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What is a Video Marketing Strategy?

The internet is now dominated by video content. Internet users are now bombarded with streams of video content being created by individuals, artists, brands or enthusiasts. This has had a profound impact on how brands promote themselves online. In the US alone, digital video marketing is already worth an incredible $135 billion.

What was once the preserve of bigger brands with huge marketing budgets is now commonplace. Video marketing is being developed and deployed by tiny start-ups, challenger brands and established big names. If you can do it creatively, the rewards can be considerable with video content sometimes acting as a catalyst for rapid growth.

How video marketing works

The aim of video marketing is to showcase your brand, promote your company, drive sales, raise awareness of your services or products and encourage engagement from your customers.

As with other areas of marketing, video development should be data-driven, with a clear set of goals and objectives and a well-considered means to achieve those goals.

You will also want to track how your strategy and its individual components are performing by monitoring various metrics and tracking customer engagement. This can then be used to inform and fine-tune your marketing and future social media video production.

While many start-ups may begin with basic video content recorded on a phone, if you’re serious about making a real impact, then it makes sense to develop a video marketing strategy.

What is a video marketing strategy?

A video marketing strategy is a worked-out, coherent and realistic plan for using video content to achieve specific marketing goals. Some of the common goals for a video marketing strategy can include growing brand awareness, strengthening brand loyalty, or promoting a particular product or service.

A video marketing strategy will be based on the needs and priorities of your target audience. This will influence the kind of content you create and the platforms that are used to distribute that content. The strategy may also include the kind of metrics that will be used to measure the success or otherwise of your video content marketing.

A video marketing strategy should be focused but flexible enough to adapt if it isn’t delivering the expected results. Once you have a clear plan in place, you can use video to effectively reach and engage your audience.

Why a video marketing strategy is important?

A video marketing strategy can help you get more from your investment in video content. It ensures that the content you create is focused and targeted towards specific goals, increasing the likely return on investment. It will ensure that your video content is working towards your overall objectives and isn’t undermining them.

What are the elements of video marketing strategy?

Your video marketing strategy will define the target audience for your video content. It will detail who you are trying to reach with your videos, enabling you to create content that resonates with that audience.

Your strategy should determine the goals of videos, outlining the specific objectives that you hope to achieve. If you’re looking to grow brand awareness or drive extra sales, then it’s important to quantify what that means. Does increased brand awareness mean more likes and follows on your social media feeds, and if so, how many? What is the value of the increased sales that you’d like to see?

Your strategy should also inform the style and tone of your videos, such as formal or casual, informative or humorous. This will help you develop a consistent brand image through your video content.

Your video marketing strategy should shape where your content will be shared and how it will be used. This will be determined by your target audience and where you are most likely to locate them.

How do you develop a video marketing strategy?

There are a number of elements to consider and steps to follow when you’re developing your video marketing strategy. These include:

Allocate resources

Your video marketing strategy will need resources. How much can you realistically afford to spend and what might that spending produce? Hiring the services of a professional video production company will save you outlay on equipment and locations and is likely to result in videos of a higher quality.

What stories do you want to tell?

Telling stories about your brand is a key part of marketing, and with video marketing production it’s even more important that you have a clear idea about what they are. What stories do you want to tell and how do you want to tell them?

Engage

Not only do you have to tell your stories, but you also have to make your story as engaging as possible. Why should anyone care about your story? What do they get out of it and how does it inform the service you offer them? Video gives users more opportunities for interaction and its content gives them more reasons to do so.

Pay attention to length

There’s no particular set length for marketing videos. The length of some will be determined by the intended platform. Others will be a particular length to meet a specific marketing goal. As a general rule, anything over three minutes would be considered long for a marketing video. Do you want something very brief that acts as a snappy introduction to your brand, or something that requires more detail?

Publish

An all-important part of your video marketing strategy is where the content will ultimately be published. You should have this in mind before you begin thinking about length, approach and content. Different lengths of video suit different audiences and platforms.

Promotion

How will you promote your videos? Will you opt for paid ads? Will you rely on existing social media channels? Do you have an email marketing list that could provide a heads-up about your video content or could offer a possible channel for its distribution? If no one sees your videos, then all your hard work has gone to waste.

