Video Marketing | The Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing

This start up has sold itself to Unilever for ONE BILLION dollars, and it all started with a marketing video that went viral on the internet, thanks to the brilliant video marketing strategy behind it. It’s a great example for product videos that are simple, funny, unique, and address a pain point to the users.

What is Video Marketing ?

Put simply, video marketing is sharing video content about a brand anywhere online: on social media , on TV, on the brand’s website, or via e-mail .

Is video marketing a passing trend?

No, video marketing is definitely not a trend, it has become a truth and a pressing need worldwide.

This is due to some reasons:

Advanced technology: websites can host more videos, devices load videos faster, social media has more live-streaming options, and mobile phones have better cameras.
Video allows more artistic expression and emotional connections than text-only content.
Videos can be a powerful visual aid in teaching complicated concepts.

Why Should Businesses Adopt a Video Marketing Strategy ?

Videos have become very popular and their importance has shifted from a single tactic in a business’s marketing strategy to an entire strategy on its own.

Because statistics speak louder than words, we’ll present next some analytical numbers and statistics from studies done by Hubspot and Social Media Today:

5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day.
100 million hours of video per day are watched on Facebook.
1200% more shares are generated by social videos, than text and images combined.
86% of online video marketers use video content.
Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
65% of executives will visit a website and 39% will call a vendor after viewing a video.
Video in email leads to a 200-300% increase in click-through rates.
Including a video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80%.
Animated explainer videos increase conversion rates by 20%.
40% of users take some kind of action after viewing a video ad.

7 Marketing Video Types All Online Store Owners Will LOVE (Hint: They Are Zero to Low Budget)

As a marketer, video maker, or business owner, you need to determine on the right type of marketing video based on your vision, business needs, and budget. Shooting a video has never been easier nor low-cost.

Frankly speaking, people are loving simple, real videos taken on the spot with a mobile phone; they can relate to them and feel their integrity.

So relax back and stop worrying about your budget and start thinking about which types of marketing videos shall you use in your marketing strategy.

1. Explainer Videos

Explainer videos are very common among types of marketing videos. They explain what a company or product does and how it works.

An explainer video can feature an introduction to a product and in-depth instructions on how this product is used or works. Tech industry uses this type of marketing videos a lot.

Your explainer video shouldn’t only educate but entertain the users; visuals are easily remembered by the brain.

Here’s an example for a nice explainer video by ExpandCart , instructing its users how to build a professional online store through their platform, step by step.

2. Brand Videos

Companies often use brand videos to present their brand in a positive light, maintain a good reputation, change a negative reputation, or incentivize viewers to do business with them. A brand video can include customer testimonials and statistics highlighting the company’s success.

Tip ? Be ware of using the same worn-out material in creating your brand video. Instead, be unique and original, and avoid using the same generic structure and visuals as your peers.

Take this video as an example for brand videos, Cavaraty did a great job in delivering the right message to their target audience and enhancing brand awareness, in a light and funny atmosphere.

3. Social Media Videos

Social media videos are usually referred to as “stories.” They are the videos posted on social media platforms, and are generated by users.

Brands use this type of marketing videos to “check in” with their online community (specially the younger age), strengthen personal connections, build brand awareness, depict their brand as being modern and youthful, and drive traffic to other campaigns.

Social media videos, or stories, are usually brief live streams or quick messages to followers, so vary the style of your videos according to the platform you’re on and the audience’s expectations and preferences. For example, Facebook has some interactive features that other platforms don’t, and likewise Snapchat and Instagram (read more about these differences here).

4. Live Streams

Live streams are videos that are recorded and screened in real time, where viewers can comment and interact live with the brand, which is great for engagement.

Companies typically use live stream videos to give people access to exclusive events (like interviewing a famous figure or sharing behind-the-screen footage for an event), gather publicity, and increase engagement in the community.

Tip ? It’s always a good idea to publicize live streams beforehand; this is of course for big events or a lecture for example. For instant, born-at-the-moment live videos, this is impossible. Luckily, a live video will always be on your page or wherever you’ve recorded it for a lifetime for people to watch after.

5. Vlogs

The word vlog is derived from the two words video and blog. Vlogs are regular videos about a certain theme. They are great means for increasing traffic with regular visitors, community building, boosting SEO, and increasing visitors’ time on the site. Vlogging also helps you establish your brand as an authority on a certain topic; i.e., it’s your brand that people seek first to find answers about a certain topic.

Tip ? As a vlogger, you gotta be consistent in posting your content so that people keep coming again and again, and focus on topics that are relevant to your brand.

6. Product Videos

A product video is produced to highlight the features of a single product, explaining how it works and building anticipation for its launch.

