When looking for new marketing ideas, it could be worth exploring what other businesses are doing. How are they maximizing their marketing efforts or grabbing attention? Are they using new strategies or reinventing a tried and tested formula? As innovative as many businesses are, there are very few new ideas in any industry, but that doesn’t mean you can still make the most of what you have.
Video marketing is a fantastic way to maximize interest in your business and reach more people than ever. But how can a small business make the most of its video marketing strategy? Here is a comprehensive guide to help youtube your marketing to the next level.
Why Use Video Marketing?
Wide Appeal
Video marketing offers a much broader appeal compared to text or images. Any video content you create should be more engaging, eye-catching, and memorable than an image or blog post, so use it to grab people’s attention and remind them what your business does and what you offer. Everyone likes watching videos, and you can get your point across to anyone, regardless of language barriers or familiarity with your business or products.
Multiple Platforms
You also have the benefit of using multiple platforms, which helps you capture more eyes and broaden your reach. Depending on the demographic and audience you’re targeting, you can focus your video marketing content on specific platforms and use tags and promoting services to boost the chances of people seeing your video. If it’s engaging enough, it should encourage potential customers to follow links to your profile and learn more about your business.
More Options
Video marketing also provides options you cannot achieve with other marketing styles. There are multiple ways to create a promotional video or ad, whether you do a traditional advertisement or prefer animated sales videos that mimic pop culture trends. You can also explore short and snappy ads or long-form videos that tug at the heartstrings (see the John Lewis annual Christmas ads for examples) and encourage an emotional response from your audience.
Better Search Engine Ranking
Search engine ranking is vital for boosting your business and reaching as many people as possible. The higher your links appear on Google or other resources, the more likely #people will click through and discover your business. Even if you aren’t an SEO expert, you still understand that unique content, like videos, can help boost your search engine ranking to make you more visible, so utilize videos as often as possible to increase your chances of people finding you.
Product Demos
It can be challenging to explain how a product works through text, even if you know how everything operates. Furthermore, reading about how good a product is won’t do much good because people want to see it in action. Part of your marketing strategy can include product demonstrations where you walk viewers through new products or services so they can see how it works in real time. This approach is much more engaging than a step-by-step guide, and it gives you the chance to showcase your products.
How To Maximize Your Video Marketing Strategy?
Invest In Video Equipment
When dedicating part of your marketing strategy to video content, you need to invest in the best equipment. While you can use a smartphone, especially if you’re trying a more “authentic” style, there’s still the risk of poor quality and sound issues.
Since you want your videos to look professional, investing in a camera and microphone (at the very least) is essential. These tools will help you film quality videos with clear sound, ensuring your videos don’t just look good, but they sound good also.
Identify Your Target Audience
You will also need to determine who you’re selling to as this will affect how you put your videos together and what techniques or styles you utilize to grab attention. If you’re shooting videos for a younger audience, you may benefit from making short, snappy videos to post to social media where everyone is fighting for attention.
However, a more mature audience may be willing to let you take them on a journey, so longer videos (although not too long) are ideal. Once you have determined who you want to sell to, you can start working on the next steps of your video strategy.
Outline Your Plans and Business Needs
Outlining your plans and business needs can also help you take the correct marketing approach. You can use this to identify what is most essential, whether promoting a new product or trying to reach more customers to grow your business.
These decisions will determine how you develop videos and what you focus on. They can help you make those important decisions surrounding video topics and content as well as the platforms, which will help you achieve your goals easier and address your business needs.
Script and Storyboard
Every video should tell a story. Your story could hype up a new product, announce your business has moved to a new platform, or showcase your history to attract new customers. Winging it won’t do you any favors, so using a script and storyboard will help you tell your ad story and hit all the key points.
These points should include everything from the product name to your business. It’s also worth including pricing, your location, and any contact details. The more information you include, the more customers will know about you.
Establish a Brand Voice
Your brand voice is essential in all your content. It helps people immediately identify you so they know whether they should hang around or not. Of course, establishing this voice isn’t always straightforward, especially if you and the rest of your team are not aligned in what you want to be.
Typically, the brand voice depends on your demographic but also the kind of business you want to be within your industry. Are you looking for ways to disrupt the status quo? Are you offering a unique perspective on tried-and-tested products? Use your voice to set yourself apart from the competition.
Consider Shooting Locations and Studios
You will also need locations to shoot your video content. Some businesses can use their office, but this isn’t always necessary depending on what the ad is. Filming locations are a great way to set the tone and impress customers with stunning visuals, and you can use a fibre camera adapter to shoot remotely, which can promote sustainable practices and save your company money.
Make sure you check any filming requirements, such as permissions and regulations before shooting on-site to ensure you do not fall afoul of any charges that could affect your production.
Learn to Edit Your Videos
You cannot expect to post a rough video. It needs to be edited correctly to ensure it’s suitable for posting. However, you don’t need to be a professional video editor to achieve this, especially with shorter videos.
Social media influencers have proved that anyone can edit a video, even on their smartphones, but since you’re running a business, investing in the best editing software can help you put together impressive video content that looks sleek and professional.
Consider Music Licensing
Every brand wants its video content to stand out, but visuals and engaging scripts can only go so far, especially if people aren’t paying attention. So what’s the solution? Licensed music is one of the best ways to grab people’s attention and make your videos more memorable.
However, you cannot just use your favorite band’s songs in your ads. You need to go through the proper channels to borrow the music and license it officially to use in your ad. You will also need to pay royalties, so it’s worth factoring these into your budget if you feel you can afford to make this decision.
Pick Your Platforms
Nowadays, you have multiple platforms to choose from. Whether you prefer YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, or short-form platforms like TikTok, there are various methods to get your videos seen, liked, and shared.
The platforms you choose should align with your video content style as well as match your target audience. Besides this, use meta tags to encourage them to show up in the right places so you can promote your product or business to people who will find the content relevant.
Work With Professionals
Many business owners have never made a video or even acted before, but they still want to make the best content they can to boost their business. If you’re worried about bad writing or filming, hiring a professional could be the solution.
You can work with professional actors and directors who will relish the chance to work on something. It can help their portfolio and means you can create a polished and professional video to post online and garner as much attention as possible.
Action!
Video content and marketing is a superb opportunity to expand your company’s horizons and reach more customers through different means. While you might feel you’re learning on the go, you can discover new skills that make you a more confident entrepreneur, which proves there is nothing you cannot achieve. Your business’s success will reflect this confidence as you explore new avenues and options to get ahead of the competition and thrive.