There is enough data out there to establish the importance of videos in marketing. But how do you leverage the power of video to take your business to the next level? It starts with a well thought-out video marketing strategy.
How to Build Your Video Marketing Strategy: A Primer
Video can be a powerful tool to engage your audience. It can help you build an intimate relationship with them, and so much more. You might already be incorporating video content in your marketing strategy. That’s an important first step. But to capitalize on the potential of video as a marketing tool, you need two things: a well thought-out plan and tools to execute the plan. For the latter, there is Viostream, a dedicated video-hosting platform that has all the tools you need to execute your video marketing strategy.
For the rest, here is a step-by-step guide to building a comprehensive video marketing strategy for your business.
Identify your Goals
What outcome do you want from your video content? Is it brand awareness? Or is it higher conversions you are after? Some typical marketing goals can be:
- Higher engagement rates
- Better brand awareness
- Lead and demand generation
- Better click-through rates
- Higher retention rates
When you are defining your video marketing goals, we recommend using the S.M.A.R.T guide to inform your journey.
Determine Your Audience
For a successful video marketing strategy, you must define who you are making videos for. Create user personas to define your ideal target audience. Typically, user personas contain:
- Demographics. Age group, race, gender and socio-economic status are examples of demographics.
- Online behavior. This includes content preferences of your target audience, their preferred social media channels, and when they are most active.
- Pain points. Identify what your target audience is looking for. This ties in closely with online behavior.
- Content preferences. Does your target audience prefer bite-sized content or long-form video? What is the tone and language that they resonate most with?
Other than user personas, it is also important to map out your buyers’ journey. What are the touchpoints that your audience go through before buying something?
Related Reading: How to Use Videos to Drive Sales for Your Company
Create a Video Content Calendar
Now that you know who your audience is and what they are looking for online, the next step in your video marketing strategy is to create a content calendar. The calendar should define:
- The kind of videos you will be making
- The frequency of posting these videos online
- The channels you will be using to promote the videos
You will need different kinds of content in your video marketing strategy to engage people who are at different stages of their buyer journey. Someone who is researching options will respond better to product demonstration videos. Webinars or live streaming could also be options worth exploring for such leads. Likewise, testimonial videos are more suitable for people further up in the buyer journey.
Related Reading: 6 Types of Instructional Videos
Address Video Production Questions
Now you have a high-level video marketing strategy in place. It's time to think about how you will bring it to life. Consider the following:
- What is your budget for producing videos?
- Is it more feasible to produce content in-house or outsource it?
- What tools will you need to produce videos if you are doing it in-house?
Choose the Best Platform
Where will your videos live? YouTube is crowded with content creators and aspiring influencers. Moreover, relying on YouTube to grow your audience is a high-risk video marketing strategy.
For professional enterprise, it is wiser to invest in a dedicated video-hosting platform, such as Viostream. You don’t risk competitors poaching your audience while you work hard to create all that content. Dedicated video-hosting platforms such as Viostream are more secure. They also provide a more reliable user experience, among other things. If you're interested in learning more about professional video platforms with Viostream, start your free trial now.
Factors you should consider while deciding on channels for your video content are:
- Security and reliability
- How much control you have over the user experience
- Audience network
- Support for live streaming
- UI and how easy is it to upload and manage your video content
- Access to viewer analytics
- Accessibility
Track your Performance
Keeping track of how your videos perform helps you continue to fine tune your video marketing strategy to meet your audience’s expectations. Here is where knowing your goals will come in handy. When you define your video marketing goals, you also identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that you need to track. They will tell you what is working and what needs fixing. For example, if the watch time of your videos is low, you might need better introductions to engage your audience. Similarly, if your click-through rates are low, your videos could be too long or you might need to change your CTAs.
Some common KPIs in the video world include:
- Watch-time
- Number of views
- Number of unique views
- Engagement rate (likes and shares)
- Click-through rates
How Viostream Can Help
A good video marketing strategy needs an equally good video hosting platform. Imagine if you could build customized landing pages for your video content, hold live Q&A sessions, or included interactive CTAs in your video content. Wouldn't it also be nice to have cutting edge analytics to better track viewer engagement and streamline the upload process with pre-built templates? You can do all that and much more at Viostream. But don’t take our word for it. Start your free trial today and see it for yourself.
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