Effective video marketing strategies

While a marketing video going viral is wonderful for its brand, “going viral” shouldn’t be the goal of any video marketing campaign. The primary objective of a video campaign varies. Some companies use videos to introduce a new product or service. Other businesses utilize videos to show their expertise and knowledge.

Now, while each goal differs depending on the need of the company, key video marketing strategies remain the same. Below are the techniques every marketer should keep in mind. These tactics create compelling, relevant and actionable video content.

 

Focus the video content around a story, and not a sale.

The online world is already brimming with blatant promos and ads that annoy consumers – even those who genuinely need what the brand is selling. Don’t let the content of the video be a sales pitch. Instead, create a compelling story and make it the focal point of the campaign. Concentrate on the values that the brand can provide to its audience. Use them as parts of the plot of the story.

Take advantage of the emotional side of consumers. Trigger the emotive power of the video by appealing to the audience’s needs and hidden desires. Now, if you’re afraid you’d lose potential customers this way, you can always strategically place a call-to-action at the end of the video.

 

Make the first 10 seconds of the video unforgettable.

Based on several marketing studies, a viewer decides to continue or discontinue watching a video after the 10-second mark, which is the most crucial part of the video. The first 10 seconds essentially represent the entire video. During that short moment, the viewer can detect if the video is worth watching or otherwise.

As such, get straight to the point and manage expectations from the outset. Within the first 10 minutes, answer the “why should I watch this?” question in your audience’s mind.

 

Keep it real, but also lighten up.

One of the worst “crimes” a marketer can do is to produce an utterly dull video. Another crime is to create a video that unabashedly screams “promo, promo, promo!” No one would want to watch either video.

What the audience wants is to laugh, to feel good, to connect, to make them forget – even for few seconds – about their tasks and real-life problems. Unless the campaign is about pressing matters like wars and undocumented killings, lighten up.

Injecting humor to the video content will warm up the audience. Though it won’t be at the forefront of their minds, the viewers will realize that there are people behind the brand. And that the company is reaching out to connect with them through the video.

 

Optimize the video for online search.

Several techniques can ensure that the video appears on top of the search engine results. But, one that is the most important is to maximize the SEO value of the video even before it gets uploaded to various sharing sites. Host the video on the company’s domain site. Enable embedding to increase the chance of receiving inbound links. When it comes to video SEO, descriptions and tags are everything. They allow the search engine bots to figure out what the video is all about.

A rule of thumb, if there’s a box, then there’s a purpose. Search engines like Google need those boxes to be filled with tags so they can rank the value of the video correctly.

 

Educate the audience, and establish the brand as a niche expert.

People are visual learners. That’s why image- and video-based content is well-received, more than text-only posts. One of the most potent benefits of video marketing is the opportunity to impart knowledge to the audience.

There are several types of videos that concentrate on educating the viewers. It can be a tutorial video that provides step-by-step instructions on how to use a product or service. It can be a webinar where experts in the field can discuss the new trends and valuable information about a particular topic. It can be a product demo where the audience can see for themselves the usefulness of the product or service. Even animations and live video streams can focus on educating the audience.

Use these tried-and-tested video marketing strategies to give your video campaign a fighting chance.