What is Video Marketing and How Can It Help Generate Revenue?

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated with updated and additional content in June 2022.

4.4 billion – that’s how many blog posts were written today. So how do you and your company stand out in this sea of blog posts?

A video marketing strategy has become necessary to enhance your marketing campaign efforts. Whether it’s creating awareness or generating more leads, the combination of video and marketing is now more relevant than ever.

This strategy gives marketers an attractive and versatile format that can be easily shared online, further accelerating brand growth.

A Short History of Video Marketing

Video marketing made its way to the forefront of marketing in 2010 and grew in popularity thanks to the introduction of affordable video editing and creating software like Biteable, InVideo, and Filmora.

However, video marketing isn’t only popular because it’s accessible and an appealing option for smaller businesses on a tight budget. Thanks to the evolution of social media, video content is a great marketing tactic that can reach your audiences faster. In fact, social videos drive far more engagement than text and image-based posts on social media. According to an experiment conducted by Biteable, a video ad on Facebook has the potential to get 480% more clicks and can cost 280% less per lead than a text-based ad.

Moreover, people tend to enjoy watching something over reading it! For example, around 47% of Americans prefer watching the news rather than reading or listening to it.

Now, it’s possible to create a professional video online in just a few minutes without employing a videographer and having a large budget.

What is Video Marketing, and Why Does Your Business Need It?

Video marketing has become a sure-shot way to help you achieve your business goals faster and with greater ease. From YouTube, Instagram Stories, and Facebook Live to holding online seminars, there’s a lot of room to experiment with the video format, shape, and size.

With 92% of marketers acknowledging the importance of video in their marketing strategy, we’ve listed a few other statistics to highlight its significance further:

These stats prove that video is the best way when it comes to reach prospects across your business. It adds a human touch to marketing, making it easier for brands to earn the trust of their target audience.

Video has already been a compelling medium of communication in the past, so why shouldn’t businesses use this accessible and cost-effective strategy to enhance their social media presence? Plus, video marketing is also a very engaging and reliable way to educate customers about your products and services.

So Videos Are Actually Good for Business?

Videos remain essential for a successful marketing strategy, whether your business is big or small. If it doesn’t seem fruitful, it’s highly likely that you’re marketing the wrong kind of videos. Just convert your existing infographics, blog posts, social media updates, or e-books into an attention-grabbing video format, and you’ll be off to a great start.

The other reason why you may not be getting ROI through videos is because of the lack of a customized approach. Videos are very personable and varied, which is also one of its biggest USPs. So what works for your business and target audience may not work for other businesses.

Each and every video has to be tailored according to your buyer personas and, of course, brand. The next thing to determine is your budget and format to put your message out there more effectively.

Video content can help your business reach your target audience quickly and effectively. According to HubSpot, 78% of people watch online videos every week, while 54% watch videos every day. Additionally, according to Google’s research, 6 out of 10 people prefer watching online videos over television.

Here are a few other benefits of video marketing:

• YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world: YouTube has over a billion users who watch millions of videos every day. As a result, there’s a good chance your potential buyers are using the platform and searching for content related to your business.
• Boosts conversion rates: Sometimes, products can be incredibly difficult to understand. Fortunately, videos are informative and easier to understand. Hence the fact that 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service by way of video. Moreover, website visitors are 64–85% more likely to make a purchase after watching a product video.
• Customer relationships and brand affiliation: Videos provide viewers with audio and visual stimulation, which can help the brain remain engaged and connect with the content. This can help potential customers develop a stronger interest and connection with your product and brand.

How Do I Create a Video Marketing Strategy?

On average, video content is shared 1,200% more than text and image posts combined, making it an excellent marketing tactic for businesses that want to boost organic reach and engagement.

But if you don’t have a video marketing strategy in place yet, don’t worry!

Although videos are a lot easier to create nowadays, it still requires a lot of strategizing and research to create the perfect digital marketing video.

Without doing proper market research and planning, the video you make might not achieve its specific goal or even catch the attention of your target audience.

To create a successful video marketing strategy, you need to determine your goals and targets, choose the type of video you want to make, distribute it, and track its progress.

Here’s a breakdown of each step:

Create Video Marketing Goals and Targets

The first step of any video marketing campaign is to determine your goals and targets.

In order to do this, you need to figure out what you want to achieve with the video. Ideally, the video you create should target every stage of the marketing funnel, but you still need to choose a stage that you consider to be the most important.

