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Why You Need a Video Marketing Strategy (and How to Create One) - BOXmedia

Why You Need a Video Marketing Strategy (and How to Create One)

video marketing strategy

Brands needing a video marketing strategy isn’t a new idea. With audiences who are increasingly engaging with live streaming, interactive videos, etc., text and images alone cannot convey the message and impact. Video has become an important content type on all platforms and social media channels. In fact, video was not only the top format for marketers as part of their content strategy in 2021 but will also be a significant investment for B2B businesses in 2022.

Besides strategy, video equipment, software, and other aspects of the video production process can get tough. This is where having a well-laid-out video marketing strategy can make a difference. So, let us get started! 

What Does Video Marketing Do for Your Business? 

Video marketing utilizes videos to achieve a specific objective—it can be boosting sales, generating leads, educating customers, sharing customer experience, promoting a product or a service, creating brand awareness, increasing engagement, and others. It helps you connect on a more human level with your customers through a new format and grab their attention in a world that is already inundated with digital content. 

With that being said, there are still non-video marketers who are not utilizing this powerful medium as they are unaware of where to start! This is where this quick guide can help you in designing a video marketing strategy. 

Why Do You Need a Video Marketing Strategy

As opposed to popular belief, video marketing is within reach of businesses of all sizes. With a plethora of video production agencies, you can outsource every aspect of your video marketing and distribution requirements, saving both time and money.

Videos are garnering popularity because technology is getting cheaper and the video production process easier. However, there are more reasons than just that. 

Here’s why you need a video marketing strategy if you haven’t started on one yet. 

  • Great tool for education and building trust 

People usually watch videos when the content is relatable or is from their area of interest. This is further substantiated by recent statistics which show that 96% of people watch an explainer video to learn more about a product or service and 88% were convinced to buy a product or service after watching the brand’s video. 

video content type

Image source: Hubspot

  • Increase in online media consumption

Smartphones have made it easier to watch videos by providing easy accessibility anytime, anywhere. Additionally, the pandemic has increased the consumption of digital content. For instance, in the U.S. alone, online media consumption increased by 215% in just a year.

Viewers are now watching online videos for an average of 19 hours per week compared to just 10.5 hours in 2018. Businesses need to tap this potential for connecting to their audiences. 

  • Easy sharing and distribution 

 People are twice as likely to share video content compared to other content forms. Moreover, there is increasing popularity of platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram Reels among millennials and Gen Z, making them an attractive marketing channel. 

video channels

Image source: Hubspot

  • Positive impact on SEO and conversion rate 

Undoubtedly, ROI matters to marketers. Since videos are so versatile, your sales team can use them in different ways throughout the customer journey. As a matter of fact, around 87% of marketers agree that video has helped them increase website traffic and 81% have observed a direct increase in sales. When used correctly, videos can help improve your overall SEO strategy by increasing page quality and the time visitor spend on the page. 

  • Appealing to mobile users

With high-speed mobile internet, mobile users are driving online video consumption. Over 60% of audiences watch digital video content on their smartphones and speed about 50 minutes per day engaging with mobile video content. 

Here are some more reasons for first-time video marketers. 

  • The increasing affordability of the video-making process
  • Faster, and less time-consuming
  • Clearly defined ROI
  • Easier to get buy-in from leadership on the value created by video content

How to Create Your Video Marketing Strategy 

Before you even start thinking about the storyline, special effects, or equipment, you need to make a decision about your objectives and what you want your audience to do after watching the video. This is where defining a video marketing strategy works. Without this in place, you may get stuck with rewriting, editing, or reshooting, wasting both time and money. 

Step 1: Identify your target audience and know them well

Understanding your buyer persona is the first step in a video marketing strategy. Know who they are, what are their pain points, how they spend most of their time or on which channels they hang out more, what solution they are expecting, etc. If you already have a buyer persona, then make sure to update it to make sure your video content research and strategy are to the mark. 

Step 2: Engage with the right stakeholders 

There may be multiple stakeholders involved in a video production process. So make sure they are all on the same page with the objectives and expectations. You can do a quick questionnaire or one-on-one discussion to record their responses. This is important because you would want to get a clear idea of some important points beforehand. For instance, to begin with, what is the objective of video marketing— to promote an event, increase brand awareness, or launch a new service or product?

Step 3:Define a timeline and budget 

Although the video production process has got much easier, faster, and affordable, it is always a good idea to make sure you have a budget and timeline in mind, so you can get the most out of the least! In fact, take it as any project management task. 

Whether you are creating a video in-house or outsourcing to video production agencies, define the milestone and expected timeline. This will help you to plan for unforeseen circumstances or challenges and make sure your deliverables are of high quality and on time. 

Step 4: Identify the channel or platform 

Videos help boost reach, engagement, and even SEO. So, do ponder which channels you want to use and how you want to distribute your video. Again, it will depend on your target audience and the objective. You may want to explore both website SEO and YouTube SEO to get the maximum impact. At this stage, you can also benchmark what is the average view time, what are the size or video length limitations on different social platforms, what online communities you can target, will your promotion strategy change for different platforms or channels, etc. 

Step 5: Develop your messaging and choose a video type

Videos are a great tool to tell stories and that is why getting the messaging right is important. Your message will depend on the objective and which stage are you targeting in the customer journey. Once that is final, you can choose the type of video—explainer video, customer testimonial video, product marketing video, animated video, etc. 

It is important to note that this choice can also get influenced based on the resources available and your budget. 

Step 6: Define performance metrics 

ROI is critical in any marketing effort. The same applies to video marketing too. You need to define the metrics for each platform depending on your distribution strategy. You can either use the default metrics on each platform but it can make it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of multi-channel video performance. You can consider measuring the success of your video marketing efforts with the following metrics such as view count, play rate, comments, likes, shares, completion rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, time spent on the page, etc. 

Final Words 

Video marketing can appear overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. However, with the right video marketing strategy and support, you can achieve your goals of creating a high-quality video and delivering the desired impact. 

If you are lacking time and in-house talent, you can also reach out to a full-service video production agency that can take you through every step of the video production process including script writing, editing, motion graphics, sound editing, etc. You don’t need to look beyond! With BOXmedia, you can start your video production journey without hassle and stress. To know more, get in touch with us today!