How to Blow Up Your Video Marketing Strategy

Everyone in marketing knows video is the future; from Facebook’s video push, to the ever-present talking point about YouTube as the world’s second biggest search engine, to the million tips and tricks for marketers looking to add video to their repertoire, we know that a video marketing strategy is essential to the content marketers of today (and tomorrow).

But there are five major things you need to know if you’re going to succeed at blowing up your video marketing strategy, and we’ve got them right here.

1. Stop “translating” your written content.

One of the most common mistakes content marketers make when building a video marketing strategy is just trying to re-make their successful written content into video. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look to successful existing content for ideas, but video is a different medium than a blog post or an ebook. Your first consideration should be whether an idea makes sense as a video, not whether you’d like another piece of content around specific subject matter.

That’s why an actual video marketing strategy is important. Look for stories or visuals that will enhance your existing content that pack a powerful punch as a video. What angle can you take on a specific subject that provides value to your customers as a video? Look at what is working in your industry (and beyond) as video content: instructional videos, people-focused videos, bringing original research to life using animation or other tactics.

2. Focus on people.

One of the most powerful images you can see in a video is the human face. We are built to respond to faces, they draw us in. Who in your space might have something to teach your customers or show them that they can’t get anywhere else? That might be expert instruction from a member of your team, a customer explaining how they used your product or service to succeed or hit a goal, or a thought leader discussing something new in your industry or space.

Find those faces, and use them to humanize your brand, your message, and the value you can bring to your customers. Video is one of the very best ways to connect with the real people on the other end of the purchase decision: your customer and potential customers. Your video marketing strategy should play to the strengths of the medium.

3. Seek out stories.

Storytelling is another buzzword in the content marketing space that is thrown around often, but all content marketers know how important it is. Narrative is how we invest in something we are reading or watching, and in video marketing that is truly an essential element of success.

Even in instructional videos, there should be a storyline people can follow: a beginning, middle, end. What change can you introduce that keeps people engaged? Is it a new skill to learn that will make a difference in their lives, or a customer talking about how a specific product or service made their life or job better? Find your narrative, and figure out how to illustrate it in your video marketing strategy.

4. Get weird.

A great place to start building your video marketing strategy is in your wheelhouse: what does your business do better than anyone else? How can that bring value to your customers through video? But it’s easy to get stuck in a rut when it comes to what video as a medium is capable of.

So start experimenting: try something you’ve never done before that might push the boundaries of your content strategy. Is there something you want to try that can only work on video? Do you have a crazy idea that just might work? Try it; feel out what your video marketing strategy is capable of.

5. Measure your success.

The key to experimentation, of course, is figuring out if something is working or not. So make sure to define what success looks like before you hit publish on that video. Is your primary metric engagement and building brand awareness? Look at the shares, comments, and views. Are you sharing a customer story with the intent that the viewer will go check out the product, service, or feature on your site? Clicks and conversion rates.

Set up the time period for testing in advance, and what metrics you are measuring success by. Then start analyzing what worked and what didn’t, which can span from initial ideation, to production, to the call-to-action, to your distribution strategy.

Check out Conductor’s videos on our YouTube channel, and let us know what’s working in your video marketing strategy in the comments!

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