).
3. Optimize your email marketing
You can easily integrate videos into your current email marketing strategy. A study by Forrester showed that videos have been shown to increase click-through rates by almost 200-300% . In fact, simply adding the word ‘video’ to your subject line can help reduce unsubscribe rates. Whether it’s a promotional email or a newsletter, you can add more value by inserting embedded videos or gifs that can provide more information to subscribers. Plus, they’re easier on the eyes too.
4. Generates greater return on investment (ROI)
If you play your cards right, you can even use videos to yield a higher ROI than any of your other marketing tools. As mentioned before, videos make up a huge chunk of social shares online, which means your content is more likely to reach a larger audience. This can eventually lead to more traffic on your website which can heighten interest in your product or service.
Additionally, you can expect better ranking on search engines which will only—you guessed it—help generate more ROI in the long run.
5. Increases retention rates
The average user reportedly spends 88% more time on a website if it has a video on it. By adding a video to your landing page, you can ensure that users don’t leave your website within minutes. Since it’s easier to absorb information through video explanations, you can use this as an opportunity to build both credibility and trust with potential customers by adding demos, testimonials and how-to videos.
6. Reaches a wider audience
With smartphones becoming common these days, videos give you the advantage of reaching far more people than ever before. 90% of consumers prefer watching videos on their phones rather than their laptops . This is because smartphone technology has now made it more convenient for people to watch videos on the go. This also means you need to focus strongly on creating mobile-friendly content: don’t create videos in the wrong aspect ratio or that are hard to enjoy on a mobile device.
7. Helps gain a competitive edge
Live videos can help you edge out the competition. These are great for building rapport with customers as you can share content that’s relevant and interesting to them. Viewers can be invited to watch an interesting discussion by industry experts or take a sneak peek at an exciting new product.
With Facebook giving more priority in terms of ranking to live videos, this could be just what you need to increase brand awareness and add more traffic to your website. Live videos can also be an efficient way to boost engagement on your socials.
Unlock Video Opportunities for Your Brand
Take our video marketing quiz to discover personalized tips, a video marketing playbook and more resources to help you get into motion.
3 Huge Video Trends To Up Your Marketing Game
With technological advances constantly pushing the boundaries of video production, you wouldn’t want your business to get left behind.
While sticking to traditional marketing strategies might seem safe, it always helps to see what else is out there in order to raise the creative standards for your campaigns.
Here’s a look at three of the latest video marketing trends that deserve your attention:
1. Virtual reality (VR)
Virtual reality is here to stay. Showing no signs of slowing down, virtual reality is projected to increase at an annual growth rate of 15% in the next ten years. It’s no surprise then that more companies are now jumping on the VR bandwagon and using it for everything from testing new processes to shaping new products.
Marketers are now increasingly using VR to create immersive experiences which can help them connect deeper with their audience. A brilliant example of this is footwear brand Merrell’s ‘Trailscape’ campaign which promoted its line of Capra hiking boots by creating a virtual obstacle course complete with dangerous stunts at every turn. This allowed potential customers to experience their new shoes in the most extreme environments all through the power of VR.
2. 360-degree video
360-degree videos offer the perfect means to create virtual tours or walkthroughs for customers, putting them right in the middle of the action. It can also be a great way to promote your brand’s message in a fun way. Famous composer Andrew Lloyd Webber proved this by releasing an interactive 360-degree video for his Broadway musical ’School of Rock’.
The video, which featured the cast of the musical in a New York City classroom, provided a panoramic experience to viewers as they watched various performances including the debut of a new single from the musical. While the idea of using 360-degree videos in your marketing campaign can seem appealing, remember to cherry-pick the experiences or content to make it more interesting to the viewer.
3. Drone Marketing
Imagine live-streaming your entire product launch from the skies, or even having a drone hover through your office or next event. These unmanned devices are now being increasingly used in campaigns to get more creative in terms of filming–and to create higher engagement with audiences. Coca-Cola did it best with their ‘Happiness from the Skies’ campaign.
In partnership with the Singapore Kindness Movement, the popular beverage company deployed drones to deliver its product to construction workers across the country. The drones were also fitted with hidden cameras to record their reactions upon receiving the Coca-Cola cans which carried thank-you notes from the local community. Not surprisingly, it didn’t take long for the footage and the campaign to go viral.
Why Making Videos Is No Longer Optional
As the world of content creation continues to expand in terms of both creativity and technology, brands can no longer risk excluding videos from their marketing strategies.
As the benefits of video marketing continue to outweigh the costs, creating quality video content helps your brand or product remain relevant while bringing you closer to your target audience from across the globe.
People Also Ask
1. Why is video marketing important?
Video production has become both easier and cost-effective for the modern-day marketer. As the benefits of video marketing continue to outweigh the costs, here are a few reasons why you need to start making more videos:
- Helps boost conversion rates
- Improves visibility online
- Good for email marketing
- Generates greater return on investment (ROI)
- Increases retention rates
- Reaches a wider audience
- Provides a competitive edge
2. How can I create a successful video marketing campaign?
It’s important to have a definitive content video marketing strategy. Here are a few things that’ll help you get started:
- Start making videos for your target audience
- Set measurable goals and objectives
- Choose a video type
- Optimize your videos
- Collaborate with influencers
- Promote your videos across multiple platforms
3. Why is it necessary to optimize videos?
There is no point in making a video if nobody can find it online. Once your video is ready to be posted, remember to optimize it for search. A simple way to ensure this is to rely on effective SEO tactics including adding keywords to titles and descriptions.
Fun fact: Optimizing YouTube descriptions can help bump up your content to the suggested videos section. This is helpful, especially for small businesses with a limited video marketing budget.
4. What are some of the major video trends?
These are the latest video marketing trends that deserve your attention:
1. Virtual reality (VR)
2. 360-degree videos
3. Drone marketing
While creating video content might seem daunting at first, once you fully understand the process behind it along with its many benefits, you’ll begin to see things differently.
