5 Things to Consider Before Starting Video Marketing Strategy

    Video content is revolutionizing social media and digital marketing. Both content platforms and consumers are shifting more toward video content and away from static imagery with each passing year. While the idea of developing a video marketing strategy can be complex and overwhelming, it’s well worth the return on investment.

    If your brand is interested in exploring new opportunities and expanding your reach, keep these five considerations in mind before developing a video marketing strategy. 

    Understanding Your Audience

    Unless your business is brand new, you likely already have marketing collateral in place. Ideally, this will include market research that indicates your target demographic and core audience base. Still, taking the time to revisit your data and understand your audience is advisable when developing a video marketing strategy.

    While Millennials still dominate in terms of buying power, Gen Z is close behind. This aging generation is comfortable in the digital era, learning from the mistakes and challenges the Millennials experienced at the dawn of the internet age. Both Gen Z and the Millennials have reported dedication to video content, particularly during the peak of the global pandemic.

    For many brands, this shifting landscape is creating new opportunities for demographic reach. Revisiting the audience metrics will help your business create content that resonates.

    Creating a Customer Avatar

    Creating a customer avatar is an effective strategy for creating boundaries and guidelines for video content creation. Personify your audience with a “representative” that will act as your gatekeeper. Identify your avatar’s goals and motivations, as well as their problems and interests— and don’t forget to give them a name!

    During the content development phase, cross-check your ideas to ensure they appeal to your customer avatar.

    Developing a Brand Voice

    As you revisit your target audience demographics, consider how your marketing team will utilize your brand voice in video marketing content. Will your videos be serious or casual? Will they rely heavily on artistic graphics or text and spoken words? 

    Clarifying your brand voice as it connects to your audience will help you create consistent, relevant content.

    What Content to Create

    Video Marketing Strategy
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    One of the most challenging aspects of video marketing (and social media marketing in general) is figuring out what to create. Creating video content is often more complex, as it relies on a carefully crafted story. Incorporating a blend of video categories will help you find the best fit for your audience and marketing goals.

    Types of Videos

    There are various types of videos you can create to engage your audience. The options vary based on your goals, overarching brand strategy, and platform.

    Some of the commonly utilized types of marketing videos include:

    • Tutorials or explainer videos
    • Animations
    • Challenges or trending topics
    • Live streams
    • Webinars and events
    • Testimonials
    • Product showcases
    • Brand and company videos
    • User-generated content (UGC) and reshares

    Determining which type of video content is right for your brand will require some strategic trial and error. Again, revisit what your audience wants to see as a starting point.

    Be a Storyteller, Not a Salesperson

    The key to success with video marketing is to focus on telling a story rather than pushing sales. This means crafting an engaging narrative that builds trust with your audience and adding a CTA or passive sales link. Many brands prefer to use video marketing for the initial stages of the sales funnel, focusing on awareness and rapport-building rather than conversions.

    To become a successful brand storyteller, keep your customer avatar in mind. Consider how your core values tie into the motivations and desires of your ideal customer and ensure every video is in congruence with those elements. 

    Remember that every story has a beginning, middle, and end. In the context of video marketing, that means incorporating a hook, a message, and a clear CTA. 

    Determining Resource Needs

    Video Marketing Strategy
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    Once you have the foundations of a content strategy, the next step is outlining your resource needs. Depending on your goals and budget, these needs will vary from business to business. 

    Choosing Your Tools

    The benefit of thriving in the digital age is that videos don’t need a high production value to be effective. For small businesses, this creates an opportunity to compete at a larger scale without investing substantial resources.

    The core needs for a strong video marketing strategy include:

    • A video recording device (be it a camera or iPhone).
    • A microphone.
    • A basic video editing app.

    Take some time to check this out, it’s a great video editing app that can even help you smooth your skin with video filters, and determine which options best suit your budget and goals. Depending on your existing processes and tools, you might need to consider a new social media posting app as well (if your existing app has limited video scheduling abilities). 

