Hello and welcome once again to the PixelGenio blog. Today’s discussion on “online video marketing strategy” will be jointly hosted by our CEO – Moloy Kumar, Senior content manager – Aleen Brownfield and our Marketing advisor – Nicolas Babin. Our special thanks go to Weiting Xu, Aidan Djabarov and Omar Abedin for their contribution to the insights.
Video Marketing Strategy: The New Trend
Video marketing strategy has been the buzzword for quite some time now. A number of individual studies have proven the effectiveness of video marketing. For instance, Stats that RenderForest published on the state of video marketing this year and also that of the HubSpot point towards the immense effectiveness of video in social media. However, our blog today is not to shower praises on video marketing or to flood you with typical and cliched statements on the given topic. Our prime topic today is to find the loopholes that hold your video content marketing strategy from being successful. And in this blog, we shall as well back up our words from practical experiences of real marketers/influencers.
Understanding The Current Scenario On Video Marketing
Its 2019 everybody seems to employ videos to augment their marketing campaigns. Initially, this idea sounds intriguing/inspiring; but it also has certain downsides to it. The first thing to consider is the humongous amount of competition in the arena of video marketing! Every business is trying to grab consumer attention by leveraging on the power of videos. The market is getting saturated with videos at a fast pace. Marketers and business owners are overwhelmed by the video hype online. But the real question is ‘‘is it being effective?’’
Challenges in Making an Impact with Video Marketing
We reached out to Weiting Xu and Aidan Djabarov from TeachAway to share their thoughts, and we came across some interesting pointers.
Video is not for everyone
Video marketing doesn’t work for all brands. But the brands it has worked for has made millions of dollars in no time. However, before venturing into it, you must keep in mind that, It isn’t a sure-shot way to success, but it has a lot of potentials.
Too much focus on video
Since the introduction of video marketing, marketers have steered clear of almost all other major forms of marketing techniques. Website owners and startup firms are giving an inordinate amount of attention solely to video. The point here is, a combination of two or more marketing strategies will work way better than video marketing alone.
Stats and real-life experiences are different
Websites with amazing text contents might face a setback as algorithms are favoring sites with video content. It also implies that marketers who cannot make huge investments in video will soon have no place left to go. While selecting your strategies you must be discreet. However, once you are decided, advancements in technology can be your best friend. Today you can shoot a complete 4K video right from your smartphone. And worry not if you don’t know how to edit videos. There are user-friendly, professional-grade video editing software options for all levels for content creators. If you cannot afford shooting live videos that involve actors, directors, and cast, you have animated explainer video at your service. You also have budget-friendly options like Vyond and Powtoon by using which you can create engrossing video content all by yourself.
Monitor your results closely
Brands that are engaging in video marketing strategy aren’t often following up with the analysis of what the ROI has been. You have to track the ROI and keep close supervision on how video marketing is working for your business.
Narcissism in video
Omar Abedin, who is the marketing director at Careem, throws light on two very important aspects. Narcissism and lack of creativity.
As explained by Omar, “Pretty much every video that is entirely about a product or service… with a fair modicum of chest-thumping thrown in for good measure…,” is what we call video narcissism. And we agree with him. People don’t buy products. They buy feelings and emotions and other times they simply buy the brand!
Lack of creativity
This is where Omar’s second point comes into play. You need to be creative to stand out in the crowd, to leave a mark in the audience’s mind. If you want something fantastic happening to your business, you will have to be creative in your approach. Remember, leads are always searching for something new. Be creative and consistent.
Focus more on developing a video marketing strategy rather than on individual videos.
Most businesses tend to invest in one great video and expect sales to sky-rocket. But the dynamics of digital video marketing strategy is very different. And most importantly, it is still in its evolving stage. It is time businesses take notice of things like micro-videos(Short videos posted consistently over a longer period of time, typically called the branding journey), landing page specific videos(Each landing page to hold video that is unique to that page only) and personalized-videos(Videos that relate directly to the viewer, more accurately achieved by tracking the visitor source). Looking for an explainer video for your business? Check out our portfolio of amazing explainer vidoes.
Misconception Regarding Video Marketing Strategy
As far as the graphics/animation of the video is concerned, let’s assume that your video is of great quality. But are you following the right strategy to let your content make its full impact? Research reveals that most companies invest in video marketing on the ASSUMPTION that it works in 3 simple steps: 1. Me make a video 2. Humans click 3. Them buy. Me get money
But things aren’t that simple.
Reality Check: How the best video marketing strategy actually works
- Me make a video
- Humans click
- If them like, them remember
- Maybe they see more content I make. Visit again
- Me build trust relationship with humans
- When them need me/product/service, them come back and buy
Consistency is key but variety is important
As you start thinking of the overall buyer journey, you will find that you need multiple videos to address the potential buyers on a personal level. Having multiple videos in your video marketing strategy would help you spread your campaign over a longer period of time. Avoid boring your audience with the same video over and over again. This is very important because consistency is key but your content should be fresh or at least should carry significant amount of variety to increase viewer engagement.
You should consider creating a set of videos like
- A product explainer video
- A brand mission video or company culture video
- An educational video
- An inspirational video
- Personalized videos catering to different segments of your audience (In case you have a varied audience from different domains).
- Related topic videos
- Videos that trigger the humor quotient of your audience
Vyond recently ran a 1 month long extensive social media video marketing campaign on Facebook where they created several short videos targeting different segments of their audience. If you notice the screenshots below, you will notice that some of the videos did pretty good while others were comparatively low in engagement. If Vyond would have created one single video, they wouldn’t have been able to gather this amount of engagement. Neither would they be able to track and measure which videos performed well and why. You might also find it interesting that they did not just depend on the video. Instead, they actually wrote a blog for each of the ads with the video showing on the top. When you click on the learn more button, you are taken to the respective blogs. Here is one such blog. What we can learn from this is that video works best when it’s part of an overall marketing strategy.
The funnel videos
Top-of-Funnel Video Once you are able to get the potential buyers interested in your product or service by the use of consistent, personalized and fresh video content (These first stage videos are called the Top-of-funnel videos-ToFu), you can further enhance the experience by: Middle-of-funnel videos A middle-of-the-funnel (MoFu) customer is just beginning to seriously consider your product. You’ve already built their brand awareness and communicated that your company can help them. To move them closer to purchasing, share content that shows how your product could help them. Product demos are a good example of MoFu videos.
https://youtu.be/vJKSLz0Z7bk
Bottom-of-funnel videos At the bottom-of-the-funnel (BoFu), customers have seen enough content to evaluate your product. More information probably won’t help at this late stage—they need an incentive from your sales team to make a purchase. Examples of this final push include a free trial offer or a follow-up call.
Plan wisely and Embrace marketing videos to win more customers
Video Marketing is reaching phenomenal popularity across the globe. More established brands and new startups are gravitating towards it as they realize the magnitude in which it benefits their bottom line. With new technological advances, this form of marketing won’t be a financial burden to you. If you haven’t already tried video marketing to promote your brand, the time for you to do it is now. Use the information in this blog as your foundation knowledge and scathe your way to achieve a new zenith in the arena of e-commerce via video marketing. If you need any help in creating a video marketing strategy or engaging video content, feel free to contact any of us – Moloy Kumar(CEO, PixelGenio), Aleen Brownfield(Senior content manager, PixelGenio) and Nicolas Babin(Board advisor, PixelGenio). We would be more than happy to help. Looking for an explainer video for your business? Check out our portfolio of amazing explainer vidoes.