Video marketing has become one of the most effective and engaging ways to reach customers and establish a brand. People love videos and it is clear that if you don’t do video marketing, you’re missing out on many benefits.
Take a look at these video marketing statistics:
• Around 33% of a person’s online activity is watching video content.
• According to MWP, 55% people watch online videos every day
• YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet
• Google saw that 90% online shoppers found their products (or brands) on YouTube
These stats should be enough to drive a marketer crazy. So, whether you want to increase traffic or boost conversion rates, you’ll need to implement effective video marketing strategies. By using videos, you can beat your competition and get ahead in the market. So, without further ado, let’s begin:
Write a Drool-Worthy Headline
Video titles play a crucial role in the popularity of the videos. Accurate video titles can help you get more clicks and increase the views. According to Neil Patel, you should have a short and descriptive title which also contains key phrases. Your key phrase (or keyword) should sound natural and not ‘forced’. You can use YouTube’s Keyword Suggestion Tool to see how effective your preferred key phrase is. Using the right key phrase will not only help you attract views but it will also improve your SEO.
How does a video title affect SEO?
Suppose your video is about cleaning a car. Naturally, you’ll want a relevant video title such as ‘3 best ways to clean your car’ or ‘How to clean your car under 10 minutes’. Both of these titles contain the phrase ‘clean your car’. So when someone will search ‘how to clean a car’ or ‘how to clean my car’ your video might appear in the search results.
Your headline is thus, a vital part of your video’s success.
How to write an attractive video title (for YouTube, etc.)?
Just follow these precautions while creating a good video title:
• Don’t stuff key phrases
Like in the previous example, our aim was on one key phrase. Your title should also focus on a single key phrase.
It’s too difficult to incorporate multiple key phrases in a single headline. In most cases, it doesn’t sound natural.
• Don’t be bland
If you’ll simply write ‘how to clean a car’, the chances of getting views on your video will be very thin. Your video titles should be descriptive but also engaging.
Use attractive words (ultimate guide, tested strategies, etc.) to make sure your video titles are eye-catching.
• Don’t copy
Plagiarism gets punished every time. And everyone hates it. From search engines to users, no one likes to see the same title on two videos.
Your titles should be unique. Even if two videos have the same key phrase, they can have different titles.
Have an Awesome Thumbnail
Your video thumbnails speak a lot about your brand and the content of the video. A thumbnail is like a display case for your video. People see it and get an idea of what to expect. You’ll have to create eye-catching thumbnails for videos to make sure your videos get more views.
What is a thumbnail?
It is the image people see and can click on to play your video. Why are the video thumbnails important? Because they determine if people will watch your video or not. Not only marketers but successful YouTubers also, advise newcomers to focus on creating good thumbnails. Pewdiepie, the creator of the largest YouTube channel, told in a video that thumbnails were crucial to his success.
You’ll need to create engaging thumbnails for your videos to get more views. While creating the thumbnail keep these points in mind:
• Stay in your brand voice
Your branding should be consistent. Your video thumbnails will also have a great impact on your branding and so you should keep it in mind.
You can create and follow a specific theme for your thumbnails.
• Use a still of your video
A common and effective way to create an engaging video thumbnail is to use an attractive scene from the video.
You’ll have to go through the video and find specific scenes, to begin with.
• Use designs and colours
After you’ve chosen an image for your thumbnail, you’ll need to edit it. Your thumbnail should have your video title and it should look striking.
To insert graphics and visuals in your thumbnails, you can use PhotoShop or Canva. Both of them are effective tools for editing pictures and creating awesome thumbnails.
Leverage multiple Platforms
Don’t rely on a single platform for your videos. YouTube is great but you don’t have to remain confined within this behemoth platform. You can use DailyMotion, Vimeo, and other social media platforms for your videos too. Vimeo takes a fee for posting videos there but it can be worth the price. Apart from video-focused platforms, you can also use other social media sites to promote your video. These include Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Don’t forget to add social share buttons on your videos. Sharing is the most effective way of getting more views and increasing your brand reach.
You can start promotions on different social media platforms to get more engagement. Paid promotions are always an option but you can also pin your tweet, share the video in Facebook groups and post the video’s link in your brand’s Instagram bio. These platforms will connect you with your audience and help you get more views and customers. User engagement is the key to your video’s success. Your video will get more likes and comments when its targeted audience will find it. And social media helps you in this regard.
Use YouTube Cards
Remember the large blocks of texts that used to appear on YouTube videos? They’ve become obsolete. Those text blocks used to contain links for enhancing user experience but they have become a failed strategy. YouTube has started a new implementation in this direction. Welcome, YouTube Cards. They are similar but the difference is of size and engagement. A simple link appears on the corner of the video. When a user clicks on it a form or link appears where the user can interact.
You can provide forms there to increase user engagement. Ask them for feedback or quiz them on what you can do next. Apart from that, you can also include links to your other related videos. It simplifies the task of finding new videos for your audience and they might click on the provided links too. To find out more about creating and using YouTube cards, you should visit the YouTube Creators Academy. They have provided a comprehensive guide on this topic.
Educate and/or tell a story
This might sound obvious but to get more views and to reach more people, your videos will need to be interesting. There’s a reason why video content is more successful than other forms of content. And that’s entertainment. People watch videos because they are more compelling and entertaining. To make sure that your videos get more views and audience, you should focus on creating compelling videos.
How to create an engaging video?
It’s easy. Determine your goals. You can start with the following questions:
• What kind of audience am I targeting?
• How should I communicate with my audience?