    Evaluating Training Needs

    Another consideration when developing a video marketing strategy is training existing team members to create and publish content. If your core team is new to video marketing, it’s worth investing in some simple courses or training sessions before executing your strategy.

    Fortunately, many SaaS companies and content marketers offer training and tutorials with their products or for a nominal fee. 

    When to Outsource

    If your existing team’s bandwidth is limited, it could be beneficial to outsource certain aspects of your video marketing efforts. Many brands find success working with a virtual assistant or skilled video editor to put the finishing touches on content before publishing. Again, this will depend on your budget and the opportunity cost of handling your marketing in-house. Even though outsourcing may sound like another additional marketing expense, it will result in running successful video marketing campaigns, building trust and credibility, and raising brand awareness to convert more customers at a lower cost. You can also start by partnering up with a startup explainer video company to allocate a more reasonable budget for running the strategy and testing the best strategy for your brand.

    Developing Processes

    Video Marketing Strategy
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    Creating video content is a complex, often arduous process. Putting streamlined steps and processes in place will help streamline your efforts and minimize your resource consumption when creating content.

    Outlining SOPs

    Start by setting some standard operating procedures (SOPs) to guide the video content creation process, from ideation to publication. Outline a step-by-step guide for employees (both in-house and outsourced) to refer to when executing your video marketing strategy. 

    Creating a Content Calendar

    Develop a content calendar to help your brand plan ahead and publish consistently. Newcomers to video marketing often make the mistake of trying to handle too much from the start. Set a goal of publishing new video content once per week, then scale up as you find your footing.

    Creating a Pivot Plan

    The digital world is a fast-paced environment. While having a core content strategy is a must for video marketing success, creating a pivot plan is also integral. 

    Outline how your brand will participate in video trends and challenges as they come and go. Participating in viral trends is an effective strategy for expanding your awareness and reach. Unfortunately, these trends often appear and fade within a matter of days. By outlining a pivot plan, your brand will be able to jump on the bandwagon and produce video content that disrupts the content calendar while fueling your business goals.

    Analytics and KPIs

    Video Marketing Strategy
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    Creating an effective video marketing strategy isn’t just about publishing great content; it’s about defining and measuring your success. 

    As you generate a video marketing strategy, goal setting and outlining success metrics is essential. These metrics will help you clarify whether your existing strategy is working or if you need to adapt— which at some point, is inevitable. 

    What Metrics to Measure

    The metrics you track and measure will vary depending on the platforms and video types you use. However, some key metrics to track include:

    • reach
    • engagement
    • completion rate
    • click-through rate (CTR)
    • impressions
    • comments
    • shares
    • saves

    The follower count used to be the top social media metric to track. However, it’s now evident that engagement is more impactful on a brand’s conversion and profit goals. This shift is apparent in the rise of micro-influencers— defined as an account with fewer than 100,000 followers— and the movement away from higher follower accounts.

    It’s also wise to track dislikes, negative feedback, viewer demographics, and traffic sources. Negative feedback and dislikes are inevitable when publishing content online. However, looking for common threads and themes in negative feedback will provide insights into how your brand can do better.

    Tracking demographics and traffic sources will also provide valuable insights into who is watching your videos and what sources deserve more attention.

    Defining Success

    As you determine which metrics to track, consider the definition of “success” for your video marketing strategy. Is your goal to reach a wider audience and collect more followers or nourish existing relationships? Do you have target numbers to quantify your goals?

    Your brand’s definition of success may vary over time and will likely look different than other brands’. However, outlining your goals will help create the structure for refining your strategy and course-correcting as you learn and grow.

    Final Thoughts

    While creating structure and consistency is integral for success in video marketing, it’s equally important to understand that your strategy isn’t set in stone. This framework should be fluid, evolving with your audience and company as time goes by. 

    At the core of every strong marketing strategy is authenticity. 86% of consumers prefer authenticity when choosing which brands they’ll support, follow, and engage. By clarifying your audience and brand messaging and putting a clear process in place, you’ll find success in your video marketing strategy.



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