Here are some different video marketing stages and goals:

• Awareness: This stage is when the viewer realizes that they have a problem and need something to solve it. This is the stage when a viewer can be introduced to a new product or service. If your goal is to attract new customers, awareness videos are the way to go.
• Consideration: During this stage, viewers are figuring out how to solve their problems. As a result, they might be looking for product recommendations and reviews. A consideration video is the right choice if you’re looking to engage your audience.
• Decision: At this stage, viewers are almost ready to purchase, so you’ll need to prove why your product or service should be chosen over your competitors. Decision-based videos are great for nurturing prospects and closing deals.

What Kind of Video Should I Create?

Depending on your goal, here are the types of videos you can choose from:

• Demo videos: Demos show viewers how your product or service works. The video should highlight its features, benefits, and a call to action to encourage viewers to purchase the service or product. You can opt for fun animated videos or a video with real people for demos.
• Behind-the-scenes videos: The type of content in these videos should give viewers a ‘backstage pass.’ Here, you’ll need to introduce viewers to your employees and show them how your product is made.
• Customer testimonial videos: A customer testimonial video requires a satisfied user of your product or service to share their experience with your brand. These videos can positively influence your target market and encourage viewers to make a purchase.
• Educational and how-to videos: Educational videos teach viewers how to use a product or service. People prefer educational videos over text because they can see and hear the demonstration.

Distribute your Video

Here are a few channels where you can publish your video:

• Website: You should include videos on your site’s homepage, customer testimonial page, features page, FAQs page, and more. This will help drive more visitors to your page and boost engagement.
• Blog: Publishing videos on your blog can help visitors learn more about your product quickly, and if they’re willing to spend time reading written content, they’ll definitely have enough time to watch a quick, informative video.
• Email: Sending videos via email is an easy way to reach people who have already provided you with their contact information. You can embed videos in a newsletter or opt for an email series where you provide videos every week.
• Social platforms: Sharing videos on social channels like Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook is a great way to get video views and boost engagement. And who knows, you might land up with a viral video!

Measure your Video Marketing Progress

You can measure your video’s success by monitoring key performance indicators (KPI) like:

• Views
• Impressions
• Unique Users
• Clicks
• Calls
• Signups
• Sales
• View-Through Rate
• Watch Time

You can also invest in free and paid video management software like Wistia and Google Analytics to help you track progress.

What Are the Benefits of Having a Video Marketing Strategy?

Video is one of the best ways to tell your brand’s story in an otherwise noisy marketing landscape.

They are snack-sized, visual pieces that have the unique ability to convert like no other medium. Plus, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, but only 10% when reading about the same thing in a text, so that’s another win.

But if you still need more assurance about why video matters, here are the top benefits of video marketing:

Builds Trust and Credibility

Videos allow you to create and enhance your company’s personality as well as your brand. You can connect with your viewers and earn their trust.

Moreover, even customers prefer watching videos over reading text-heavy articles. So the more videos you create, the more you can educate and inform your customers while simultaneously establishing trust, which will ultimately translate to sales.

Enhances Email Marketing Campaigns

Let’s face it: Getting someone to open your email can be very challenging.

However, when you add videos to your emails, you get a step closer to success. You can increase open rates and decrease unsubscribe rates by merely adding the word “video” in your subject line.

And not only that, sending emails with videos can cause a nearly 200-300% increase in click-through rates, which itself is quite impressive. Most people (especially those who’ve been subjected to reading emails all day) would rather watch a video than consume a long block of text.

Higher SERP Rankings

Search engines have only one motive – to look for content that generates higher viewer engagement. You’ll instantly have people paying more attention when you add a video to a mix, which also means search engines love websites or blog posts that include video.

The only catch here is to create and optimize the video properly, including choosing the right thumbnail, writing eye-catching titles and descriptions, and ensuring relevance.

Influences Consumer Decisions

There is a reason why YouTube product reviews are so popular. Not only do they give genuine insights into the product, but they are also more reliable when compared to a traditional newspaper advertisement.

When you add such videos to your website’s product pages, you’ll experience the same benefits, which will help drive sales and generate more revenue. Enlisting the services of vloggers and influencers to review your products can also be a great tactic to make your target audience more inclined towards your offering.

Keeps Your Brand Relevant

Customers like brands who are up-to-date with the latest trends, and when it comes to business promotion, it’s inbound video marketing that has taken center stage.

Also, the fact that video doesn’t have to be conventional makes it more diverse. You can hold live videos, upload stories on your respective social media platforms, or take advantage of the evolving video formats like 360 video or 1:1 video. Video marketing is continuously evolving, which is why even you’ll be able to keep up with the times.

Improves Social Media Visibility

We’ve all created content and hoped for it to go viral. When you create video content, you’re dramatically increasing the odds that this will happen — or at the very least, you’ll get more visibility — since people are quick to share videos than other types of content.

