The world realized the power of visual marketing the first time pictures were used for advertising products and services. Slowly, pictures started taking over advertisements completely. Where once there were large blocks of text describing the specs of a car in detail, there was now a huge photo of a shiny new car with just the brand name and a catchy tagline. That’s just what people liked seeing.

Then came television, an even more visual medium. Now, with internet connections being faster than ever, we can see a similar evolutionary path. Audiences are moving on from text and images to the next more engaging medium – video. That’s why businesses are scrambling to add video to their marketing plans and why your brand needs video marketing as well.

So, what is video marketing?

Video marketing means integrating videos into your marketing strategy and using them to promote your brand, product or service. From an animated explainer video to a live action promo, marketing videos are everywhere. In 2019, 92% of businesses that used video considered it an important part of their marketing strategy.

Types of Video Content

Video is such a versatile medium that it can convey pretty much anything. Videos can be entertaining, informative or both, and they come in a variety of formats to suit your marketing needs. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular marketing video formats.

Explainer Videos

An explainer video is a short video that companies use to introduce their business and what they have to offer. These are usually present on landing pages, in ads and on social media.

Product Videos

Product videos are used to showcase a product’s features and demonstrate what it can do in a way that excites the viewer. These videos come in numerous different styles that you can choose between based on the requirements of your product.

Live Filming Videos

Marketing videos can be both animated or filmed in person with real locations and actors. When 2D or 3D animated videos don’t seem to be working out for your project, a good old live filming video can be just as effective. These are especially useful if you want to add a human element or show what your products look like on a model.

Interviews

Speaking of the human element, interviews are one of the most popular ways to add credibility to your marketing campaigns. Inviting an expert or influencer and asking them questions can bring a lot of positive attention to your brand. The audios from these interviews can even be re-used as podcasts.

Vlogs

A vlog is a video version of a written blog. Vloggers use videos to share their thoughts and experiences with their audiences. Brands can also use vlogs as a video marketing opportunity, either by collaborating with established vloggers or by creating vlog-style videos of their own.

Promotional Videos

A promotional video is a 15 to 60 second video used to promote a product, service or event. These don’t necessarily go into a lot of detail about the product’s features but are great for raising brand awareness and encouraging viewers to take action.

Reviews and Testimonials

According to Testimonial Engine, 90% of people look at reviews before making a purchase decision. A video review or testimonial can give a face to your customers and make their positive feedback seem all the more authentic to potential customers.

How To Create a Video Marketing Strategy

At a glance, video marketing can seem pretty straightforward, However, in practice, getting video marketing right consists of a lot of planning and several steps. Your video content will have to align with your overall marketing strategy, have quantifiable objectives and have to be monitored for engagement. Before you get started on production, here are some of the things you will have to plan.

Brainstorm Ideas

As with any creative content, you must be careful and choose a product, event or campaign in your strategy that could really benefit from video content. Plus, even if you are hiring someone to write your script for you, you still have to be very clear on what kind of content fits well with your brand and what story you want to tell. Your marketing team should have time to meet and come up with an outline of what your company needs, while also keeping your audience in mind.

Budget

A good marketing video requires professional equipment, editing software, a video marketing expert and a production team (or a really, really good freelancer). The costs of these will depend on the requirements of your video. For example, you may need to research the cost of hiring an animator versus a videography crew. You might even decide to opt for a video production agency, for which you would need to get quotes from different companies.

So set aside quite a bit of time for some meticulous research and budget planning.

Edit and Revise

Never compromise on the quality of your video. If you feel that the end-result is less than satisfactory, revise! Edit content, cut out any extraneous material. Attention spans are short and people click away from uninteresting videos within seconds. It’s better to delay things a little and put out the best video you possibly can, rather than publishing a sub-par video to meet deadlines.

Promote

Promote your videos far and wide. Post them to all your social media channels, include keywords in the descriptions, use them in your ads, and get in touch with partners and influencers to gain leverage. Just publishing a video on YouTube and leaving it alone is a waste of the time and effort that went into creating it.

Analyze

Finally, after all that is done and people are viewing your videos, it’s time to learn from your experience. Analyze your planning and production process and note what could have been done better. Track metrics and stats to determine which videos do the best, where people click away, and why. All these insights will help you replicate successes and not repeat mistakes for your next video project.

If you made it to the end of this article, you’re ready to take your first step into video marketing. Feel free to get in touch with us, if you have any questions and would like to know more about producing videos for your company.