Brief Guide to Building and Executing a Video Marketing Strategy for Your Website
According to a recent HubSpot survey, 53% of respondents said they wanted to see more video content from their favorite brands, which was the highest percentage of any other type of content surveyed. 62% claimed to thoroughly consume videos, while most of them only skimmed content like emails and e-books. And, according to research by Cisco, 82% of all consumer Internet traffic will be made up of video content by 2021. In other words, 2018 is the year to seriously consider building and executing a video marketing strategy for your website.
Follow this brief guide to build and execute a successful video marketing strategy for your website.
Determine Goals for Your Videos
If you want to create videos that generate traffic to your website and land more conversions or sales, then you’ll need to first determine the goals for the videos you’ll be making. Do you want to generate brand awareness, increase customer engagement, showcase your thought leadership, land more sales, or something else? If you’re not sure why you’re making videos in the first place, then your videos will appear unfocused, boring, or will simply get lost in the rest of the content saturating the web.
If you have the bandwidth to create multiple videos, then you can probably have more than one goal in mind. However, in the beginning stages of your video marketing strategy, you’ll want to keep it as simple as possible and only focus on one goal at a time, especially as you learn what types of videos reach your goals and if you don’t have a lot of resources or bandwidth.
Think About What Types of Videos You Want to Share
After you’ve determined your goals, you’re going to want to think about what types of videos will help you reach those goals and what types of videos your target audience wants to see. If you’re not sure what your target audience wants to see, then do some research. See what types of videos are shared and engaged with the most in your industry or field. See what your competitors are doing and if they have viewers engaging with their videos. Try to keep your video content similar enough to spark attention but different enough to stand out and be unique.
Here are some different types of videos you may want to consider:
- Live broadcasting (interviews, behind-the-scenes, etc.)
- Brand videos that highlight your story (“about us”)
- Product demos
- Event videos
- Interviews of experts
- Scripted videos with actors
- Educational or “how-to” videos
- Animated videos
- Video series that tell a story
- Customer testimonials
- 360-degree panoramic and virtual reality videos
Figure Out Where You’ll Store and Share Your Videos
Nowadays, you can share videos anywhere. You can share them on social media, in emails, in text messages, in apps, and publish them on a website. If you want to publish videos on your website on a regular basis, make sure you can store and publish a lot of videos in your content management system as you’re building your website. You have the option to publish videos on your website that showcase your products and services, happy customers, the story of your brand, and more.
You can also store video content in platforms like YouTube and Facebook, platforms that already have billions of users. Just remember to include information about your brand and links back to your website in each video, so that you can continue to work toward your video marketing goal.
Stats to keep in mind:
- Videos on social media generate 1200% more shares than text and images combined. (HubSpot)
- According to a report published by Forrester, including video in an email leads to a whopping 200-300% increase in click-through rate. (Business2Community)
- 88% of visitors stay longer on a website with prominent video displayed. (Single Grain)
Remember that you’ll need to share videos with your target audience on a consistent and frequent basis using the same mediums if you want to generate real traction. If you’re posting videos at irregular intervals (i.e., one month you post 15 videos and the following month you only post two) and/or on different platforms, your viewers will tune out and decide not to follow you.
Make a List of What You’ll Need
When building a video marketing strategy, consider equipment and other resources you may need. Will you need a special camera and lighting? While smartphones are being developed with more sophisticated technology now, you’ll still want to ensure your videos have the best sound and visual quality possible.
Stats to keep in mind:
- 23% of people who have been presented with a poor-quality video experience would hesitate to purchase from that brand. (KZO)
- 62% of consumers are more likely to have a negative perception of a brand that publishes poor-quality video. (HubSpot)
Also, consider whether you will you need to hire an animation studio or actors. Will you need to outsource a script writer or other talent? And, develop a budget for all the resources you’ll need to create your videos. Even if you’re a solo business owner, think of your time as something you’ll need to budget, as it is time you won’t be spending on completing your other work.
Create a Video Content Calendar
Once you know the goals for your video marketing strategy, what types of videos you want to create, where you’ll share them, your budget, and what resources you’ll need, it’s finally time to produce your video content. You’ll need to create a calendar to follow before picking up a camera though. Oftentimes, videos lack quality simply because they’re rushed through production and never make it through post-production. Create a calendar to follow so that you have more than enough time to create the videos you want.
On your calendar, set aside time for:
- Planning the content for a video (i.e., script, resources needed, due dates, etc.)
- Shooting the video content or creating it (Note: It can potentially take a few weeks to shoot a video as short as two to three minutes long, depending on whether it’s animated or has actors.)
- Editing video content to enhance images, cut or add footage, include voice-overs and captions, etc.
- Publishing on your website, on social media, in emails, etc.
- Evaluating video content performance
For each stage of the video content creation process, include budget information, resources needed, etc. Video content calendars will be especially helpful for video series and for video content that requires more than two individuals to produce and edit.
Evaluate Analytics and Viewer Feedback, and Adjust as Necessary
Once you post or share your videos, you’re not done if you want your video marketing strategy to be successful. Next, you’ll want to continually evaluate the analytics and feedback you receive for each of your videos. You’ll want to see how many people viewed the videos, where they viewed them (e.g., on social media, via email, on mobile), for how long they viewed them, etc. This will tell you if where you’re posting your videos is helping you achieve your marketing goals, and if there is a certain time stamp in the video where a lot of your viewers stopped watching.
Also, pay attention to what people are saying about your videos on social media and in the comments sections. What do they enjoy most about them? Have they requested that you do something different or expand on a topic? If you want to continue to grow your audience, pay attention to what they’re interested in and what they care about. Even if your videos are hosted on your website pages, you’ll still need to refresh them often so that they continue to delight your visitors. So, pay attention to what videos are generating the most views and traffic to your website.
Follow the brief guide above to build and execute a successful video marketing strategy for your new or improved business website in 2018.
Sources Cited
Business 2 Community. “15 Video Stats That Will Make You Rethink Your Marketing Strategy,” https://www.business2community.com/video-marketing/15-video-stats-will-make-rethink-marketing-strategy-01659603. Accessed 1/22/2018.
Cisco. “Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2016–2021,” https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/complete-white-paper-c11-481360.html#_Toc484813971 . Accessed 1/22/2018.
HubSpot. “Content Trends: Preferences Emerge Along Generational Fault Lines,” https://research.hubspot.com/content-trends-preferences . Accessed 1/22/2018.
HubSpot. “16 Video Marketing Statistics Every Marketer Should Know [SlideShare],” https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/top-video-marketing-statistics#sm.0001agz8fnm7qcuby3m2fy7vd2qou. Accessed 1/22/2018.
KZO. “Does Video Quality Influence Brand Perception?” https://kzoinnovations.com/video-quality-influence-brand-perception. Accessed 1/22/2018.
Single Grain. “Just The Stats: The Science of Video Engagement,” https://www.singlegrain.com/video-marketing/just-stats-science-video-engagement/. Accessed 1/22/2018.