Why you should care about video marketing for your business, and how to get started.
The use of video in inbound marketing is on the rise. According to a 2014 video marketing report by Vidyard and Demand Metric, nearly 70 percent of B2B marketers are now using video as part of their marketing strategy, and having a video on your landing page can increase conversions by 80 percent. Hot stats, right?
Creating quality videos, on the other hand, is no simple matter. While 8mm video format was once an acceptable way to shoot films, it’s not the 90s anymore, no matter how much you may miss rollerblades. Today, audiences expect expert film quality, and that includes sound, image, scripting, editing, music and more. It’s like an elaborate juggling act, but instead of flaming batons, you have sound quality, lighting, audience engagement, adaptive content, story structure and design. Now that’s a circus act we’d pay to see.
Here are a couple basic elements of video marketing, no flaming batons required.
1. Get Technical
Today, getting technical doesn’t have to mean breaking your budget. With the wider availability of professional video technology, making professional videos is more than possible for your small to medium-sized business. Keep in mind that professional doesn’t mean stiff and lacking character. Take a look at this example of content marketers sharing what they, well, don’t share on LinkedIn. While the video has that warm and grainy feel of being an old-fashioned home camcorder film, it’s clearly professionally shot, edited and put together.
If you’re still not sure about taking that extra step to professional video marketing, take a look at these compelling facts:
- In a study conducted by MIT Media Lab, viewers consistently rated videos as more likeable, interesting and involving when they featured better quality and stereo sound.
- In the same study, viewers were also rated videos with better audio as having better picture quality.
- In a study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University on video quality and user engagement, high video quality was found to significantly increase both the number of plays on a video and the total play time.
Sound convincing? We thought so too.
2. Plan Video Alternatives for Other Channels
Remember when we talked about creating a breadth of deliverables for different platforms? If you’re planning on dabbling in video marketing, it’s crunch time. As much as you may pound your fists about it, your video simply won’t be accessible on every device, and ignoring users on those devices is a recipe for marketing disaster.
Offer users on other devices an alternative that conveys a similar message. A series of static images can illustrate the main points of your video, while cards can structure content on Twitter and Google Now with brief text descriptions.
3. Optimize Your Video for Search
Search engine optimization doesn’t only apply to written content on your website. Without a basic understanding of search engine optimization, you could very well become hidden in a low traffic corner of the Internet, no matter how great your video is. Sound terrifying? For businesses, non-optimized content should be the stuff of nightmares.
Carefully select the best keywords for your video using keyword research. Once you’ve settled on the best keywords remember the following techniques to get your video to rank:
- Use your primary keyword(s) in your video’s title and description.
- Add a transcript (and be sure that it’s optimized for search). Adding a transcript also makes your video accessible for the hearing-impaired and speakers of other languages. Way to get the most out of your video.
4. Try A/B Testing
Isn’t it bizarre how minute shifts in design can significantly impact conversion rates? Well, yes and no. A/B testing taps into deeply psychological reactions, reminding us all that marketing requires a human touch.
Once you’ve created an initial couple of versions of your video, use A/B testing to settle on the final touches. Should you use a male voice-over, or a female? Should your key image be red or blue? Helvetica or Comic Sans? Since A/B testing can be a great way of determining which small tweaks might get your conversions through the roof, it’s well worth your time to try out a couple of different styles, designs and scripts.
Conclusion
While the stats boasted by successful video marketers may be enough to get your business sprinting to the nearest camera, it’s important to incorporate professional quality and marketing techniques in the process. Remember that shaky cameras are for horror movies, not video marketing, and home camcorders are for fathers during the holidays, not businesses.
How will you incorporate video marketing into your inbound marketing strategy? What are some other necessary professional elements?
