You already know how to create a compelling video. That’s not the problem. How do you actually create a video marketing campaign around your video and brand? It’s a challenging question. Video marketing is a unique type of marketing, and it isn’t always intuitive. There’s a lot more money involved when you’re creating video, and you need to know how to use it to your best advantage.
Here’s what you need to know:
Creating the Right Plan
Who is your video going to be targeted to? How long will it be and where will it be distributed? Before you start producing your video, you need to have a buyer persona in mind. Think strongly about the person who will be reacting to the video, and the type of reaction you want them to have.
Every platform is different, so your distribution channel matters, too. If you’re going to be distributing a video through paid ads, it’s going to be a different experience than if you’re uploading a video to social media. Particularly, the tone and the length will change. If you’re a video professional working with an end client, make sure this plan is shared and agreed upon with them as well.
Set Your Goals
Every advertising campaign needs goals, whether it’s to build brand awareness or to build revenue. If you don’t have any goals, you won’t be able to know whether your campaign is truly being effective.
Think about your previous campaigns: how successful were they? Be realistic when setting your goals. If you try to overshoot, you might just end up spending too much money at the wrong time.
Test Out Your Script
If you’re targeting specific demographics, it’s worth it to test out your video with those demographics. Before you film anything, test your script out with your audience and see how they react. If there’s anything that confuses them or doesn’t resonate with them, consider changing it. This lets you test out your video before you’ve made a significant investment in funds.
Don’t Forget the Polish
Even if you’re creating a fairly limited video, you should still make sure that it’s as professional as possible. Shorter videos often need to have even more polish, because they only have a limited amount of time to create an impression. Use professional video recording and audio recording software, and make sure the editing is clear.
Try to Reuse Videos
Remember: your library is all a marketing tool. Don’t just use videos once, but reuse them. Not only can you reuse previous footage for new videos, but you can also repost video occasionally with a discussion. The more mileage you can get out of the videos that you already have, the better your ROI is going to be.
When you take videos, you can shoot a lot of B-roll. B-roll is video that you might not be using, but can be used as filler, such as establishing shots, scenery, and just shots that aren’t used. Your B-roll collection can be used to create other videos later on, which means you can slash the budget of your future videos.
Expand Your Library As Much As Possible
Ideally, you should have a very wide array of video types in your library. If you don’t have any explainer videos, then your marketing campaign probably needs explainer videos. If you don’t have any behind the scenes videos, you might need some behind the scenes videos.
There is a second demographic that will look for certain types of video, and you can expand the amount of people that you pull into your business by creating new video types.
Emphasize Your Branding
You can’t build brand awareness without a brand. You need to display your branding throughout your video, with your logo, voice, colors, and so forth. Make a list of what your brand means most to you, and what your brand means to the customers who are going to see this video. Your brand may mean different things depending on your demographics. Align your branding and your message to those who are going to be watching.
Your branding is everything about your video, from the tone of you use in the script to the way that you frame your scenes. It’s worth it to create a content and marketing document that covers what your audience should expect when they see your media. Your audience will pick up on what you’re putting down consistently, and that consistency will improve upon their image of you.
Set a Budget for Your Video
Advertising is all about ROI. Your goal should be that your advertising consistently brings you in more money than it costs, but that can be a difficult (and moving) target to hit. Sometimes you may want to test videos out with less of a budget, but keep in mind that your budget may also determine how effective your video is.
Your video may also have additional costs, especially if it’s being used in paid search. Don’t forget to keep these costs in mind. Ideally, you should be able to track both how much you’ve spent on the video, and how much money the video has brought in.
Experiment With Calls to Action
Every good marketing video has to end with a call to action. That’s what tells your audience to do next. If your current call to action isn’t working, it’s time to adjust. You can use multiple calls to action and see which ones are most effective.
Ideally, your call to action should be clear and simple. The most popular call to actions are just to pick up the phone and dial a number, or send an email asking for more information. Your audience may find itself more susceptible to one call to action than another.
Take a Look at the Competition
It’s always worthwhile to see what your competitors are doing in terms of video marketing. You don’t necessarily want to copy what they’re doing. Sometimes you may want to inhabit a niche. If there’s something that they haven’t covered or done, you can try your best to expand your library in that direction. This gives you an edge over your competition.
Don’t Forget the Trends
Video marketing changes quite quickly. Video marketing is targeted towards an online audience, and an online audience is often uniquely knowledgeable about recent trends. Taking advantage of these trends can help you seem current and savvy. Consider some timely videos about recent news; these will be shared and generate buzz.
Leverage Your Social Media
Regardless of where you’re intending to distribute your video, social media is going to be a powerful method of getting it out. Your social media marketing will be able to connect directly to your audience, which also means that you’ll be able to communicate with them one-on-one, gathering feedback and generating interest.
Don’t forget that the comments sections on videos can be more important than the videos themselves. The more fans interact with your brand, the more likely they will be to make a purchase.
Make Sure to Set Your Analytics
Your analytics is what’s going to track whether your marketing is successful. If someone clicks a link from your video, that has to have a tracking ID for that specific video. Otherwise, you’re not going to know whether the traffic is coming from your videos or from another source. Your analytics will tell you how many people are responding to your video marketing campaign, which in turn will help you track your ROI.
Ideally, your company’s sales funnel should be fully tracked through your website, so you can figure out whether your campaign is actually leading to sales. By tracking through the sales funnel, you can see whether your audience is going halfway through the process, or just clicking through the website, and then abandoning it.
Your analytics can also do much more than that, especially if you leverage third-party services like Google. Google can tell you the demographic information of those who are clicking on your ads, including stuff like age, gender, and interests. That lets you narrow down to who you want to target more successfully, which is always positive.
Test Your Marketing
After your video has been distributed, test it out. Take a look at your analytics. Is it resonating with your audience? Which videos are performing better? Build out your video library in that direction. Your video marketing campaign is going to be about more than just a single video; it’s going to be about your entire video marketing strategy.
You’re going to need to adjust that strategy from time to time. Every business does. If you don’t, your advertising will stagnate and you will find yourself getting diminishing returns. But the fact that your marketing has to be repeatedly refreshed is a positive rather than a negative. It means that you’re going to be able to improve upon your business each time.
Starting a Video Marketing Campaign
Creating a video marketing campaign may take time, and it’s one of the more expensive forms of advertising due to the sheer amount of media involved. Nevertheless, it’s also one of the most effective form of marketing campaign. Many people learn best through video: the audio and video together is uniquely engaging.
But there needs to be a lot of planning, and sometimes it’s best to work with an expert partner. Video marketing campaigns will help your business build momentum, and will make it possible to build your company’s content overall. If you want to build your traffic, your social media, and your brand awareness at once, there’s nothing like a well-branded video.
