Video marketing happens to be one of the most effective digital marketing strategies, and even more advanced video techniques are yet to come up in 2021. Being visual beings, humans find videos more memorable and easier to understand compared to pictures and written words. If you want to make more sales in 2021, concentrate on marketing using videos.
Videos for marketing purposes include presentations, vlogs, testimonials, tutorials, and live videos. 97% of marketers claim that videos help customers understand products. Videos are versatile and engaging and give potential clients a feel of the product being advertised.
They are also easy to share across various platforms. Marketers have grown to like videos because it can give a high return on investment (ROI). Even though creating them can be a lot of work, they serve their purpose well.
As we get into 2021, there are a few video marketing tips that you can use to improve your content and overall strategies. They make for more effective marketing and help generate more returns. Here are some of our ideas.
1. Set Your Video Marketing Goals
Before improving a strategy, it is paramount that you have a strategy, to begin with. Have an idea of what you would like to achieve through the videos for marketing purposes. This makes it easy to track your progress and evaluate the effectiveness of your videos.
Video content marketing goals may range from increasing the traffic on your website to meeting a prescribed sales target to generating leads. Create your content in line with the specific video marketing goal you have set.
2. Decide On the Type of Video
After establishing your marketing goal, get to the specifics of the type of video to use for advertising your products or services. There are many options for you to pick from.
It is important for you to make an informed decision. Familiarize yourself with the video marketing options that are in existence. Gather statistics on what types of videos work best for the type of product you are offering.
Research is key in order for your team to determine how to make an effective and unique video that will serve your potential customer’s needs.
Common types of videos you can consider for marketing include explainer videos, behind-the-scenes videos, and promotional videos.
3. Make Them Consumer-Centered
Videos play a huge role in how potential clients make decisions concerning what products to purchase. You can use them to position your brand ahead of your competition. A potential buyer would like to have a real-life feel of your product or service before they purchase it.
Therefore, for your video to be effective, you have to create it from their perspective. Make them feel like they are directly engaging with your brand.
An effective way of making videos consumer-centered is by making them in explanatory form. Potential clients like short videos such as how-to videos and DIYs.
These make consumers understand the product in question, and allows them to make an informed decision. If your explanatory product videos are concise and precise, you will have very few cases, if at all, of consumers giving negative feedback on your product.
You can even go ahead and answer a few frequently asked questions (FAQs) in your videos. Your videos can then help with customer service queries and save time that could be eaten up by support service calls.
An example of a customer-centered video.
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
There is no point in spending time creating videos if very few people end up seeing them. So just as you would optimize your blog for search engines, do the same for your videos for them to get more viewership.
Embedding videos on your website attracts more traffic and encourages your visitors to stay longer on your website, encouraging them to interact more with your content. This boosts your search engine rank.
Just mentioning the word ‘video’ in the subject of your email boosts the open rate by 19%. Attach the videos to your emails, and upload them directly to social media as opposed to attaching links to other sites to make sure Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram algorithms prioritize them.
Video SEO entails including targeted keywords to the title and video description. Have an intriguing thumbnail image as well, one that would encourage a viewer to click on your video.
5. Animated Videos
Now is the time to shift away from the obvious video marketing tips you can find on the internet— people are tired of watching the same types of videos. In 2021, customers will be seeking more exciting advertising experiences. Help them break the monotony!
The beauty of videos is that they are versatile. You can play around with it to come up with different content. As you inspire a more human interaction with your potential clients, you can spice up your content with cartoon features.
Animated explainer videos are used to describe a product within less than a minute on average. They are short, creative, and straight to the point. The brand is presented to people using animation styles. Complex product ideas and information are presented by way of entertainment.
A 3D animated explainer video sample.
6. Post Your Videos Across Channels
The more attention your video can get, the better for your brand. After all, isn’t that the point of marketing? Consumers like it when they see videos across various platforms.
If it’s content to fit for social media, post it across all your social media pages. Additionally, attach them to your relevant emails.
Having your videos on many channels also boosts your SEO ranking. It is a superb idea to add a video to your landing pages and blogs. Videos are known to improve click-through rates. This is good news for your website ranking.
7. Maximize On YouTube
Despite the competition that social media platforms such as Instagram have been posing, YouTube still remains well of videos. In 2019, Statista estimated 2 billion YouTube users the world over.
It would not make sense for you to concentrate on videos for marketing purposes without exploiting the audience on YouTube. Imagine 65 percent of people use it to help solve a problem. To make sure it does the trick in establishing your brand identity, do the following;
- Video SEO— Make it easy for people to find your video. Optimizing your video for search engines even on Google since YouTube and Google algorithms are the same. Use relevant keywords on your video title, description, and tags. It is estimated that in 2021 a whopping 80% of traffic will consist of video.
- Work on consistency— Establishes a workflow and creates timelines for the release of your content. You can achieve this using an editorial calendar that helps you diversify your content and balance it.
- Align your video strategy to your overall strategy— Embed your YouTube videos to your website to explain the key points of your marketing content. It helps increase the views on your video and the engagement customers have with your blog.
- Do not neglect social media— YouTube is the leader of the pack, but Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms can still help it perform better. Post your content on your social media pages as well. Upload video previews on your Instagram and Facebook Stories, and share a link to the full YouTube video
8. Stay Up to Date
Digital marketing is very dynamic. New technologies can be introduced overnight, and believe it or not, agile marketers will pick them up and run with them as soon as they are released. Do not accept to be left behind.
For example, TikTok. Launched in September 2016, it was recently a platform that was barely known or used by anyone, let alone the world’s top brands.
It currently boasts of 800 million active users across the world, and more businesses are invading the space with marketing content or utilizing influencers on the platform.
Businesses are engaging more with younger people by paying for influencer marketing, producing videos, and participating in TikTok challenges.
9. Quality Video Editing
Customers watch many well-edited videos in a day, and you do not want yours to be a turn-off because of its low quality. Video technology has advanced over the years— be sure to use the latest technology.
Nowadays you can shoot and edit your video using a smartphone, and with the right tools, you can turn your average video into a professional video fit for marketing. Or you can contact a video production company.
Final Thoughts
It is good to have a video marketing goal when you are starting to use videos as part of your digital marketing strategy.
It is, however, more important to be flexible with your options. Study the market trends closely to know what strategies are more effective. You may be surprised that it could be different from what you had initially picked.
It is mandatory that you review your marketing strategies and be ready to make changes that are aimed at making your marketing strategies more effective.
Make 2021 the year that you implement a video content marketing strategy that increases your brand awareness and meets your customers’ needs.
About The Author:
Jaron is a content marketing specialist currently working for Vek Labs in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing about photography, film, and videography techniques. You can catch him hiking the Rocky Mountains in his off time.