Video Marketing - An Overview

Video marketing uses video content to promote a brand, product, or service. It can be used as a standalone marketing strategy or with other strategies and campaigns, such as social media or content marketing.

In this manner, video marketing promotes channels through blog posts and existing content. With various content channels that a brand has at its disposal, video provides an emotionally engaging way to connect with customers and capture their attention in a digital environment overloaded with different types of content in various formats.

By being an engaging and emotion-eliciting channel, videos can create a relational bond between a company and its consumers in ways that text just can’t. This can be for a variety of reasons, such as the length of time it takes to consume text content and how users interact with longer-form content. Consumers choose to interact with different content in different ways. Offering video reaches an audience that is more receptive to video over text or other methods of communicating and marketing products or services.

Video marketing is a singular component of an overall marketing strategy or campaign. Still, its growth as a content delivery medium is considerably and more significant today, thanks to more digitally engaged users on social media channels and their mobile devices.

Table of Contents

Why is video marketing important?

The use of video as a marketing tactic is an indirect result of the rise of more digital engagement strategies, as video has been used to promote things in alignment with cinema and television. Video content is always used to take viewers’ attention and provide a message that encourages their emotional response.

Since the advent of YouTube in 2005, video marketing has played an important role in promoting brands. The use of smartphones also provides more opportunities to deliver and consume video across different devices. Other technology advancements include the ease of creating more quality videos, making marketers view this as a popular way to deliver messages to a wide audience.

Video marketing can be emotionally engaging. When emotions such as happiness, fear, hope, or anger are invoked from an ad, that ad is more likely to be remembered. Video can capture attention quickly and is a highly shareable asset. This ability to easily capture attention and share can result in the video’s wide distribution, potentially leading a well-produced video to go viral to a wide audience.

Lastly, in the past year, audiences are spending an average of 19 hours per week watching videos online. If brands want to grow and reach their audiences, video marketing can no longer be avoided.

Real Life Example

Rakalogics provides videos and content writing to clients to provide detailed information to users. Videos help a lot in understanding the customers’ ideas, and they are a fast tool for users. These videos are provided on YouTube, the Rakalogics website, and other platforms.

Benefits of video marketing

Organizations can yield several benefits from video marketing, including the following:

Builds trust. Video can provide an engaging connection quicker than written copy. Its presentation is helpful, knowledgeable, and more human, resulting in a down-to-earth feel that can better establish trust.
Encourages sharing. Whether long- or short-form, video makes for a great shareable asset. This expands the reach a video may have since there is already a built-in increase in customer engagement.
Improves SEO. Video allows brands to be ranked higher in searches as Google and other search engines rank websites with video content higher in the results pages because of increased engagement with video over time. Creating links between sites and videos, using good keywords, and including transcripts make videos an easily definable asset for search engines.
Boosts conversions and sales. Using video at different stages of a buyer’s journey can help move users through the sales funnel faster and increase sales. Videos help users make better decisions and understand products better.
Appeals to mobile users. Video optimized for mobile devices and distributed on platforms users are engaging with is appealing to the mobile user community. It’s easier to watch a short video than to read a long article.
Products stand out more. As video consumption increases, it is a common vehicle for making products or services stand out more. With visually appealing imagery and a cohesive narrative, products and services are more likely to be remembered.

Challenges to video marketing

There are many challenges businesses face when using video marketing, including the following:

Create an effective video marketing strategy. Developing a strategy that aligns with the business and goals can be a challenge. When the target audience is known, it is challenging to make videos and implement them on the target audience.
Produce content people want to see. Many brands fall flat on video creation because the content they create may not be what people want to see. Video isn’t always the answer to the question of what to include in a marketing campaign, so making sure the content is relevant to the audience is key to knowing if they would want to view it.
Make quality content: Making high-quality content requires a lot of effort and is also time-consuming. It also requires high-quality expertise and skills to capture, edit, and distribute the right resources
Grab attention fast. Being a good auditory and visual storyteller is difficult without the right training, but even if someone is inherently good at those things, creating a video that captures someone’s attention fast enough is still a challenge.
Get videos to stand out. Since there is a lot of competition in the space, grabbing attention and standing out with content people want to see can be difficult with users’ short attention spans or access to other higher-quality, more informative videos.

Video Marketing Strategy Tips

To find out what video marketing strategies are working well out in the real world, we asked a few experts for their top video marketing strategy tips.

