The Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing

In this day and age, video marketing is not an optional extra. It is an absolute essential as part of your overall marketing strategy.

If you aren't creating video to stop your customer's scrolling thumb in its tracks; you're falling behind.

Video ads are a key component of your marketing strategy, designed to capture. and engage your target consumer. We're all bombarded with content every day, flooding our social media feeds across every platform, whether it be Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Tik Tok or Pinterest.

Read the 500 Guide to Video Marketing to learn everything you need to know videos and how to use them to drive results in your business.

Why does video marketing work so well on social media?

Video content is the preferred content by users on all social media platforms. This makes video ads a marketer’s dream. That’s because video content works! It has a proven track record for growing leads and boosting sales like no other medium.

Video provides the most powerful format for memory retention, conveying large amounts of information in a digestible manner, engaging with consumers on an emotional level, and conveying information in a way that is readily presented in a fun, entertaining, or informative manner. Did we tell you the best part yet? Video ads, prepared with the right ad formula, and paired with the right strategy, also provide the best marketing ROI you can get.

Are you ready to take advantage of the secret to a high converting, low cost marketing strategy?

This ultimate video marketing guide covers the essentials you need to ensure that your video ad will achieve real results, through the advantage of social media .

What is video marketing?

Let’s start with the basics. What is video marketing, and why is it so important to your marketing strategy?

Video marketing is essentially a marketing strategy involving video ads. This is a video content that is specifically designed to be an ad created to generate leads and propel your sales figures, rather than a web or purely entertaining video on. These ads are used specifically to promote your business, product or service in order to grow your business.

A high performing video marketing strategy is one which focuses on increasing engagement on your digital and social channels, educating customers and reaching the right audience in order to boost sales. This means understanding who is using social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and LinkedIn. It also means knowing best practice for how to create social media videos that work for each platform.

While there are a number of ways you can create a successful video marketing campaign, and different goals you can focus on, the bottom line is that it’s all about improving that bottom line.

In previous years television ads dominated the field of video advertising. Now video ads have a phenomenal advantage through social media. This is because videos are consumed daily on every single social media platform and social media platforms give you the ability to create highly targeted campaigns. All of this means that right now social media is providing optimal marketing ROI for video ads. At least, it is when you use the right ad formula.

Video content is powerful. The stats don’t lie!

Why should I use video in my marketing strategy?

• Videos explode your engagement, and are shared 12 times more than text and images combined
• A crucial part of your sales funnel is your landing page. Since videos on landing pages increase conversion rates by over 80%, getting the right video on there will explode your business
• Transform confused viewers into eager consumers. Subject comprehension is 83% higher when viewed with a combination of visuals, text, and audio
• Marketers utilising video are seeing revenue grow 49% faster than those who don’t use video
• 64% of consumers watch branded social videos before they make a decision to purchase
• Video skyrockets organic reach by 157%
  

Those are some pretty amazing statistics, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Video is a powerful medium, and it has quickly become the most effective tool for marketing, right now. Furthermore video ads are predicted to continue to increase as the preferred means for consumers to obtain information about the brands and businesses they are interested in.

Whether you need to pivot your business due to the current climate, are looking to scale, or just wanting a boost in leads and sales, then video ads are crucial.

What defines a good video?

Obviously for a marketing video to work, it needs to be good. But what does this actually look like?Is it about the quality of the video itself? How entertaining it is? Whether it goes viral? Perhaps it’s about how clever the concept is? Does it matter if production is in Melbourne, or elsewhere in Australia? No mistakes in the editing? Or is it a video that gains reactions and triggers emotions?

Indeed, while many of these factors may play a part in a high quality, or successful video ad, they don’t actually define what actually makes a video work.

A good video is one which is able to achieve the purpose of the video and a superior marketing strategy is one that is agile enough to utlise what is working, and adapt what isn’t. This means that a successful video is one which achieves real, measurable results for your business.

If lessons of the past tell us anything, it’s that viral doesn’t always lead to increased sales, and exceptional quality doesn’t always lead to improvements in brand perception. The point of a social media video is not just to make people laugh. You want a video that drives interest in your business. If your video ads are not designed and targeted with a single minded proposition in line with your business goal, then they won't deliver results.

Individual video ads may be part of a strategy that focuses on key steps towards the goal of growing leads or increasing business sales. For instance, if the purpose of the video ads is to change perception of a brand, then a desirable video is one which successfully persuades people to alter their view of the brand- towards a view that will generate increased levels of sales.

When the goal is to increase leads, improve a firm’s ranking, or get foot traffic in the door, then a successful video ad is one that directly sees results from that aim.

Keep in mind that a good video is one that achieves the specific, measurable, targets that it intends to. This will help you figure out which type of video or videos should be produced as part of your social media marketing or video marketing campaign.

