Video content is one of, if not the most influential way of communication today. A platform like YouTube, with developments in smartphone technology, has become the second most used search engine.
Considering that Google states that “40% of millennials trust YouTube for content; 60% say videos they’ve watched have changed their world view” and Hubspot research shows “45% of people watch an hour or more of video per day”, it seems it’s a no brainer that you have to incorporate video content marketing into your SEO strategy.
But how well does video content covert? Can you get a good ROI on marketing a video?
Can conversion rates be increased with video marketing?
You may wonder how can a video get better results in comparison to text, after all its faster to scan a few lines of text than watching a whole video. This may be true, but not something your audience prefers.
A report by Aberdeen Group, an intent-based marketing company says “video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year and achieve a 54% increase in brand awareness”.
Meanwhile, Animoto’s Social Video Forecast says that “76.5% of marketers and small business owners are getting results with video marketing”.
So, it’s clear that a good content marketing strategy does lead to an increased conversion rate and bigger return on investment.
Although, creating a good video content marketing campaign and incorporating it into your SEO strategy successfully is a challenge. For this, it is important that you understand the best practices of creating good video content strategy.
First, let’s look at the common mistakes video marketers make in creating a video marketing strategy to avoid them.
Mistakes to avoid while creating video marketing content
Brands often produce a piece of video content by hiring a professional agency to create and deliver it. The video then goes live on YouTube and is sometimes embedded on the web page. In most cases video advertising tactics include email shots, social media promotion, etc., Many videos are just uploaded with no purposeful promotion.
Does this video marketing model sound familiar to you? If so then its highly likely that you won’t be able to get a good ROI on your investment.
Here is why this model is outdated and doesn’t work.
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It doesn’t have any strategic method of approach
The strategy of straight creation to publication has no in-built mechanism to guide the creation of the right type of content that is intended to reach a particular goal. A good content strategy is such that it provides a framework and guidelines to produce and distribute dynamic content.
Such strategy strives to enable measuring the impact of the video.
While “creating awareness”, “educating” are good objectives for creating good content and are valid, the lack of specificity of those objectives makes it difficult to measure.
If you don’t know how to measure, then you don’t know if the video is a success or not.
There are many brands that give little to no attention to the targeted audience or target it towards multiple audiences all at once. While targeting a diverse type of audience all at once may seem efficient, though, in reality, such type of content rarely ends up engaging anyone.
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The brand doesn’t invest in analytics
The outdated model of video marketing doesn’t include investing in regular metric tracking (something that’s crucial for long-term success). Such strategies forgo the use of KPIs (Key performance indicators) and regularly scheduled analyses.
Even though a huge number of people may be watching your videos and your view count is skyrocketing- that isn’t a true measure of success. You need to make sure the people watching your video are viewing it for the right reasons and will consequently take the desired action, that is the minimum viable traffic (the volume of traffic you need to sustain your business, marketing operations and make money on top it).
Thus metrics like engagement rate (how much of the video is watched), number of shares, clicks, play and conversion rate are the most valuable performance indicators that you need to keep an eye on.
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The brand doesn’t adequately promote the piece of content
Without a strategic position, a video is very unlikely to gain many views. Although view count cannot be the metric of success, you need viewers who are engaged with your story and can connect with your brand. Without the huge amount of views, it is hard to use analytics to extract any kind of useful reports or lessons on what direction to go in the future for your video content.
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Context Matters
One of the shortcomings of the old video marketing model is that it fails to recognize context. Getting the context right is completely key to success. For e.g. When a video is uploaded on YouTube the context isn’t ideal.
Since viewers can’t immediately buy a product or subscribe to your newsletter- the only call to action they can take is to leave YouTube and get to your website, which not many viewers do. You want views on YouTube, but also want the traffic to go to your website.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should give up on YouTube, as it still fulfills your needs, especially your SEO ones – but only if the context is appropriate.
An excellent example of context done right is ASOS, who gets across its video highlighting the brand’s focus on celebrating individual style in a practical way. Its campaign (shot on mobile) feels familiar and native to the format and in keeping with the type of videos that are usually uploaded by its core users.