1. Measure your performance

Making and distributing videos involves a lot of work. To ensure that your efforts aren’t wasted, you should check your video results.
Lee Moscowitz, director of growth marketing at SmartPass, emphasizes the need to analyze metrics like video impressions, click-through rates, and conversions and pay special attention to video completion rates.
“I always recommend establishing certain milestones in videos,” says Moscowitz. “Did the person watch long enough until our CTA showed? Are people only watching 15 seconds of our two-minute video? View rates and milestones help you track if your video tells your story or if people are dropping off too soon.”
Moscowitz adds, “This data will tell you if you need to shorten your video, revise the script to bring up the value proposition sooner, and any changes like that.”

2. Repurpose video content

You want the last and one piece of video content to avoid wasting time and resources on content. To get the most out of your video marketing efforts, David Ciccarelli, CEO of Lake, an online vacation rental company, suggests repurposing your video content.
“Creating long-form and short-form videos is labor intensive, so we focus on re-purposing our video content in as many ways as possible to keep it fresh,” says Ciccarelli.
One way to repurpose your videos is by being creative about the different marketing channels you distribute them on.
“We recently started integrating video into newsletters and are seeing great results,” Ciccarelli. “People’s attention spans are short, but video provides a rich experience for people who want to hear regular updates from us but don’t necessarily want to read a long-form newsletter every few weeks.”

3. Experiment with several video types

After creating your video marketing strategy, Haley Wells, social media team lead at Seoplus+, recommends identifying which videos you believe will gain the most traction and working off of that.
“Start with three to five videos, and after a couple of weeks, see which videos your audience interacted with the most,” says Wells. “Look at which video gains the most comments, likes, or impressions from the top level. Knowing what kind of content your audience enjoys the most will help you refine your strategy in the future.”

4. Incorporate audience feedback

Your team may know which video types will perform well, but your audience is the deciding factor. Pay attention to which videos they interact with most and adjust your strategy based on their feedback.
Wells’ team saw great success when they paid attention to audience comments.
“Our team noticed that one of our videos had a comment that had received significant attention,” says Wells. “With around a thousand likes, we took advantage of TikTok’s capability to respond directly with a video. This strategy re-engaged those who interacted with the original comment and amplified the conversation further.”

5. Refine and optimize

Your video marketing strategy is only as good as its reach. If your target audience doesn’t see or interact with your content, then you know something needs to change. Make sure your videos are optimized for search, says Ross.
“When uploading videos to platforms like YouTube, we focus on making it easy to find what they need,” says Ross. “This includes choosing the right titles, writing clear descriptions, and tagging relevant keywords.”

12 Types of Marketing Videos

Before you begin filming, you need to decide what type of video you want to create. Check out this list to better understand your options.

1. Demo Videos

Demo videos showcase how your product works — whether that’s taking viewers on a tour of your software or unboxing and putting a physical product to the test.
Learn how to use video in each stage of the buyer’s journey.

2. Brand Videos

Brand videos are typically created as part of a larger advertising campaign and showcase a company’s vision, mission, or products and services.
Brand videos aim to build awareness of your company and intrigue and attract your target audience.

3. Event Videos

Is your business hosting a conference, round table discussion, fundraiser, or another type of event? Produce a highlight reel or release interesting interviews and presentations from the gathering.

4. Expert Interviews

Capturing interviews with internal experts or thought leaders in your industry is a great way to build trust and authority with your target audience. Find the influence in your industry and put these discussions in front of your audience.
The video above is more than just a surface-level interview, it’s a deep dive with Hub Spot’s CEO offering concrete takeaways for viewers. Don’t be afraid to get tactical with your interviews — your audience will grow from your hard work.

5. Educational or How-To Videos

Instructional videos can teach your audience something new. These marketing videos can also build the foundational knowledge they’ll need to understand your business and solutions better. Your sales and service teams can use videos like this as they work with customers.

6. Explained Videos

This type of video can help your audience better understand why they need your product or service. Many explainer videos focus on a fictional journey of the company’s core buyer persona who is struggling with a problem. This person overcomes the issue by adopting or buying the business’s solution.

7. Animated Videos

Apple created this animated video to share its carbon neutrality goal.
Animated videos can be a great format for explaining abstract services or products or for hard-to-grasp concepts that need strong visuals.

8. Case Study and Customer Testimonial Videos

Your prospects want to know that your product can solve their specific problem.
One of the best ways to prove this is by creating case study videos featuring satisfied, loyal customers. These folks are your best advocates. Get them on-camera describing their challenges and how your company helped solve them.

