Although when asked about their video content strategy a significant number of online entrepreneurs just shrug their shoulders, the fact is that over the past few years videos have become an essential part of every decent digital marketing strategy.
A few years back content marketing has been dominated by SEO-friendly, neat, engaging articles and pretty, attention-grabbing images. In spite of the fact they both are still highly prominent features, videos have taken the stage and these days they are desired by customers a fortiori.
Only in 2018 the Hubspot study showed that 54% of customers expect video content from a brand or business they support. And since that time videos have become even more important and, completely dominating social platforms.
What is video content strategy?
The concept itself is not a state-of-the-art thing. However, what is a brand new about it is the importance of videos on every single channel and platform. The video content has been present in the marketing industry for long years now, and it has become a marketing strategy taking advantage of videos in order to promote and advertise both products and services, boost engagement on digital and social platforms, educate potential customers and reach new groups of potential leads.
These days, video content strategy is more important than ever due to the fact that an increasing number of people prefer watching online videos to watching TV. 33% of people admit they spend time on the Internet watching videos, while 81% of people admit that they were convinced to purchase something after watching a video. This proves video marketing is a highly promising tool for marketers.
How to build video content strategy?
Being aware of the importance of video content strategy, let’s now move on to building your own strategy that will help your online business thrive. There are numerous steps to take in order to create a highly effective and engaging video content strategy. Once you follow them all, you can be sure that your video content strategy is state-of-the-art and capable of bringing value to your business.
Think about the purpose of creating video. What messages will you try to convey to your potential customers? The intention of the videos here is the key and you need to clearly define on what grounds you want to kick off with video creation, and what business goals are behind it.
Try to define your target audience. Since the final appearance and the message you put in the video are influenced heavily by recipients of your videos, you need to know exactly who you talk to. It will facilitate you to speak in the right way in the right words showing your viewers what they want and need to see.
Step 3: Figure out what story you want to tell
Once you know the purpose of your videos and target audience, you need to put a nice story behind it all. Make sure it suits your online business type, the message you want to convey and the people you want to address. A story is the key element to any video and will impact heavily on the final outcome and your overall video marketing strategy, so give it a thought and try to come up with something outstanding.
Step 4: Stick to your timeline
Video content strategy starts right from planning out the entire production up to video distribution, which makes it a quite long and compound process. It is advisable then to set a timeframe for, as it guarantees that you stay motivated and also can serve as a guiding light showing you what exactly was done already and what needs to be taken care of.
Step 5: Maintain a realistic budget
If you don’t create videos on your own and hire specialists or use paid tools, remember about maintaining a realistic budget. Determine how much you can afford to pay for your video creation and don’t go over the limit.
As you can see, the very concept of video content strategy is a crucial and highly helpful element that needs to be well-thought-out. It is awesome to have dozens of video ideas in your head, however, in business a conceptual work is as valuable as hands-on one. Once you determine all your goals, target audience, timelines, budget and tools, you can kick off with your videos.
How to create a video?
In the old days video creation used to be far more simple than it is today. However, with the expansion of Youtube (today, according to Bufferapp, more than 500 million hours are spent on YouTube each day) the quality, effects, sound and creativity of videos took to a whole new level. The competition among video makers is stiff. It makes it very easy to stay behind the rivals who come up with unusual video ideas to surprise their viewers and show them they are on the top.
Video creation process can be broken into a few steps:
- plan your video – you might have done similar thing when coming up with video content strategy, but now it is time to think about a goal of this specific video you are going to create. Think about your target, decide whether you want to increase brand awareness or launch a new product, specify when to release the content and how much money you need in order to create it,
- script your video – once you know what your video is about, it is time to come up with a detailed script. Start writing it by defining the key points and putting them in logical order,
- understand and take advantage of your cameras – fear of uncertainty and using cameras usually discourages online entrepreneurs from recording videos. And that is a huge faux pas as these days you can create a high quality video even with your smartphone. Choose a tool you already have and get to know its power,
- set up your studio – once you have a plan, a script and a tool, you need the right environment. Try to shoot a video in the most appropriate place with right props in the background and with good lighting as well,
- shoot a video – prepare everything cautiously, take a deep breath and just go for it,
- edit your video – once you have your footage ready, it is about time that you start editing it. It seems like a pretty complex process at first and you might feel overwhelmed, but don’t worry. There are a lot of options for video editing. Browse through applications and programs for all kinds of skills levels, operating systems and budget, and choose the ones most suitable for you.
As mentioned, these days consumers expect high quality and professional videos. However, if you don’t aspire to be a famous Youtuber and all you need is just a short promotional, introductory or conversion-boosting video, you can simply create it online. Once you prepare a solid video content strategy, you can kick off with it. And you don’t need any specialist to bring it into existence.
How to make a video online?
In order to make a video online, you don’t need any programming or technical skills anymore. You can easily find online platforms designed to help you master the video production process.
Such platforms are very similar to website builders (like, for example, landing page builders offered by Landingi) and they make the whole creation process highly intuitive and easy to get around. They have a drag-and-drop function, pre-built templates and won’t let you overlook any necessary elements when creating your own online videos.
You can upload images, music or insert captions wherever you want. If you don’t know how to use the creator, get started with going through tutorials section such platforms usually have. Once you get around the settings and features, you are able to create various types of promotional videos, make your online business thrive, and increase customers engagement.
Summing up, videos have become extremely crucial in digital marketing world and they are said to be gaining more and more power and influence. The expansion of Youtube was the first sign of content marketing makeover, and this change hasn’t ended as there is still plenty of room for new video concepts to arrive. So keep your wits about it.
