Over the years, video has risen to become one of the most popular forms of digital content. Video marketing statistics indicate that an average individual spends a whooping 100 minutes watching videos on the internet. Since video caters to multiple senses, people are more receptive to messages over video. Brands have been quick to make the jump and adapt their marketing strategies.

Today, brands are experimenting with their content and using live video streaming, interactive 360-degree videos, augmented reality, and other forms of video content to connect with their audience. In the United States alone, video accounts for a whopping $135 billion industry.  In the present situation, brands that keep away from the videos are at a disadvantage in the competitive marketing world.

In fact, in the present day, merely creating video content will not suffice. You need to take a planned approach to video making. In this article, we will discuss seven ways in which you can strategize your video marketing initiatives.

Pen Your Video Marketing Goals

The scope of video is diverse, and it can assist you at every stage of the marketing funnel. Before you create a promotional video, you need to have a clear understanding of your expectations from the video.

Awareness

Sometimes a brand loses on customers because the target group is unaware of the existence of the product. Since 9 out of 10 viewers admit to enjoying branded video content, you can leverage video to create awareness about your business offering. If you are launching an innovative product, an awareness video will help familiarise the viewer with the need for the product.

Consideration

The next stage of the marketing funnel is when the user is looking for ways to solve real-life problems. At this stage, they are likely to check out product reviews, ask for recommendations and look up online resources. Since the potential customers are highly impressionable at this stage, the video will help you get your message across to the viewer more efficiently.

Decision

The last stage of the marketing funnel is when the potential customer has identified your product as a solution to their problems. At this stage, your focus should be on giving video proofs of customer satisfaction and establish that your product is above the market competition.

Delight

Delight videos can be used to please customers who have purchased from you. The purpose of such videos is to maintain a healthy relationship with the customer and ensure that they choose your brand for their future purchases.

Create a Buyer Persona

To understand what your audience expects of you, it is important to create a buyer persona. The buyer persona will tell you about the intended users of your product and talk about their likes and dislikes. That way, you can plan your video content to cater to their taste.

• Step 1: Identify your buyer persona by listing out your target demographics. If your brand makes a diverse range of products, you can have a buyer persona for each of them.
• Step 2: Once you have your buyer persona sorted, you will know the digital platforms where your target audience hangs out. That way, you will be clear on how to distribute your video.

Have a Realistic Budget

The scope of video marketing is diverse, and it is plausible to create video content in every budget. Before you get to video making, plan the money and resources. For example, these days, most smartphones allow you the luxury of recording clips in 4K resolution, and you can use the same for your marketing videos.

On the other hand, going for the premium version of video editing tools will allow you to create watermark-free videos that will make you come off as professional. Optimize your budget and marketing goals to identify the things you can afford to splurge on.

Decide on Your Marketing Story

These days, there is no dearth of video content and unless you create exemplary content, your video will go unnoticed. We recommend that you spend time working out the storyline of your video before you script it. A good marketing story should have the following elements.

• The story should have a protagonist who is relatable to the audience.
• There should be a conflict to illustrate your customer’s pain point.
• You should then introduce the product or service and talk about its USP.
• The final part will be the resolution that illustrates how the business offering is a one-stop solution to the customer’s pain point.

The story should be scripted in a way such that the viewer is taken on a visual journey. That way, the viewer will develop an emotional connection with the brand making them likely of a purchase. You must pay attention to ensure that the video story is free from controversy and that it aligns with your brand mission.

Create a Production Timeline

Video creation is a team effort and requires the collaboration of multiple people. To ensure that your team is in sync with each other, you need to have a production timeline. For the best results, create an overall timeline and break it up into a planning timeline, production timeline, distribution timeline, etc. That way, the team will be aware of the schedules, changes, and completion dates.

Optimize the Video

Today more than 500 hours of video content are uploaded on YouTube every day. If you want your marketing content to get noticed, you need to optimize the video.

• Add subtitles to your video so that the search engine has a better understanding of the video content. That way, it can display the video to interested viewers.
• Try to add tags to your video to direct your viewers to the interested target group.
• Use an intro maker tool to make the first few seconds of the video interesting. That way, you will capture the attention of potential customers and get them to watch the entire video.
• Depending on the nature of your video and the platform where you are publishing it, optimize the length of the video for maximum views. Having a video that is too short will fail to generate interest. Similarly, a video that is too long will cause users to drop off.
• Leverage YouTube cards and CTAs at the end of the video to guide the viewer into watching other relevant video content. You can also use CTAs to take the viewer to some other landing page or e-commerce page to make a purchase.

Cross-promote the Video Content

Creating a promotional video is a cumbersome affair and requires months of dedicated efforts from multiple people. To make the most of such efforts, optimize your video content for multiple platforms. For example, posting a video as Instagram Reels requires you to maintain an aspect ratio of 9:16, whereas you do not need to maintain such a ratio while posting content on YouTube. In such a situation, if you can edit and export multiple versions of a video, you can post it on different platforms. That way, you will increase the reach of your content.

Any successful video marketing campaign demands thorough planning and meticulous execution of the same. There is no sure shot at success, and what works for other brands may not help you. The tips discussed in this article are intended to give you a head start in the competitive world of video marketing. As you jump the bandwagon, you will figure out further tips that will enable you to scale your video marketing initiatives.