Analyse

How will you measure the success of your video marketing strategy? You can make use of data, metrics and stats to determine which videos are working and which ones aren’t. Ultimately, you will want to see some quantifiable return on your investment in video marketing production. What does that mean in terms of sales, enquiries and return customers?

What are the types of video marketing?

Video content is highly versatile and can be used towards a variety of marketing purposes. Some of the most common types of video marketing include:

Product Demonstrations

Product demonstration videos highlight how a product works, its features and benefits in an engaging and compelling way.

Explainer videos

Similar to product demonstrations but with a focus more on concepts or ideas than on particular products. This might be particularly relevant if your business is service based.

Testimonial videos

Testimonial videos can be a powerful way to generate interest and enthusiasm about your brand, products and services. These videos feature customers sharing their positive experiences with a particular product or service. They might talk about the customer service they received, their overall experience and why others might like to try them as well. As with any other form of marketing, satisfied customers are frequently your best advocates.

Brand videos

Brand videos tell the story of a brand, what prompted people into business and the values and mission that underpin what you are trying to achieve. These can often be highly effective at building loyalty to your brand and finding people who can be passionate about what you are doing. As well as an effective business-to-customer approach, they can also be important in building business-to-business relationships.

Live videos

Live videos are streamlined in real-time, usually over social media platforms but they can be done directly with subscribers or interested parties. They might be informative webinars, lively product launches or Q&A sessions.

Animated Videos

Animation can be a great way to create compelling and engaging video content that explains a concept or tells a story. It can also be used to foster and support the right image for your brand.

Episodic Content

Episodic content where video content is released on a regular basis, perhaps to a fixed schedule that builds on earlier videos, can be a great way to grow an audience. If you’re selling food or cookery products you might create regular cookery content, or a bookshop or publisher could feature regular book reviews. Creating high-value, informative and entertaining content on a regular basis is a clever way to add user value to your brand.

What makes a good video advertisement?

Effective video content is highly varied but will frequently have a number of key elements.

Firstly, the messaging in the content will be clear and concise. It won’t attempt to communicate too many or overly complex messages in a short amount of time. It will have a clear message that conveys the value of the product, service or brand that is being promoted.

It will also be relevant to the needs and expectations of the target audience, addressing their particular interests or concerns and reflecting their own tastes and preferences when it comes to video content. This ensures that the video is engaging and entertaining. It should hold the viewer’s attention and keep them interested.

A good video advertisement will also have high production quality. In practice, this means good lighting, sound and visuals to ensure a professional and polished end product.

Video content should also reflect where it’s going to be shared and the platforms that are being used. Different lengths and styles of content will be more appropriate for different platforms and users. It’s also important to remember that it should be optimised for viewing on smaller screens for mobile devices.

What is the new trend in video marketing?

Video marketing trends are always changing and evolving.

Live video is becoming increasingly popular, allowing users to interact with brands and take part in live events. From Q&As to product launches, live and interactive video increases audience engagement, helping them feel more connected to your brand.

Another growing trend is personalisation, where video content is tailored to the individual viewer based on their interests and behaviour. This can be delivered through the use of data and automation but requires high-quality, adaptable video content to be created to make it worthwhile.

The growth in the popularity of vertical video shows no signs of slowing down, as video content is now increasingly consumed on mobile devices. Platforms such as Instagram and TikTok are designed for vertical content.

Another trend to watch over the coming years is virtual reality content that allows for an immersive user experience.

By embracing the trends that work for you and your brand, you can harness the creative power of video content to promote your business.

Develop a professional video marketing strategy with Eight Engines

If you want to get the maximum impact for your investment in video marketing, you need the help of video professionals.

At Eight Engines, we’re a video production company based in the heart of Manchester. The company was founded as a TV production company producing award-winning TV dramas for the BBC. In 2017, we began expanding into the marketing world, producing content for clients ranging from huge household names to SMEs, always bringing the same commitment to quality and world-class storytelling.

Today, we’re a multi-disciplinary agency, creating attention-grabbing TV adverts, jaw-dropping digital campaigns, world-class live streams, binge-worthy broadcast television, and show-stopping event films.

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