5 Easy Steps to Kick Start Your Video Marketing

Top tips for small businesses to get started using video for marketing and social media ads. The 5 key points to help you be successful.

If you aren't creating video content as part of your marketing strategy, you're missing a tremendous opportunity. Using video as part of your overall marketing plan isn't new, but it is becoming increasingly more essential to the core of any successful marketing campaign.

Our consumption of video content has been growing at an exponential rate. In 2019, internet users spent nearly 7hrs per week watching videos; this is a 59% increase since 2016. And we're not slowing down. Cisco predicts that video will account for 82% of all internet traffic by 2022.

With more people watching videos than ever before, you can't afford to miss this trend. To help you get started, we've compiled five easy steps to kick-start your video marketing campaigns.

• Personalize your marketing video for your target audience
• Make the first 10 seconds count
• Focus on a single social media platform
• Optimize your marketing video for search
• End your marketing video with a Call to Action
• Kick start your video marketing today!

1. Personalize your marketing video for your target audience

Video creation is your opportunity to flex your creative muscles, but your content has to be relevant. By now, you should have already created a brand story that is prevalent through the various marketing channels you utilize. You need to ensure that your messaging is consistent across all formats, and that goes for your videos as well.

Your purpose should be to convey to your customers what your business can do for them. To do this, you need to keep things simple. If you make your video too complicated or detailed, you will alienate your audience. You can always create more videos to cover additional topics. Try to focus your message on just a couple of main points rather than cramming everything in; your viewers will thank you for this.

A part of keeping it simple is making sure you kick the jargon to the curb. Nothing neutralizes your audience's interest quite like marketing jargon or being too 'salesy'. People are being bombarded with advertisements every day; you want to make sure that your message isn't drowned out by all the noise. Video marketing is your chance to use storytelling to create a connection with your customers and ignite strong emotions.

Don't discount the influence the right music can have on your audience. Music can evoke a range of emotions and set the tone for the message you are trying to convey. It's crucial the music you choose represents your brand and aligns with your message.

2. Make the first 10 seconds count

The average person is exposed to upwards of 5,000 ads per day. While this number is staggering, it is likely a massive understatement as it comes from a study conducted in 2007. One can only imagine how many more ads the average person will see today.

It’s never been harder to catch and keep a customer’s attention. So ask yourself this – Why should people view your video?

As a rule of thumb, you have just 10 seconds to capture your audience’s interest. Your video should immediately convey its value. Let the audience know that you’re the kind of business they need.

To give your videos a better chance of being watched, you need to keep your audience engaged. Keep your message concise and get straight to the point. Start by asking a question that acknowledges their needs, problems, or challenges then provide the answer at the end of the video. Your goal is to spark curiosity by positioning your brand as a solution to their problem.

For the best results, keep your videos under 60 seconds. This should give you enough time to present your core message without demanding too much of your audience’s attention. Most people, especially on social media, do not stop for anything that will keep them too long.

Remember, a successful marketing video is simple to understand.

3. Focus on a single social media platform

For a small business operating on a tight budget, you want to make sure you’re maximizing your reach with the least amount of effort. A common mistake made by small businesses is that they need to be on every available platform and thus stretch themselves too thin.

Before choosing a platform to focus on, it is crucial to establish your goals for social media. Are you hoping to drive sales, build brand recognition, or develop a relationship with your customers? Once you have an understanding of your goals, you need to align them with your audience.

As with business, social media platforms specialize in different content for different audiences. If you’re looking for a female audience and hoping to drive sales, Pinterest has proven to generate strong retail sales. If you want to display your offerings in a visually compelling way, then perhaps Instagram is the right fit.

Take a look at some of the best social media platforms for business and learn which platform will help you achieve your goals.

4. Optimize your marketing video for search

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the cornerstone of any good digital marketing strategy. To add to your number of potential viewers, you need to make your content easily searchable. A fantastic technique to boost your SEO efforts is to include closed captions.

The internet is fundamentally text-based; this means that your fancy new video will stay hidden from search engines. To open up your content to search engines, you need to upload text-based transcripts of your videos called closed captions. It can be challenging to portray the essence of your video with a title or description for SEO but closed captions allow Google and other search engines to understand your content, making them extremely useful.

It should also be noted that closed captions allow for greater engagement. Many people choose to watch videos with the sound off and over 5% of the world’s population struggle with hearing loss. Ensuring your videos are more accessible improves engagement which in turn may lead to higher SEO rankings.

If you have a website, it is essential to maintain a sitemap to enhance your search engine visibility. Search engines use automated “crawling” robots to determine the theme of your website. Now that you’re generating video content, you can go one step further with a video sitemap. As there are no keywords or text for the crawlers to analyze in video content, a video sitemap is an excellent way to get your videos included in search results.

5. End your marketing video with a Call to Action

A prompt that encourages your viewers to take a specific action is called a “Call to Action” or “CTA”. The CTA is your final direction for your audience directing them specifically the next step they need to take. Whether it’s to make a purchase, follow an account, watch another video, or sign up for an email, a clear and concise CTA will move your potential customer to the next step and when used effectively, will significantly increase conversion rates.

Anyone that has stuck around long enough to watch your entire video has demonstrated interest in what your brand has to say. This is your opportunity to provide a CTA and clarify which action your audience should now take. Your CTA should strongly relate to the content in the video and feature prominently on the page. Make sure that your videos always end with a call-to-action button and allow your audience to take the appropriate next steps.

Your CTA can be more than simply providing your contact details. You want to foster curiosity and create a sense of urgency.

Here are some ideas to consider:

• Ask a question – This can be an effective means of engaging your followers on social media and inviting them to join the conversation.
• Watch another video – Invite the viewer to take a more in-depth look at your brand.
• Subscribe, follow, like, and comment – Let your audience help spread the word.
• Offer promo codes – Everybody likes a good deal, use promo codes to increase shareability.

Kick start your video marketing today!

The barrier to video creation has been lifted and video marketing is being used by brands of all sizes across all industries. No matter what your business does, you can kick-start your video marketing with these top tips.

If you’re looking for some content ideas to get you started, platforms such as Ad Director can further help you discover what works for your business. With pre-made templates that are already optimized to capture attention, access to stock footage, and an easy to use video creator you can create effective campaigns with ease and become your own marketing team.

Video can be an incredible tool to accomplish your marketing goals. Keep your messaging simple, consistent, and connect with your audience and you’re likely to see what all of the hype around video marketing is all about!

If you found this article useful, why not venture over to our ultimate guide for video marketing? Our guide covers everything you need to know when creating ads or promotional videos for your brand or business.