Creating online content for your brand is one of the best ways of reaching customers and improving visibility.
You probably already have a social media presence on Facebook or Twitter, and possibly a blog as well. But if you really want to reach your target audience effectively and create an impression of your brand that lasts, you need to be creating videos.
Video marketing is one of the most effective methods of brand promotion there is. Here's a look at why—and how you can use it to your advantage.
Using Videos to Resonate With Customers
Having a blog is great. You can use it to keep people updated on your brand and products, give tips and instructions for solving common problems in your field, and more. And with proper SEO, you can use it to drive people to your site and provide them with the information they're looking for.
But blogs can also be a turnoff for a lot of customers; they arrive at your site, and the first thing they see is big blocks of text they don't have time to read. Maybe they'll skim it looking for something useful, but many will simply skip over your site and proceed to the next one.
That's where videos come in.
Videos can be much more successful than written text at presenting information. Some 73% of customers are more likely to make a purchase after watching a video explaining a product or service, according to a study by Animoto.
And a video can do everything your blog can do, but visually: You can use it to tell your customers about news and product updates, rather than writing about them; in addition to step-by-step instructions for solving common problems, you can provide actual demonstrations; you can even use SEO tactics to increase your video's visibility, by entering common search terms as video tags.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If you want to communicate with your target audience effectively about your brand and products, videos are the best way to do it.
Using Videos to Boost Your Marketing ROI
Sure, videos are effective, but creating high-quality video content also takes a lot of money and resources, right? Well, not necessarily, but we'll get to that in a minute. According to the survey noted earlier, 87% of respondents using digital video marketing tactics reported a significant return on their investment. That's because video content can bring you numerous benefits.
Video marketing improves SEO. Google likes to include videos at the top of its search result pages when possible, as they catch people's attention and draw them in. Because of that, your videos are much more likely to rank on the first page of a Google search than blogs, articles, and other content that revolves around text. Video also works better when you send it to your target audience directly. Next time you send out an email blast, include a link to one of your videos. You're liable to get a higher open and clickthrough rate as a result.
Whatever way you use videos, they can help drive more people to your site and improve your overall sales. With that in mind, video marketing is an avenue that's worth spending a little bit of money on to do right.
Producing Successful Videos on a Small Budget
Do you have to spend a lot of money on producing video content, though? Not necessarily. The companies that produce the greatest amount of total video content (16+ videos per month) are the ones with lower overall revenues—under $5 million per year.
In today's world, where everyone has a camera in their pocket, you don't need a studio and a bunch of expensive equipment to make videos that will get your message across and appeal to your target audience. It's all about what you do with what you have.
Shoot demonstrations of your products and the problems they solve. Interview prominent people in your field, or even interview your own employees to give your audience a look behind the scenes at what goes on in your company.
Just be sure to keep your videos short. The longer they go on, the more likely people will drop off from watching. So get in, make your point quickly, clearly, and succinctly, and then stop, leaving your audience wanting more.
Five Ideas for Traffic-Boosting Video Content
So what kind of videos should you make to connect with your audience and attract them in droves?
Just standing in front of a camera and droning on about your company or products for five minutes isn't going to attract very many viewers. If you really want to build an audience, your content needs to keep them engaged. It needs to be worth their attention.
Here are five types of video content particular popular with audiences.
1. Q&As. What are some common questions that your audience has about your brand, products, or industry in general? More important, what questions are they typing into Google? By answering those questions in clearly and concisely in video format, you can catch the attention of the people searching for them and draw them to your site by providing them with the answers they need. Target Q&A videos to prospects, leads, existing customers, etc.; that's a great way to reach people at each stage of the buying cycle.
2. Lists. Lists are a good way of breaking down information into bite-sized pieces. Sites like Buzzfeed have become famous for content like "21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity" and "25 Ways to Tell You're a Kid of the 90s." And you can do it with video just as easily as with text: Just look at WatchMojo, Top Trending, and Screen Rant. The combined views for just these few channels is over 7 billion. Think of some things related to your brand that can be recast in list form, and turn them into simple but effective video content.
3. Curated video newsletters. Maybe you don't want to put the time and resources into producing your own video content. That doesn't mean you can't still benefit from video marketing. You can be a content curator instead: Sort through the vast number of videos being posted to YouTube and other places, take the best ones, organize them into categories, and send them out regularly to your list of email subscribers. Every week, you can have your favorite new video, your favorite older video that your viewers may not know about, your favorite how-to or instructional video, etc. With a little effort, you can use other people's content to drive people to your site. Of course, credit the original video creators for their work.
4. Product reviews. Reviews are an important part of the purchasing decision. Most customers today look up reviews online before purchasing a product. So encourage your customers who have had positive experiences to leave reviews of your company and products. And encouraging them to do those reviews as videos is even better: They can actually show your product to viewers, thus promoting your brand. And you get branded video content without actually having to produce it yourself. Offer incentives to your customers for posting video product reviews, such as discounts on future purchase. Post links to the reviews on social media to spread the word about your brand.
5. Killer content. Some types of video content creators like to be a jack of all trades: They produce as many types of content as they can, in the hope that some of it takes off. That approach rarely works. Others prefer to focus on just one type of content—and do it really well. They set themselves up as experts in their field with killer video content that attracts attention and establishes their authority. That approach opens up the door to a flood of potential video traffic at the top of the sales funnel and draws people in, laying the groundwork for sales later on.
* * *
Those are just a few of the ways you can use video content to boost your website traffic, gain visibility for your brand, and increase sales. There are many other creative ways to promote your company using video marketing. What kind of video content will you create for your brand?
