For businesses that are not used to producing high volumes of video content it can often seem like the only real consideration is around the production of the actual videos themselves. There is so much more to video production and this guide will walk you through the different aspects involved to ensure that you have effective video content that delivers a return on investment. The sections that we will look at in the guide are:
- What result are we going for – the importance of setting goals
- Who are we targeting and where do we find them – know your audience
- What kind of video are we making – different types of video
- Plan your content – effective video can be efficient too
- Distribution and deployment – pushing it out
- Measuring the results – analytics and review
We have not gone into great deal about the actual production process as we have lots of information around this on our process page, instead we are focussed on the video marketing strategy elements.
What result are we going for – the importance of setting goals
Let’s be honest, to create any kind of video content takes time, resources and money to execute. If you are creating high production value, professional video then you’ll invest time selecting and working with the production agency. If it is in house content that you are creating, then you’ll require time to script and plan, purchase equipment to film and learn some form of editing software – all of which is a time cost at the very least. Therefore when you are working with video, start with what you want to achieve from the ‘project’ and then work backwards. This way everything that you are doing is geared around a video marketing strategy that has a clear goal in terms of what you want to achieve.
Start with a high level objective for your video or videos and ask yourself a very important question – “what do I want the viewer to do when they have watched the video?” This is instrumental in how you actually shape the content so that it is geared towards leading the viewer to do what it is you have identified as your ideal next step for them. Some examples might be:
- I want them to buy my product
- I want them to get in touch within me for a quote
- I want them to book an appointment
- I want them to subscribe / download / enter a competition
- I want them to be aware of my product or service and move to the next phase of the funnel (if this is the case make the next stage of the funnel for them really explicit)
- I want them to understand how to use the product
Once you know the answer to this high level question you know what content and tone that the video requires to deliver this outcome.
During the planning phase you should also consider other factors well in advance to make sure that you create and have your videos at the right time. Things to consider might be:
- What time of year to film content? If you sell scarves then filming in the middle of June won’t be ideal visually, so perhaps film content in January ready for the following winter. Equally if you have a Christmas Campaign there is no point filming in December when all the decorations are up, film in the previous year and have it ready for when your campaign starts. Perhaps consider staging a Christmas scene inside and using stock footage for externals.
- If you are planning to push the videos on social media, consider having them as a 1:1 aspect ratio(square) rather than a traditional 16:9 aspect ratio (landscape) as videos that fill more of the screen on mobile perform much better.
- Don’t worry about being the creative director, you engage with an agency who can give you the benefit of their own expertise around video production and video marketing and help you with some concepts. If you are creating them in house, look at what other people are creating and take what works and leave what doesn’t.
Who are we targeting and where do we find them – know your audience
When you know what you want your viewer to do, you then need to establish where they hang out so you can get your video in front of them. In order to know where they are online you need to establish who they are. A great way to do this is to create some customer avatars, or customer personas as they are sometimes known as. These are fictional profiles of your ideal customer, complete with names, ages, jobs and likes! When you know who they are, what they like and dislike, what their socio-economic status is, hobbies, etc. you can start to build a picture of where they visit in order to position your videos in the same place to catch their attention.
If you are looking at B2B video there tends to be better success in pushing video content directly to your audience via email campaigns, video brochures, LinkedIn, presentations and retargeting.
If your client base is predominantly B2C then you can reach more people using a volume strategy. This might be posting at agreed times on social when there is evidence of your audience being active and engaged online. You may also choose to advertise on YouTube, which is traditionally less expensive than Google Ads, or allocate some PPC (pay-per-click) budget for Facebook and Instagram advertising.
For companies with a slightly bigger budget it is now possible to access television advertising. Previously you had to have a massive ad buying budget to have your content on TV, but now with digital services with 4OD, ITV Hub and Sky AdSmart, you can for a relatively modest fee reach many, many targeted households, on TV, in an affordable way.
Once you know where your audience are you can tailor your video production to meet the needs of the audience and the medium – so for B2C social media content it needs to be very short and concise, and you need to consider the whether the user can hear the audio on their phones in public spaces or browsing while watching the TV.
With B2B content, it has the flexibility to be longer content, but needs to focus on the problem the viewer has and how you provide a solution for them – this normally involves getting quite quickly to how you will be either making someone money or saving them money!
