Are you using video as a part of your marketing strategy?
Please say yes. But if the answer is no, I’ll still be your friend.
Video, my friend, is no longer optional. If you want to build a business in the 21st century, you need to reach the 21st century consumer, and that person is on Facebook or YouTube liking cat videos as we speak.
Video plays an essential role in your marketing strategy. It helps you get in front of more eyeballs because people are attracted to moving images. And it helps you make a lasting impression on your viewing audience. If you want to be noticed in the crowd, video is a definitely way to dominance. Let’s talk about why video is so effective and how to make it work for your brand.
Why Video Marketing is Important
Video is an essential part of your content marketing strategy.
Video makes it easier to connect with your audience.
It’s the old adage: people buy from people, not brands, and certainly not soulless corporations. With video, you can peel away the shiny presentation and just be a human talking to another human.
People prefer video to other forms of content.
Video is just so darn easy to consume. Most of us are visual learners, and video is the perfect medium for teaching when you can’t be face to face with your audience.
For a more in-depth look at the importance of video marketing, don’t miss this post: 7 Reasons Why Video Needs to Be in Your PR Plan.
Now, how do you use video as a part of your marketing strategy? We’ll explore the two top platforms to consider in your video marketing, which are YouTube and Facebook and how to use both, not just one, to dominate the game.
Video Marketing on YouTube
Why YouTube?
Everyone’s on YouTube
YouTube has over a billion users. That’s a heck of a lot of people using YouTube to find content that’s educational or entertaining. And while over 40% of small businesses use Facebook to market their products, less than 10% use YouTube. This gap gives you an incredible opportunity to market to the community of users that 90% of small businesses neglect.
SEO Benefits
YouTube is the second largest search engine on the Internet, second only to Google. But consider this: Google actually owns YouTube, so it’s almost like they’re both the same. And Google also gives search engine priority ranking to YouTube videos. You may even have a better chance of landing on the first page with a YouTube video than you do with a blog post.
Long lifespan
YouTube videos have a long lifespan. When a user searches for a topic, your video that was uploaded four year ago can appear right beside a video uploaded just last month. The name of the age is relevancy. If you can create relevant, evergreen content on your videos, you’ll enjoy a constant stream of promotion on YouTube.
How to Optimize Your YouTube Videos
So, now that we know why YouTube is so special, it is important to understand how to perform on this platform.
Best Types of Videos on YouTube
Not every type of video does great on YouTube. YouTube is all about entertainment and information. Here are the four types that work well:
- Tutorials – Show your audience how to do something.
- Explanations – Explain a concept to your audience with the aid of visual graphics.
- Presentations – Share an idea with your audience, whether it’s a group discussion, a keynote speech, or a product demonstration.
- Interviews – Host a conversation with an industry expert.
Don’t Go “All Brand All the Time”
Your viewing audience wants to learn or be entertained. This is why brand awareness videos won’t perform well on YouTube. It’s not what people are searching for. They don’t want to hear a brand-centric message unless you can find a way that makes it about them.
What they want to see is the content that they searched for. So, carefully consider what your target audience would search for on YouTube and then create video content around those topics.
Make Use of Thumbnails
Optimized thumbnails are essential. You don’t want to go with whatever awkward screenshot YouTube pulls for your thumbnail. This is your biggest opportunity to capture the user’s attention and make them click on your video. So you should definitely create you own thumbnail, and you can do that with the help of a graphic editor. In fact, check out this easy tutorial for creating a YouTube thumbnail with Canva.
Optimize Your Titles
Keywords, especially long-tail keywords, are your friend here. Create a keyword-rich title that matches the phrase your target audience would use in search. Don’t stuff your title with keywords, though. Your title should sound natural and understandable.
Create a Full Description
In addition to using keywords in the title of your video post, you should also include them in the description of your YouTube video. Don’t overlook your YouTube video description! Think of it more like a mini blog post. At minimum, you should type 250 words where you discuss what your video is about and also expand (or link out) to the topics you discuss on the video.
Remember that the search bots on YouTube cannot “watch” your video. The bots rely on your title and description to know what your video is about and if the video is relevant to search queries, so be sure to add this content to your video.
Create a Call to Action
At the end of every video, call your audience to action. I love the idea of sending them back to your website in some way. For example, urge them to visit your website to download your free, relevant ebook. You’ll want to direct them to an optimized landing page (don’t just send them to your homepage), and you can post the link in your description box and in the YouTube annotations.
Mind the Length
People dread long videos, because that usually means there’s a lot of rambling or irrelevant content. Do your audience a favor and keep your video under three minutes.
Create a Trailer
While you shouldn’t use YouTube as a non-stop infomercial for your brand, you can and should add a brand story, or trailer, to your YouTube channel. Introduce yourself in a short video that will live on autoplay, on your YouTube channel. This is an opportunity to build brand awareness, share your story and vision, and highlight your products in one central, prominent spot.
Video Marketing on Facebook
YouTube isn’t the only place for video. Facebook is a dominant player in video marketing.
Why Facebook?
The Ability to Target Your Posts
On Facebook, you can push your content to specific, targeted audiences. No matter how niche your audience is, you can probably find them on Facebook. And if you market to multiple segments, use Facebook to reach each segment with a different optimized video post.
Raise Brand Awareness
One of the things you can do right on Facebook is build awareness for your brand. And you can reach an audience that’s primed for your product. You can do this quite easily by use Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences tool. Upload your email list of at least 100 people, and then Facebook will get to work finding the Facebook users who share similar characteristics to those on your list. It’s a very intuitive approach to marketing that can build brand awareness with the right people.
Remarket to Those Already Familiar with Your Brand
Facebook is also useful for follow up. If you have someone who’s visited your website recently but didn’t make a purchase, you can remarket to that person with a video that gives them an incentive to revisit your site.
How to Optimize Your Facebook Videos
Best Types of Videos on Facebook
Just like on YouTube, not every video will work well on Facebook. Here are four types of video that work well on Facebook:
- Introductions – Introduce your brand in a visually stunning way and make it benefit the viewer in some way.
- Behind the Scenes – Humanize your brand with a peek behind your office doors.
- Tutorials – Just like on YouTube, Facebook users love seeing concepts demonstrated, but keep it quick and visual.
- Testimonials – Show real people who have benefitted from using your product or service.
Don’t Use Sound
Sound-optional videos are important on Facebook. A whooping 85% of Facebook videos are played silently. By using closed caption, you can increase the viewing time of your video by 12%. Find clever ways to convey your story without sound. Rely on a combination of vibrant images, thoughtful editing, and text to get your point across.
Make It Short
Two minutes is way too long for a Facebook video. People grow weary after the 30 second mark. Socialbakers found that videos which were 21 seconds or under performed in the top 25% of completion. In other words, keeping it short meant that users made it all the way to the end of the video. And you definitely want them to get to the end of the video so that you can promote your call to action, such as “Shop Now” or “Download Now”.
Get to the Point Immediately
So, you have 21 seconds to play with, but you should get to the point within the first three seconds. Research shows that 65% of viewers who watch the first three seconds will continue watching for at least 10 seconds. Every second counts.
Do A/B Testing
If you’re going to pay for ads on Facebook (and you definitely should), you also need to do A/B testing for your videos to find out what works and what doesn’t. Find out what your users respond to by changing different elements of your video, such as your calls to action. You don’t know what will work until it works.
Additional Resources
Here are a few other resources to help you create your video marketing strategy:
- 5 Ways to Improve Your Brand Video Dialogue
- Storytelling Techniques: Formatting Your Brand Video
- The Ultimate Brand Video Helper
Susan McLennan
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