What Are the Different Types of Marketing Videos?

The goal of your video marketing campaign will determine the type of video or videos you produce. A comprehensive video marketing campaign may include a number of different types of videos to meet different goals within your overall goal of increasing your business profits. Each video plays a crucial role in transforming a set of nice videos into video ads that grow your leads and boost your sales.

Broadly, the typical goals within a marketing campaign might be one of the following:

• To raise brand awareness
• To shape consumer perception of a brand
• To enhance engagement on social platforms and build relationships with consumers
• To provide education to consumers (typically as part of a strategy focused on becoming a go to name for information).
• To improve awareness of a store and drive up foot traffic
• To increase sales
• To grow market share

Here are some of the different types of marketing videos that will facilitate those goals as part of your video marketing campaign.

Brand Video

Brand videos are typically used within a broader marketing campaign designed to improve perception, raise, develop or improve awareness of a brand. A trusted brand is a brand that attracts consumers and leads to more sales.

Have you noticed that even though coca-cola is the number one recognised brand in the entire world- they continue to create brand videos? That’s because they understand the power of video and the importance of staying fresh in consumer’s minds.

To keep the brand fresh, relevant, and forefront in the minds of consumers, brand videos remind us just what a company represents, and more importantly, how they (want to) make us feel. If your brand has made the decision to pivot the focus of your business, then a brand video can help facilitate this adjustment and transform the way your consumers see you.

Brand awareness videos are typically designed to attract your target audience through an emotional connection. The content of the video creates an image of your brand that resonates with them, and helps them associate your brand with those emotions, needs, or desires.

Offer Video

An offer video does exactly what it says: It provides an offer to the viewer. This offer is geared around enticing the viewer to take the next step and make an enquiry or put through an order. A really great offer has the potential to explode your enquiries.

Your viewers don’t want to be the only one to skip the incredible opportunity you are presenting them. Perhaps they have been waiting for the right price and right now this deal is an offer they don’t want to miss. Time limited offers that generate an urgent need for action, exclusive deals, and bonus offers that add value to a purchase decision, are all powerful ways of providing an actionable offer that can really boost your sales.

Explainer Video

Explainer videos are a powerful tool for digging deeper into the specifications for use of a product or service. They are typically used to highlight the journey of an individual struggling with a problem, and finding a resolution through your brand’s solution. These types of videos are geared around promoting your business as the solution and presenting your product or service as an opportunity.

If you’re new, or provide something that is not readily understood by the consumer, an explainer video can facilitate confidence and understanding that your business offers a workable, desirable, and trustworthy solution.

Educational or Instructional Video

These types of videos help to teach your audience foundational knowledge. This knowledge should align with your business and the products it offers. It can include “how to” videos that demonstrate how your product is used, or provide solutions that show how to resolve any issues with using your product. They could also be supplementary education that goes hand in hand with the product or service that you sell.

Educational videos are often used to increase awareness of exactly what is being bought and how to most effectively utilise the purchase. They can be used to overcome issues with products, to provide additional information that enhances the use of your product, or to take advantage of ways in which your product can tap into trends, such as how to use your product as a life hack.

Case Study or Testimonial Video

Case study and testimonial videos show viewers how your business has already solved someone else’s problem through your product or service. A loyal customer, explaining what their problem was, and how effective your business was at resolving that problem, is one of the quickest and most effective ways to build trust and credibility. This is especially useful when the problem that was resolved closely matches the problem your viewer is also wanting resolved.

Building rapport, developing trust, and proving that you can do what you say you do, are sure fire ways to boost your business and increase your customer base.

Interview

A video interview can be an extremely powerful way to promote your brand, product or service by quickly building trust and authority. Even discussions with an influencer who does not align with your view can help improve perception of your brand, that is, if you can provide your audience with a great discussion.

You might use an interview when your product or service is a novel concept, a fresh take on an old idea, or a controversial offer, in order to generate a buzz about your business.

No matter what type of video or videos you choose to use in your video marketing campaign, remember that the ultimate goal of your social media video content is to generate sales for your business.

Components of Video

Creating a video involves a large number of interconnected factors. Let’s look at the crucial components for creating a successful video ad.  

1. Hosting Platform

The hosting platform is where your video will be held and viewed. It needs to be able to provide the speed and capacity for your video to be viewed by multiple consumers simultaneously. Videos can be uploaded directly onto social media platforms, or they can be used to share videos that are hosted on other platforms.

YouTube is perhaps the most popular platform choice as a central host for videos. The features and large audience make it a great option for a video playlist. Because it is so widely known, videos that are shared from YouTube onto other social media platforms can readily lead to an increase in subscribers and followers on your YouTube channel.

