8 Ways to Develop an Effective Video Marketing Strategy

Consumers simply love videos, especially millennials.

Videos are dominating the digital space for quite a while now. They have become one of the most effective ways to connect with consumers and engage them. To keep pace with the trend, you need to develop an effective video marketing strategy.

The statistics below justify the effectiveness of video content:

• 79% of consumers prefer to watch a video over reading text to learn about a product.
• 84% of consumers feel convinced enough to buy a product after they watch a branded video about it.
• 4 out of 5 shoppers say videos about how a product works are important.

Considering the massive upsurge in the popularity of video content, this is the perfect time to include video in your marketing strategy.

In fact, 63% of businesses are already leveraging videos as a powerful marketing tool today. 82% of them feel video is an important part of their marketing mix and 83% of them agree that videos deliver a good ROI.

Here’s how you can develop a video marketing strategy that will boost your visibility, brand awareness, and engagement.

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Disclosure: Please note that a few of the links in this article are actually affiliate links. This means that if you click on them, I will get a commission, without any extra cost to you. So, feel free to check these out as I only recommend products or services that I personally tested and highly recommend. For more information, please read my affiliate disclosure in my privacy policy.

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#1. Set Objectives

If you want to create an effective video marketing strategy, it is important to understand the purpose of your marketing initiatives.

Video content has proven helpful in lead generation and nurturing. But that’s not something you should primarily focus on. Instead, you should create videos that can help educate, entertain, and inspire your consumers.

Your consumers are more likely to appreciate such content, remember it, and share it in their circles.

The goal of your video marketing strategy should be to:

• Improve customer education.
• Increase brand awareness.
• Increase user engagement.
• Generate more leads and conversions.
• Improve sales.
• Improve website traffic.

Focusing on these goals provides a solid foundation for your video marketing strategy.

#2: Prioritize Video SEO

There is no point in creating the best videos if it doesn’t reach your audience. That’s why your video marketing strategy needs to take into consideration SEO. It will ensure that whenever a user searches for a specific keyword, your video shows up in the SERPs.

The first step for this is to conduct keyword research. Check out what people are searching for in your niche. For keyword research, you can use tools like KeywordSpy, Ahrefs, Semrush, or other keyword research tools.

Based on the most popular keywords, you can write your video titles. Also, make sure that you use these keywords in your video descriptions optimally.

Also, keep in mind that Google crawlers cannot automatically understand what your videos are about. They can only read text. Your video descriptions are what will give crawlers some context about the content of your video. It’s also advisable to add your video transcript. That makes it easier to get your videos indexed.

#3. Create Useful and Interesting Videos

Not many people will watch and share your videos if they don’t offer anything useful or interesting. You need to create videos that provide your audience with what they want or like.

When creating a video marketing strategy, you should:

• Know who your target audience is.
• Understand what kind of information they are looking for.
• Identify topics that your audience will appreciate, like, share, and engage with.
• Think about how you can cater to their needs or help solve their issues.

Create videos that are relevant to your audience and can keep them engaged.

But an effective video marketing strategy doesn’t just focus on creating informative videos. You should also try to create videos that are entertaining and that can help you build emotional connections with your audience. Such videos are known to drive more engagement.

#4. Tell Stories

People love stories. That’s why many brands are leveraging the art of storytelling to engage with their audiences.

You should craft and share interesting stories as a part of your video marketing strategy. You can talk about your brand’s values, discuss future plans, or reveal interesting behind-the-scenes stories.

Another great idea is to craft stories that cater to your audience’s needs, interests, and pain points. Such stories can help them connect with your brand on an emotional level.

Dollar Shave Club is a California-based company that delivers razors and other personal grooming products. They deliver razor blades on monthly basis as a part of their razor subscription service. Take a leaf from their video marketing strategy.

The company CEO, Michael Dubin, himself created videos to help their audience understand the concept behind their brand. The first video received nearly five million views within the first 90 days of its launch.

Since then, the DSC team constantly looks for new stories to fuel their video marketing initiatives.

Video via YouTube

#5. Experiment with Different Types of Video Content

A good video marketing strategy focuses on diversity. You should experiment with the types of videos you want to offer. It is always good to provide your audience with a variety of content to enjoy and engage with.

A majority of brands find customer testimonials to be the most effective. They act as social proof and help you build trust and credibility.

Here is how Van Damme created a testimonial for Volvo.

Video via YouTube

Let’s take a look at a few popular types of video content that you should include in your video marketing strategy:

• Customer testimonials
• Demonstration videos
• Explainer videos
• Entertaining or humorous videos
• Expert interviews
• Case studies
• Webinars
• Vlogs
• Event videos
• Behind-the-scenes videos

You can start with using two to three types of videos to see how your audience responds to them. In the long run, to develop an effective video marketing strategy, you will have to determine which type of videos work the best for your brand and audience.

#6. Promote Your Videos

Creating interesting videos and publishing them is not enough. You need to strategically promote your videos for greater exposure.

You should publish videos on your website. This will help you attract more traffic, keep visitors engaged, and give your content more exposure.

Don’t forget to engage your audience on social media. Your video marketing strategy should massively leverage various social media channels to generate high user engagement. Aim to get more likes, comments, and shares.

When sharing videos on social media, you should optimize your videos for every channel. This will help you drive the maximum possible engagement.

You can also partner with relevant social media influencers to further increase the reach of your videos. In fact, collaborating with influencers can help you create videos that have the potential to go viral.

Many successful brands partner with these influential content creators to create impressive unboxing videos of their products. These videos can help to generate audience’s interest in your products. This is a video marketing strategy that can help you to grab your audience's attention.

YouTube influencer, Lewis Hilsenteger, created an unboxing video of iPhone XS and XS Max, which received over 4.6 million views.

Video via YouTube

#7: Use Captivating Thumbnail Images

Your thumbnail image is one of the first things that your users see. So, you need to make sure you create the maximum impact with your thumbnail image. It’s like the cover of a book. A lot of readers base their first impression about a book based on how well the cover is designed.

If you want users to click on your video, you need to pick captivating images for your thumbnails. Try to add faces or people to engage people.

Let’s try to understand how you can use this video marketing strategy with the help of an example.

If you search on Google for “exercises at home,” you’ll get similar results to the ones in the screenshot below.

Image via Google

All of these videos show people are in the middle of exercising. These thumbnails show visuals that clearly align with the users’ search intent.

#8: A/B Test Your Ads With Vertical Videos

Most videos are shot in landscape mode. But most of the time we hold our phones vertically. Keep that in mind while shooting your videos. Vertical videos can impact your video marketing strategy.

With vertical videos, you can give your users an immersive experience without any distractions. You can A/B test vertical videos for your ads. Many brands including Netflix, Spotify, and others are already testing this trend.

In fact, National Geographic used this video marketing strategy during the launch of IGTV. They aired the final episode of the award-winning documentary, “One Strange Rock” on the platform in such a way that it was adapted for vertical screen.

Image via Econsultancy

Conclusion

Videos can make a significant contribution to your brand’s growth. However, you need to carefully craft an effective video marketing strategy.

You should create videos that are relevant to your audience, can engage people, and compel them to take actions such as sharing your content or making a purchase.

Are you ready to craft a solid video marketing strategy for your brand? If you need any help or consulting, you can always connect with me here.

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Disclosure: Please note that a few of the links in this article are actually affiliate links. This means that if you click on them, I will get a commission, without any extra cost to you. So, feel free to check these out as I only recommend products or services that I personally tested and highly recommend. For more information, please read my affiliate disclosure in my privacy policy.