Is your marketing strategy appealing to your customers? 91% of people want to see more video content from brands, according to a Wyzowl survey. If you still rely on traditional marketing with text and images only, it’s time to add videos to your marketing strategy.
Marketing videos are versatile, engaging and save considerable time for brands and customers.
However, many business owners don’t use this strategy, fearing the technicalities of recording and editing a video, plus the constantly changing trends.
But video marketing can be quite simple. With the right tools and strategies, you’ll create marketing videos that improve conversions and boost sales.
This guide will introduce you to video marketing and its benefits, outline how to make a marketing video and share tips to attract more sales.
Understanding the benefits of marketing videos
Marketing videos directly or indirectly promote and inform consumers about your brand. Videos can convey a significant amount of information quickly and are highly shareable, helping you reach a wider audience.
Marketing videos also come in different formats; maintain a variety to keep your audience engaged.
By using video marketing, you’ll enjoy the following benefits.
Reach consumers where they already are
Social media channels are excellent marketing platforms that most consumers already use. In fact, 82% of consumers have purchased a product they discovered through social media, according to The Influencer Marketing Factory.
Nowadays, most popular social media platforms promote video content. Whether it’s reels, shorts, series or TikToks, video content will build your social media presence. In turn, it will organically educate your target audience about your brand.
Measure your marketing impact
A marketing campaign should be measurable. How else will you calculate your ROI and whether you’re boosting sales? There are several video-specific KPIs to measure content performance — in addition to the ubiquitous ones, like click-through rate and bounce rate.
For example, use average watch time to determine which part of the content viewers enjoy. Additionally, use the view-through rate to see how many consumers watched the marketing video for the complete duration.
Over time, these kinds of KPIs show you exactly what works in video marketing, so you can improve your returns on your time, effort and spending.
Boost search engine rankings
Since users find videos convenient, Google displays them on various types of results pages, such as the main page, video results page and Discover page. Every week, around 639,000 Google searches include video results.
The top of a search engine results page gets the most clicks by far. But to earn a spot, you need the most relevant and useful content. So if you want to boost search engine rankings for your brand, create top-tier marketing videos with video SEO best practices to outrank your competitors.
Create memorable brand stories
A staggering number of brands are competing for customer attention on online platforms. If you want to stand out, you need to connect with your audience beyond sales.
Add a personal touch to your videos, which helps your audience form an emotional connection with your brand.
Add a personal touch to your videos, which helps your audience form an emotional connection with your brand.
Instead of communicating through plain text in an email, use a video since your audience will connect better with a human speaking. Plus, you’ll convey a memorable personality instead of being another faceless brand.
Use social media word-of-mouth
Videos are highly shareable compared to other content formats. According to the Wyzowl report cited above, 51% of people will share a video with their friends, but the figures are much lower for blogs, landing pages and even social posts.
Most social media platforms have quick share features that allow viewers to send your video to their contacts, which extends your content’s reach. If you want to build a community or increase your followers, videos are the best way.
Video marketing is a versatile strategy. Make the most out of it by understanding the different types of marketing videos and how you can incorporate them to improve your outreach.
Types of marketing videos
Marketing videos build brand awareness, expand your customer base and boost revenue. But they don’t always need to be promotional. Keep things diverse and fresh by leveraging several types of videos.
Product how-tos
If you offer a product or service that is complicated or has multiple benefits, create a how-to video.
Product how-tos explain the features, benefits and best ways of using a product. This helps your audience understand why they need your product, which compels them to purchase it.
This video by Neutrogena is an excellent example of a product demo video with simple instructions. It shows how to compost their plant-based wipes.
Brand story
Most brands have a unique story about the purpose and inspiration behind the business. This may simply be two friends discussing a business idea over coffee or a group of people coming together to solve a nationwide social problem.
By sharing videos expressing your brand story, you’ll form a strong impression and build more loyal customer relationships.
Ben & Jerry’s has a great brand story video describing their social mission.
Behind the scenes
According to a 2023 IHA report, 82% of consumers want to purchase from brands with a good working environment for employees. A great way to assure consumers of your favorable work culture is to create behind-the-scenes marketing videos.
