Is supercharging your brand awareness, customer acquisition, and sales a priority in 2023? If so, investing in video content marketing is a must.
Online videos are gradually becoming the preferred content of consumers. In fact, almost 93% of internet users worldwide watched online videos in 2022.
Not sure how to get started? In this guide, we share everything you need to know about video content marketing, including the steps for using video to promote your brand.
Table of Contents
Video content marketing involves creating and publishing videos online to connect with customers and promote your brand or product. You can post your video content on websites, social media, and other platforms.
Video is the future of content marketing. Compared to images and written content, people find videos more engaging and easier to follow. Research shows that 96% of people prefer explainer videos to learn more about a product or service, and 88% of consumers are likely to purchase products after watching a brand video.
Businesses use different video types for content marketing, and the best option for your brand will depend on your target audience, marketing goals, niche, and other factors.
Popular video types for video content marketing include unboxing videos, video testimonials, animations, product ads, and tutorials. Also, regardless of your budget, using video in content marketing can be cost-effective with an impressive return on investment.
A content marketing strategy without video may connect with and convert some prospective customers. However, video might just be the added boost you need to reach your goals.
Video content is so essential that 92% of marketers say it's a crucial part of their marketing strategy. What makes video in content marketing so effective? Below are the biggest reasons.
Over the years, video has gradually become the preferred way to consume content among consumers. Why? It’s simply more entertaining and engaging.
Since the human brain processes visuals thousands of times faster than text, a person can understand video content faster than reading text. Also, humans love a good story, and videos are the perfect vehicle for telling it.
Besides finding videos more attractive and engaging, people retain more information from watching videos (over 90%) than from reading text. These elements make video content a better option for engaging your target audience and sharing information.
Also, current forecasts indicate that the average American adult will watch more online videos than TV by 2024, and over five billion people worldwide are now on the internet. These trends indicate that now is the best time to start using online videos to connect with potential customers globally to improve brand perception, build audience trust, and generate leads that convert.
Unlike traditional video marketing methods, such as TV ads, you can accurately monitor and measure the performance of online video content marketing. You can accomplish this by tracking video content marketing key performance indicators (KPIs), such as view-through rate, engagement rate, conversion rate, bounce rate, and more.
Tracking these KPIs will provide insights into how well your video content marketing strategy delivers your desired results. You can then use the insights to make well-informed decisions regarding optimizing underperforming aspects of your content marketing campaign and adjusting your ad spending.
More consumers are using YouTube to search for answers. In fact, YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google.
Since more people are using YouTube to search for products, services, and information, having your videos pop up in relevant YouTube searches can boost brand awareness, trustworthiness, and authenticity.
A whopping 86% of businesses are already using video as a marketing tool. And these businesses include your competitors.
If your competitors are using video marketing while you're not, you're behind. Become more competitive by jumping on the video content marketing bandwagon. Otherwise, your competitors may outclass your brand in terms of brand awareness, visibility, and reach.
Around 88% of video marketers agree that video marketing offers a good return on investment (ROI). However, your ROI will depend on the quality of your videos and the success of your video content marketing strategy.
It's no secret that online video marketing costs less than traditional video marketing on TV. The affordability comes from being able to post videos for free on multiple platforms to reach potential customers organically.
Even if you opt for paid advertising, online video content marketing will give you better financial control because you only need to pay per impression or click. In summary, online video marketing allows you to spend less and earn more.
Online video content marketing can reach more people globally with less effort. For instance, if you post an interesting or enlightening video on social media, your initial audience can share it with their friends, who can also share it with their friends, and so on.
According to Wyzowl, people are 2x more likely to share videos with friends than other content types. Also, users are 6x more likely to share tweets with videos than tweets with only images or text content.
The more people share your content, the greater your organic reach. This results in better brand visibility and the potential for more leads for your business.
Now that you know how video content marketing can benefit your brand, you're probably curious about how to use the strategy to your advantage.
Below are the four simple steps you need to start and launch a video content marketing campaign that delivers your desired results.
Defining your goals is the first step in setting up a video content marketing campaign. Your goals are what you hope to achieve by the end of the marketing campaign.
You can identify your goals by asking yourself why you need video marketing. Depending on your brand and current stage in your business lifecycle, your goal may be to:
You may even have other goals besides the ones listed above.
Having marketing goals is crucial because you need them to guide your video marketing strategy and measure the success of your campaign. Also, knowing your goals will simplify defining the audience for your video content.
If you don’t know who your target audience is, you will have trouble tailoring your content to engage and convert people.
Tailoring your content involves finding the right message to engage your audience and the best content channels for reaching your target audience. The channels could be your website, social media, podcasts, and other platforms.
