The Definitive Guide To Video Marketing That Skyrockets Your Business

June 29, 2022

Author: Eddie Jones

Many businesses have started to understand why video marketing is essential. However, it is not clear how video marketing transforms a business.

You can quickly get your brand noticed online with video marketing, leading to higher sales.

This definitive guide will help you make videos online that will skyrocket your business’ success. But before diving deep into this guide, let’s find out what video marketing is.

What is Video Marketing?

Video marketing uses videos to promote your products or services online. A good video should answer your clients’ questions about your products.

Some questions answered in your video can consist of:

Which product are you marketing?
How is the product used?
What is the importance of the product?
What is the cost of the product?
How to get the product?
Why should one prefer your product over others in the market?

Having known what video marketing is, it is time you understood why you should employ video marketing.

Why Employ Video Marketing

The entire globe has over seven billion people. Out of the seven billion people, 3.5 billion are online.

The statistics here indicate there is a huge market online where you can go to advertise your products. The simplest method to broadcast to these people is by video marketing.

Some reasons you should employ video marketing to market your products include:

There is enormous traffic online that might come across your video and turn into potential customers.
You could use tools to make videos online for free or at a cost depending on quality.
Video marketing lets you get direct feedback from your customers or potential clients. You can therefore use the feedback to improve your services and products.
Through video editing, you can customize your videos online to make them more appealing.

Since you have understood the importance of video marketing to your business, let’s dive into the guide.

What Does it Take To Make a Good Video?

Making a video is not easy, as many may think. You always have to make sure your video offers a remedy to a problem.

It is your responsibility to check for errors in your video. Video editing will help in removing errors.

The following tips can guide you in making a good video:

Define your audience

You cannot start to make videos online without identifying the purpose of their creation. In addition, tailor your videos according to the audience’s needs.

For instance, if you sell a product like a shampoo, you need to present a video that explains to the audience what your shampoo can do.

If you are having trouble identifying your audience, consider answering the following questions:

Demographics

Many places have different cultural practices and routines. It is therefore essential to know where you want to promote your products. It helps craft compelling, personalized, relatable video content.

Knowledge of your products

You should make your videos based on your audience’s knowledge of your product. Do not complicate the footage by using many technical terms.

The video and audio content should be easily relatable and presented interestingly and captivatingly.

Age group

Age is an essential factor in identifying your audience. For example, when marketing toys, you know your audience will be kids around three to fifteen.

Therefore, you will have to use a language they can understand and try to incorporate some humor.

Ask yourself the above questions to make videos online that serve the needs of your audience.

After knowing which target audience is watching your video, you can focus on your next tip for choosing your brand.

Branding

Branding is the process of giving your products a name and logo to differentiate them from other similar ones.

You should always incorporate a logo that best suits your products. Marketing your products will get more straightforward with an appealing brand.

Studies have shown that excellent brand-name products give customers a sense of belonging. Next, let’s look at your video script.

The Video Script

In your video script, you will write down the message to convey in your video.

Make sure you write a detailed script since it can build or destroy your video. A good video script incorporates a call to action for a potential customer watching your video.

It must convince your audience to purchase after watching your video.

Therefore a good script should have:

Characters: choose characters for your script wisely. Ensure the characters are relatable and solve your audience’s problems.
Structure: the story structure should give a good explanation of what you are promoting.

A good script for the video will significantly impact your business. After you write a script, you have to produce the video. Let’s have a look at video production.

Video Production

You should invest in video production, as it is the central aspect of video marketing. It is because video production will get people to watch the video.

For instance, if you produce a low-quality video, your audience will get bored in the first few seconds of watching.

Therefore, they will click on something else and won’t get what you had in store for them.

To produce good videos, you will have to:

Capture your audience’s attention

The first few seconds of the video determine if your audience will continue to watch or not. Therefore, you have to create an attention-grabbing introduction.

Use animations

Animations give the video an excellent visual impression, making people want to watch until the end. They will therefore get to know what you were promoting.

Production of animations can be costly.

Create an outline

A good video should display an outline to the audience at the beginning. A strategy tells your audience what you will discuss in the video.