Neil Patel says that 85% of viewers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video. So, we can safely say that for ecommerce , product videos are a must:

Product videos correlate directly with sales and conversions.
Since videos are more realistic than images, they give online shoppers a complete idea about what they’re about to purchase, which reduces the amount of returns.
A video can explain how the product works, minimizing returns from users who simply fail to use it right.

Tip ? When creating a product video, think more of the showing off the product itself rather than the brand. Put yourself in the viewer’s shoes: features they’ll like, tricks they wouldn’t discover on their own, or other usages than the traditional ones.

7. How-to Videos

A large category of online users look up step-by-step videos to learn how to do something; this is where a how-to video shows up. How-to videos can benefit companies and businesses greatly: they bring in regular, loyal traffic who are thankful for the knowledge you’re giving them, improve reputation, and establish your brand as an authority. How great is that!

By now, you should have a complete picture in your head about the right type/types of videos to use to market for your product or service. As we established above, video marketing has become a necessity, an effective marketing tool that takes your customer by hand from one step of his/her buying journey to the next till you close the deal, and beyond.

Build a Customers’ Funnel You Can Be Proud of with Marketing Videos

I’m not going to tell you what a customer’s funnel is and how customers go from showing interest in your products to buying them.

What I’m here to tell you in this section is that no video should be introduced to the customer in the funnel at the wrong time.

Don’t get lost; bear with me!

Let’s glance quickly at the right type of video you should introduce to your audience at each stage of the funnel.

1. Awareness

In the initial stage of the customer’s journey, where he/she knows they have a problem and are actively looking for a solution, your customer review video pops up in the suggestions. And because you’re uploading helpful videos regularly with useful content, this customer starts following your videos and shares them with the team.

You may use in this stage explainer, how-to, or fun videos.

2. Consideration

In the next stage, where the customer is comparing brands and Googling solutions for his/her problem, he/she clicks on the link in the comments to your website and watches a video after the other, which makes them fill in their information in an e-mail submission form.

Congratulations, you got yourself a lead :D

Tip ? Your sales person should check out a lead’s watch history before contacting him/her. Based on the watch history, the sales rep should be able to personalize an email relevant to his/her interests and needs, a kind of care that strengthens the relationship.

You may use in this stage testimonials, case studies, product demos, or personalized voicemail videos.

3. Decision

In the following stage, where a customer is close to making a purchase decision from you, you strike hard, yet smartly, with more videos that make them feel in control and know every detail.

Breathe in…

If the customer has some concerns, you reply with a video walkthrough. After a few days, they receive a personalized video from an executive at your company, which makes them buy. Instantly, follow that with a welcome video from a sales rep or customer care agent and links to your video library and support videos with screen recording to resolve any issues they might have.

Breathe out…

You may use in this stage FAQ, campaign nurturing, or instructional videos.

4. Advocacy

In the final stage, where your customer is happy and satisfied with your product, ask them for a testimonial video and upload it on your channel, so that new prospects find it and the cycle is repeated all over again.

You may use in this stage product update, interview, or social proof videos.

Tip ? It’s not mandatory to use all types in the process, this depends on the product’s nature, the market, and your audience. Use personalized videos and integrate videos smartly in each stage of the customer’s journey.

Create a Video Marketing Strategy Like a Pro

As we said earlier, video marketing has developed into a strategy on its own rather than a single tactic in your marketing plan.

Then the question now is how to set a video marketing plan or strategy like the pros?

1. Video Goal

What’s the purpose of creating this video? What action do you hope the viewer takes after watching your video?

Your goal could be increasing awareness, generating sales, driving traffic, impressing your followers, or informing your audience about something.

2. Target Audience

Who are your targeted buyer personas?

Think of what your audience want to see and where they could possibly look online to find that. Put in mind also that your video should address a pain point to your audience and offer a solution.

3. Platform

Where are you going to post your video?

Determine on the platform your video will go live on (Facebook, YouTube, your website), the target location where you know your audience will be interested in your video.

4. Deadline

Set a timeline for the creation of the video and try your best to stick to it.

5. Budget

Set you budget based on realistic parameters after you do extensive research. Filmmaking can be expensive if you’re shooting a commercial ad with high-end cameras and lighting, and it can also be of low budget if you’re recording a video with your mobile phone. Both scenarios work just fine, depending on your needs and vision.

6. Measuring Performance

What will constitute success for the video?

Choose the key performance indicators (KPIs) that correspond with your video goals, in order for you to be able to measure how successful or not your video is and optimize according to results and analysis.

The Beginners-Friendly Guide to Measure Video Analytics and KPIs

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics that help you measure the video campaign success and optimize your video marketing strategy based on the evaluation of the marketing video results.

1. Rate of Play

The rate of play is the number of video plays ÷ the number of impressions on the video. This metric shows how many people actually watched your video.

