How to Do Effective Video Marketing in 2020

Video marketing is the new black. It isn't new, but it's booming right now because people want to consume content more interactively and entertainingly.

They proceed visuals 60,000 times faster than text, and the human brain perceives 90% of information as pictures, not words. So, videos seem the best option to help with that.

It's a natural narrative. People retain 70% of information through stories, so it's not surprising that 96% of 18-34 years old consumers watch videos several times a day. They learn the news and environment like that, and all this makes video content the most comfortable source of information for us to proceed.

Back in 2017, the study from Hubspot has revealed that videos help with brand engagement and influence consumer buying decisions. Has anything changed in 2020? Why do marketers respond as one to the claim that video content is a must-have for every brand to succeed?

This article will discuss the importance of video marketing for brands and explain how to build a compelling video content strategy to better appeal to your consumers.

Benefits of Video Marketing in 2020

First and foremost, here are the benefits of effective video marketing for your brand:

1. More sales: 96% of people watch videos to learn more about a product or service, and 79% say that a brand video convinced them to buy it.
2. Increased traffic to your website: 84% of marketers confirm.
3. Higher ROI from video ads: 80% of marketers confirm.
4. Better SEO: Video is 53% more likely to show up on page one of Google than text.

With this in mind, 99% of marketers plan to continue using video content as part of their digital marketing strategy in 2020.

That’s all very well, but how do you do video marketing so it will be relevant and sufficient for your business?

Follow Video Marketing Fundamentals

Video marketing is the process of planning, making, publishing, and promoting video content for your brand awareness, trust, loyalty, and sales.

Publishing platforms here are many, but your focus should be YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Vimeo and Snapchat are fine too, given that your target audience is present there.

To succeed with video marketing, you need to determine objectives and develop a corresponding step-by-step strategy. Marketing objectives will give a clear idea of what video types you'll need to create, where to post and how to promote them, and what metrics to consider for analyzing the results of your video marketing campaign.

What can be your objectives for video marketing?

• Increasing brand awareness
• Generating more sales
• Building customer relationships
• Connecting with the target audience on social media
• Growing market share

The more specific you are, the better. Use the SMART criteria to refine your goals:

Once the marketing objectives are ready, make sure to develop a smart video marketing strategy that includes:

• Video types you'll use. Choose those fitting your goals most: sales videos, stories, customer testimonials, product videos, how-to’s, social media videos, promo, etc. What you need to do is customer segmentation with further research of their pain points to understand what video content they need most.
• The brand voice you'll communicate through videos. They should evoke the desired emotions and encourage people to do your desired action. Consider the principles of video storytelling here.
• Topics you'll cover in your videos to solve customer problems.
• Video scripts or storyboards.
• Equipment and software you'll need to shoot and edit videos.
• Distribution channels (social media, YouTube, and other relevant ones) to publish videos and measure results.

For your strategy success, make sure to incorporate videos in your text-based marketing content and improve your content strategy accordingly, based on the results and feedback from your target audience.

Optimize Video Making

First of all, there should be a big idea behind each video. Take Nike:

Their videos aren't about selling, and they don't even mention their brand name in ads though we understand that it's all about selling in sum. They tell stories, communicating a powerful idea: each of us is a hero, dealing with doubts and fears to get our top reward.

Once you've determined the objective and chosen the video type that will work best to achieve it, think of ideas for your video to engage people. Brainstorming sessions with your team are the best way to do that:

• Consider the pain point or problem of the target audience you are going to solve with this video.
• Remember about your brand voice: it should be consistent in all communication channels you use.
• Make sure to understand your customer motivation.
• Come up with as many video content ideas as you can, with no fear of looking stupid or wrong. (As you remember, it's brainstorming; you'll have the opportunity to evaluate all the ideas later.)
• Choose the central idea and plan out how it will look on the screen.

For that, you'll need a script. Or, a storyboard because far from all videos need words to communicate your marketing message. (That's especially true for Facebook videos, 85% of which are watched without sound.)

As nailed by Biteable, "a video storyboard is a shot-by-shot graphical representation of what every scene in your video will look like."

Source

After that, shoot and edit your video. Focus on the quality: location, camera, microphones, light – everything matters here. When editing, follow a storyline, remember about a captivating introduction and call to action in the end, and think about an eye-catching thumbnail to hook consumers.

Finally, publish your video. Depending on your marketing objective and video type, it can go live on YouTube or your landing page; it can be embedded into your text content or shared on your social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, or even LinkedIn.

At Bid4Papers, for example, we actively use corresponding videos in blog content to influence dwell time and reduce bounce rate:

Source: Bid4Papers

Also, embedding our YouTube video into the website home page helps to hold visitors, tell them about our services, and encourage them to learn more.

Source: Bid4Papers

Last, but not least, we work hard on promoting your marketing videos. With almost two billion users worldwide, YouTube is the best place for all types of video content.

Promoting there, remember about metadata (titles, tags, descriptions) optimization for better SEO. Consider specific and relevant keywords: They'll help users find your videos. And optimize for mobiles: more than 70% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices.

But not by YouTube alone. Depending on your video content plan and marketing objectives, consider alternative ways of promotion: publish to social media, master Instagram TV, promote in Snapchat or Vimeo, share videos to niche forums...

Long story short, let the world know about your video marketing endeavors. And don't forget to measure the results to see if you meet your overall marketing goals.

Video marketing metrics are many, so consider those that most fit your goals: impressions, views number, view length, engagement rate, referral source, device, and conversions.

Make Video Marketing Work for You

Most experts recommend implementing video marketing into your overall strategy in 2020. But it doesn't mean you should do that simply because it's a trend. Base yourself on your marketing objectives, audience needs, and available resources. Make sure the game's worth the candle, and if so – do the following:

• Set video marketing goals.
• Choose the video types that will help you achieve the goals.
• Create a video content plan.
• Make videos of a high quality and with a message.
• Promote them online, with the focus on social media and YouTube.
• Measure the results to see the effectiveness of your video marketing strategy.

Depending on your clients, their interests, and pain points, different video types and channels will help to improve your marketing results. If not sure where to start, invest in a digital marketing agency that will assist you with a new video marketing campaign.