10 Secrets To Successful Video Marketing

Video killed the radio star in 1985 with the start of MTV. Decades later, it’s transformed the digital landscape and online marketing altogether. Video marketing is past the phase of being “next year’s fad” or the “up-and-coming” thing on the horizon. No sir! It reigns as the king of all media and does wonders to scale a budding brand.

While social media is certainly an important part of video marketing, ensuring you get the whole enchilada takes a bit of planning. People who view online videos are often motivated to enter a sales funnel. By how much? According to Tubular Insights, as many as 64% of interested consumers bite on the bait by making a purchase after watching branded social videos.

In addition, if you’re just starting out, brand awareness is probably at the top of your agenda. You’ll need content that pushes through all the noise of competition. Nothing gets that done like video. Social video generates 1,200% more shares than text and images. If you want to introduce yourself, video is your best bet.

Exciting, right? There’s no reason for you to not have a big slice of that massive pie. But to get there, you’ll need a formidable strategy that checks all the important boxes. Here’s a list of 10 secrets to successful video marketing to get you jump started:

Wow Them In 10 Seconds Flat

Really, it’s under 10 seconds that you truly have to wow a viewer. According to a 2015 study by Microsoft Corp., it’s more like eight seconds. Down from 12 seconds in 2000. It’s not so much that people are losing the ability to pay attention, it’s that we’ve become inundated with information.

Picture your current newsfeed, for example. There’s probably video after video after video. Getting through them all is kind of a chore. As part of your video marketing strategy, adopt a mantra to remind yourself about this. Then, bring your story to life quickly to gather interest from your scrolling audience.

Hook Them

A hook grabs your audience’s attention at the start of the video. It provides a snappy, punchy preview of what they can expect will occur. Remember that you’ll lose 20% of your viewers inside that 10-second window. Hooks draw people in by immediately demonstrating value.

Don’t Forget the Thumbnail

Thumbnails are photos that sit alongside your video, or as a “profile pic” of sorts. They’re the first impression. The right thumbnail acts like a window into your video’s quality and content. Restaurants might showcase a photo of their most popular dish. Testimonial videos might feature a headshot of the speaker. The thumbnail doesn’t have to be from the video, but it should always be enticing. Be sure to use the exact YouTube thumbnail size when on the platform, or the correct size of any other platform you’ll be launching your video on.

Entertain, Don’t Bore Them

There are online marketing videos and there are puff pieces. Puff pieces are basically bragging videos that tend to generate the opposite of the desired effect. They’re essentially the antithesis of online marketing videos. Avoid the zzz’s at all costs.

Educate Your Audience

Teach your audience something useful. These are some of the most valuable videos you’ll make. In a world where we’re already so heavily saturated with information, use these to move beyond the sea of similarity by shifting the focus to something the audience needs to know. The more they learn, the more valuable your video becomes.

Let Your Customers Do the Talking

Like any smart, savvy entrepreneur, you probably have a healthy-sized stash of written client testimonials. That’s all well and good, but we’re here talking about the wonders of video. Upgrade your testimonials pages with testimonials videos.

Video provides you with massive social proof. Customer testimonial videos have the highest rating of efficacy at 89%. Plus, this gives your special customers a time to shine.

When putting together a testimonial video, focus on your customer’s story and the outcome they achieved from working with your brand.

Add a Call-to-Action

In all marketing, your call-to-action (CTA) is the part of your ad that tells your audience what to do next. Why would you tell them what to do? Isn’t that kind of bossy? Nah. It’s direct and informative.

Viewers who don’t click, don’t convert. Without telling people to subscribe, place their order, schedule their consultation, or let you spam their inbox relentlessly, you won’t open the gateway to achieving your campaign goals.

Adding a CTA results in a 158% increase in conversions. Just tell them what to do. And they’ll oblige.

Strategize Around a Goal for Each Campaign

Setting goals is a vital step in the process and one of the best kept of these secrets. Your goals should help steer your video in one clear direction. Simply put, if your goal were a teacher, that teacher would guide you and push you to do your best.  

Your goal should give you these three benefits:

• Direction and aim – You should know exactly where you’re going and see a way there.
• Coordination/digital choreography – Goals enable members of your team to focus on their specific area while having an eye on the bigger picture.
• Measurability – What does success look like? Lay it out in detail. Once you know that, you have something you can use to measure a campaign’s strengths, fortify weaker points, and evaluate areas for improvement using progressive analytics.

Target Your Reach

Targeting the people most likely to become your customers, or take the desired action after watching your video, just makes good business sense. Platforms like Facebook even let you focus on something as specific as:

• Customers who consume content at night
• While also getting those on their lunch breaks
• Across sister channels (i.e., Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp)

Lighten Up

Try not to take yourself too seriously. Video is not the time to present yourself as a put-together professional. Instead, find ways to inject a bit of upbeat energy and fun into your presentations.

If you’re talking, practice until you’re blue in the face. Don’t stop unless you can hear your monologue echo in your dreams. Then, practice it with someone. Successful video marketing cuts through to the viewer and pontificates a connection between you and them. The more like someone you are, the stronger your connection.

There’s more to video marketing than views. Literally anyone, anywhere, can get gazillions of views. Views don’t mean conversions. You’re after conversions and what a coincidence! Customers want more video. Qualified and motivated buyers want to watch more of your videos. 43% of the online population wants you to make more, post them, and then take their money. Give the people what they want.