A detailed guide to Video Content Marketing

Video has become an important part of content marketing in recent years, with 85% of businesses using video content marketing as part of their overall content marketing strategy in 2020. However, if you haven’t already started, or are stuck in a creative rut, producing video content can seem a little bit overwhelming!

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next video, or just need some ideas to get started, we’ve got you covered. In this detailed guide, you’ll find out why video content marketing is vital to your business, the types of video content that you can create, and the best places on the web to share those videos.

We’ll also share some useful tips that you can use to produce, edit, and share your video content on the web, along with a guide on how to produce these videos on any budget. Lastly, we’ll go over the metrics that actually matter when it comes to your video content’s performance.

Are you ready to use the power of video to drive your business forward? Read on to get started!

Why video content marketing is so important

Video is more memorable and engaging that other types of content

While photos remain as one of the most frequently shared content on social media, videos happen to result in far more engagement. Not only do audiences find video more engaging, they find it more memorable as well. As a matter of fact, it’s been found that viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to just 10% retention when reading the information in text format.

Video is more likely to be shared

In today’s social media climate, it’s almost pointless to produce content unless it can be easily shared. Share-able content is something that businesses should strive to produce at all times, and it just so happens that most viewers – 92% of them, actually – tend to share videos with others when they watch it on mobile devices, so it is well worth the effort.

Video is more likely to result in leads and conversions

Whether you’re selling a product or a service, lead generation is the bread and butter of online business. Without leads, you’d be hard pressed to turn your audience into potential customers. Videos can attract up to 300% more traffic to your website – that’s three times the amount of leads than a page without video! Video can also boost your conversion rate, with research showing that including a video on your landing page can boost your conversion rate by up to 80%.

Video is great for SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a vital part of any online business, and we advocate for always using best practice SEO techniques in order for your site to rank higher on search results and drive organic traffic to your website. It’s been shown that having video content on your website can increase organic search traffic on a website by 157%! In fact, a website is 53 times more likely to reach the front page of Google if it includes video. It doesn’t just stop at search results though – on average, people spend more than twice as much time on a page with video compared to a page without. When users spend a longer duration on your website, it signals to Google that your page is useful and relevant, leading them to rank your website higher!

Types of engaging video content

Now that you understand how video content can contribute to your digital marketing strategy, it’s time to decide what type of video you should produce. There are many types of video content out there, but some might suit your business more than others.

The key to a high-performing video is to make it relevant to your audience. Consider your content marketing strategy as a whole, and think critically about how video can fit into your plans. Do you want to feature your products and services more prominently? Or do you want the camera turned more towards your brand messaging, and the people behind your business? Perhaps you could even do a combination of these messages?

Once you decide on what you’d like to convey in your video content and who you want to convey it to, then you can consider creating video content using the following types of formats:

https://www.facebook.com/lyfsolutions/videos/1647486088746287/

Where to publish your video content

Social media platforms

If your business is already using social media as part of your marketing strategy, adding video into the mix is a quick and clever way to leverage on your existing audience. Social media posts with videos have been shown to perform well, resulting in almost 50% more views compared to other types of content.

We’ve also mentioned before that audiences tend to share videos more than other content, and this is especially true on social media. Studies have shown that videos on social media generate 1200% more shares than both text and image content combined!

YouTube and Facebook are, by and large, the most widely used platforms among video marketers. TikTok is less rarely used, but over half of those who’ve tried it report having success.

LinkedIn is also emerging as a contender – 87% of marketers describe it as an effective platform for video content. LinkedIn users, in particular, are 20 times more likely to share a video than any other type of post on the platform.

Instagram has also seen a rise in video content, so much so that they’ve established their own video micro-platform, Instagram TV (IGTV). Apart from that, you can share videos on your feed or via Stories. Content creators have reported great success with publishing video content on Instagram, with videos on Instagram getting twice as much engagement compared to photos.

Email marketing

Studies have shown that even just adding the word “video” in an email subject line can increase open rates, so it makes sense to start incorporating video into your email marketing efforts! Apart from that, videos encourage audience engagement. For example, adding video to your emails can increase click rates to your website by up to 300%. Video has also been shown to reduce unsubscribe rates, so it can help you retain audiences for longer.

There are a few different ways to add video into your email marketing:

Embedding the video: This is where a video plays directly within the email message. Note, some devices and email programs don’t allow this, but most programs like MailChimp have a workaround for the video to be watched elsewhere
Hosting the video on your site: Upload the video onto a specific landing page on your website and create a thumbnail for it that can be added to the email message
Uploading the video on YouTube or Vimeo: You can also upload the video onto a video platform and send users to that link

Your website

Adding videos to your website is a great way not only to leverage on site visits from video views, but also to establish more content within your site to make it easier for search engines to find you! Aside from driving traffic and generating leads, pages with video have also been shown to have a higher conversion rate.

