The Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing

It’s a visual world we live in today, and pictures don’t always cut it. The Buggles’ 1979 hit summarised it perfectly: video killed the radio star – but in 2019, it brings businesses to life.  

Videos claim more than 80% of all web traffic, and adding a video to your marketing emails can project a hike in your click-through rates by up to 300%. These numbers are hard to ignore – just like a compelling motion piece.  

Video marketing is a powerhouse tool for establishing brand awareness and strengthening brand identity, whilst opening a vast window of creative opportunity for businesses to explore when delivering their campaigns.  

But where to begin? It’s going to take more than just moving pictures to draw attention and keep it. 

Know your content needs

Content is the backbone of any business. Understanding which stage of your customer journey is lacking content helps you reinforce the message delivery and prevent funnel dropout. 

The video content you deliver to potential or new leads is vastly different from the one you send to existing leads or in retargeting efforts.  

Map out your video content and establish a clear understanding of who it is meant for at which point. That way, you can ensure that you are providing all the necessary information in all the right places.   

Make it look good

As a primarily visual medium, there’s no two ways about it – videos need to look good. It’s the only way they will get the attention of audiences and entice them to engage with your brand further. This means having a striking video thumbnail, as well as strong, dynamic and eye-catching design and editing that remains truthful to your brand look and feel.  

Keep it short and sweet

The fact of the matter is, no one looks at a video for more than ten seconds if it isn’t engaging. Most ads run from anywhere between five seconds to one minute, but many fail to make it past the five-second mark before they’re exited out of or skipped. A brand with successful video marketing campaigns delivers its message within the first ten seconds and holds the attention of its audiences for the remainder of the video.  

Focus on the story

The best video marketing campaigns on the market are those that focus on the story more than on the sales. Video is one of the most powerful tools any person can use for its emotive power – and emotions are the biggest drive behind any decision a person makes. So evoking emotions in your audience (preferably a positive one) will establish a connection and drive further engagement. 

My all-time favourite video campaign is Apple’s “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” from 1997. 

With the campaign, Steve Jobs wanted to honour passionate individuals who (just like Apple) are out to change the world with their different thinking. The narration of the video, coupled with the black and white images of famous historical figures who changed the world, are so effective that I can feel the passion driving his vision to do the same.   

Measure successes… and failures

Unfortunately, nothing tracks in the digital space if it doesn’t perform. So don’t let all that creative power you’ve put into your videos go to waste. Ensure your video campaigns are optimised in the following ways: 

• Have a compelling video title that has keywords at the front 
• Include those same keywords in your video tags (and be sure to have enough other tags) 
• Have a concise and accurate video description 
• Have links in the video description and CTAs in the sponsored ad copy that lead to equally interesting content 

Then, measure and tabulate data like reactions, comments, shares and clickthrough rates on your videos across platforms. This will allow you to gauge the depth of engagement your brand is gaining from its audience and understand the best and most suitable channel for your video content. 

You may not get it right the first time, but measuring the success (or failure) of each video marketing campaign your brand deploys gives you the information on what’s working and what isn’t. From there, you get a clearer picture of how to improve your video marketing tactics to boost engagement and conversions for next time.