Video is a powerful marketing tool that demands

full time-bound attention from your audience.

From explainer videos to creative video ads, more

marketers are using video marketing today.

People are more perceptive to marketing videos than text and

image based content. In fact, the word video increases open rates

by up to 19% in email subject lines.

That’s a cute little piece of statistics for

entrepreneurs and online marketers.

Advancement in internet infrastructure has dramatically improved connection speeds,

allowing seamless streaming of HD web video on both desktop and mobile. Video is now a necessary form of engagement for big brands and small businesses alike.

This video marketing guide outlines the benefits that your business can reap by taking

advantage of this highly interactive form of marketing.

1) Why Video Marketing is Precious

There are multiple benefits in well done

video marketing.

a) Video Increases User Engagement

Reading text is an active experience where you have to

choose your speed, and take in the content at your own pace.

It’s easy for your audience to skim through text and decide which

sections they are interested in. But video gives users little freedom in terms of consumption. You either

watch a full video, or you lose attention somewhere along the way

and stop watching.

Watching video is a passive experience. When someone hits the play button, they

have given their consent to be shown something. They don’t have to dig in

themselves or ‘skim’ through the content like you’d do with text and image based

content. This way, video tends to be more engaging. More so, the amount of

information that can be shown in 1 second worth of video content is much more than what can be read in the same span of time.

By creating videos that achieve an instant emotional

engagement, marketers can foster engagement and thus

increase conversions.

b) Video is Great for Branding

Since a video is more interactive and personalized, it’s great for branding.

Viewers can recreate the experience of being face to face with someone, much better than with image, text and audio. Using video marketing, you can show

the human side of your business through physical and verbal expression.

Online video is also an effective and cost-friendly way to indicate

professionalism and brand quality. If your business has the time and skills to produce high-quality video, then it

will be perceived as being a legitimate organization with a genuine interest to

provide a great service.

c) Video Helps with Ranking

Since search engines love video, content that has video often

ranks more prominently. Your video marketing campaign can help with the following goals:

i) More traffic via rich snippets

Google sometimes inserts thumbnail images in their search engine results

pages (SERPs) for web pages that contain videos. Such results tend to attract higher

click-through rates as compared to standard web page results. This

demonstrates how ‘video rich snippets’ can be a superb way to increase traffic to a particular website. Marketers can draw

more traffic from the SERPs by including video in their content and implementing

respective technical mark-ups.

ii) Link building

Links are a core metric through which search engines determine the authority of a

website or webpage. Pages that contain mixed media types (text, images and video) tend to generate more inbound links than

plain text or image-text-only pages.

By including video in your website content, you increase the probability that other blogs and web pages from around the

web will link to it.

iii) Improve conversions

Since video content increases engagement and trust, it’s an excellent

way to drive better conversions, especially on commercial pages. Nowadays, videos have become

extremely popular in the e-commerce world. People will be more convinced to buy a product if they have seen a video

in which the product is featured. Use video to increase conversions in any of

your lead generation or sales pages.

iv) Video search engine presence

After Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. It is important to cultivate a presence on the most popular video marketing platforms

(YouTube and Vimeo). Just like it helps to rank on Google, you also want to rank on these video platforms, towards increasing

brand awareness, sales, and referrals.

2) Validating your Marketing Videos

Video is an integration of text, image and music towards a common goal. Most

marketers make the mistake of thinking of video as merely a type of content. To

create a video, you need to start with an idea. If you find yourself converting

content into a video, then it’s an indication things have gone awry in your

creative marketing process.

Answer the following questions to validate your video creation.

Would this content lose something if it was just

text and image?

Have it in mind that the effectiveness of your video marketing campaign depends

on the ability of your video content to create an instant emotional connection. If your video wouldn’t lose anything if it was just text and image (like with a typical blog post), then this is an indication it’s not the

right fit for your video marketing campaign!

Does the idea require aesthetic and conceptual

engagement?

If the idea/content you have in mind requires a visual element in order to be interesting – this is an indication that it could work as a video. On the other hand, if you realize that you’re

including the visuals as an afterthought, then this is an indication that the idea is not optimal for a video.

3) 3-Point Approach

It takes a lot of time and effort to create a top-notch, viral video. A great video is determined at the planning stage before

production starts. Follow this 3-point approach every time you have to

produce a marketing video.

• Plan – video marketing should be just one facet in your overall marketing plan. Think of it as an engagement

tactic that’s meant to support your key goals. Whether you are looking to

increase brand awareness or boost conversions, think about what your main goals are. These should guide the creative process of coming up

with ideas for a suitable video.

• Produce – once you have a verified idea (using the two questions above), it’s time to create your

video. This is where you think about who your target audience are. You also need to think about your production budget. Video production costs vary from a few hundred to tens of thousands of

dollars, depending on the kind of content and quality you’re looking for. If you can’t produce the video yourself, find a freelancer or company that

will bring your idea to life.

• Promote – if you created a great video already, this should be easy. People are going to share a video that they think is awesome. Focus

on where your target audience hangs out, and show them your

content. Think Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+.

This informative guide equips you to get started with video marketing. 45.4% of all internet users watch at least one video in a month. There’s

no reason why you shouldn’t be making use of video marketing to advance your business interests.

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