Your audience can navigate around the video to areas they like.

Lastly, after making your video, you will have to distribute it. Let’s have a look at video distribution and promotion.

Video Distribution and Promotion

After your video is ready, you must distribute it to your target audience. Social media is one of the best places to promote your video without much cost.

YouTube will pay if your video gets many views and likes on your channel. Present your video to your audience as an ad if you’re not getting any ideas.

You may have to shell out money for your video to run as an ad. The amount to pay depends on the platform used.

So there you have it, a definitive guide to video marketing that skyrockets your business.

Conclusion

Video Marketing has proven its benefits to businesses in many ways. Knowing how to create and promote your videos will put you in a better position than your competitors.

Following these video marketing guidelines can help you devise the best plan for making your brand marketing video content.

You can monitor your progress using analytics on websites and social media channels.

Guide to All Different Types of Videos

February 25, 2022

Author: Torrey Tayenaka

Should all marketing videos need to be professional productions to convert consumers? Or does a sneak peek at a new product in a series of social media stories fit the bill?

When it comes to video marketing, as long as your videos offer your target audience value, education, or entertainment, they’re all contributing to your marketing and conversion efforts.

But what kind of videos are suitable for each section of the marketing funnel?

The truth is some video types overlap different areas of the sales funnel. A branding video might lead directly to a sale if the customer is engaged enough.

So what types of videos are suitable for different business goals?

Brand Awareness And Promotion

At the top of the marketing funnel, the awareness stage is the first step towards guiding your prospect towards a sale.

Any videos in this stage need to grab attention, hook potential customers in, and persuade them to find out more.

Brand Videos

Any new customer coming to your website wants to know if you align with their needs and values. Brand videos help highlight the culture and values of your business.

Authenticity is high on the must-have list of consumers, so humanizing your brands has never been more important.

You can show authenticity and humanize your brand with content like behind-the-scenes footage, employee highlights, or short spots about company culture. Short introductory videos on your home page, along with stories and short videos on social media, help customers get to know you and increase brand awareness.

Pro tip: Don’t produce videos for the sake of it. Have an end goal in mind. Viewers will tell straight away if you aren’t being sincere.

Explainer Videos

When a potential customer lands on your website, they have a specific problem and look to you to solve it.

Explainer videos are great because website user attention spans are short. So by grabbing attention with a video that highlights the solution to their pain point, it keeps users on the page longer.

Furthermore, research shows that brand videos convince 84% of people to buy after watching—excellent news for awareness, promotion, and conversion goals.

Pro tip: Focus on one or two points to hold your audience’s attention and place the video on your home page for maximum visibility.

Product Videos

Educational and instructional videos improve the user experience of the consumer. Better still, they tell the viewer all the benefits of your product.

Using product videos is a chance to show off and differentiate your product from others on the market. It’s a golden opportunity to catch buyers in the awareness stage and show them why your brand is the solution they’re seeking.

Pro tip: Product videos shouldn’t be longer than 30 seconds to hold attention.

Customer-Focused Videos To Increase Conversions

Once you have your potential customers engaged, it’s time to shift them further along the sales funnel and aim to convert to a sale.

And the best way to do that?

Use social proof.

Customer Testimonials

One of the best ways to get a conversion is through customer testimonials.

Authentically sharing a customer’s opinions can increase trust in your brand. In fact, 88% of consumers say that video testimonials make them more likely to buy.

However, a word of caution.

Customer testimonials should never be fiction. Consumers can see through staged reviews (think the cheesy customer testimonials you see on TV adverts), which destroys credibility. So only use genuine customer views.

Pro tip: When asking for a testimonial, provide the customer with a structure to guide them. By asking the right questions, you’ll get answers that highlight the benefits of your product.

Case Studies

Video is the perfect medium for case studies. It highlights the emotion of your customer and adds authenticity to the study. Sometimes the written copy isn’t enough to portray customer satisfaction in the effective way a video can.