Promo video – this is usually to introduce someone to your service offering. It is often used at the top of the funnel to create awareness, brand recognition and deliver credibility. These videos often fall short because the viewer is not ready to ‘buy’ from you, but you haven’t made it clear what you want them to do next. Perhaps get a no obligation quote, a free audit, download a guide or resource, etc – if it is top of the funnel content, make sure that you are moving them down the funnel in a clear way.
Animated video – this is often overlooked as people immediately think of what can be filmed when they consider video content. Animation is great to show a process, build empathy with a character animation, highlight statistics or bring an infographic to life. You are not restricted by what can be filmed with animation so it allows you to be more creative or abstract and can work for any sector.
Explainer videos – these are literally an explainer as to how something works. If you have a product, you may wish to highlight in detail the features and functionality so that viewers can then make the connection to how it may be of use to them. If you have a service you can explain the specific benefits of your service. These videos are less stylistic and ‘salesy’ and instead more functional and instructive.
Talent and recruitment videos – when we talk about ‘marketing strategy’, we immediately assume this means acquiring customers and encouraging sales. While this is often the main objective of marketeers, businesses can’t function without great people. In order to attract the best and the brightest you should establish a strategy of creating content that initially delivers awareness and interest, then provides more detail on the company, opportunities, benefits and culture and then ongoing content to retain your teams. Attracting great people isn’t an HR problem, it’s a marketing problem and therefore needs a great marketing strategy behind it.
Product videos – if you have a product or suite of products then why wouldn’t you create fantastic, professional content to highlight the features and benefits? If you have lots of products these can be ‘DIY’ videos to keep budgets low. Invest in some lighting, camera and a set of some description and then film and edit your content. Video is so much more immersive and creates an increased willingness to purchase as opposed to static imagery.
Training videos – these can take a number of guises. People love to get advice from experts for free so consider creating some content that people can access at no cost which increases your credibility and reach. It may also be content that you create to help people use your products and services more effectively. For example if you have a home technology system, rather than a clunky user manual, create a video that people can follow. If you have a product that needs cleaning or maintaining regularly to keep it in good shape and last longer, provide guidance on this using video so it is easier for viewers to understand and replicate.
Testimonial videos – we all like to buy through referral and recommendation from friends and colleagues, but if you don’t know anyone who has purchased from that supplier you can’t get the recommendation. Having client case study and testimonial videos allows people to gain trust and confidence in what you do despite them being strangers. It is much more immersive and compelling than a simple Google or TrustPilot review and potential customers can see the kind of people that already buy from you and make a connection to themselves. Also consider doing very short teaser edits to get interest, which are then supported by a longer edit for those who desire more detail.
Vlogs and DIY videos – these can cut across a number of the options above. You can get phones with great cameras nowadays, with ring lights and a gimbal to mount them on, linked to a microphone for great results. Alternatively you can just use your webcam instead. Write a blog and then film it as well, it can sit on your website as text to be crawled for SEO value and also on YouTube to give you additional searchability there too.
As part of your strategy just be clear about what it is that you want your video to be, what function you want it to serve, then you will be clear about the script and messaging within.
Plan your content – effective video can be efficient too
When creating video, think more widely than just one video and think longer term than just one campaign. If you are having a filmed production it can cost a reasonable amount of money to have a crew on set for a day or two, as such try and get enough content for a range of videos. Even if you don’t pay for them to be edited immediately you will have the footage already and can activate the post production at a time to suit you.
In addition, you should be putting together a content calendar that has all of your marketing activity planned in, working in harmony to emphasise your pitch and messaging over and over, across a range of platforms. One of the best ways of doing this is to create a calendar each quarter that focuses on the following:
- What are the products and / or services that you wish to promote more heavily in the next quarter?
- Are there any seasonal or calendar events that you can take advantage of (St Valentines Day, International Women’s Day, the FIFA World Cup, etc)?
- What is the overall ambition of the campaign?
- What video content do you want to create and where will it be deployed?
- What blogs and longer form content will you create to support the campaign?
- Is there any paid advertising to increase reach?
- Have you taken your written and video content and linked to a series of social posts that are scheduled and will drive people to the content you want?
- What new pages on your website are required to house the content and are they all built, populated and tested?
- Are processes and procedures in place to capture interest if it spikes / do you have inventory to cope with increased demand?