However, it’s important to factor in the type of preferential treatment that each platform gives to the way videos are shared. Most platforms, including Facebook, want you to watch content that is directly uploaded with them, rather than content that directs you elsewhere. Remember that to be successful you need to utilise the best practices for the specific social media platform that you are advertising on.

2. Script

While some videos, such as an interview or filmed discussion, may be done without a script, or with no more than a simple list of questions, for most business videos, a script is essential. The script also needs to cover the directions for the images that the videos will portray so that the advertisement will work as on cohesive video.

When getting the script right it is particularly important to ensure that the viewer quickly knows the purpose and content of the video. This shouldn’t be something that is kept vague or hidden in suspense. If you fail to make this clear right up front, you will lose your audience. A clear explanation of what the video is about and what the viewer is about to watch, is essential if you want to grab the attention of the right audience.  

Keep in mind that words sound very different in writing to words spoken out loud. It also takes a lot longer to speak words out than it does to read it. Work out what needs to be said, what needs to be shown, and how the visuals will enhance what is being said or written on the screen.

3. Footage

Your footage, as the visual element, is central to any video ad.

Filming involves capturing the right blend of lighting, background, foreground, and action to tell the story or convey the information you want it to. When it comes to creating quality footage, there are a lot of different elements to consider.

That said, a video doesn’t have to contain fresh film. While original film is important for many videos, there are situations where footage may include or utilise stock footage. This will depend on the budget, desired content, and specific goal of the video being created.  

4. Graphics

Graphics are the visual images, photographs or designs used for the video.

This may include informative graphs or emotionally strategic imagery. It is even possible to have a video ad entirely composed of graphics, such as a slideshow video. However, graphics also have their place in live and animated video. Your choice and use of graphics will make a big difference to the way viewers perceive and understand the information or sales pitch they are viewing.  

As with any visual medium, the graphics used for the video are essential for adding to the overall impression that the video ad produces.

5. Animation

On a simple level animations can be seen in transitions, or in an outro, or as a way of highlighting the logo. Alternatively animations can be used to create the entire content of the video itself. Selecting the right style and use of animation for your video is another important component of presenting the right image.

Animations can be a great substitute for footage that is difficult to capture or less palatable if portrayed through live footage. They can also be used to grab attention and stand out from the sea of live videos that are generated by regular users on social media platforms.

6. Voice Over

Of course it’s not just the visuals that are important in a video.  

The voice over is a key component of the audio component of the video. It helps convey :

• Information to supplement the visuals
• The tone and emotions or excitement of the video
• An authoritative human presence  

Using a talented voice over actor makes a noticeable difference to the quality and appeal of your video ad. While AI voices or DIY options may be used as cheaper options, there are limitations to what they can do. AI voices really lack the emotion and relatability that is generated through a human voice. DIY options can work for certain styles of videos, such as those testimonials and interviews, however an inexperienced voice-over artist, or a poorly edited voice-over, will bring down the quality of a voice-over.

Remember that the aim of your video ad is to boost your business sales. Remind viewers that you offer exceptional quality by ensuring every component of your video is exceptional.

7. Music

Music also plays an incredibly important role in a video ad. It has the power to completely change the mood and even impact the way that images are interpreted. It is so powerful that, with the right imagery, some videos don’t even need a voice over.  

Aspects of your music can also impact the overall design of the video. For instance, ensuring that images change on tempo can make a massive difference to how smooth and easy a video is to watch, enjoy, and retain. This leaves a stronger impression with viewers, even if they can’t quite put a finger on why they enjoyed the video more.

If you’ve ever had a song stuck in your head you understand how powerful music and lyrics can be when it comes to memory retention and evoking of emotions. Take advantage of this by ensuring your video ads have the right music to evoke imagery, memories, and connection to your brand.

Like all elements of a video, while some videos work best with music throughout, some work best with just a few notes. Others may only include music in the intro or outro. However it is included, the right music can be a very important part of any successful video ad.  

8. Editing

Editing takes all these elements that go into building a video and brings the whole thing together to produce the final product. Good editing ensures that anything unnecessary or distracting is eliminated. It also ensures that the things that are important and conducive to meeting the goal of having the video ad, are emphasised.

A skilled editor will be able to bring each component of the video together so that it is seamless and focused on reaching your audience with the message that grabs attention and lets viewers know why they need to get in touch with you.

Remember that your video marketing is all about growing leads and boosting sales. That’s why it’s crucial that the editing focused on getting the video structure and content done with the right formula, a good grasp of your unique selling proposition, and an awareness of which stage the viewers are at in their journey towards becoming a customer.

How to Create A Video Ad Strategy

A high-quality video is only part of a successful video marketing campaign to grow leads and boost sales. The rest of the success relies on the overarching strategy for the campaign.

