8 Online Video Marketing Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Content
Video is perhaps the most potent medium in conveying a brand's values so when video marketing strategies fail, they can severely and negatively impact brand perceptions.
So it's interesting to note that more and more marketers are incorporating online video into their over marketing plans, as dramatic spikes of online video engagement suggest. For example, comScore Video Metrix recently reported a 4.1 billion user increase in viewing online video content from June 2011 to June 2012.
Creating compelling video content is a serious time and resource commitment and, as an industry, online video continues to innovate and streamline production and distribution processes that will enable marketers to receive better returns on their video marketing investments.
Yet while the industry evolves in terms of technology, there remain certain best practices that marketers can follow now to make the most out of the video activities.
Mindful that Video content can simplify complicated ideas, create communities, add dimension, and humanize a brand, here are nine (eight core strategies + one bonus) online video marketing tips to get you started.
1.) Tell the Best Story
Online video becomes powerful when you expose people to information in a very easy and approachable manner. Poor stories make us feel lost, cause us to lose interest, and can leave us with a negative outlook. The best stories intrigue and inspire us, drive us to take action and take a stand – and there is no better way to tell a story than through video. These are the stories we relate to and find value in, quickly connecting to the beauty of the content and ultimately the brand.
2.) Be Transparent
Tell people “why” you do what you do, not just “what” you do. Being open and authentic in describing your brand to the core presents transparency that establishes the trust you need to not only retain but engage an audience. This tactic also positions your brand for the possibility of converting a passer-by into a loyal fan while proving that you value your audience’s time. Candid content fosters an authentic voice, design this into a video and you instantly connect your brand to a community, solidifying a place in the world.
3.) Stop Being Boring
Nothing says “boring” than text-heavy content, long slide presentations, or 30 minutes of a single shot video. Drive consumer engagement and audience retention by offering an immediately attractive experience. Video cuts to the chase, allowing viewers to navigate the information effortlessly. Often video attracts a unique audience that might not want or have the time to read a large article. Keep the video short and sweet so that it will be memorable for your viewers. Creating a short, attractive, and fun video brightens the mood and the attitude towards your brand.
4.) Master the Design
Bad design complicates your vision while great design enhances it. Digital technologies have made visual content indispensable and barrier-free allowing amatuers to become professionals. Editing is an essential tool to enhance visual content and is the most important part of video creation. It contributes to the story, authenticity, and attractive qualities that you need to succeed in your video marketing strategy. Adding text, special effects, sounds, and color can inspire and impress. Unimpressive videos lack these editing qualities and nearly always fall short of enhancing your design.
5.) Maximize Your Exposure
Joining discussion groups and forums that are all about finding, learning, and asking questions about video content will let you dispense valuable content towards your targeted audience. Members of these groups will come to recognize and trust your content and will begin to share it with others, maximizing brand exposure.
6.) Optimize Discoverability
Creating an attractive story and maximizing its exposure through outbound promotion is often not enough for a video to gain popularity. Marketers need to ensure that people can find the videos they are looking for. Optimize your video with keyword rich titles and include that file name within the URL. Including backlinks within the video’s description, sending viewers back to your website. More importantly, optimizing your video this way creates a higher level of click-a-bility. Using online video advertising is an effective marketing strategy in that video options tend to attract more clicks and views compared to standard listings on Google’s front page.
7.) Know Your Audience
Your video may have a high click and visibility rate, but if it isn’t reaching the right people then you may be missing an opportunity to expand your fan base. Time and effort in tracking and measuring the performance of your prospects will give you insight into who you are actually reaching. Knowing your audience means you now understand the type of people you need to promote your video to. Ignoring stats hinders your strategy and limits the reach of your video content to a potentially valuable crowd.
8.) Respond to Your Consumer
Effective online video strategies don't end with passively broadcasting content to the world: successful video marketers encourage and respond to audience feedback. Compelling content creates a perfect opportunity to engage in conversation, and the quicker a brand can identify and react to the dialogue around that content, the better. In fact, talking about your online video can create deeper engagement and more traffic than the video itself. Your responses will deepen consumer value and trust by proving you are willing to do what it takes to make those connections and empower people to be involved.
BONUS STRATEGY!
9.) Tap Into the Masses
Take advantage of the growing trend of leveraging user-generated content in marketing campaigns by crowdsourcing video content on a platform like Zooppa. Running a video contest is one of the best strategies to consider and not only makes your marketing campaign social but allows for participants to share videos about your brand. When executed properly, video contests can allow you to gain access to innovative content that you otherwise may not have considered. Crowdsourcing platforms, like Zooppa,, can help you create and launch a video contest that will successfully connect you and your consumer while producing some of the most entertaining concepts for your brand. Integrating this concept can maximize your content marketing investments, drive fan engagement and unearth creative insights around your brand.
Interested in hearing more? Learn how marketers are applying crowdsourcing to all aspects of their work in our new report: Top Crowdsourcing Trends in 2012
