Creating an effective video marketing strategy: 10 tips and best practices

Incredibly, the average person dedicates around 19 hours per week to video consumption. This means marketers are presented with both fresh challenges and promising opportunities.

Some of the concepts used in effective video marketing are applicable across different marketing strategies and products, but some are unique to this adaptable media. Missing some of these essential elements can make or break a marketing campaign.

This article will delve into 10 tips and best practices for your video marketing strategy to ensure positive ROI.

Exploring the fundamentals of video marketing strategy

With so many distinct platforms, it can be daunting to know where to begin. Do marketers need to follow any best practices when creating video content? Does this strategy fit all businesses?

Some fundamentals apply to most video marketing strategies, across platforms, however!

If you follow these key principles, you’re already moving toward a successful video marketing campaign:

• • Have a clear message so your audience doesn’t have to guess what you’re providing
  • Keep videos short and to the point
  • Post native content to social media platforms
  • Use a CTA (call-to-action) at the end of your video
  • Include subtitles (not only does this increase accessibility, but also many people don’t use sound to watch videos for a variety of reasons)

Positive outcomes enabled by video marketing strategy

Video is such an effective medium for B2B and B2C marketing because it allows the consumer to visualize themselves using the product in question, or emotionally connecting with the brand in a way that a written product description simply can’t – this is why 92% of marketers report positive ROI with videos. With an effective video marketing strategy, you can turn leads into buyers by using effective closing methods such as testimonials, product demos, focusing on the quality of the product or service, or creating more personalized videos for a niche market or company.

Video marketing strategy: 10 tips and best practices

Understand your target audience

Creating a video that will resonate is dependent on doing the legwork and researching the potential customer.  The videos must address the concerns and questions that your target audience might have – this allows providing advice or a solution to the problem or challenge. The video should provide value to the viewer.

There are several different types of audiences:

• • • Friendly – loyal followers
    • Apathetic – follow, but low interaction
    • Experienced – long-time followers, but require connection
    • Uninformed – already has some information about your product or service
    • Hostile – have a negative attitude toward your brand
    • Opportunistic – are looking to make a profit from your product or service

Set clear goals and objectives

The video should be clear in its intention: what does it want you to do? Is it selling something, informing, asking the viewer to visit a website or subscribe to a product or creator? A clear call to action (CTA) that provides direction will be more effective.

Craft compelling video content

If the story elicits an emotional response (especially in the form of compelling storytelling) and is intriguing to the viewer, it’s much more likely to create a connection and turn the viewer into a potential customer.

Asking for responses from your audience (also referred to as community engagement) is an effective way to encourage discussion, build relationships and networks, and enhance affinity towards your brand.

Keep creative requirements in mind

As with any marketing or communication product, high-quality production (especially in terms of video resolution and clear sound) will ensure a more professional impression to the viewer. You can hire a professional creative agency, or you can manage some or all parts of the creative process yourself. You may wish to brainstorm with your team and determine what your needs are; these could include design experts, actors, animators, voice actors, a film crew, content writers, or user experience professionals.

Optimize for different platforms

Not all platforms have the same features; being adaptable and learning the technology and advantages of each, as well as their typical audiences, can help maximize reach. Many platforms cater to specific demographics: this is part of knowing your audience as well as current technology and social trends and using this knowledge base to your advantage.

Distribution and promotion

Content may be king, as the saying goes, but if the intended audience doesn’t see your video, your ROI won’t be positive. This once again ties in with knowing your audience and also where they tend to browse and scroll. Are they more likely to view your video in a personalized message on LinkedIn, in a public place such as an elevator, in a tailored newsletter, or on TikTok? This is the point of the strategy that might be easily overlooked but is a very powerful tool.

It is also important to post your videos regularly across platforms to remain fresh in your audience’s minds.

Analyze and measure performance

By tracking and measuring metrics like views, comments, and interactions, video analytics gives you useful information for adjusting your future marketing plans in light of what did and didn’t work.

Maintain a realistic budget

With the many technological and professional resources at our fingertips, it can be easy to be swept away by our imaginations and creativity. Naturally, we strive for a professional, polished, and enticing product. A video marketing strategy though, must indeed have financial parameters that are realistic to ensure every dollar spent reaches maximum value. Developing your campaign strategically and knowledgeably is the key to not overspending or wasting valuable resources on what’s commonly referred to as a “spray and pray” campaign. A clear blueprint of what’s achievable and realistic will avoid venturing into financial stability.