A solid video ad strategy involves:

• Creating videos that fit within the best practice of each social platform. Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and LinkedIn all have their own best practices to follow for successful social media marketing.
• Understanding who the target market is and identifying the best place and way to reach them.
• Uncovering the true unique selling proposition for the business and ensuring all advertising is focused on a single minded message.
• Creating a complete plan that involves video ads aimed at generating results for the various steps of the strategy. These steps involve moving viewers through awareness, to interest, and finally to consumers.
• Measuring the results that are tangible. After all, if you can’t measure the results, how will you know if your video marketing campaign is successful?
• Adjusting the strategy when/as required. No marketer has a crystal ball. However a good marketer will have the finger on the pulse of the market, know how to interpret the results of the campaign, and be ready to adapt and adjust the video ads towards what is working.

The strategy covers the overarching plan to turn potential customers into your clients. It involves understanding the power of digital media content, knowing who you need to reach and where to reach them. Then it’s about utilising the power of social media video to reach the right people, with the right message, and at the right time.

How to Measure the Success of a Video Ad

In order to measure the success of a video ad you need to know what to measure. Leads, sales, foot traffic, market share, and brand awareness are the typical goals of a video ad campaign. Each of these have specific measurements that can be used to ensure that the advertising campaign is generating real results and really exploding your business.

To measure your results you need to have a good grasp of real time factors, and a clear concept of:

• What you are measuring
• How to link the measurement to the video ad
• What variables need to be factored into the measurement
• The most meaningful way to report the measurements

For instance, say your goal is to increase foot traffic in your store.

This means you are measuring the number of people who come into your store for the day. Simply keeping track of the number of people coming into the store will help give you an idea of success when compared to the number of people who came in before the campaign launched, but it won’t link the success directly back to the video ad itself. That’s why stores often ask what prompted their customer to come into their store that day, or they provide offers through specific ads that help them identify what the customer has seen to prompt their visit.

Any decent marketing business will be able to provide you with clear, specific, and meaningful information that helps you see whether your ad campaign is working, or whether you need to adjust it.

500 makes it easy to measure and understand results with with a real-time interactive dashboard that gives you insight into how your campaign is tracking.

Full transparency about how the campaign is performing live, means that you have the power to optimise campaigns on the go. You can see which platforms are working, the reach, engagement, campaign spend, and even some of the demographics of who the ads are reaching. This all helps you know if you’re on the right track and heading towards your end goal.

Remarketing

A crucial part of a powerful video ad campaign is remarketing. This is because remarketing is significantly more successful at moving viewers down towards the point where they are most likely to convert to customers. Remarketing involves targeting viewers who have already engaged with the brand’s video, who have been to the store, or who have otherwise already shown an interest in your business.

The reason remarketing is such an important tool is that repeat exposure to an advertisement helps build trust and keeps your business front of mind with your audience. Transform a decent video ad into a powerful video ad campaign by ensuring retargeting plays a key role in your strategy.

When a viewer sees your ad for the first time they are likely to resist the ad because they don’t know who you are. There is no sense of comfort or familiarity, even if the content of the ad did intrigue them. However, repeated exposure through remarketing will help develop that sense of familiarity and trust that might be needed to convince them to give your business a try.

The 500 social strategy works to increase sales while reducing marketing ROI, because it is based on a deep understanding of how advertising exposure works. In a very simple sense there are three levels that a consumer must go through. The first is awareness. Once they become aware of your brand and what you offer they can move down to interest. This is essentially where a viewer turns into a lead. From there the aim is to encourage them to take the final step and convert into a customer.

By helping guide viewers down this path towards becoming a customer, your marketing campaign will grow your leads and boost your sales at a lower cost. Highly targeted, and clearly executed campaigns can even skyrocket your sales beyond your goals. Keeping your strategy agile through well monitored outputs, further allows you to capitalise on what is working and transform what isn’t, to really make that sales explode!

Get The Right Campaign Strategy Today For Free

At 500 we know how to use social media platforms to help your business thrive. These platforms want their users to have a positive experience. This means that ads with positive responses get preference. We take advantage of this knowledge to grow your business at just a fraction of the cost. Delivering the right content to the right audience is the social media key to driving down your costs and increase your ROI.

Contact 500 today to work on a tailored social media campaign strategy. Stop dreaming and start achieving real results now.

We'll help you to:

• Truly uncover your unique selling proposition
• Use insights from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and more to adapt your marketing strategy
• Reach more customers on line and deliver your message straight to their device
• Funnel and nurture cold traffic into people hungry to buy
• Boost your conversions without increasing your marketing spend
  

500 Digital Media is a Melbourne-based production studio with a national focus. Fluent in every stage of production – from concept and creation to social media strategy – we provide a full-scale and integrated end-to-end service delivered by our team of in-house experts.

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