What's your 2020 video marketing strategy?

Online video continues to be the trending driver in social marketing so as we roll into 2020 it's important that you have a solid video content marketing plan. Here's why:

- 81% of businesses are already using video as a marketing tool

- 72% of customers prefer to learn about a product or service via video

- Customers experience increased message retention via video when compared with text

- According to Google, 70% of people use YouTube to help them solve a problem. How-to videos are a seriously smart way to exhibit your brand, product or service

- Social media posts with video (Facebook, Instagram) have 48% more views

- Google loves video, especially if it's hosted with YouTube. A website is said to be 53 times more likely to reach the front page of Google if it includes video 

- Including a video on your landing page can boost your conversion rate by up to 80%

- Website visitors spend 2.6x more time on pages with video than without because the video holds them there. This helps to improve the bounce rate of your site

So what should your 2020 video strategy look like?

Like any form of marketing, you need to know who your customers are and where they hang out online so you can create video content that will appeal to them. Assuming you know your target market, you then need to decide what type of videos they are looking for. For example:

- Product videos,

- Explainer videos,

- How to videos,

- Landing/website business videos.

These are the main types of online videos web users will actively seekout because they are looking for information. For shoppers doing their product research, product videos provide "features and benefits" type information on a product. Explainer videos provide information on how a particular product or service works to solve their problem or make a process easier. How to videos teach the viewer how to solve the problem themselves. Business videos on website landing pages inform the viewer on what the business has to offer. These are often referred to as corporate videos, but the key to these in particular is to keep them short (90 seconds or less) so the message is received quickly before the viewer gets bored.

Now if you're thinking with regards to How to videos, "Why would I want to give my business secrets away?" That's not a correct assessment of the "how-to" video. There are two ways to make clever use of the "how to" video.

1. Make yourself look like an expert so the thing the viewer is trying to learn how to do appears too hard, bringing them to the realisation that they should hire an expert (i.e. You). 

2. Make "how-to" videos that feature the use of your product. 

There's a great article from Think With Google on why you should lean into how-to content. To summarise, when it comes to YouTube video, viewers don't just want to be entertained, they're also looking for video content they can learn from and that can translate to welcomed exposure for your brand.

Once you've worked out what type of video content your audience will respond to, formulate  your video content distribution strategy, upload your content and watch your metrics.

Video content distribution strategy

It's not enough to simply make videos and upload them to YouTube or your website because unless you already have a large YouTube subscriber base or considerable website traffic it's likely no one is going to find and watch them. So the next part of your strategy is to get your videos in front of your audience. 

Deciding on the platform to share your content will depend on who your audience are and where they spend their time online. The two main options for distributing your video content are of course organic methods and paid advertising. If you have a large social following such as a Facebook page, sharing your videos with your audience may be the strategy that is right for you. On the other hand if you don't yet have a large enough social presence, pay per click and in-stream video advertising may be the way to go.

Pay Per Click / In-stream video marketing

For most B2C products and services social media platforms are a low cost PPC option. Instagram is owned by Facebook and both use the same Facebook ad manager. YouTube offers in-stream video advertising and video across the Google Display Network.

For more targeted campaigns you can also use contextual media with premium websites such as news and information sites to host clickable video ads that drive leads to your website.

Building Audiences

Building an audience requires time, so delivering multiple videos over the course of a planned period will help build trust and loyalty with your audience. As you release your content be sure to review the metrics the various platforms provide. YouTube has a rather comprehensive set of data analysis tools to see how long people viewed your videos for, where they come from, and whether they got bored and dropped off before the video reached its conclusion so you can address the style of length of your next video.

Conclusion

Online video content is a growing area of every business and it's important that we don't ignore the opportunity this presents. Connect with your customers on a more meaningful level and make it easier for them to say yes to buying your product or service in 2020.