Despite the fact that so many of us consume online videos on a daily basis, many marketers still aren’t using video as part of their digital marketing strategy, or aren’t seeing the best results. In order to get the best possible ROI from your video marketing, we’ve compiled some tips, strategies and statistics that could help your video marketing campaign become more successful.

Video does what text doesn’t. It creates an immediate, real and authentic route of interaction and connectivity with audience members, who can often provide reactions and comments in real time. With the right video content, you present real opportunities for your businesses to inspire, evoke emotion in and appeal to needs of audiences in a real and authentic way

Your brand is not a stagnant strategy on a piece of paper — you must bring it to life. Video lends electroshock therapy to flatlining marketing strategies and generates pulse. Your brand evolves continually, and telling that story is important to keep your audience connected and bring in new viewers — which could eventually become loyal customers.

What types of videos should you create?

While most businesses know how valuable videos can be to their marketing efforts, very few have a good sense for what kind of video they might produce. From promotional videos to product demonstration videos and customer testimonials there are a number of the different kinds of styles of video that you should be making as a business

Promotional Videos:

If you’ve ever taken a marketing class, you probably learned about the 5 P’s: product, price, place, promotion, and people. To me, the most interesting P was always promotion – determining the best tools and tactics to reach your target audience. As businesses move away from offline methods, like direct mail, print ads, and billboards, they are increasingly spending more time and effort online with search, banner ads, e-newsletters, and now, the promotional video.

A promotional video offers digestible, light content that informs efficiently, and you can use this format to share demos, new hooks and announcements. It’s used to tell your customers about your products and services. It is essentially like a TV commercial for the Internet. But unlike a TV spot, an online video can be produced and distributed for a fraction of the cost. A promotional video can be posted on your website, shared via email and e-newsletter, posted on YouTube and Vimeo, used as a video ad on a website like Hulu, among many others.

Product Demonstration Videos:

One of the number one barriers to purchasing online is that customers can’t actually touch the product. Without being able to pick it up, turn it around, or try it on, there’s a level of uncertainty that customers have to overcome in order to shop online. As an e-commerce seller, the more you can do to mitigate that uncertainty, the more sales you’ll win.

Product demonstration videos offer a way for you to more accurately and comprehensively set customer expectations. They still can’t actually touch your products, but they can watch someone else do it. They can see the product in motion, in practice, and from all different angles—giving customer a better idea of the product than still photos can.

Brand Awareness:

Creating brand awareness is one of the most difficult tasks businesses face nowadays. However, by using video marketing they are able to extend their audience reach, improve communication and customer engagement, and make the right kind of impact on potential consumers.

Not only should customers know your name, but your customers need to know that your brand image is aligned with their values. The best way to do that today is with video marketing that captivates and engages your audiences with branded video experiences that let you tell your story.

How-to Videos:

Videos are an especially compelling way to learn how to do something online, and how-to videos  have proven to break through the noise.

Here’s why:

• With “how-to” videos, position yourself as a thought leader.
• Builds trust, and people like to do business with people they trust.
• How-to videos are often times shared, allowing you to reach a wider audience.
• How-to videos can help to improve your search rankings.
• How-to videos can also help you cut down on phone support calls and emails.

Your company may not have thought about creating “How To” videos for your products, services and FAQs, but it’s vitally important, and can lead to additional sales and profits.

Testimonial Videos:

Smart marketers know that the most persuasive sales messages don’t come from a sales rep or a business owner…they come from other satisfied customers. You’re not the most credible source of information on your product, because you have an incentive to sell it. Or at least that’s how your prospects see it.

But when your sales message comes from a genuinely satisfied customer, prospects view that as far more credible and persuasive. And when you combine that kind of social influence with story and the emotional power of video, you get the most valuable kind of video content there is: Testimonials.

Testimonial-based marketing videos are impactful. Happy customers are some of the best marketing resources you have at your disposal — who better to sell to your future customers than your current satisfied ones? When you look at video testimonials in action, it’s clear that they provide high returns, no matter the industry.  

Where should your video be played, and what platforms should you target?

There’s an old saying I hear from a fishing buddy all the time: “In order to catch ’em, you gotta go where they are!”… This same theory applies to your prospects — you gotta go where they are!

Consumers connect with these percentages of branded videos daily: 49 percent on Facebook, 32 percent on YouTube, 24 percent on Instagram, 22 percent on Snapchat and 22 percent on Twitter.

Don’t discount which platform fits with your brand the best. Your consumers will also resonate with this fact, and you will fish in the right pond for the customers you designed your products and services for in the first place.

While putting your video on website might seem like a no-brainer, some businesses still rely on text for their website visitors. Embedding your videos on your website to provide additional product or service insights, especially since videos provide for higher engagement rates than text alone.

Final Thoughts…

When it comes to video, consumers like it because it’s easy to digest, entertaining and engaging, and marketers like it because it can give a potentially huge return on investment (ROI) through many channels.

However mastering the art of video marketing isn’t easy. We’ve discussed in many previous blog posts why it’s best to hire a professional video marketing agency than to attempt to do-it-yourself.

If you’re still not sure on how to best use video marketing to distinguish yourself from the rest of the crowd and ensure that you get noticed, then contact us for an FREE initial video marketing discovery session and learn more.