9. Live Videos

Live video gives your viewers a special, behind-the-scenes look at your company. It also draws longer streams and higher engagement rates as live-stream interviews, presentations, and events encourage viewers to comment with questions. Plus, according to Statistics, livestream videos reach nearly 23% of the world’s population.

10. 360° & Virtual Reality Videos

With 360° videos, viewers “scroll” around to see content from every angle — as if they were physically standing within it.
This spherical video style allows viewers to experience a location or event, like flying down a hill with Olympic skiers.
Virtual reality (VR) allows viewers to navigate and control their experience. These videos are usually viewed through devices like an Oculus Quest 2 or a Valve Index.

11. Augmented Reality (AR) Videos

AR videos add a digital layer to what you are watching.
For example, you can point your phone’s camera at your living room and AR would allow you to see how a couch would look in your space. The IKEA app is a great example of this.

12. Personalized Messages

Video can be a creative way to continue a conversation or respond to someone through email or text.
Use HubSpot Video Hosting or Loom to record yourself recapping an important meeting or giving personalized recommendations. These videos create a delightful, unique moment for your prospects and can drive them deeper into the purchase journey.
Now that you’ve planned your video marketing strategy, it’s time to start making your first video.

Process of Making a Video

Making a video involves a lot of work. This section will walk you through the detailed process of creating and publishing a video for your business.

1. Script your video

While there’s a time and place for videos to be off-the-cuff, most video marketing needs a script. If you skip this step, you’ll find yourself editing more than you need to, releasing a video longer than it should be, and probably losing your audience along the way.

When we approach a script, we start it like any blog post—with an outline. Here, we list our key points and order them logically.

We often work in Google Docs to promote collaboration and real-time commenting. The “Insert > Table” function creates a two-column script. This allows us to write our audio script in the left column and insert matching visual ideas in the right column.

Two-column scripts are a common practice in television because they help you organize how the audio and visual parts of your script work together.

Don’t make the viewer wait until the end to understand the purpose of your video. They won’t stick around. Be sure to include a message near the beginning that states your video’s purpose, especially for educational and explained videos.

As you begin creating videos, you’ll notice a key difference between video scripts and your typical business blog post — the language.

Video language

Video language should be clear, relaxed, and conversational. We suggest avoiding complex sentence structures and eloquent clauses. Instead, connect with your audience by writing in the first person and using visual language. Keep the language concise, but avoid jargon and buzzwords.

Most video scripts are probably shorter than you think. Keep a script timer handy to check your script length as you write and edit. For example, we found that a 350-word script equates to a video that’s nearly 2 minutes long.

Words on paper sound different from when they’re read out loud. That’s why we organize a table read of our script before we start filming. The point of a table read is to smooth out the kinks of the script and nail down inflection points.

Have your writer and talent gather around a table with their laptops and read the script multiple times. This is a great time to make script changes so that the language sounds more natural.

2. Set up your studio

When you begin creating your in-office studio, purchases can add up quickly. You might need a camera, tripods, lights, microphones, etc. But setting up your studio doesn’t have to be overwhelming. There are plenty of cost-effective ways to create professional videos in your space.

Basic Equipment

Regarding video, we recommend shooting with a tripod to help you maintain a steady shot. The type of tripod you choose should depend on the camera and lens you’re using.

If we’re recording with a phone, we use a table mount like the Arkon Tripod Mount or a full-size tripod like the Acuvar 50″ Aluminum Tripod. For a DSLR, we switch gears. Manfrotto makes a variety of trustworthy tripods, starting with the Manfrotto BeFree and increasing in quality and price from there.

We also recommend that you stock up on camera batteries and SD cards. Recording videos will require you to use these quickly.

Audio Equipment

While many cameras have an internal microphone for recording audio, you’ll want to invest in quality sound equipment. Most internal microphones aren’t powerful enough to record audio adequately.

When we shoot with an iPhone, we opt for an easy-to-use and inexpensive microphone. For example, the Movo VXR-10 PRO microphone has been a helpful plug-and-play solution for capturing audio on the move.

There are even more options for recording audio with a DSLR. Lavaliers can be wired or wireless. You’ve likely seen many videos that use a lavalier microphone — the small piece that clips below the collar of the talent’s shirt.

However, lav mics aren’t our favorite. They can be uncomfortable and distracting for the talent (who has to have a wire threaded down their shirt) and for the viewer (who has to see a microphone for the whole video). Instead, we use a shotgun mic. They’re reliable, remain out of the shot, and record background noise in a natural-sounding way.