Behind-the-scenes videos showcase your company culture, employees and working process. They are sneak peeks for consumers who want to see deeper than the finished product.
Make videos showing the daily routine at your office, the steps involved in product creation and employees speaking highly about your brand.
Honda interviewed several of its employees to make an engaging behind-the-scenes video for social platforms.
Influencer collaborations
Expand your marketing and reach an even wider audience by collaborating with influencers. Influencers will reliably create entertaining or educational videos and share them with their thousands (or millions) of followers.
Retail brand Marks & Spencer collaborated with broadcaster Charlie Webster to showcase their latest collection via online video.
Social media trends
Some of your videos can incorporate social media trends such as viral dances, memes, reactions and challenges. These trends will keep your content fresh and engaging, while you have some fun with your social media marketing strategy.
Google uses the latest meme templates to inform consumers about their new app features.
Brand Q&As
Question and answer videos enlighten customers about your brand. Try featuring questions about:
- Product features
- Optimal product usage
- Frequently asked questions
- Common pitfalls
- Upcoming events, offers and products
Even though most brands conduct Q&A sessions in livestreams, you can still hold onto questions from customers and use them in a video series.
Nivea uses Q&A videos to lightheartedly test customers. By educating them about skin care, Nivea presents itself as the solution to taking care of yourself, giving customers motivation to purchase.
Testimonials
Customer testimonial videos are a great way to showcase positive user experiences from people who’ve actually used your product or service. According to BrightLocal, 46% of customers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from their friends and family.
Try posting review compilations or making case studies to build social proof about your product or service.
Alternatively, go with a user-generated content strategy: Encourage customers to create content with your products in exchange for discount coupons or social promotion. Then, you can make a video out of their submissions.
Clinique adds positive reviews to its product videos to build customer trust on social platforms.
While there are several video formats to choose from, the general steps to create a marketing video are the same.
Create marketing videos in seven steps
1. Select specific platforms
2. Decide on a video marketing budget
3. Plan videos for the audience
4. Get your message across
5. Create a call to action
6. Leverage the right video creation tools
7. Test and measure repeatedly
Consider each step in detail so you can create high-quality videos easily.
1. Select specific platforms
Many digital platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube each have unique formats and success criteria for video content. For that reason, focusing on too many platforms at once isn’t feasible, especially while you’re learning how to make a marketing video.
Instead, choose a few platforms where your potential customers are active; build your video marketing campaign around those websites.
For example, Instagram is great for capturing the attention of younger generations since 61.1% of the audience is aged between 18 to 34. Distinctly, YouTube is suitable for hosting long-form video content such as tutorials. If you want to incorporate both text and video marketing, then Facebook is an excellent option.
2. Decide on a video marketing budget
While video marketing gives great results, you must set a realistic budget for this strategy. Here’s how much companies usually spend on video marketing.
When creating a video marketing budget, consider the following:
- Marketing goals: Do you want to attract more viewers, convert leads or retain customers for the long term? Based on your goals, determine the approach of your marketing videos.
- Types of videos: Creating professional videos costs much more than recording them yourself or using user-generated content. Additional elements such as animation, music and collaborations will add to your expenses.
- Number of platforms: Since each website requires a unique strategy, expanding the number of platforms you market with increases your budget. However, you can limit your expenses and still build your presence on several websites if you’re crafty with repurposing content.
Though your budget may fluctuate depending on the audience’s response, it’s good to have an initial estimate.
3. Plan videos for the audience
Aim to tailor your video ideas to each of your platforms of choice. What works for an Instagram reel may not work for a YouTube video. Viewers usually respond differently to video formats on each platform.
Analyze content trends for each website so you get a feel for what your general audience likes to see.
Analyze content trends for each website so you get a feel for what your general audience likes to see.
However, you don’t need to create entirely new videos for different online platforms. You can repurpose content from one website to suit the format of another. For example, break down a six-minute-long YouTube video into several 60-second videos to post as reels on Instagram.
4. Get your message across
While marketing videos can be fun and entertaining, their primary purpose is brand promotion. Ensure that each of your videos has a specific message that highlights your brand and furthers your marketing goals.