If you’d like your video content to be available to paying customers only, you can upload videos directly on your website and require a password to access the content. You could also consider uploading videos on YouTube and keep them unlisted (this makes them undiscoverable through search) and send the link directly to customers. On Vimeo, you can upload videos that require passwords from customers who’d like to access them.

Best practice tips for video marketing

There are a few things to keep in mind when using video in your content marketing. Make the efforts worth your while by following these best practices!

Focus on mobile
75% of all video plays are on mobile devices, and people are 1.5 times more likely to watch video on their mobile phones, so always make sure your videos are optimised for mobile. For example, use the 1:1 square ratio or vertical 4:5, over 16:9 (landscape)
A word about sound
Audiences respond differently to audio depending on the platform. For example, 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, whereas 60% of Instagram Stories are watched with the sound on. To be safe, make sure your video makes sense (and is more accessible!) by optimising it for no sound. Subtitles are a great way to achieve this.
Keep it at the right length
“But what is the right length for my videos?” we hear you ask. Well, there’s no one right answer, because it completely depends on what platform you’re on, who your audience is, and what your content is about. These days, over half of videos on the web are less than 2 minutes long, due to our shorter attention spans. That being said, there are a few pretty solid averages for each platform that you can use to guide your video length.
Always repurpose
We advise that you always repurpose your video content across different digital channels to maximise the returns. A video that is published on YouTube can be shared on Instagram as a short preview. A high-performing video on your website can turn into a series of shorter videos on LinkedIn. There are so many ways to repurpose the content! Just make sure you optimise each video to their specific platforms to make it more effective.

How much does video marketing cost?

When it comes to producing video, there are a range of options to suit any budget. It’s important to consider how important video is to your company, and how much you’re willing to invest, before you take the plunge. We recommend starting with cheaper options where possible, and then investing in higher-end production options if you start gaining traction with your video marketing.

Low budget options

Biteable, GIFMaker.me, and Canva are three platforms where you can create your own videos for free! There are paid options for Biteable and Canva, so that is something to consider in the future if you’d like to get more out of each platform. That being said, if you are aiming at keeping your videos simple and your budget low, the free versions do just fine!

Medium budget options

90 seconds, Visual Domain, and Ontopa Media are three options for businesses who have a larger budget and want videos more tailored to their marketing and branding needs. These platforms can help your business create curated visuals while also working within your budget to help you create effective video content for your business.

High budget options

Hiring a professional videographer or outsourcing your video content production to agencies are always an option for high-end content. You could also consider hiring an in house video production team if you find that videos become a key part of your content marketing.

The metrics that matter in video content marketing

Engagement

This includes Likes, Comments, and Reactions, which can all indicate the popularity of your video on a particular platform. Comments in particular also provide an opportunity for you to engage with your audiences directly.

This digital equivalent of word-of-mouth marketing is a great way to boost your brand presence and is great social proof as well. Audiences also tend to want to share video content – 48% of video watch time on Facebook, for example, comes from shares.

Play rates and replays

Play rate is how many times a user clicks play on one of your videos. It’s a really great way to measure how many people are actually watching your videos. Replays are when a user likes your video so much that they watch it again! However, while this can function as a great indicator that users like your content, it also could mean that they didn’t understand your message the first time around, so be mindful of that.

Click-through rate

This rate has to do with the number of users who click on the relevant call-to-action or follow through on the next step that you’ve set out in your video. This could be clicking through to a landing page, signing up for something, or doing any action that leads to a conversion of some kind.

Watch time

The fact is, a lot of users don’t watch the entirety of a video. Watch time measures the time users have spent watching your video. It’s basically an indication of the duration that someone watches a video. This is an important metric for you to see how effective your video is. For example, your video could be 8 minutes long but users are only watching the first minute. This shows you that most of your video simply isn’t engaging with your audience, and some adjustments need to be made.

Get started on your video content marketing today!

It’s clear that video content marketing will remain one of the most important forms of media in any good marketer’s tool belt. If you want to create quality content that resonates with your audiences and generates leads, now is the time to get started with video!

Want to begin your journey with video content marketing but not entirely sure how? We’re here to help your small business grow with our content marketing solutions, and can help guide you through the next step of your content marketing journey.

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