Pro tip: When creating video case studies, think about:

What is the end goal for the case study?
Who is your target audience, and does the case study target their wants and needs
Does the case study highlight the benefits of your product?
Have you structured the case study with carefully constructed questions?

Faq Videos

Perfect for answering common customer concerns and questions, FAQ videos are quicker and easier than scrolling through written questions. It also shows your consumers that you care about their needs and want to help them.

Equally, having an FAQ page boosts your SEO and ranking as Google tends to prefer video content.

Pro tip: Points to include in an FAQ video could consist of:

How to set up and how to use the product
Information about warranties
What to avoid when using the product
How to store the product
Information about returns and exchanges

Use The Correct Type Of Video For Your Marketing Goals And Watch Your ROI Rise

There are many other video types out there, including corporate expertise, recruitment, and webinar videos. Which video you choose to use depends on your customer research – match your video to where your target audience hangs out online, what content they want to see, and what video style best suits their needs.

Author Bio:

Torrey Tayenaka

Torrey Tayenaka is the co-founder and CEO at Sparkhouse, an Orange County based video marketing production agency. He is often asked to contribute expertise in publications like Entrepreneur, Single Grain and Forbes. Sparkhouse is known for transforming video marketing and advertising into real conversations.Rather than hitting the consumer over the head with blatant ads, Sparkhouse creates interesting, entertaining and useful videos that enrich the lives of his clients’ customers. In addition to Sparkhouse, Torrey has also founded the companies Eva Smart Shower, Litehouse & Forge54.

Top 5 Things to Know Before Hiring a Video Agency

December 6, 2021

Author: Alex Safavinia

Right now, almost every business is moving towards video marketing to get their brand known among consumers. However, just like a first-timer at anything, they know very little about the complexities and details they must look after to hire the right video agency for their project.

Thus resulting in a highly conflicting video-making process and a not-so-effective end product that is 180 degrees of what they needed or imagined. To make sure that does not happen to you, we have come up with “beginner advice” that will help you find the right fit for your video marketing.

So let’s dive in!

Know the type of video you need

The type of video you need directly correlates with your brand identity and digital marketing strategy. So you need to identify whether you want to proactively spread the word among the masses, inspire them by sharing your brand story, or need something that solely emphasizes leads and conversions. Plus, which medium do you intend to use to present it to your audience? Is it Youtube? Facebook? Instagram? Or just your company’s landing page?

To figure this out, you must take your team on board and determine the strategy they have in mind to propagate your brand message regarding your products or services towards your target audience.

If your company hasn’t done any video marketing before, that’s even better because it gives you a lot of flexibility. You get the opportunity to try out different approaches, from humorous and quirky ones to more serious and professional ones. Plus, you always have the opportunity to study what’s working for your competitors and integrate their critical factors in your videos right from the beginning.

Remember, the type of video you plan to use will directly influence who you choose for the project. There’s a vast number of video agencies covering specific areas of video making. Where some might specialize in live-action, others might emphasize animation. A clear plan will narrow down your research circle significantly.

The cost of video production

Well, let’s cut it short. When talking about an agency, video production is expensive. Therefore, it’s necessary to keep your budget on realistic grounds before reaching out to a reputed video production company.

Since video production agencies have hundreds, or in some cases, thousands of projects under their belt, speaking loudly of their skill and craft in the field, the prices automatically go higher with respect to their portfolio.

But here’s the good stuff! You will get value for your payment 99% of the time in the form of high ROI. For a starter, a reputed video production company will cost you around $5000+ and above per project.

If your budget somehow doesn’t allow you to make such hefty investments, you can also try DIY video production using in-house equipment. However, this way, the process will involve a lot of trial and error, which often gets frustrating and extremely time-consuming.

Qualities of a great video agency

Now that you know what kind of video your business needs and are ready to invest in, the next step is to find a video production agency that perfectly corroborates your needs and requirements. And for that, you must judge it from a lot of angles.

So, first things first, when you visit their website, head straight to their portfolio section and see if they have produced anything in your industry, or at least something close to it in the past. If you find something relevant, move to the next step and analyze their storytelling skills.