Even if you post a meme-based or Q&A video, customers should learn more about your products and have another reason to like your brand.
5. Create a call to action
If you want your marketing videos to directly impact sales, determine what action consumers should take after watching. Should they click a link in the description? Or should they follow you on social media?
Instead of simply entertaining, each video should have a clear call to action (CTA) that pushes your audience forward in the marketing funnel.
Here are some types of CTAs you can use in marketing videos:
6. Leverage the right video creation tools
This step involves recording and editing videos, then posting them optimally for social network algorithms and search engines. While the process may seem complex and expensive, you can simplify it using the right video marketing tools.
For example, you can use a high-quality smartphone to record and edit videos instead of purchasing additional cameras and equipment.
You can also use free or budget-friendly software if you can’t hire professionals. Tools such as WeVideo and TubeBuddy are excellent to get you started with video editing and optimization.
7. Test and measure repeatedly
Like any digital marketing strategy, marketing videos require continuous testing and tracking. Measuring content effectiveness helps you fine-tune your strategy for better engagement and higher ROI.
To test your video marketing strategy, decide on a few metrics and measure them repeatedly. You can use:
- View count: Commonly, the number of times a user played your video intentionally.
- Watch time: The total amount of time your video has been watched.
- View-through rate: The number of times your video was watched for its entire duration.
- Shares: The number of times users clicked the share button to show your video to others.
Even after you’ve landed on a video marketing strategy for your brand, don’t stop tracking metrics; video trends keep changing.
Following these steps will help you get started with video marketing as a small business. Want to go above and beyond to stand out? Consider the following tips to create a successful video marketing strategy.
Tips for making impactful marketing videos
Keep the following advice in mind to create a unique and results-oriented video marketing strategy for your brand.
Keep your content fresh. Don’t stick to a single format repeatedly, as it makes the content monotonous. Experiment with different video formats and content styles to keep your audience interested. Being versatile also helps you cater to different types of consumers.
Make it simple. Convey your message directly. Even though storytelling is important, don’t lose the central message by unnecessarily complicating the video.
Include personality. Brand personality helps your business stand out among the millions of other brands creating videos. Use your brand colors, logos and themes consistently in your videos so the audience instantly recognizes your content.
Create impressionable thumbnails. Thumbnails are the first thing your audience sees, even before the actual video. Using an informative and eye-catching thumbnail prompts people to click on your videos.
However, steer clear of misleading thumbnails. Even if you clickbait to temporarily increase your views, if users don’t see real value and don’t feel positive about your content, they won’t buy from you anyway.
Create a video hook. Gen Z has an attention span of just 1.3 seconds for online ads. To keep your audience engaged throughout the marketing video, you need an interesting hook within the first few seconds of the content.
Be creative: This can be a shocking statistic, an exciting update or a promise to reveal a surprise giveaway at the end.
Balance your post frequency. Posting too many videos can overwhelm your audience, whereas posting too little lets them forget your digital presence.
Balance your post frequency by monitoring your audience’s engagement, especially comments and conversion rates. If you make a change and they respond favorably, move in that direction.
Learn the basics of shooting videos. If you can’t hire professionals, learning some basics of video production goes a long way toward creating impactful marketing videos.
This doesn’t just involve learning camera angles. It’s also about getting the lighting, audio and editing to a pleasing state. Here are the basics to practice for video production:
You can use free video-editing tools like Clipchamp and Biteable to create visually-appealing marketing videos from raw footage.
With these video marketing tips, you can create unique and appealing video content for your target audience.
Final thoughts: Marketing with video isn’t rocket science
You now know how to create a marketing video that boosts customer engagement and attracts more leads online. For the next step, these interested buyers need a platform to interact with your products and make purchases.
If you create a brand website, you can sell your products and services on a dedicated platform you optimize to convert more leads into sales — it’s the perfect consumer journey to follow your marketing videos.
That’s why business owners make their own online stores using WordPress; it’s fully customizable, so you can drive sales using custom themes, advanced website security and store analytics.
Ready for a walkthrough setting up your online store? Check out Bluehost’s WordPress WonderSuite.
