When it comes to building up your business’s brand and exposure, few things do a better job than video at putting you on the top of your customer's mind. With video, you have complete control over the tone of the messaging you want to place behind your brand.
Plus, a video has never been easier to record, edit, or post to your potential audience. From instant-video apps like Instagram or Snapchat to the long-form stalwarts of YouTube and Vimeo and the ease of recording on your smartphone, you can be off to the races with video in no time at all.
However, before you start posting, you should really consider a strategy to help grow your video presence while ensuring it is an effective use of your company’s resources. With the right planning, a video strategy can help increase the results you see in three key areas:
Search Engine Visibility Google is the number one search engine in the world. Number two? Youtube. Not only do your videos show up on Google’s result pages, but the content of your videos can perform well with YouTube’s search algorithms if you write an effective title, description and add the appropriate keyword tags when uploading videos to YouTube's platform.
Advertising Not all video ads are created equal, and when it comes to video, your ad is more likely to be remembered and engaged with than what a static image would convert.
Brand Story From enhancing your website to engaging with audiences, video is the ideal way to tell your story to the people who want to hear it most: your customers. In addition, with video testimonials, let your happy customers tell your organization's story in their own words. Here's a testimonial I recently produced for a client where my client and their customers tell their story together:
Putting together a video marketing strategy requires a great deal of foresight and planning, but the end result can make a huge impact. Planning a strategy makes sure all of your video efforts are directed to producing the results that will drive your whole company forward. So ask yourself these 3 key questions when developing a video strategy:
Who are you making videos for?
In short: who is your ideal audience? Some brands have seen success by creating videos for their existing consumer base to share. Others are interested in attracting new clients and standing out from the competition. It helps to build an “ideal audience profile” so your entire team knows the demographics of the people who are ideally watching your video. Knowing your audience will help determine the tone, mood, content, and format.
What Should Your Audience Do?
After they have seen your video, what action do you want the viewer to take? We’ve all heard the “like, comment, subscribe!” of your favorite YouTuber closing out their video. If you could get them to do anything at all to help further your business goals, what would it be? Take advantage of a sale? Refer a friend? Stop by for a special event?
How Will They See The Video?
Whether you are uploading to YouTube or pushing the video to your other social media channels, the platform can significantly define the type of impact. Your desired analytics and your call to action for the video might dictate how and when it is used — the fewer steps your audience has to take between watching your video and taking action, the better.