Integrate video in your sales funnel

Your marketing approach will be more consistent and recognizable if you integrate it with other marketing strategies across the various media and products you plan to use (more on this, below).

Leverage AI technology

There are specific areas where AI technology can be leveraged to power a video marketing strategy:

• • • Personalized recommendations – AI can analyze vast amounts of consumer data allowing for videos to be targeted to specific audiences.

• • • Intelligent video editing – AI-powered editing tools can streamline the editing process, saving time and money, and help maintain consistency across products.

• • • Smart video analytics – AI-powered analytics can help a company understand how potential customers interact with content.

• • • Automated video transcription – AI can assist in creating transcriptions and simultaneous interpretation of content, assisting in accessibility and catering to various learning or information consumption styles.

• • • AI-powered video content – these tools can assist in the creative process by generating compelling storyboards or scripts based on specific themes or topics.

• • • Virtual influencers and personalities – these are computer-generated avatars who can interact with audiences on social media platforms.

Even though videos don’t always use written content, there’s an opportunity to use SEO (metadata and keywords) in titles, descriptions, and social media tags. This will help enhance visibility and ensure your video is seen by a wider audience.

Integrating video marketing strategy in your sales funnel

A video sales funnel is similar to a traditional sales funnel, except (as you guessed) it uses video content as a marketing strategy.

Jack Shepherd, Co-founder and Marketing Director of Social Shepherd, has rounded up 30+ video marketing examples that “got it right”, and explains why. He breaks the strategies down into 11 categories:

1. 1. Explainer video – tutorials and infomercials (but better!)
   2. Product marketing – depicts the product with a high level of detail
   3. Social media video – the use of video on social media platforms.
   4. Behind the scenes – give the viewer insight into how a product is made or a service is delivered
   5. Viral video – the market will decide what becomes viral, but sometimes marketing doesn’t even look or feel like marketing.
   6. Video email marketing – directing the audience to a video via a personalized email or newsletter
   7. Guerrilla marketing video – unconventional methods to grab attention, especially on a budget
   8. Interactive video – allows the viewer to provide input through polls, links, or comments
   9. Video advertising – classic or traditional videos
   10. Facebook video marketing – Facebook as a social media platform has a high engagement rate
   11. UGC video marketing – user-generated content is an excellent way to build trust and credibility

These strategies can be applied at the stages of your sales funnel to have the most impact. For instance – why not try a “how to” video that demonstrates the steps to using the product and a demonstration when nudging potential customers closer to the bottom of the funnel where they’re more likely to make a purchase? It is much more appealing as a viewer to watch a person actually using the tool and demonstrating a technique with attractive results.

Case studies and examples of video marketing strategy

An example of a social media video that went viral is that of Reebok’s 25,915 campaign. The video elicits strong emotion and a sense of urgency from the viewer, without a single word other than the upbeat music.

The aspect that video marketing strategies have in common regardless of the platform, product, service, or business type, is the ability to quickly engage, or ‘hook’ the viewer in the first few seconds.

Meet Kaltura video solutions

With so many options available for video production, it can be hard to know where to begin. Kaltura provides a one-stop video platform that simplifies content generation, streamlines workflows and empowers creators, teams, and organizations to work seamlessly. Find out how to use Kaltura to create, manage, and distribute videos as an integral part of your video marketing strategy. Some of Kaltura’s features include:

• Insightful analytics
• In-video keyword search
• Multilingual captions
• Engagement tools
• Top-level security

Kaltura’s video platform is fully customizable, inclusive, accessible, and easy to manage – it’s easy to create video experiences that stand out, engaging viewers and increasing content visibility on any screen or platform. As a comprehensive cloud-based solution, Kaltura allows you to manage, publish, monetize, and analyze your content: all the markers of a successful video marketing strategy we now know to generate a positive ROI.

Summary

In this article, we’ve identified some key tips and best practices when creating a video marketing strategy. Most important throughout each step of the strategy is knowing your target audience. This allows you to develop clear objectives and create content that will resonate with your audience, as well as determine your requirements in terms of creative expertise, technology, and budget. Use of the many tools at your disposal will be essential; there are many platforms to choose from, and some may be better suited to your content and audience than others. Exploring the ever-evolving realm of AI concerning video creation and data analysis may also prove to be valuable. No matter which strategy you develop, the objective will be to immediately captivate your audience. Kaltura is an effective tool that can help your company efficiently execute the best practices described here, and ensure you have a positive return on investment.