To set this up in your office studio, you’ll need a shotgun mic like the Rode VideoMic NTG. You’ll also need:

The Zoom recorder allows you to record audio separately on an SD card and adjust the gain for the space you’re shooting in. It is also an easy-to-use option that can be set up quickly.

Incorporating Video Marketing for Increased Website Traffic

Video marketing has become an essential tool for driving traffic to websites. With the rise of platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels, videos have become a popular form of content consumption. Incorporating video marketing into your content strategy can help you reach a wider audience and increase engagement on your website. Here are some tips and examples on how to effectively use video marketing to boost your website traffic:

1. Create Engaging and Informative Videos

The key to successful video marketing is creating content that captures the attention of your audience. Whether it’s a tutorial, product review, or behind-the-scenes footage, ensure your videos are engaging, informative, and relevant to your target audience. For example, if you run a fitness blog, you could create workout videos that demonstrate different exercises or provide tips for staying fit.

2. Optimize Videos for Search Engines

Just like you optimize your website content for search engines, it’s important to optimize your videos as well. Use relevant keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags to improve their visibility in search results. Additionally, consider creating a transcript of your video and adding closed captions, as search engines can crawl through text-based content more easily.

3. Promote your videos on social media

Social media platforms are a great way to promote your videos and drive traffic to your website. Share snippets or teasers of your videos on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with a link to the full video on your website. You can also create short video ads to target specific audiences on platforms like YouTube or TikTok, directing them to your website for more information.

4. Collaborate with influencers or industry experts

Partnering with influencers or industry experts can give your video marketing strategy a significant boost. Find influencers or experts in your niche who have a strong following and collaborate with them to create videos together. This can help you tap into their audience and drive traffic back to your website. For example, a beauty brand could collaborate with a popular beauty influencer to create a makeup tutorial video featuring their products.

5. Use video testimonials and case studies

Video testimonials and case studies are powerful tools for building trust and credibility. Featuring satisfied customers or clients in video testimonials can help potential customers see the value of your products or services. Additionally, sharing case studies in video format can provide real-life examples of how your offerings have helped solve problems or achieve results. These types of videos can be embedded on your website and shared on social media to drive traffic.

Incorporating video marketing into your content strategy can be a game-changer for driving traffic to your website. By creating engaging videos, optimizing them for search engines, promoting them on social media, collaborating with influencers, and leveraging video testimonials and case studies, you can attract more visitors and increase engagement on your website. So, grab your camera or smartphone, get creative, and start reaping the benefits of video marketing for your website.

Conclusion

When creating your video marketing strategy, remember a few things. First, make sure your videos are relevant to your audience. Second, be sure to create videos that are entertaining and engaging. Lastly, make sure your videos are well-produced and look professional.

Overall, video marketing is a powerful tool that can help your business grow and thrive.

Video marketing has many benefits, such as increasing brand awareness, developing a loyal customer base, and creating positive word-of-mouth buzz. Additionally, it can be a very effective way to create leads and convert visitors into customers.

FAQs

Why is video so important in marketing?

Video marketing improves SEO and boosts conversions and sales. Of marketers, 31% add a video to improve SEO. Websites see a search engine boost when they add video because it increases page quality and visitors’ time. More than 60% of marketers say their customer acquisition cost has gone up

Do I need videos for my marketing strategy?

If you’re not using video for your business, you’re truly missing out. Video creates a visual engagement that other forms of content simply can’t compete with. Especially with increased innovations, use, and spread of mobile devices, your audience is on the go, and with video, you can educate and entertain them wherever they are in the world

Are your viewers your customers?

Not all of them. For example, in the buyer’s journey, there are the attract, convert, close, and delight stages. In your marketing strategy, especially as you try to create a unique user experience for your audience, you can reflect each stage of the buyer’s journey in your video content. This means that if you create videos only to attract people to your brand, only a few of those viewers will probably convert into leads and customers later on.

That’s why you need to minimize your surface viewers and nurture growth toward a more targeted and invested audience. The more your video content can reflect each stage of the buyer’s journey, you can increase your conversion rates.

One video is enough, right?

Of course not! One video may perform better than the rest. But you wouldn’t even have that benchmark unless you have multiple videos in your portfolio.

Where should I upload my videos?

YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Brightcove, and even your website are just a few places to host your videos. The best way to figure out where you should distribute your video is your end goal. For example, use social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to host your videos to attract more website visitors. If you are trying to convert viewers into leads, use YouTube to bring people to your website by linking your unique and relevant content offers in the ICard or video description section.