As video production is all about engagement and persuasiveness, you don’t want to present something that puts your audience to sleep halfway through the video; creativity is inevitable. So even if the portfolio seems like it is clicking with your project’s nature, talk to the agency representatives and see if they understand your needs fully.

Moreover, analyze their working ethic by talking to someone who has worked with them in the past or by simply studying their past customer reviews. See if they involve their clients amidst the project and listen to their suggestions and needs. Such micro-scale management is essential to get an outstanding end product.

Time required for video production

For all that we know, video production is time-consuming. To be more precise, a two minutes video takes about 5 weeks or so to be executed perfectly.

Now you must be thinking, why wait so much when I can get an emergency service for paying extra? Well, that’s the biggest mistake you’ll ever make…allow us to elaborate.

So, video production involves a lot of pre-production planning. This involves research about the relevant industry and audience, creative planning, drawing story sketch, scriptwriting (very, very important), and a lot of trial and error to squeeze the best product out of it.

Once that’s done, the agency moves towards the production phase and shoots (or animate) the video, which, again, is a process that will determine the overall quality of the end product. Not to mention the post-production editing that involves assembling the rough cuts, color correction, and music to complement the story arc.

That being clear, imagine if all this is done in a matter of a week or two. Will the agency team have enough time to put the required amount of creativity into the project? Or will the production be as effective and polished as it would be if given the extra days? Well, the answer is pretty straightforward.

So why not pay the regular amount and get the best product than paying extra and getting something not as good? Remember, you should never rush video production, even if you have the convenience of emergency services at hand.

The red flags

And last but not least, it’s essential to watch for some red flags to avoid getting scammed. For instance, you shouldn’t hire a company that doesn’t have enough portfolio to showcase their successfully executed past projects, a considerable number of positive client reviews, and authentic client references from which you can verify the quality of work and the agency’s claims.

I’d recommend doing a little due diligence to check whether the videos that they claim as part of their portfolio were made by them (and not stolen from another company’s portfolio).

Also, watch out for additional fees mentioned in the quote. Some companies start with low initial prices that go up as the project progresses, simply looting you through nickels and dimes from time to time.

Conclusion

Video production is a long, costly, and complicated process that you cannot risk handing someone incompetent. However, since it’s difficult for a first-timer to find a good agency, it is crucial to have the basic knowledge of video production and the distinguishing factors of a good video agency. We hope our two cents on the topic helps you find the right fit for your marketing campaign.

Good luck!

Author’s Bio:

Alex Safavinia is the CEO and Creative Director of Kasra Design, an award-winning animation company specializing in 3D animation and explainer video production. He began his career as a motion graphics artist in 2006 and soon converted his passion into a successful animation company by gathering up a team of talented animators and artists.

How To Rank Your YouTube Videos – 5 Steps To Get Started

September 30, 2020

Author: Victoria Daniel

YouTube is a powerful marketing platform that helps to enhance your business and brand. Over 6 billion hours of YouTube video viewed per month. Also, YouTube is the second largest website in the world. One-third of the internet audience spends much time on YouTube.

YouTube marketing is the main key to getting videos ranked on both YouTube and Google search. It makes an automated flow to find the people with your videos, which is related to your business.

In this guide, we will discuss the importance of Youtube ranking with the help of 8 tips. Once you have followed these steps, it helps you get more likes and views by ranking your YouTube videos higher on Google and YouTube.

STEP 1: YOUTUBE VIDEO NAME

Naming is an identical factor in the marketing process. Most marketers made a mistake with improper naming for your videos. This naming structure will happen in two places.

Raw video file
Video title

YouTube has the algorithm for the raw video file, which helps to find the content. If you’re not familiar with raw video titles, this guide helps to work on it.

Below are the tips to optimize the raw video title:

Right-click on your YouTube video and choose “Get Info”.
Include tags which are related to your video’s and synonym keywords.
Give a name the file based on your main keywords
Use some comments about your YouTube video.

Once you upload your file on the YouTube channel, it will automatically throughout the raw file name.