Once you know your goals, target audience, and channels for content distribution, you will have the information to build a content creation strategy. Your content creation strategy will consist of a content plan or schedule that lists your content topics, content distribution channels, and dates to publish content.
The plan will also list the keywords your target audience uses to find information relevant to your brand. You can use the keywords in the video title or description to increase the chances of the video appearing in relevant searches.
As we’ve mentioned, choosing the right content channels or video platforms for your content is key to reaching your target audience. Social media is the preferred content channel for most businesses because it facilitates reaching millions of people globally.
For instance, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube each have billions of users worldwide, making them ideal for reaching people in various countries.
However, since each channel is different, each one is suitable for specific audiences and types of content. For instance, Facebook and YouTube are best for long videos because you can post hours-long videos on them.
If you are creating shorter videos, you can post 2-minute videos on Instagram, while TikTok videos can be 15 seconds to 10 minutes long.
Facebook may have more users than any other platform, but it’s not suitable for every brand. Studies show that most Facebook users are between 25 and 34 years old, while the highest number of TikTok users are between 18 and 24.
These numbers indicate that TikTok is the better option for building your online reach and brand visibility if your target audience is part of a younger generation.
Using TikTok for video content marketing may require making videos yourself or working with TikTok creators. Partnering with TikTok creators costs more, but it can help you reach your goal faster, especially if you work with creators with a significant online following.
Besides delivering content, such creators can promote your brand or product to their followers to increase your potential reach.
In summary, your video content marketing strategy should use a platform your target audience already uses. You can also post content on multiple video platforms to maximize your potential reach and get better results. You can even repost videos on your website to boost your search engine ranking and generate organic traffic.
Once you have your goals and know where to publish your videos, it’s time to make your videos and post them. You have to tailor your content to match your selected platforms. For instance, TikTok requires vertical videos, while YouTube prefers horizontal videos.
You can pull out your phone, make a video and post it on social media, or pay professionals to provide beautifully shot brand videos. While making a video yourself saves cash, high-quality content may drive improved engagement rates and result in a better ROI.
At Cohley, you can find vetted creators with impressive track records delivering high-quality visual assets. These creators can provide content tailored to match your brand, resonate with your target audience, and achieve your unique business goals.
Cohley also takes a data-driven approach to testing and continuously improving content to achieve better results.
Video content marketing does not end with creating and publishing videos. After posting videos, the most successful content marketers verify that their posted videos are doing what they made them to do.
Accomplishing this requires tracking the performance of each video and checking if the performance is in line with marketing goals.
Examples of metrics you can track to measure a video’s performance include:
View count represents the total number of people who saw your video. The engagement rate reveals how people interacted with your video by watching it to the end, clicking, or commenting. With these metrics and others, you can discover if people are engaging with your video and taking the actions you want them to take after seeing it.
You can also use these insights to improve the underperforming aspects of a video and boost its performance. For instance, if your view count is low, it could be because your thumbnail and title aren't eye-catching enough.
On the other hand, low engagement or view-through rate may indicate that your video is uninteresting, too long, or poorly edited.
Even if your video is performing well, you can optimize it to perform better through content testing. The testing process involves posting different versions of your content on multiple social platforms to see which gets the most traffic and engagement.
You can then use the insights to make improvements. Cohley can test your content on your behalf and use the insights from tests to tweak your content to deliver superior results.
All signs point to video content marketing remaining relevant in 2023 and for many more years. If you’ve been avoiding using video in content marketing because you considered it expensive and tedious, let us help!
We simplify getting quality video content for promoting your brand and educating your target audience by connecting you with reputable content creators.
Use our platform to easily find creators that match your brand voice and provide quality video content for social media and other channels. Also, every visual asset delivered by Cohley creators will be 100% yours to use as you see fit.
Book a consultation today to learn more about how Cohley can help your brand boost its image, win over customers, and drive sales with top-notch video content.
A content marketing video is a video created by a brand to connect with its prospective and existing customers. The goal of video content marketing may be to boost a company’s brand image, promote its product, or educate customers. A company can post such videos on its website, social media channels, and other platforms where the target audience is likely to see them.
You can create video marketing content yourself by identifying your goals and shooting video content that helps you achieve those goals.
For example, if your goal is to sell a product, you could publish a promotional video that discusses the product’s benefits. Alternatively, you could connect with expert creators via Cohley and have them create videos that match your brand voice and goals.
Good video content is content that engages and converts your target audience. Such content is typically informative or entertaining and shareworthy. The more shareworthy your video content is, the more people it can reach to achieve your purpose for posting it.
Cohley takes the hassle out of video content marketing by connecting brands with creators that deliver content tailored to each brand’s unique needs. Cohley also assists clients by providing content testing to identify the best video content for attracting and converting viewers.