In case you’re getting plenty of impressions and no video plays, then you need to optimize your video fast.

Tip ? How to optimize a video to improve this metric? Change the video’s thumbnail to be more interesting, re-think the platform you’re posting your video on, and evaluate how engaging are the initial few seconds of the video.

2. Number of Views

This metric is also known as “reach” and it means how many times viewers have watched your video. Track your video’s view count if your goal is brand awareness.

Tip ? Each platform has its own standards to count views; Facebook takes 3 seconds to measure one view count, while YouTube takes 30 seconds to do so.

3. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

This metric’s main goal is to make viewers take an action that leads them to an already-optimized landing page with a clear call-to-action (CTA).

CTR is measured by dividing the number of CTA’s clicks by the number of times the video is viewed.

4. Social Media Shares

This metric measures how many shares you’re getting on social media from your viewers. These social shares contribute greatly to organic reach online.

When a viewer takes the action of sharing your video, this means they like the content, which also means that their friends (their network) might also like the same content. This creates a chain reaction that helps you reach a wider audience organically.

5. Conversion Rate

This metric measures the number of leads, prospects, or customers generated through your video.

Conversion rate is measured by dividing the number of times visitors completed your desired action by the number of clicks on your CTA.

6. Completion Rate

This is the most liable metric for measuring the success of your video, because it shows how many viewers have watched the video till the very end.

Completion rate is measured by dividing the number of people of completed watching your video by the number of people who played it.

Tip ? Optimize your content if the video is getting zero or low completion rate.

7. Bounce Rate

What we mean here by bounce rate is not the bounce rate of the video, but that of the page on your website the video is posted on. Notice the bounce rate of this page before adding the video and then after adding it; is there any improvement?

The interaction of the audience to the video could improve the bounce rate of your website significantly.

The Top 3 Video Hosting Platforms to Publish a Stunning Video

Out of many video hosting platforms and channels, here are the best 3 platforms to publish your video after you finish shooting and editing.

1. The Titan: YouTube

Needless to talk about how popular YouTube is, you probably have YouTube opened in the screen next to this one where you’re reading this article ?

Why YouTube?

YouTube is the largest video hosting platform.
YouTube is the second largest search platform and the second most visited website, after Google.
People watch over 5 billion videos on YouTube daily.
It’s free to upload a video there.
YouTube allows you to build a dedicated audience of subscribers, because videos are hosted on individual channels, and followers can easily follow your channel.
For an organized watching experienced, you can categorize videos into playlists.
Viewers can like, comment, and share your videos, which is good for awareness and engagement.
For more advanced targeting, you can always use the platform’s paid advertising.

Take this video as an example, which is posted on YouTube for brand awareness and showcasing features of a product, using social proof and testimonials from real customers.

There is though one tiny (not so tiny) trick to posting videos on YouTube. A user might draft away from your website or channel into other videos and you lose them, because YouTube is highly addicting!

You’re the boss… Your call…

If YouTube is the first video hosting platform, who’s second?

2. The Second Best: Vimeo

Vimeo is the second largest video hosting platform, with an audience of 715 million views, monthly.

Why Vimeo?

Vimeo has a simple, clean user interface for an easier navigation on the platform.
Vimeo has very limited ads and commercials (which is a detraction factor on YouTube).
Videos on Vimeo are of higher quality.
The audience on Vimeo tend to be more professional.
Vimeo offers premium account options for business with many added values: additional storage, advanced analytics, customer support, player customization, access to lead generation tools, and much more.

If you’re looking for quality over quantity, then Vimeo is your go-to video host. However, if your concern is to reach a large audience, then Vimeo might not be your best choice.

3. The Business Oriented: Vidyard

Vidyard is not another platform to store and manage your videos. It’s a video hosting platform built specifically for businesses.

Think of Vidyard as a central location for your videos, where you can publish and update videos to social media platforms and your own site from there. In addition to that, you’ll find all types of viewer insights so that you can discover what types of video content your audience likes and how they watch their videos.

Cool feature ? You can personalize videos with the viewer’s name or company directly in the video design.

How to Create a Video Strategy for Social Media

We’ve covered the basics from creating a marketing video and publishing it on one of the famous video hosting platforms to measuring the video’s success and analyze its performance.

And it’s not a secret that different social media channels have a huge influence on brands’ image and sales, so you got to give special attention to those.

The trick here is that each social media network has its own direction and options. So let’s dig down into best practices for each social network.

1. Facebook and Instagram

Why both together?

Because Facebook and Instagram are linked together and whatever you post on one automatically shows on the other (after activating this feature of course on your business account).

What are best practices for video marketing strategy on Facebook and Instagram?