Just have fun while showing what your company is all about, and it’ll become a share-worthy piece of content. At the same time, the video must be aligned with your buyer persona. For instance, if your target audience is 30-year-old consumers, millennial humor in your videos may do well, but you might rethink your approach if your audience is over 60.

What Are the Different Types of Marketing Videos You Can Try?

Before you start filming, determine the right type of video that suits your brand’s voice and purpose. Here are four main types of marketing video content to create:

Educational Videos

Educational videos are created to teach your target customers about something, anything. These include:

• Tutorial Videos: Videos that teach your customers how to use your product and show off your brand.
• Explainer Videos: Videos that explain complicated topics or even the benefits of your product or service. Typically, explainer videos are animated and run small.
• Industry Update Videos: Videos that establish your credibility in the industry, allowing your audience to see your authority and understanding of industry trends.

See how we use the words ‘teach,’ ‘explain,’ and ‘understand’ for these videos? It’s because the priority here is to build trust with your audience through your products and services.

Product Videos

Companies use product videos to showcase their products appealingly to arouse consumer interest. These include:

• Product Launch Videos: Video marketing can be especially useful for launching a new product. You want hype, and videos can deliver just that. You can show how your product was conceived and its new features, but the focus should be on getting people excited about your product.
• Product Demo Videos: Product demo videos help viewers understand how your product works. You can also use this video to talk about your product features and how they can help solve specific pain points of your audience.

You have complete freedom to decide how you want to present your products. It can be formal or more laid-back, whichever approach you like better.

Company Culture Videos

Your brand is vital. 71% of customers prefer buying from a brand name they recognize since it makes them more confident about their purchasing decisions – some things that company culture videos can help with. These include:

• Brand Videos: Brand videos give you and your team a chance to talk about your company, while the viewer also gets reasons why they should trust your products over your competitors. Additionally, you can explain your company’s mission and values or even talk about the brand history.
• Event Videos: Event videos showcase team volunteers working together. It can either be a social service event or a more corporate setting. Industry interviews and speeches given at big conferences would also make excellent event videos.

You can leverage company culture videos to establish trust between your company and the general public. This can also be a good tactic for recruitment, highlighting your core values and mission.

Testimonial Videos

Companies make testimonial videos to show customer satisfaction, which, in turn, helps establish trust. These include:

• Customer Testimonials: When you want to push prospects down the sales funnel, customer testimonials are all you need. When a customer is in the consideration stage and is comparing different products, having glowing testimonials from past customers could make them more inclined towards your products.
• Employee Testimonials: Since these videos involve employees, it gives a more personal touch to the whole thing. More so because your current employees know what it’s like to work for you. Prospective candidates can also meet their future co-workers. You can consider including snippets of the office and other events that could help candidates understand your company culture better.

Viewers will naturally create a positive picture of your company in their minds after seeing so many people praising your products and services.

Video Marketing Strategies to Boost Visibility

Your website is your first impression on prospects, and now that we’ve established that video is a winner for small- and medium-sized businesses, you should think of ways to include videos on your web pages. 

Now, let’s discuss some strategies to help you optimize your video through videos.

Set up a Video Library or Gallery

Not only search engines but also visitors appreciate websites that have an organized video library or gallery page. This way, you’ll be able to categorize, describe, and organize your videos how you deem fit.

Carefully Choosing Thumbnails

Although it might look irrelevant, thumbnails are the driving force to increasing clicks and the number of potential customers.

Choosing an exciting thumbnail will make consumers think of the video in a similar light. We’d recommend thumbnails that have color and look compelling enough to attract more customers to your website.

Embed Videos in Relevant Pages

Embedding videos on your website pages can help to communicate the context of related content clearly. This will make your web pages more visually appealing and also convey your message better.

Work on Your Titles, Descriptions, and Metadata

Video search engine optimization has three integral components: video title, description, and metadata. You may have the most amazing videos, but no one will know about them if you don’t optimize these three components properly.

The video title should be catchy and descriptive, and the description should complement it while being enticing enough to encourage people to click on it.

As for metadata, you need to fill in certain specifications like the genre, company, and keywords. Make sure you use words that add meaning to the video. You can also add a transcription of the video if you’re interested in creating subtitles.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Video marketing is the future, especially in today’s world of viral content and tech-savvy customers. If you take the effort to launch a creative and effective video marketing strategy, you’ll be able to create trust, attract customers, as well as boost your ROI.

If you’re wondering where to start or would prefer to hire experts who know the art of marketing videos, get in touch with us ASAP!