Humans are visual learners. According to tech giant Cisco, 82% of all consumer internet traffic will be video by 2021. This shows that video plays an important role in your marketing strategy. What types of video marketing should you create?
As you may already know, marketing has grown from pushy sales messages to meaningful inbound marketing strategies that create meaningful conversations with prospects and customers.
And what better way is there to create these conversations than using video as part of your content marketing strategy?
According to one study, 78% of people said that their buying decisions have been influenced by brands’ social media posts.
Therefore, according to Facebook, their live streams get 10 times more engagement than regular videos.
In the past, I wrote about
- Types of content for video marketing
- Reasons why video is good for content marketing
- How to start using video marketing
- and The Best Video Ad Network for Small Publishers
But based on feedback I’ve received on this and related topics, this time around, our focus is on the various types of video marketing.
What Is Video Content Marketing?
Video content marketing is all about the creation and distribution of consistent video content to your target audience intending to attract, engage and convert them into leads and customers.
If you’ve read the articles above, one thing that’s clear is that video marketing is about integrating video content into every stage and channel of your marketing strategy.
Video marketing is about creating video content that is useful and entertaining and using it alongside all your other forms of content like blog posts and podcasts to encourage your target audience to engage with you further.
The time visitors spend on your site (dwell time) is a factor that Google uses to analyse and rank websites. Therefore, your site will rank high if you incorporate videos.
So producing consistent quality video content is great for proving to search engines you’re a true expert in your chosen topics.
The chances of your web page securing a place on the coveted page one search listing on search engines increases many folds with a video.
Also, since YouTube is the second largest online search engine, having a video on that platform increases your chances of featuring high on SERPs.
Types of Video Marketing
Now that you know what video marketing is about, let’s run through the types of video marketing you should be using.
Video marketing is about integrating video content into every stage and channel of your marketing strategy. Click To TweetFor simplicity’s sake, we’ll categorise the types of video marketing into:
- Video series
- Launch videos
- Brand videos
- Interactive videos
Video Series
In the past, you used to have to go to the government-owned stations to produce a TV show. But now, thanks to the democratisation of video, any business can get started with a video series on their own.
A few years ago, a telecom provider created an engaging, episodic video content that their viewers could watch both on TV and YouTube. These types of video series can contribute to the long-term growth of your brand and business.
A note of caution. Making a video series is a very big marketing risk that any company can take. But if executed well, it can lead to an endless positive conversation on social media and introduce your brand to a whole new audience.
Launch Videos
Are you a startup or a young company looking to showcase your new product or service offering? Or are you rebranding and thinking of how best to launch your new brand?
A launch video is a unique and specific form of product promotional video. Other, smaller videos may precede them, but launch videos’ are the high profile videos intended to set the tone for the new product or service. Established businesses also create these videos to reset a product or launch an important new category.
As the old saying goes, you’ll never get a second chance to make a good first impression! Therefore, it is critical that you put your best to ensure that your launch video is flawless.
Brand videos
Do you want to improve conversions, educate prospects, explain what they do, or boost brand awareness?
Do you want to create an avenue to sit and talk with your employees about your company’s mission and values? Then use brand videos.
Brand awareness videos are often light-hearted and entertaining. These types of videos perform well on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks. That’s why they are becoming popular as a way of showing social proof that is often vital in sealing the deal with your customers.
Whether you are explaining your company’s history or your dedication to customer experiences use brand videos to explain what makes your company unique. Use brand videos to show what makes you stand out from your competitors.
Brand videos in the form of interviews are great in that you can also use them to create a series with different guests and leveraging the knowledge of your guests to power your content marketing.
Companies like McDonald’s make use of short brand videos to showcase their commitment to sustainability.
An important question that you must answer through your brand videos is why customers should choose your business over your competition.
Interactive videos are most often used as training videos or videos that allow your consumers to seek out the information they need. Click To TweetInteractive Videos
These are the “choose-your-own-adventure” style videos. This type of video allows your target audience to choose what happens next in their journey.
Interactive videos are most often used as training videos or videos that allow your consumers to seek out the information they need.
This type of video transforms your audience from viewers to participants. We can also use them as marketing videos.
Interactive videos are probably the most complex form of video content for marketing and training alike. Producing an interactive video requires a lot more than just a phone and an editing app.
So get expert advice from a digital marketing consultant on this kind of video before you get started!
How to Make a Video for Your Business
A lot goes into making a video production. Below is a list of ten steps or process of creating and publishing a video production for your business.
- Plan your video.
- Script your video.
- Understand and use your cameras.
- Set up your studio.
- Prepare your talent.
- Shoot for the edit.
- Organize your footage.
- Edit your video.
- Choose your music.
- Record your voice over.
Video Length
The length of your video can be anything from a few seconds or minutes (like those on Snapchat) to over a hundred minutes depending on the story you are trying to tell through your video content.
Some content creators on YouTube claim that lengthy videos perform better on that platform. The sweet spot for most is around 10+ minutes. But make sure that your video is chock full of information and is entertaining. Otherwise, you will not get the desired result.
What Will Constitute Success for the Video?
How you measure the success or otherwise of your video marketing campaigns depends largely on the goal for your campaign. Here are a few key performance indicators based on the goals of a campaign.
Goal: Awareness
If the goal for your video marketing campaign is to create brand awareness, then you should use the following indices to measure the success of the campaign:
- Views
- Impressions
- Unique users
- Awareness lift
- Ad recall lift
Goal: Consideration
Are you interested in having your target audience consider your brand as an ideal choice? Then measure:
- View-through rate
- Watch time
- Favourability rate
- Consideration lift
- Brand interest lift
Goal: Action
If your goal is to get your audience to respond to your Call To Action and do something specific after watching your video e.g. subscribe to your newsletter, then you should measure:
- Clicks
- Calls
- Signups
- Sales
- Purchase intent lift.
How to Create a Video Social Media Strategy
So far we’ve learned what is video marketing, its various types, the steps involved in making a video, the ideal length of the video and how to measure the success of your video.
Now it is also important at this point to ensure that you promote your videos on social media.
Though your main content may live on your website, chances are that your existing and prospective customers are checking Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook more often.
To leverage these platforms successfully, you need to make sure your video meets each social network’s best practices.
When creating and posting videos on social media you must ensure that your videos always help you drive toward your existing marketing goals.
For instance, if your goal is to drive people from YouTube to download an ebook, create short video teaser and post the full link to your e-book’s landing page in the copy of your post.
Or let’s say you’re a hairdresser and your existing or prospective customers favourite platform is Instagram. You can create short video tutorials for Instagram to teach people how to style their hair at home by themselves. You can also use Instagram stories to spice your campaign.
However, now that organic reach has been reduced on various social networks, be ready to pay to promote your post and boost its reach. You’ve spent time and effort in making the video. So there’s nothing wrong in spending more to promote that video and ensure it meets your right customers.
Conclusion
In recent years, content marketing has undergone a huge transformation and video marketing has taken centre stage.
If you’re not doing so already, you need to create a comprehensive video marketing strategy that highlights every aspect of your business.
We base modern marketing strategies on conversations you have with your target audience primarily through written content distributed through websites, blogs, podcasts, video content, social media and email.
Don’t get left behind. Speak with a qualified digital marketing agency like Mauco Enterprises about your video marketing strategy or your overall marketing plan. We can help you grow your business online.
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