Silent auto-play : people are usually scrolling down their Facebook newsfeed, but a few are wearing headphones. Make sure your video is understandable without audio; use imagery, helpful text, or subtitles.
Long videos : Facebook’s algorithm favors longer video content than shorter ones. This does not translate to “bla bla bla and nonsense” to elongate the video. Create relevant, useful content to your audience that’s complete and long enough for them to comprehend.
Native upload : upload your videos directly on Facebook instead of linking to them on another platform. By doing this, you guarantee that your video content will reach more audiences.
Grab attention : if your video does not grab the viewer’s attention in less than a second (and with no audio), then it’s a marketing disaster. Here are some to help you do so:

start with motion,
stick to visually stimulating videos,
and include text, captions, or subtitles.

How to attract audience through live videos on Facebook and Instagram ?

Quality : try shooting your live stream in high quality so that people are interested to follow on.
Timing : based on your research on the highest times your regular posts get interactions and engagement, schedule your live video accordingly. You want the majority of your fans to be watching, and the rest of them will get notified by the app and can watch the saved video later on your profile page.
Title : take your time to come up with a compelling title that attracts viewers instantly. The title should describe the content of the video with a sense of urgency why people should join watching. A unique title, with some sense of exclusivity, will do the job.
Comments : respond to comments live and acknowledge the presence of your fans to encourage engagement and make the experience feel like more of a two-way conversation.

2. Twitter

Why using Twitter?

Twitter is very popular in certain areas of the Middle East, like Saudi Arabia for example. Tweet a video to promote a new blog post, engage with your audience, or drive viewers to a landing page.

What are best practices for video marketing strategy on Twitter?

Brevity : always keep your video short and entertaining; short clips are easy to consume and perform better.
Pin it : pin your video to the top of your business profile for some extra exposure.
Custom videos : creating short, highly personal, one-to-one response videos is an effective way to build personal connections with your engaged followers.

3. YouTube

YouTube sees an enormous traffic every day, and you want to grab some attention from audience there.

To cut to the chase, create informative, educational content that is high in demand, and you’ll grow a dedicated channel of subscribers following your brand and engaging with your content.

Why Is Video So Important for Ecommerce

Ecommerce business is mainly concerned with product videos. Product videos increase conversion rate because they help people fully understand the product more than plain images and text, and quickly.

In the following points, we’ll present you with some common reasons to why using video is so important for your ecommerce store .

Stores with video rank higher on Google, as Google favors and prioritizes stores with product videos. Having product videos gives you an extra chance of ranking, especially if none of your competition is using video in their stores. Hosting your video on YouTube (owned by Google) will grant you a greater chance of ranking in search engines.
Video is more shareable and clickable than text pages. Visuals and multimedia attract people to share and click and then take action.
Watching a product video takes less effort and time than reading its description in text. Users spend a tremendous amount watching videos online, and the time goes up.
Videos convey more information in 30 seconds than text does. Your product video will give users a close-to-reality image about what a product looks like.

How to Use Video to Increase Conversions and Sales in Your Online Shop

Showcase Product Capabilities

Demonstrate your products features and capabilities and show how superior it is to other similar products.

Tutorials

Tutorial videos or instructional videos help break down difficult or complex information into a simpler form, easy to digest and comprehend, for example in tech industries.

Here’s a tutorial that solved a problem to ExpandCart’s users, which raised conversion rate to the platform significantly.

Selection advice

Use a video to help your visitor select the product they need or the most suitable for them. By doing so, you’re increasing your conversion rate and lowering your return rate.

Product features video

Shoot a simple video of your product, nothing fancy, to show your product’s features, size, shape, texture, usage, or else (depending on the nature of the product itself).

Still need proof? Here’s FIVE…

5 Stats That Prove Online Stores Need Video

Website visitors are 64-85% more likely to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video.
Around 50% of people cite “my products won’t look the same when they arrive” as their biggest concern when shopping online.
33% of people prefer to learn about products by watching a video.
69% of consumers believe a product demo best assists them when making a purchase decision.
Almost 80% of people state that product videos give them more confidence when purchasing a product.

To Sum Up,,,

By the end of this complete guide to video marketing, you, as an online store owner/marketer, should consider adopting a strong video marketing strategy on your online store, if you’re not already implementing one.

People enjoy video content, and demand for video continues to increase. Test different types and styles to see which connect with viewers and use them to grow your business.

Video is a key marketing tool in today’s world. It also gives marketers an attractive, flexible, and extremely shareable way to reach their target audience.

When a shopper watches a video from your business, they are more likely to buy your products. That’s why marketers are satisfied with the ROI of their video marketing.

And lastly, having a video on your website keeps people longer there. In addition, having a video on your online store gives you a priority in Google’s search algorithm and over your competitors.

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