Adding video marketing to your content marketing strategy and plan? Before you get started, there are some best practices to consider and implement. Following these guidelines will help you get the best return on investment from your video marketing efforts.
1. Set a Goal
What do you want to achieve with your video? The goal for your video should be aligned with your overall marketing goals, and ultimately with your business goals. For example, if your business goal is to increase sales by 10 percent then your marketing goals will be designed to drive sales. A video marketing goal may be to drive traffic to a sales page for a specific product or service. Identifying the goal for your video will help you create the type of content that matches your goal and your audience’s interests.
2. Be Consistent with Your Video Marketing
Consider starting your video marketing with a series. This is a great way to get viewers to return and watch more videos. It’s also a good way to motivate people to subscribe to your blog or your YouTube channel. Consistency brands your business and it builds awareness for your brand. If a series doesn’t make sense for your goals, topic, or audience, then consider establishing a consistent video content schedule. You might, for example, publish a video every Monday. This lets viewers and prospects know what to expect.
3. Optimize Your Video
With YouTube you have the opportunity to categorize your video, add keywords into the title and also to create a description for the video. Leverage these opportunities. Optimize your video so that it’s readily found via search. YouTube is the second largest search engine; don’t miss out on this opportunity.
4. Quality Matters, Perfection Doesn’t Exist
It’s important that your video is good quality. You want your viewers to be able to see you clearly, to hear you clearly, and to appreciate that you took some time to create the video. However, you are also not a major film producer. You don’t have to take weeks in filming and editing to create your video. Find that balance.
5. Engage and Promote
If you film it, they will come. Um… no. You have to let people know that you’ve created and published a video. Social media is one of the best ways to accomplish this. People share video on social media, which can help build awareness and engagement. You can, and should, also leverage your other marketing channels to promote your video too. Email and your blog are also good channels for video marketing.
6. Measure Your Performance
Finally, be sure to establish quantifiable goals and to measure your performance against those goals. Review the analytics for each video you create and make content decisions based on the results. Remember that you’re using video to build your business. The data and analytics matter.
