What is Video Marketing? An Ultimate Guide

Video marketing is a great way to increase brand awareness, overall traffic, and sales. This may sound great, but it is not as simple as it sounds. Here’s what video marketing is and how to capitalize on it.

What is ‘Video Marketing’

Video marketing is a powerful tool to increase brand awareness by engaging diverse social channels. This capability is all possible with great platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc. How many times have you seen videos or banners that are completely irrelevant to your search or interests, yet you still remember them clearly? 

This is the residual effect that video marketing creates, making it a must if you want to maximize the potential of outreach and target marketing for your business. Video marketing entails more than catchy posts or ads, it targets the psychological and emotional elements of individuals. 

We are in a digital era, and the online space is perpetually growing. In a recent study, it s predicted that by 2023 over 80% of the world's online traffic will predominately be video (VNI, 2020).

Psychological Vs Emotional Elements

Videos are created in accordance with societal core values, constructing a level of relevance and attachment to the advertisement. This creates a differentiated relationship with a viewer, as they are compelled to support and establish value with the brand. In addition to psychological attachment, this is further enhanced by attacking emotional and psychological triggers. 

Triggers vary from attributes like tone of voice, color contrast, story within the video that creates strong reactions like joy, laughter, empathy etc. It is the overall takeaway the viewer is left with after watching the video. 

What key takeaway do you want the viewer to have- do you want to create a level of controversy, attack social issues/trends, or do you simply want to pave your own path? Understanding your intended audience as well as being spontaneous will assist in mastering this technique 

Video Types

We know you want to cover a million topics and target every audience you can, but the reality is you can’t. Each video needs to be specific and consistent, it’s encouraged to create a range of videos, but you need to decide on your market, theme, and overall message of the video.

Different video marketing includes, but aren’t limited to:

Brand Videos- Shows the audience the brand's long-term vision, goals, and plan to improve products/services.

• Educational Videos

Talk about social topics, trends, data, or anything relevant to the brand's market.

• How-To Videos

Fan favorite and growing in popularity, assisting, and providing expert insight to the brand's product and/or services.

• Animated Videos

Creates compelling visual aid to viewers, allowing them to gain a better understanding or interest of a brand.

• Live-Streaming

Viewers can get never seen footage of what goes on behind-the-scenes and intricate procedures that go into assisting you as a consumer

We highly suggest with every type of video your brand wants to create, that you plan ahead of time. This means understanding what the theme is throughout the video, what you as a brand are trying to convey, and who you are trying to target. No need to go over the top, creating another video that gets overlooked. 

Video Distribution

Now that you understand the different video marketing types, it is time to get an understanding of different forms of distribution. You may have created one of the most unique, humorous and informative videos of all time, but you distributed it to the wrong channel. Making you and thousands of other brands struggle to grow ahead of the herd. 

The different channels are extended to:

• Websites
• Blogs
• Email marketing
• Paid advertisements (social platforms
• Hyperlinks
• Display Ads
• Banners Videos

We recommend publishing videos via the brand's website and publishing blogs relevant to the video, as this can draw a larger audience to further elaborate on the topic. This will be the base of information, with videos being distributed via social media and emails, creating an increased level of brand awareness and website traffic. If you were promoting new product lines, a predominant focus would be on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok versus LinkedIn, as there is a bigger potential market base for that product. 

How many times can you as a viewer, recall skipping over ads simply because they have no relevance to you, or lack an engaging component? We do, and it will continue to happen unless brands understand who and where the intended audience are and what channels to focus on. 

SEO Boosting

Businesses in all markets are converting most of their services online, via social platforms or web pages. An online presence is the most effective way to target a vast audience effectively. The conversion of this service has made it difficult to acquire traffic or manage it as it may get lost with the ongoing list of competitors.

The trend that seems to continue to incline is the use of videos. Video marketing is a great way to educate viewers on techniques, products, or services that a business may provide. It may be used to promote new sales or changes, or the social impact their business is contributing to change. The functionalities are endless, and so are the possibilities. 

Video marketing is a great way to create an efficient SEO algorithm for your brand, as videos generate 250% more web traffic than written posts. With these numbers, utilization of this form of marketing will inevitably increase the overall ranking on search engines. There is no greater effective way to skyrocket the web traffic of your brand than video marketing.

It may be difficult to comprehend what metrics to look at to measure performance/success as each can tell a different story. The ones recommended are the Bounce-Rate, Click-Through Rate, and Completion Rate. The other metrics are just as important, but these three focus on the actual participation and engagement of viewers after the video has been played for them. You can then make an informative decision on what works and what doesn’t.

Regardless of what type of video you decide to create and how you choose to measure and distribute it, we encourage you to provide insightful knowledge. If the viewer decides not to proceed further than what’s displayed to them, leave them with a lasting effect, that will allow them to remember you for time to come. Ongoing analysis of the market audience, the growing trends within the industry and what are the interests of society as a whole is key to creating a meaningful video.

Videos are the greatest way to not only reach a mass audience but to truly touch the viewer. It can create great memories no matter the connotation of it. Be creative, Be educational, and most importantly, Be YOU.