How to Get Started with Video Marketing (in 2020)

Video content is taking the online world by storm. Research shows that, by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic. And 93% of marketers say they’ve landed a new customer thanks to video marketing online.

If you want to develop a connection with your audience, video is the way to go. That’s because, unlike any other medium, you can use both audio, text, and visuals to convey your message and show your brand’s personality as a means to build trust. In our constantly distracted culture, you need to find a way to break through the noise and capture people’s attention; and there’s no better way to do this than through video marketing.

But taking the first step can feel daunting. How do you even get started with video marketing? We’re here to guide you along the way!

How to Get Started with Video Marketing

Before we delve too deep into the how, let’s first make sure we understand the what. When we talk about marketing using video, there are at least three primary approaches:

1. Video Content Marketing on Social Media: primarily involves video content that provides value to your ideal audience, helping to promote brand awareness, generate leads, and build community.
2. Videos Optimized for Search Engines: primarily involves creating video content that will answer questions to searchable topics that your target audience cares about, increasing your brand’s authority and online presence (i.e. think YouTube).
3. Video Advertising: primarily involves video that is promotional in nature and intended to increase sales (this is by far the most direct approach).

Depending on your business goals, you may choose to implement one or all of these simultaneously.

Choose the right platform

When you’re picking a platform for your video marketing, you want to consider where your audience hangs out. It’s a waste of time to chase your audience in a place that they don’t even frequent. Spend some time figuring out where your video marketing efforts will reach the most people in your target market.

You should also consider the specific benefits of certain platforms.

YouTube, for instance. Did you know that YouTube is now the second largest search engine in the world? It’s also free, intuitive, widely known, and offers the ability to monetize with ads.

Social platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. also host native videos, and can be great for building a community around your brand organically or through paid ads. Each of these platforms comes with its own demographics of users, so figure out which one(s) your customers are hanging out on most.

Develop a content strategy

As much as you may want to, we don’t recommend just diving right in to making videos. In order to set yourself up for success, you need to have a plan and a strategy. If you’re not sure how to develop a content strategy, try asking yourself this question: what problem can your business solve? Use the answer to that question to guide the topics of your videos.

Another important element of developing a solid content strategy is understanding your audience. What do they care about? What information would serve them best? You also have to think about your business goals. What do you want to accomplish with your videos? Do you want to drive brand awareness, sales, website traffic, or all of the above? Spend some time sussing out the answers to these questions.

Optimize your videos

You shouldn’t just throw the same video content out there on every platform and assume that it’s going to perform equally well on each one. Every platform is different, so your videos have to be optimized for each specific platform.

When you’re putting video content on social media (whether it’s on your feed or as an ad), you have to keep in mind the short attention spans inherent to the social media world. You have to grab your audience’s attention immediately and make it easy for them to watch. An eye-catching headline and captions are two of the biggest ways to accomplish that.

To edit your video specifically for social media, we recommend using Zubtitle. Our state-of-the-art video editing software allows you to add captions, create top border headlines, customize your branding, resize for each platform, and more. For an in-depth look at all of Zubtitle’s functionalities, check out this post.

To optimize your videos for YouTube, the key is to implement good video SEO practices. For some great tips on video SEO, check out this blog post. And for even more help with video optimization and keyword research, we recommend tools like TubeBuddy and vidIQ.

Repurpose videos in new ways

The best thing about video content? It can be repurposed in so many ways with very little effort. You can take long-form YouTube videos and break them up into short micro-videos that are perfect for social media. You can transcribe your videos and turn them into blog posts. You can even turn your video into a podcast episode. To help you quickly and easily repurpose your content like this, we recommend using the tool Duplikit.co.

Build your funnel

If you’ve never built a sales funnel before, here’s what you need to know: the goal of a sales funnel is to attract prospects and keep them moving down the funnel. When you’re building a sales funnel within video marketing, you can create different types of video content for each stage of the funnel. Let’s take a look at the type of video content to focus on for each stage:

1. In the first stage, you shouldn’t be trying to sell anything to your audience. You want to be helpful and provide valuable content. Types of videos: inspirational, educational, video documentaries,
2. In the second stage, you can begin to introduce your product/service — but don’t push sales. Types of videos: product demos, case studies, customer testimonials.
3. In the third stage, it’s time to convince your prospective customer to buy your product/service. Types of videos: tutorials, FAQs, customer testimonial videos.
4. This final stage is all about promoting brand loyalty. You want to take the customers who have already bought from you and turn them into fans. Types of videos: customer support, tips and hacks, thank you videos.

When you’re implementing a video sales funnel on social media, the goal is to use your video content to catch the attention of prospective customers and start (or revive) relationships with them. Once you’ve gotten their attention, try to connect with them more personally in their DMs and set up a call with anyone who’s interested in your product or service.

Don’t forget, when you provide a call-to-action in video ads (i.e. prompting customers to buy or schedule a call), you need to have a landing page set up that will take your customer through the final steps of that process.

Are you ready to get started with video marketing?

To easily edit your videos for social media, give Zubtitle a try. Sign up today to start editing for FREE!