How To Create An Accurate Video Marketing Strategy in 6 easy steps

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Types of videos

1) Entertainment videos–

These videos are made specifically to evoke some response in the audience. They include inspirational videos, animated videos, video ads and GIFs. These also include videos showing what happens behind the scenes.

2) Tutorial videos

These videos explain how to do a particular thing.

3) Testimonial videos

These videos show customers recommending your company and your products. The customers speak about their experience in these videos.

4) Product information videos

Such videos give specific details about questions related to your company and products. 

5) Educational videos

These educational videos give the audience in-depth knowledge and valuable insights on a particular topic.

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Steps to create a perfect video marketing strategy :

1) Select members from the digital marketing team/a video marketing agency for video marketing

2) Research

It is necessary to research various aspects of the target audience like age, attitudes, fields they belong to etc. This research will help to determine the content and type of videos.  Also, research the video marketing strategy of competitors in your field. It is also essential to research keywords people use to search for your products. 

3) Create a video content strategy

• Determine videos suitable for your brand. 
• Use keywords suitable to your brand in the brand title. 
• Choose a suitable voice artist for your brand. Decide whether to use a light, energetic or detached tone for your videos.
• Create video transcripts that are easy to understand. Choose one main character and few other characters. A good approach is to use the same characters, fonts and voice in your videos. This approach will help the audience relate to your brand. 
• Use free tools like Giphy to create videos. Choose the appropriate video editing templates.
  
• Add appropriate sound to the videos. 
• Determine the correct resolution for the videos. 
• Create catchy URLs for the post.
• Create live videos and interact in real-time with the audience to build better relationships. 
• Create a content calendar to decide how many videos you want to post per month.
• Use the same font for all your videos.
• Use your brand icon colours in the video design.
• Add some extra information related to the video topic.
• Create an attractive short description of your video.
• Post videos on festivals and while launching new products.
• Make appealing videos on trending topics.
• Optimize the video to share it easily
• Add an attractive thumbnail frame to your videos to increase the number of views. 
• Create catchy URLs for every video you post. 
• Add transcriptions to the videos so that users can read the spoken content.
• Include short video clips in your blogs to promote your products and other campaigns.
• If suitable to your brand, create video memes on trending topics aligned with your brand.
• You can offer a free subscription for your videos.

4) Promote the videos on social networking platforms

Decide the social marketing platforms on which you want to post your video. Youtube, Instagram and Facebook are some of the most popular social networking platforms. Use appropriate hashtags. You can also create a specific page for all your videos. You can also pay to have your video recommended on social networking sites

5) Create a different video marketing strategy for every social platform

Since every social platform is unique, it is vital to create a separate video marketing strategy for every social media platform. Facebook, Youtube and Instagram are some of the most popular social media platforms. Towards the end of this post, I have mentioned tips for creating videos on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.

5) Measure the response to your videos after specific intervals-

You can analyze the number of likes, shares, comments and conversion rate. You can also use Google Analytics to analyze the response to your videos. 

6) Include your videos as part of your email marketing strategy

You can include the GIF of your video in your email. Also, adding an overlay of the ‘play’ button or ‘watch now’ button entices users to view the video. You can also use an animated ‘play’ or ‘watch now button.  You can also directly embed the video into an email for platforms that support this feature. This embedded feature allows users to view videos directly in their inbox. Apple Mail, Ios Mail and Samsung mail are some platforms that enable embedded videos. Also, using customer click tracking software, you can determine how many people have watched your videos. 

Tips for a video marketing strategy for Facebook

• Engage with other Facebook page owners and build relationships with them.  You can also join groups on Facebook related to your field. 
• Use Facebook ads to promote your products- You can create Facebook Instream ads, Facebook stories ads, Facebook Marketplace ads or Facebook video feed ads. 
• Go to the Guided creation in Facebook and choose Quick or Guided creation. 
• Use the Facebook feature to define whether you want to target Android or Ios users. 
• Choose a thumbnail provided by Facebook or choose your custom thumbnail. 
• Create square videos optimized for watching on mobiles. 
• Include a link to your Facebook video on your blog or website. 
• Add an image with the text ‘Share’ at the end of the video. 
• Tag relevant pages. 
• Use Facebook’s option to choose the preferred audience for the video.
• Feature a video on the videos tab of your page. 
• Don’t use more than 40 characters for the headline for Facebook ads. 
• Use MP4, MOV and GIF formats. 
• Create videos that play without sound and give users the option to turn on or off the sound. 
• Connect with people who have watched your videos by showing them future ads to build their interest. 
• Use Facebook’s polling sticker for video ads. Polling stickers makes it possible to interact with the audience directly. 
• Use Google Analytics and Facebook insights to track your post’s performance.

Tips for a video marketing strategy for Instagram

• Create In-Feed videos, Instagram Reels, Instagram stories and Instagram video ads and IGTV videos. 
• Use GIFs, hashtag stickers, poll stickers, mention stickers. 
• Use Instagram’s Highlights feature to create Impact. 
• UseMP4 and GIFs formats. 
• Keep the size limit under 50 MB. 
• Use Instagram’s feature to auto-publish your posts. To use this feature,  upload the video and select the date and time you want the video to be published. 
•  You can also shoot slow-motion videos, use the boomerang feature, have a video slideshow. 
• You can also have an interview format for your videos, where questions are asked and answered.
•  Choose a business account. 
• Create a content calendar for publishing your videos

How to create a video marketing strategy for YouTube

• Create a Youtube channel and regularly post your videos.
• Choose a Brand account so that multiple users can log in and view the video simultaneously.
• Keep a maximum of 60 characters or less than that in the title. 
• Avoid too many punctuation marks and derogatory language in the title. 
• Create a list of contents with the time limit mentioned for long videos.
• Add cards, end screens, bumper ads and watermarks to your videos. Cards are small images that expand when clicked. Use such cards (not more than 5) to direct users to your website. End screens are short video frames that you can use to promote your content. Bumper ads are six seconds video ads that you cannot skip. You can include these ads at the beginning or end.
• Ask viewers to like, share and subscribe. 
• Schedule Youtube videos for auto-publishing using Creator studio or Hootsuite. 
•  Add a channel description, channel icon and a link to your website.
• Create a channel trailer. 
• Build a playlist of your videos on YouTube. 
• Add translations for users of other countries. 
• Use Youtube analytics. 
• Use ads no one can skip. 

Frequently asked questions

1)What is a thumbnail? How to create the perfect thumbnail for videos?

Ans- A thumbnail is the still image of the video which the user sees before playing the video. Since it is the first image that the user sees, it is essential to create good thumbnails to entice users to watch the videos. One can use a screenshot from the video or an image of a human face as a thumbnail. Also, one can include the brand logo in the thumbnail. 

2) What is the appropriate length for videos?

Ans-  There is no specified length but it is better to keep videos short for better engagement of users. Twitter videos should be of 30 seconds. Instagram videos should not be more than 60 seconds. For You tube, it’s better to keep the video length 6-8 minutes. Also, if 6-8 minutes are not enough to show your video content, you can split the longer video in two parts. The maximum limit for Facebook videos should be 2 minutes as studies have shown that users’ attention reduces after two minutes. 

Conclusion

Video marketing has huge potential. It is essential to create a good video marketing strategy to get good results.