• What kind of content will they like?
Your brand voice also plays a major role in determining the kind of content you’ll be publishing. There are two effective ways you can follow
• Tell a story
• Educate the audience
You can do storytelling when you’re telling a case study. On the other hand, you can educate your audience with a tutorial or guide of your products. Both of these can work for all kinds of brands. What will set you apart? Your voice. Your choice of words, emotions (funny, serious, etc.) and tone will depend on your brand voice. Your videos should have a proper structure and you should create them with care. Whether you tell a story or guide your audience, your videos shouldn’t seem careless or bland. Following these two methods will ensure that your audience watches your videos and doesn’t click after a few seconds.
Use your customers’ videos
Want to increase user engagement? Use your customers’ videos. You’ll need a loyal audience for this task but it will help you considerably in boosting your views and user engagement. People like to see other similar people. It will not only enhance your brand’s credibility but it will also provide you with content ideas. You can get testimonials or feedback on your products too.
A great way to use your customers’ videos is as a compilation for promotion. On the other hand, you can post these videos on your site too. It shows that you listen to your audience and care about them. It will help establish a stronger emotional connection.
Email Marketing and Video Marketing
Statistics show that if you add ‘video’ on your email subject and its open rate will increase by 19%. Email lists are like an insurance policy for any marketer. That’s because no matter what happens to the search engines’ algorithms or social media sites, you will have a list of emails to reach out to. Email marketing works wonderfully if done correctly. Whenever you post a video on your YouTube channel, you can notify them through email. Not only that, but you can also send video links in an email. You can create a series of videos for your newsletter and create a funnel for increasing conversion rates. Using videos will ensure that your users get better content and so you’ll obviously strengthen your relationship with them.
Don’t forget to mention your brand
Your videos can have amazing content. But if the viewer doesn’t get to see or hear your brand name, then it will be pointless. Insert your brand name to make sure that people remember who they watched. This is especially important if you’re posting on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Here’s how you can do so:
• Use a mascot
Mascots are fun. They are interesting and easy to remember. You can use a mascot for your videos. If you have a personal brand, then you don’t need a mascot. You can present them yourself.
• Insert it permanently
Scroll down your Instagram feed and you’ll see videos with ‘@Username’ written at some corner. This might seem like an obvious method but it is effective.
If your video is good, then people will want to know who posted it. When people will share your videos, this simple implementation will ensure that you get to boost brand awareness.
• Have an exclusive intro
Having a unique and exclusive intro will definitely help people in remember you. Many YouTubers such as Gary Vaynerchuk and Evan Carmichael keep a unique intro.
However, this strategy only works if you post content regularly and often. If you will only post a few videos then an intro isn’t worth the investment.
Quality is always the VIP
Here, VIP means Very Important Part. Without high-quality content, it’ll be quite difficult for you to get more views. Just like a blog post or article, you’ll need to research your audience and find out what they want. After doing sufficient market research, you’ll have an understanding of what you should publish. No one likes to watch boring and uninteresting videos. Your video can be educational, storytelling or funny. Make sure that your videos are unique and different from what others are doing.
Even if you’re doing what everyone else is doing, you can do it differently. That’s why YouTube has so many gaming channels. Want to boost your video’s quality? Here are some tips:
• Use music for ambience
• Do professional video editing (Use Premier Pro or Final Cut Pro X)
• Prepare a script beforehand
• Use emotions (humour, fear, urgency)
These are few suggestions to help you get a start. Just remember to keep the production quality high and you’ll do fine.
Add Captions
Captions make it easy for your users to watch your videos. But apart from the user experience, there’s another huge reason for using captions.
Here’s the reason:
“According to Digiday, 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without any sound.” What does it mean? It means if your video doesn’t have captions, people will not watch it on Facebook. At least 85% of the people won’t. So remember to insert the subtitles in your videos to make sure they get the maximum views possible. You can use transcription services or let Facebook insert the captions automatically. You can also use YouTube’s Creator Studio to add subtitles to your video. Facebook also says that if your video has captions it has 12% higher chances of getting viewed.
Do SEO with descriptions
Last but not least, use keywords and key phrases in the description of your video. This is an effective tip if you’re posting it on YouTube. SEO is necessary and you’ll want to use the relevant keywords in the description. Let’s go back to the car cleaning example. Apart from using the key phrase ‘clean your car’ in the title, you can also insert some relevant phrases in the description. These could be ‘car cleaning tips’, ‘cleaning a car’, ‘how to clean my car fast’, or ‘how to clean a car’. These are only for example but you get the idea.
On YouTube, you can insert tags as well. Use many tags but make sure they are related to the video. You might wonder, “What are tags in YouTube?” Tags are the terms related to the content of your video. They help the platform and search engines understand what your video is about. Like in the car cleaning video, you’ll want to use #cleancar, #cleaningtips, etc. Researching for them is similar to keyword research. Make sure that you write an amazing video description. Your video description alone can help you boost the views of your video. Your video description can have some relevant links (such as a link to your product) as well. You can give the links of your videos or your website to make your content easier to find for the new audience.
Conclusion
With the knowledge present in the above points, you can now enter 2019 with a powerful video marketing strategy. Videos have made marketing interesting and fun. And even though video marketing is only a small part of the internet marketing spectrum, recent trends show that marketers should take it seriously. When you’ll use the above tips, you’ll surely have fewer problems in increasing views and boosting the traffic. Feel free to share this piece with your fellow marketers and content creators. Which tip did you like the most? Or, do you have any video marketing suggestions? Let us know.