- Have you identified how you will measure success over the short, medium and long term span of the campaign so you can identify whether it is working, or you need to make some tweaks, and you can identify the return on investment (ROI) of the campaign – that is the true measure of its success?
By planning in this way you can make your video budget stretch further and get more content to push out, or you can use your own time more effectively if you are creating the video content yourself just by having an effective video marketing strategy in place.
Distribution and deployment – pushing it out
You can have the best video content in the world but if no one sees it, it may as well be the worst. Video is effective because it can be in front of way more eyeballs for way less money than a brochure, pamphlet or sales presentation. This is why your mechanism of deployment is so important – think about how and where you are going to push it out before you even start to storyboard the video.
The obvious places are to deploy it on your website, and of course you should, but this is not a panacea as you need to drive traffic to see it. Think about all the ways that you can promote the video content or, as it is sometimes called, ‘sweat the asset’.
- Upload to your website
- Push out organically on your LinkedIn feed several times with a different description each time to ensure people see it
- Push out organically on social media channels, multiple occasions at different times of the day
- Add it to your e-mail signature as a link with a compelling reason to click on it
- Embed it in an e-mail or Mailchimp campaign as there is greater engagement and open rates when video is included
- Advertise on YouTube
- Add it to your Amazon or Etsy account if it relates to a product you are selling
- Apply it to a video brochure and send it as physical mail to high value clients
- Include in your client presentations and at any exhibitions you attend
- Use as PPC collateral on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook
- Optimise it on YouTube so that it is found organically
Transcribe the video and add more content to it, which creates a long form blog with video content to support, and then reach out to other sites to include as a guest post
The more places that you can position your video content (and it should be more than just one video to make an effective campaign) the greater the chance that your ideal customers (remember those personas and avatars from earlier in the blog) will see it. Work out which videos go at which stage of the funnel and that will guide you on where to deploy them most effectively.
Measuring the results – analytics and review
As with anything of this nature, if you can’t measure it, you have no idea if it delivered an ROI or not. That is why the ability to analyse the effectiveness of any video marketing campaign is crucial. You can therefore work out what went well and what you need to improve on with the next campaign. Some ways that you can monitor effectiveness are:
- Look at the pages on your video where your video sits and ensure that you add the relevant UTM codes – which stands for Urchin Tracking Module (UTM). These are are snippets of code which you attach to the end of a particular URL. They are used so that marketeers can establish specific sources of traffic to a website. At their most basic level UTM codes include a traffic source, a medium, and a campaign name. They may also contain keyword terms and content identifiers
- Check your Google analytics to establish peaks in traffic after specific campaign activity
- Ensure that you track any sales or enquiries to a traffic source or campaign – usually this is done via a simple check box system at checkout or order, but where services are offered it may require a physical question to be asked during a sales conversation
- Cross reference any successful sales against any video brochures that were sent out
- Look at general engagement levels on your video hosting analytics
The key is to make sure that you have technology and processes in place to monitor and measure activity and engagement so that you can understand how effective your video marketing goals ultimately are.
Conclusion
We have worked with companies over the years that want video content, which is fantastic. However when they start from “we want video” without thinking about “why do we want video and what do we want to achieve”, it can mean the outcome is less effective than it could be. As we’ve discussed in this blog, your video marketing strategy should include all of the following elements as an absolute must:
- What do you want to achieve – whether video is used or not, what are your goals and measurable objectives?
- Who is the target audience?
- Where is your target audience and what tools and activity do I need to implement in order to reach them?
- What kind of video should I create at different stages of the sales funnel and how much do I need?
- Where will I deploy all of this content at the different stages of the sales process / funnel?
- How can I measure the success to justify the budget or understand where it could be improved next time?
If you create your video marketing strategy using these steps you will have a much better chance of it being successful, creating content that is designed for the right people, at the right time they need to see it and accessed it through the right medium. This is a much better approach than just creating video content and then hoping that it is seen by the right eyes and has the right messages.
Video is incredibly powerful, just look at our recent blog on “video statistics that you simply can’t ignore”, and you’ll see that it can be a game changer that allows businesses to engage with their audience more intimately and effectively. So long as it has the right budget allocated and the right video marketing strategy wrapped around it, you can propel your business to new heights using video production.
