THE ULTIMATE VIDEO MARKETING GUIDE FOR 2021

Written By Timothy Spiers

12 minutes 45 seconds

Have you ever thought ‘It would be good to have some video content’ and then, weren’t sure what type of video to create or you created one and weren’t sure where to post it?

In this article, I’m going to show you why video marketing is important, and I’ll tell you, step by step what type of videos to create and how to plan your video marketing campaigns and produce purpose-driven video content.

I’ll also be giving you some FREE DOWNLOADABLE TEMPLATES. VIDEO FORMAT SPECIFICATIONS and VIDEO PRODUCTION PLAN - CONCEPT TO DISTRIBUTION.

 
 

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WHAT IS VIDEO MARKETING?

Video marketing is using videos to promote and market your product or service, Increase engagement on your digital and social channels, educate your consumers and customers, and reach your audience while continually building a relationship with them.

 
 

WHY DOES VIDEO MATTER?

Video has transformed into an entire business strategy. Not using video these days is like a business without a website, crazy right?

If your competitors are leveraging video marketing successfully and you’re not then you’re going to be falling behind.

 
 

WHAT DO THE STATISTICS SAY?

Looking at the statistics HubSpot reports:

  • A website is 53 times more likely to be on page 1 of Google

  • 79% of visitors would rather watch a video than reading text.

  • 50% of consumers want to see videos

  • Video on landing pages increases conversion by up to 80%.

  • The word “video” in an email subject line increases open rates by 19%.

So that’s great, video helps traffic, engagement, and retention, but will it increase your profits? Well...

  • 90% of customers also say videos help them make buying decisions.

  • 93% of businesses reported getting a new customer on social media that watched a video and

  • 64% of customers say that seeing a video makes them more likely to buy.

 
 

THE BENEFITS OF USING VIDEO

Consumers are no longer looking for big-budget corporate and brand videos but short, engaging, authentic, conversational, and helpful videos.

This allows you to be more personable and connect with your audience at every point of their journey and more importantly establish credibility, build a relationship and TRUST

and we buy from people we TRUST.

Word of warning!

Be aware though 62% of consumers are more likely to have a negative perception of a brand that publishes a low-quality video.

To watch our short video and read more about the benefits of using video messages, check out UNLOCK YOUR VALUE WITH PROFESSIONAL VIDEO MESSAGES where we also show an amazing before and after example of a professional video shoot.

 
 

VIDEO MARKETING STRATEGY

Video ads are a vital part of your strategy but Inbound video marketing is very cost-effective. You can create different types of videos for your clients or prospects depending on where they are on their journey.

It is helpful to understand the ‘Video Marketing Funnel’.

If we look at the top of your marketing funnel where your audience is aware or becoming aware of your business or offering we want to attract them and use:

Attract (The customer becomes aware)

  • Short videos that show off your brand’s personality

  • Inspirational creative content

  • Thought leadership videos that establish you as the expert

  • Educational how-to videos that provide relevant tips for solving your audience’s problems

  • Brand videos that share your values and mission

For example, this video you are watching now, it’s broad and is appealing to a wide audience that are curious about how video can be used effectively in their business. Top of the funnel right?

Having enjoyed your content and you’ve proven to be credible, you’re building trust with your audience, they will start to consider your product or service. At this stage, you can engage them with

Engage (The customer is considering)

  • Webinars

  • Product demos

  • Educational videos that lead to a landing page

  • Case studies

  • In-depth educational how-to videos

In the final buying stage presenting useful video content to help build confidence and convince consumers they’re making the right decision will be...

Closing (The customer is making decisions)

  • Testimonial videos

  • In-depth product demos

  • Culture videos that express the quality of service

  • Personalized videos that explain exactly how your product or service could help them or their business

  • Promotional videos that lead to a landing page

Finally, It’s all very well making a sale but you want to create a fan for life that will be a brand advocate and buy repeatedly. So you need to delight them with a……...

Delight (Creating a fan, a customer, or client for life)

  • Thank you video in an email welcoming them into the community

  • Onboarding video to get them set up with their new role or purchase

  • Building out a library of educational training videos

  • And Loyalty schemes

 
 

VIDEO MARKETING PLAN

Strategy

So now we know why and what sort of videos to create, we need a video marketing plan, right?

Start by Designing a video marketing strategy that fulfills your business goals and objectives as part of your Content Marketing Plan, branding, and style guide.

Budget

It’s important to have a budget in mind. This helps your team or production company with planning your shoots.

Video has always been thought of as being very expensive but it doesn’t have to be. Some video content you can create yourself and other core content may be more cost-effective to use a professional team The secret is to do a lot of planning and maximize your shoot time by creating multiple pieces of content with different versions.

