If you want to learn how to change a lightbulb, how would you prefer to do it? By reading an article on replacing light bulbs? Or by watching someone show you how to do it?
Most people would choose the latter. After all, it’s easier to follow instructions when you can see exactly how it’s done.
This is probably one reason why videos attract the most web traffic. It may also explain why YouTube has over 30 million daily users and gets over three billion monthly searches.
As the second largest search platform, YouTube offers a sea of opportunities for your website. In fact, not having a YouTube channel – or any form of video content – could hamper your progress in search engine optimization (SEO).
Want to learn how video marketing can help boost your website ranking?
Read on to know the basics, including how to create a successful video marketing campaign.
Table of Contents
What Is Video Marketing?
Video marketing uses video to boost awareness, engagement, and revenue. It is essential in SEO and a crucial component of digital marketing.
Thanks to new features introduced on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, the popularity of video marketing has grown exponentially.
Aside from bite-sized stories and reels, videos may also come as:
- Explainers
- Testimonials and social proof
- Listicles and editorials
- Q&As or interviews
- Company culture presentations
- Webinar or online events
- Live online broadcasts
Top 5 Tips to Succeed in Video Marketing
Like other SEO strategies, video marketing doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all blueprint.
However, there are strategies that can boost the chances of your campaign’s success. To help you get started, below are five tips you can use to create a compelling and engaging video marketing plan:
1. Focus on your target audience.
Like other forms of content, you need to create a video for a specific target audience. After all, an effective marketing campaign is guided by strong buyer personas.
These will serve as your focus for video marketing.
Once you’ve determined the specific groups you wish to target, the next step is to figure out where they spend most of their time. This will help you pick the best platform(s) to use for your campaign.
2. Create videos that people can relate to.
No one enjoys watching videos that obligate you to shell out money. People prefer those they can relate to and have a certain value they can benefit from.
This shows that you need to craft good stories to reel the audience in. This not only offers them entertainment value but also enhances brand recognition through audience engagement.
If you tell stories about your brand, your viewers are more likely to understand your company, your offerings, and the benefits of doing business with you. Instead of blatantly telling them to buy your product, show them who you are and how your products or services can change their life.
3. Maximize the first few seconds.
The average person has an attention span of eight seconds. Given this and the amount of digital noise on the internet, it can be challenging for businesses to grab and retain their prospects’ attention long enough to make a lasting impression.
This is the very reason why you must maximize the first few seconds of your videos. Within eight seconds, your content must:
- Clearly explain what the video is all about.
- Fuel your viewer’s confidence that your content is worth watching.
- The best way to do this is to begin your video with a hook.
A hook offers a quick preview of what the video entails. It can come in different forms, such as:
- Interesting facts
- What-if scenarios
- Surprises
- Jokes
- Questions
- Hints of a story
4. Develop realistic goals and metrics.
Like any marketing campaign, your video campaign must have specific goals and targets that are realistic, measurable, and relevant to your brand. One way to define your video’s purpose is by mapping them into the marketing funnel:
● Awareness: This focuses on the top-of-the-funnel goals that introduce your brand, product, or service to customers.
● Consideration: Clips that develop your brand authority or prove your expertise in the industry have middle-of-the-funnel goals.
● Conversion: Videos under this category incorporate unique selling points (USP) and other elements that drive potential customers down the bottom of the funnel (i.e., buying a product or subscribing to a service).
Below are some metrics you can use to check whether your video marketing campaign is progressing well toward your goals:
- Awareness: views, play rate, bounce rate, and time-on-page.
- Consideration: subscribers, video comments, and social media sharing and comments.
- Conversion: video completion rate and click-through rate (CTR).
5. Optimize your video for SEO.
Video optimization is usually part of SEO services offered by specialists in the field. But in case it’s not, you can come up with your own SEO-friendly video marketing strategy using the following tips:
Conduct keyword research.
Keyword research for video marketing helps you rank for both video-sharing platforms and search engines (e.g., YouTube and Google).
If you’re publishing content on YouTube, you can use keyword research tools like the Ahrefs YouTube Keyword Tool and vidIQ to pinpoint keywords you need to target.
The YouTube auto-complete feature can also be a treasure trove of ideas for key phrases, much like Google Suggest.
You can also analyze competitor content using TubeBuddy, taking note of any topics you wish to explore.
Once you have an initial list of keywords, you need to sort through them, prioritizing the ones that help you achieve your goals for your video campaign.
Some of the best keywords to target for video marketing are:
○ How-to keywords (e.g., how to bake bread)
○ Product or business reviews (e.g., best SEO agencies in Dubai)
○ Tutorials (e.g., macrame bracelet tutorials)
Write keyword-optimized titles and descriptions.
Titles and descriptions are the most significant determining factors in a video’s CTR. To maximize their potential, make sure you incorporate your target keyword(s) into these elements.
Write a clear and concise title that matches viewer intent and query to urge people to watch your content.
For the description, explain the video topic in at least 350 characters, including links to your website and social media pages. Also, add relevant hashtags to help YouTube recommend your content to the right audience and associate it with similar videos for increased exposure.
Customize the video thumbnail.
Thumbnails serve as billboards for videos. Like descriptions, they also help viewers decide whether your content is worth watching.
To optimize this video element, upload a custom thumbnail highlighting the search term you’re targeting. And make sure it reflects your brand voice and personality.
Get Expert Help
Video marketing is a significant component of SEO. If you’re still having a hard time hitting your targets even after following the tips listed here, reach out to your SEO provider for help in boosting your video ranking not only on YouTube but also on Google and other search engines.
- 5 Best Tips to Succeed in Video Marketing - October 25, 2022