The video title should be less than 60 characters. Use keywords at the beginning of the title. Also, it must be short and descriptive and easily attracted by the audience. Don’t forget to add the keywords to your title. It helps to be an essential part of the ranking progress.

STEP 2: VIDEO LENGTH

The YouTube algorithm is based on the views when YouTube was first launched. Once you get the most views for your video and it gets a high rank. But two years ago, YouTube changed its terms and conditions. They have counted your views, but at the same time, they do conjunction with engagement metrics.

The engagement metrics are,

Number of seconds viewed
Comments
Social shares and Likes

These additional metrics help to cut out the false clicks from the million click farms. At this moment, it can neglect a lot of videos with less focus content. It’s better to make rich content that drives user engagement. YouTube doesn’t have any guidelines regarding video length. Any user can upload extreme video length, but we suggest creating your video at least 60 seconds.

There are two main reasons:

Your video length is longer, which means you can engage your viewers. Therefore, having your videos will add more seconds to your count and increase your watch time.
In YouTube policy, short videos consider the spam your videos; So, avoid making length videos. It helps boost your video and enhance your YouTube likes & subscribers.

STEP 3: VIDEO TITLE & DESCRIPTION:

The audience first lands on your page; they can see the title. Your video title should be related to your video and descriptive. The length of the title is 55-60 characters. Use keywords at the beginning or mid of the title, which improves your chance for ranking higher in YouTube search.

Many YouTubers forget this section; the most important section is a video description. Basically, you can describe your video with the help of the keywords. Also, you can add the link to your website. A new member lands on your page, they first read the description part and click the link. Your video views are great, but YouTube is merely a means to something larger. Your videos should encourage your audience to take action. That action should be clicked on your website where you can finish the marketing process.

Here are some tips for creating a video description:

Create a unique style! Don’t copy the content from competitors and your previous videos. Each video is different and should be treated. Write a unique description for each video.
The character’s length of the description section is to be 5000. Use 2-3 keywords in part.
Avoid placing the same keywords twice. You’re stuffing the same keywords, and there is a chance of going spam.
Use synonyms of the keywords in your description. For Instance, your keyword is – how to rank on YouTube videos, how to rank on YouTube videos in Google-like.

STEP 4: MAKE A PLAYLIST

Make a playlist for your YouTube channel that helps your viewers easily find your videos. It is the easiest way to segregate your content and share it with others. You can create playlists for saving the multipurpose channel.

You can make a playlist with the help of keywords. Whatever you can split that music videos, news, funny videos, and entertainment videos. It is simple to add, edit, and delete from the YouTube playlist. You will drop your videos to change the order, change the priority, and rename the playlist.

Here are the steps on how to make a playlist:

Start to watch the video before you can add the playlist.
Save the video first, and create a “New Playlist.”
Give the name of the playlist and select the private or public.
Once created a playlist, add your favorite video and again save it.
After that, you have to check whether the videos are added or not. Note it – add more videos to your playlist at a time.

The playlist section is placed on the left-hand column of your YouTube homepage.

STEP 5: CUSTOMIZED THUMBNAIL

YouTube offers to choose the image that suits your YouTube videos—adding a thumbnail of your videos to make the best impression for your viewers. I suggest placing a thumbnail that tells the viewers what your video is about and why they click on it.

If you want to boost your subscribers, you have to use a proper thumbnail to your videos. It is the heart of YouTube videos. Also, you can easily include the custom thumbnail and upload it.

Here are the few tips to before uploading the content:

The thumbnail image size should be 1280 x 720
Images must be .JPG, .PNG, .GIF or .BMP
Under 2 MB
Use attractive colors like Yellow, Red & Green, and use stylish fonts.

FINAL THOUGHT:

YouTube is a robust platform when you have used it correctly. YouTube Video marketing is developing, and many marketers want to promote their product in the channel. Creating unique content and standing out the right people at the right time is important for success. Don’t forget to add the above steps to your videos and start ranking in Google & YouTube searches.

Author Bio

Victoria Daniel is a social media expert and writer who is working in PixelGroovy. She is a regular contributor to well established IOT blogs and she has been into Internet marketing for two years.