What Makes Video Marketing Effective?

It’s safe to say that video content has become the dominant form of advertising in our lives, and along with it, the concept of video marketing has made insurmountable leaps in the last few decades.

Once exclusively the domain of high-end advertisers, anybody with a YouTube channel can use start creating videos to promote on their social media platforms.

Content creation can now be done in an affordable way with no need for major production values if the product or service does not warrant it.

Additionally, with the abundance of video editing tools, website analytics, and YouTubers coming through the ranks every single day, small businesses can compete directly if they know how to get people to watch them.

Video is the most engaging type of content; it gets 12,000 more shares than image and text combined and according to a HubSpot study, 83% of people would consider sharing video content with their friends if it met their needs.

But statistics aside, our brains actually respond more to visual stimuli.

With 90% of the information transmitted to our brains being visual, we can pique curiosity by using video marketing tactics.

What makes it such an effective marketing tool? Let’s show you why, and what you can do to achieve your video marketing goals.

What is video marketing? 

Video marketing is a powerful tool for businesses to showcase their brand and products to a wider audience.

By creating and sharing video content, businesses can engage with customers on a more personal level, build brand awareness, and drive traffic to their website.

Video marketing can take many forms, from product videos and how-to guides to brand storytelling and customer testimonials.

With the rise of social media and video sharing platforms, video marketing has become an essential part of any digital marketing strategy.

By incorporating video into their marketing efforts, businesses can effectively communicate their message and connect with customers in a more meaningful way.

How Does Video Marketing Differ From Other Types of Content Marketing?

Video marketing differs from content marketing in a number of ways that can be key to developing a better relationship with your audience:

• Format. Content marketing may span a number of disciplines, such as blogs, articles, podcasts, or ebooks. Videos are a tool that naturally has a greater production value, and as an audience expects a better quality video, the format will demand more production time and resources in comparison to creating a blog post. Video helps to drive sales and conversion rates, but only if the content is high-quality in the first place.
• Shareability. Videos are more likely to go viral than a podcast or an article due to the volume of video views. While articles have the potential to go viral, video is the more engaging tool because of its ability to span a number of platforms. Whether it’s having people watch a live stream on Facebook Live, bite-sized Instagram Stories, or numerous YouTube vlogs, explainer videos, or commercials, video has been proven time and again to be the most shareable tool, which can increase the audience share and, therefore, a greater likelihood of potential customers.
• Metrics. Another way video marketing differs from content marketing is because of the different metrics involved. When you look at something like YouTube videos, you can uncover a whole number of video content metrics like engagement, video views, play rate, etc, which we will discuss more later. Therefore, it can provide better insight into your product or service and if you are engaging with the right people.

Why Video Marketing is So Important

Video marketing should be a key part of your marketing strategy for some of the following reasons:

• Increases social media sharing. Consumers are more likely to share the videos they enjoy on social media, for example, TikTok is being used as a marketing platform for a number of reasons, including the potential to share short-form content. Creating video content that engages can increase brand visibility and drive traffic to your website landing page.
• Caters to smartphone users. As users are 1.5 times more likely to watch more videos on a smartphone than on a computer, video marketing is clearly the most important tool for modern consumers. People watch videos on mobile devices, so the entire video must be optimized for mobile, but also cater to the fact that mobile users are people who watch videos on-the-go and in numerous environments; a great video should appeal to users on multiple platforms.
• It is critical for Search Engine Optimization. There are so many rules that we must comply with to ensure our video content is SEO-optimized. Google can display a video embedded above text results, so if you are looking to bring traffic to your website, video content will bypass a lot of search results.
• Video boosts conversions and sales. Like any digital marketing campaign, video marketing campaigns can turn traffic into potential customers because video can be such a powerful tool to convince people of your product or service.
• Educates consumers about who you are. As 91% of consumers want to see more online video content from brands, a video strategy becomes the most important tool for understanding how to distribute content based on a product or service.
• Builds credibility. You should understand that the most critical element between customer and business is building trust. Video shows that you can connect your brand with your target audience by engaging them and triggering the emotional connection that is so critical to building a long-term relationship. You can use video marketing to communicate with your target audience visually audibly subconsciously and emotionally to address their pain points, share your vision, and win their trust, all while boosting your positive ROI.

How to Optimize Your Video Marketing Practices

Hook the Viewer in

The average attention span is a minuscule 8.5 seconds, so you must bring your story to life quickly to gain interest.

The opening seconds must show what your video is about and give the viewer the confidence that this is worth their time.

Creating a hook gives a quick preview of what’s coming up. Some of the following can entice your audience:

• Start with the problem and offer a solution.
• Ask a question.
• Begin with a joke.
• Surprise them.
• Hint at the story.

