Did you know that YouTube gains over 1 billion hours of watch time every day?
That's not including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Video marketing, whether you're using the advertising section of social media or not, has been on the rise over the past decade.
It's an effective way to build an audience base (and another stream of income) while getting your brand's name out there. It can also feel like there is a large market to compete with.
There's no need to worry though. We're here to teach you how to start video marketing.
Create a Plan
The first step to being video content marketing is creating a plan. This plan can be as simple or as in-depth as you want it to be, but it's necessary.
Start with writing down why you want to be involved in video marketing in the first place (yes, the reason can purely be to gain a bigger audience).
Play to Your Strengths
What do you have experience in? Is it education? Maybe it's inspiring people or with entertainment.
How Can This Style Translate to Your Business?
Whatever the style is, play to your strengths and translate it to your business.
If you're a sustainable company, spend some time researching and educating others on the importance of caring for the planet. If your background is in entertainment or inspirational storytelling, then create something that you would want to watch.
Just keep in mind that it needs to make sense for your business.
Prep Your Business
This is the step that is going to get you ready for production.
Do you have all the necessary equipment? Are you going to hire someone to create everything for you?
The nice thing about doing everything yourself is the fact that it's cheaper, but hiring someone is a lot easier if you're a busy business owner.
Outsourcing comes with a price, but the quality is often better. You can also be involved in the process if that's something you wish to do.
Keep It Simple
Remember that, no matter what avenue you decide to go down, you don't need an entire production set to create content that people will watch.
Really. You can use your iPhone camera for all that it matters. If your content is engaging, then people are going to watch it.
Consider Collaborations
Now, you may not be able to afford celebrities or famous athletes to work with your brand, but there are smaller social media influencers that can still make a huge impact on your business.
There are a few things to consider here, however. You should conduct research on the influencer to make sure they're going to fit with your brand before moving forward with anything.
At a minimum, remain conscientious of who they are and what they've done with their career.
Create a Budget
Now that you know what you may or may not have to buy, you can set a budget for your marketing campaign.
What we have not gone over yet is utilizing social media's advertisement tools. While creating a YouTube channel for your brand is enough, you can take it a step further by making the videos you post on social media sites into advertisements.
Just remember your demographic here. If you're targeting young adult audiences, Tik Tok and Instagram will be a great choice. If you're targeting an older demographic, Facebook is going to be your best bet.
How Are You Going to Track Your Progress?
The next step is to research and understand exactly how you're going to track your progress.
Also, you need to understand that there is SEO for video content just like regular content creation (i.e. your blog).
SEO for YouTube
The SEO for YouTube is similar to keywords for Google. Each of your videos needs a title and a description. This is where your keyword usage comes into play.
Just like with blog writing, you shouldn't cram your chosen keyword in every chance you get. This can begin to weigh video titles and descriptions down.
Just like with Google, it can also begin to affect your video's overall ranking.
Allow things to fit naturally, and keep your storytelling in mind as well. Not only does this SEO have an effect on your video's ranking, but so do your views and the number of likes a video gets.
That's the beauty of the YouTube algorithm. There are two parts, and what you lack in one place you can make up for in another.
Excel in both, however, and you'll never lose out on views again.
Analytics
Analytics are going to be present no matter which platform you decide to use the most, and they can get pretty specific.
You'll be able to find your audience's age group, gender, interest, location, and device of your audience members. In some cases, you'll even be able to tell where a viewer dropped off, how long they watched for, and at what moments they decided to take action on your video.
These analytics are key in providing you with the knowledge you need to grow and change your channel if it's needed.
If you're not gaining the views you would like, take notice of what device you're creating videos for. The majority of people surfing the internet are doing so on their mobile devices, so be sure to create content specifically for smartphones and watch your views rise.
Keep These Things in Mind When Starting With Video Marketing
When you factor all these numbers and things to consider into your video marketing plan, it can feel like a lot. There is a lot of content on the internet, but rest assured that it will not all be thrown into a void if you approach it correctly.
If you have more marketing questions, we're here to help. Simply contact us today and we'll be happy to answer and address all your marketing questions and interests.
