Video content is an important marketing tool for businesses. With 79% of marketers who aren’t already using video planning on making a start this year, more and more people are being turned onto the promotional value that video holds. Of course, like with any new undertaking, it can be very easy to get distracted by shiny pennies and things that don’t actually serve you and your goals as a business. What you need is a video marketing strategy; a roadmap that will help you to remain focused on the reason(s) why you’re making videos, and the results that you want to achieve with them.
Creating a video marketing strategy that works for you
1. Identify your target audience
Who are your customers, or who would you like your customers to be? The idea here is to niche down as much as possible. Be precise with who it is you want to appeal to with your videos. Go as far as creating ideal client personas if you haven’t done so already; if you have, maybe revisit them to make sure they’re as up-to-date as possible.
The point of this first step is to make sure that your video content speaks directly to the audience it is intended for. Have you ever heard the saying, “By appealing to everyone, you appeal to no one”? In a time where so much is competing for people’s attention, you really have to stand out to individuals in order to stand a chance of being paid any mind. If you can create videos – or any kind of content, for that matter – that makes the person watching feel like you are speaking directly to them, you will attract the people who want to work with you, meaning any leads generated are likely to be of a far higher quality than those you would gather from more generalised messaging.
2. Make sure everyone involved has the same goals in mind
Taking a video marketing strategy from the earliest stages of creation, right up to its execution will most probably involve a number of people, all of whom will contribute something different to the process.
It is vital that everyone involved – regardless of how big or small their contribution may be – is working towards the same end-point. Too many cooks in the kitchen ruins a dish, and too many people with too many ideas of what your video marketing strategy should hope to achieve will dilute the messaging and the focus and ultimately result in it not achieving the desired outcome. Be clear on the objectives from the start to be sure that everyone is pulling in the same direction.
3. What is your timeline and budget?
Please be under no illusions here – video projects can run away with time (and, let’s face it, money) if you let them. As important as it is to be 100% clear on your goals and objectives for your strategy, it is equally as important know all deadlines in relation to achieving them. Without that clarity, your video content may not materialise is a manner timely enough to really matter, if it even materialises at all.
The best thing you can do when devising your strategy is to be transparent about how many steps are involved, plus how long each of those steps will take. Again, these intermediary deadlines will help you to maintain focus and stay on-target. Be honest about how long things might really take, especially in anticipation of any challenges you may come up against. You would be surprised at how easily your whole strategy could be derailed if you underestimate timeframes, especially if it causes you to miss a deadline early on.
4. Distribution
The key thing to consider when it comes to choosing where to post your video content is where your target audience spends most of their time. After all, there really is no point uploading to a platform that they don’t use, as they simply won’t see it.
There are other considerations to make however, and things like technical limitations and budget aside, promotion is the next thing to concern yourself with. Video content will not promote itself, but some platforms make the promotion of your videos easier than others. This is something to pay extra attention to if you’re a small business without the backing of your own in-house marketing department as potentially more of the promotional side of things will fall on someone with a more generalist skillset.
5. Are you appealing to your ideal client personas?
This is a question to constantly ask yourself throughout the process of devising your video marketing strategy. However, it is worth remembering that it isn’t just a case of appealing to your ideal clients with your messaging and content, but also making sure that that messaging and content aligns with the goal you set in place for your strategy. If the two elements deviate too much, you probably won’t hit your desired outcomes.
6. What will success look like?
When you first set your goals, you need to be aware of what metrics will be most helpful in determining whether you’re on-track to achieve them. It’s also worth spending some time researching what tools you will use to gather this data. Be wary of native analytics tools offered by social media – they may not offer long-term insights into how your strategy is performing, and can also may multi-channel analysis hard.
The best course of action is to identify a handful of key performance indicators that correspond with the goals you’ve set and use those to measure success.
KC Creative 