Video Content Plan (What, where, and how often)

To write your video content plan you want to decide what your content pillars are. The content for these will be very specific and in-depth about your core offering. Around this you create content clusters, these are supporting pieces of content that lead back to your main content pillars.

So, for example, Hubspots offering is a CRM system but makes many vlogs about content marketing, sales pipelines, etc but they lead back to their main offering, to use and buy their CRM software.

With that said, if you’re new to video marketing and not using a professional agency, start with some videos that are easy to achieve. This will help you build your confidence.

Next, create a content calendar and plan what videos you’ll shoot, how often, and on what platforms you will be promoting your videos.

Research

Now that you’re fired up with some great ideas and a timeline to work to it’s time to do some research. You know what your video is going to be about so see what your competitors are up to. Use it for inspiration and to make sure you’re being unique and providing more value.

Titles

Unless you’re only using video on Instagram, A good title is not only the first thing that will draw someone to your post but it will help your SEO and Google ranking. To help you choose a good title that is being searched for go to Answer The Public and put in your subject, It will return the top questions being searched.

You can test your titles at Coschedule they help you write headlines that drive traffic, shares, and search results.

Thumbnails

Yes having good thumbnails or video covers is so important but I’ll come back to that

Keywords

So make sure you include your keywords. You can go to somewhere like Ubersuggests by Neil Patel to research the right ones for your business.

Hashtags

Do some research and create different clusters of hashtags. You can use websites like Best Hashtags

Channels

Be clear about the channels where you will be promoting your videos as they require different formats, length, file size, etc. Deciding this in advance will save a lot of time.

Purpose Of Channels

Don’t try and post everywhere, different channels have different purposes and different audiences. You need to give the right message to the right person at the right time.

Versions

Having decided on the channels you will be using in advance will help you plan your video shoot for the different versions. At the end of this video, I will let you know how to download your free guide to video formats for different channels.

 
 

VIDEO PRODUCTION

In our next video, we will go in-depth into how to plan and produce a video, but in brief, you will need to write a treatment. Taking a concept and creating a storyboard.

Write a script if needed or design graphic overlays. Scope out the practicalities, the who, what, where, how. And more on optimization and SEO.

You can read more and watch our short video on HOW TO PLAN YOUR VIDEO SHOOT here. You can also check out our video production service here.

 
 

VIDEO DISTRIBUTION AND PROMOTION

How you promote and distribute your video will vary greatly depending on each project.

For example, for a video blog, we may decide to post the video on Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook, and LinkedIn but promote it on Instagram, Facebook, and Google My Business.

We create a full version and upload it to Vimeo, so we can post a nice clean add free version on our website.

We’ll upload the same version to Youtube with a cool cover made in Canva. We add timestamps in the description to different sections of the video with links back to a website landing page with a promotion.

Then a different version with an embedded cover and captions will be posted on LinkedIn with a good description with keywords. Don’t share your Youtube videos on a LinkedIn post as LinkedIn won’t rank your content because they don’t want to send a viewer to another platform. Load directly onto the platform.

The same video also works well on Facebook.

Finally, we create 30-second short-form versions for promoting on Instagram, Facebook, and Google My Business.

Remember to use your keywords and hashtags.

Now that you’ve distributed your video, track, analyze, and measure it in relation to the video’s goals.

 
 

SUMMARY

  • Create a strategy even if it’s a loose one that you’ll refine later

  • Choose key performance indicator to measure your video’s success.

  • Plan your budget and identify any challenges ahead of time.

  • Identify your target market and what you hope to achieve.

  • Choose your video type and publishing platform.

  • Do your research and brainstorm creative ideas.

  • Video SEO, Titles, keywords, hashtags, and hot links

  • Make your video in different versions

  • Edit your videos and optimize for different platforms.

  • Publish your video at peak times using SEO best practices.

  • Promote your video across your online channels and reply to comments to boost engagement.

 
 

CONCLUSION

Video advertising is becoming more and more affordable and widespread. Video adoption grows partly because of advances in technology but also because it’s easy to spread across the globe.

Making marketing videos for your business requires creativity and knowledge of human psychology. The cocktail of these components makes it possible to create real miracles of advertising at a minimal cost.

This may all seem a lot to tackle but our advice is to keep it simple, write for an audience of one, don’t get bogged down in the weeds, and start now. It gets easier the more you do. Honestly!

Feel free to reach out to us for advice and click on the links below for your free downloads.

 
 

FREE DOWNLOADS

VIDEO FORMAT SPECIFICATIONS

VIDEO PRODUCTION PLAN - CONCEPT TO DISTRIBUTION

 
Timothy Spiers https://www.visualcontentagency.uk
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