Now that you know which missteps to avoid in video content marketing, let’s get to the good stuff-
Best Practices for Video Marketing
Product Videos do increase conversion rates
As per Wyzowl’s 2019 State of Video Marketing Report states that “96% of people say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service”. Meanwhile, the report also includes that “94% of video marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service”.
It makes sense after so much technological evolution, it is difficult for customers to understand what a specific product does. This is especially true if the product is an app or software. In fact, the report on State of Video Marketing states that “79% of people say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or app”.
Of course, it must be noted that product videos must not be boring. You can refer to Coleman videos which make camping equipment like tents, coolers and grills seem cool.
Consider basic rules of video marketing – what is it for and who is intended for?
Before you start making the video, make sure you consider who is the intended audience that you wish to make the video for. After coming to a conclusion, you also have to think about how will you fashion the solution for them. After it is made, how will you know that it will engage your audience?
First, you have to answer what is it for?
Answer what is the fundamental purpose of your video. The exact objective of the video, not to ‘raise brand awareness’ or ‘educate customers’- they are a means to an end but not the purpose themselves.
You can look for your business goals for inspiration. Like for e.g. getting more traffic to a specific area of your website, compete for a crucial keyword, get more conversions on a product page, increase the number of leads etc. Remember, preciseness is the starting point of creating an impactful video.
Second, you have to answer who is the video for?
This is not just about what type of demographic you are targeting. If you really want to engage an audience, you have to go deeper. Here you can use ‘psychographics’ to get a better view of your audience. What do they believe your brand, product or service is about?
Make it specific. If you understand your audience’s point of view in relation to what you are and what you do- there is a greater chance of leaving an impression.
Good marketing always creates change. When you want to know if your content has created some impact you can always go to rule number one and see “what is it for”. You can definitely answer this question if you know the fundamental purpose of your video.
Social Media Trends Help
While you may love to tell people that you have no idea what the ‘kiki challenge’ and ‘running man challenge’ are, but sometimes it pays to go with the trend. While the mannequin challenge or others like it may seem pretty pointless, they can show a different, fun side of the brand, along with raking in millions of views on YouTube or other social media sites.
Meanwhile, nowadays brands can take advantage of socially-conscious challenges such as the #trashtag that promotes cleanliness, all the while scoring some CSR points.
Analyze how your audience watches your video content and position it the most appealing way
Doing a gap analysis means examining the video your audience is watching and considering how you might position it such that it is close to the audience. Look at the trends, where do you get traction the most (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube etc.), look at your video content and consider how you can position it such that it can create a lasting impact, stand out among the competition and relate with your audience.
Following the rule of examining the questions ‘what is it for?’ and ‘who is this video for’ can help you answer the positioning question at the very initial stage.
Examining what content you put, how the audience sees it and how you can position it at an early stage will help you genuinely differentiate the videos you publish.
How-to-do videos are helpful
No one can be an expert on everything. We all need help, be it in trivial things like how to cook a perfect set of cinnamon rolls or how to change a flat tire. Nowadays most of us turn to YouTube to look for basic instructions on how to do such things. In fact, Google stated that in 2015, the how-to videos increased over 70% every year and continue to grow.
Is your industry such that you can produce how-to content? If so then you can you use tools such as “Ask the Public” or other keyword tools to see the most common queries related to your product or services in your industry. You can make video content based on these FAQs.
Don’t publish and forget
Many video marketers publish a video and then forget about it and think of it as a failure if fails to perform first time around.
You can always optimize your video content. One way to go on about this to see analytics to see exactly when your viewers drop your video and use the data to make improvements. You can also make another version of an old video and see which performs better for testing how your audience responds to different types of content.
Final Thoughts
Out with the old. In with the new!
Marketing is a continuous commitment. It is ever-changing and continuously evolving.
The approach of just creating and publishing doesn’t work in this new era of digital marketing. You need to follow the above ever-green best video marketing tips and incorporate them with other best practices in your bigger SEO strategy in order to succeed!