Pay Attention to the Thumbnail

As you can upload a thumbnail on YouTube to sit alongside your video, this can grab viewers attention by using keyword-optimized titles.

A great example is this slow cooker pulled pork video:

It shows you what awaits you, with an enticing image that’s keyword-optimized and is short and to the point.

The thumbnail is a great place to start telling a story.

Choose the Right Marketing Videos

There are numerous types, including:

• Demo videos that show how your product works.
• Brand videos that are created as part of a larger advertising campaign.
• Event videos, that can help promote a conference fundraiser or other event.
• Educational or “how to” videos, also known as instructional videos.
• Explainer videos, which can take the form of a behind the scenes video of a company, a fictional journey of a key customer, or an animated explainer video.
• Customer testimonials that show directly how a customer solves their pain points.

Think Beyond Sound

Videos now autoplay on YouTube, which forces us to be more creative.

Focusing on imagery to tell your story is a critical component, as those who watch mobile video content are unlikely to do so without the sound on.

More and more videos are creating a compelling story without audio, so if you can get your point across without sound, this can force your video talent team to think of different ways to boost the effectiveness of the video content, which can include:

• Text descriptions.
• Subtitles.
• Engaging imagery.

Optimize Your Video Content for SEO

One of the key fundamentals of any marketing practice is in optimizing for search. To make sure your videos reach your desired audience in the YouTube search results, consider :

• Adding a description to the video. When you add a description, this doesn’t just show what your video is about, but is the perfect opportunity to include keywords in the description. However, rather than filling the YouTube video with keywords, tell the story about what is in the video.
• Using keywords in the title. Keeping your title to less than 60 characters is critical to stop it from being cut off by the YouTube description, but using keywords in the title can help you rank higher.

Include a Call To Action (CTA)

Similar to website copy, optimizing your video content with calls to action can encourage people to “like and subscribe.” Other YouTube calls to action can include:

• Checking out other content.
• Commenting on the video.
• Sharing with friends.
• Signing up for the service.

CTAs can appear almost anywhere, not just at the end of the video.

It could be at the very start of the video, so the audience has the opportunity to subscribe and enjoy the content, or it can be between the start and the end, which targets viewers at the point where they are most engaged, which works very effectively when doing a list post.

You can add CTAs to your content in some of the following ways:

• Adding a card at the end of the video, which may include an end card. There are many templates you can use online, but be sure to keep it on brand with the video style.
• Add a CTA in the middle of the content, either by having the host ask the audience to like, share, or subscribe, or by a button popping up.

How Can You Achieve Your Video Marketing Goals

Focus on Stories

The world of video marketing has evolved beyond television or print.

We all have the opportunity to reach the same target audience that mass media can reach, so we are in direct competition with other businesses.

Focusing on stories, rather than sales, will ensure that you are creating videos that connect with the viewer for the right reasons.

Video marketers can make the mistake of looking for the sale angle, but there are fantastic video advertising campaigns that focus on the story to elicit an emotional response.

For example, the following advert for the University of Phoenix struck a chord a few years ago; a child telling the story about a dragon discovering their wings alongside a busy mother achieving her potential tapped into something so many of us can empathize with:

Operate With a Budget in Mind

A video is an incredibly impactful format, but requires a number of resources to succeed.

A small video production requires the skills of many people, and ensuring you can plan your first video with a budget and appropriate timeline will help you deal with unexpected challenges.

The major steps in video production include:

• Pre-production, where you would brainstorm, script, storyboard, and prepare.
• The production, which would encompass audio and visual components, like lighting, styling, and the general filming itself.
• Post-production, which includes video editing, or visual effects, sound effects, and graphic effects like animations and CTAs.

Decide Which Metrics You Want to Track

When you define your goals, you will need to decide the best metrics to help you understand if you can accomplish those goals.

Rather than just being obsessed with view count, there are a number of other metrics to observe:

• Play rate, which is the percentage of people who have played your video, divided by the number of impressions (the total number of times your video has appeared in search results on digital and social channels) it has received.
• Video completions, which is the number of times users play the video from beginning to end.
• Social sharing and comments, which are the number of times people share or comment on your video.
• Click-through rate (CTR), which is the number of times users click the CTA button divided by the number of times it has been viewed.
• Conversion rates, which is how many times visitors have completed the desired action divided by the click number on the CTA.
• Bounce rate, which measures how many visitors click away from the website after viewing a page
• Time on page, which highlights how long people have been on that specific page for.

Are You Ready to Refine Your Video Marketing Techniques?

While creating video content can be a time consuming practice, at Optimo, we can provide help with generating marketing campaign ideas, as well as provide support with creating a video script, or even support you with coming up with the right YouTube titles to make the process easier.

A great video marketing strategy covers a lot of methods and tactics, therefore, it’s critical to use the right ones that increase engagement and remain true to your brand.