Video marketing is a powerful tool for businesses of all types. Since the average person spends 100 minutes watching online videos every day, it’s important to take advantage of this trend. But if you want to experience maximum success, you need to make sure you create a thoughtful social media video marketing strategy. Here are 10 guidelines for forming such a strategy.
1. Figure Out Your Social Media Video Marketing Strategy “Why”
Before you launch your social media video campaign, you need to know why you’re doing it. Is your primary purpose to drive more traffic to your website? Are you attempting to improve consumer trust in your brand? Do you want to establish a clear voice and tone for your business?
Your “why” may be multi-pronged, and that’s OK. It’s still important to brainstorm and write down the reasons why you’re launching a social media video marketing campaign so you can streamline your strategy. Think of your “why” as a sort of road map guiding your video content creation.
2. Create a Video Content Plan
Once you know the underlying reasons why you’re creating video content, it’s time to formulate a video content plan. The most successful social media video marketing strategies are successful because they’ve been planned out in advance.
When planning out your videos for your social media video marketing strategy, try to do the following first:
- Write down the main purpose you’re trying to achieve with a given video.
- Identify who your target audience is so you can shoot your video in a way that’s most appealing to the right group of people.
- Use the power of emotions without being too overt about it. People tend to shy away from videos that are obviously attempting to manipulate their emotions.
Once you’ve identified your purpose, audience, and how to subtly tug at viewers’ emotions, you have the outline for an effective social media video.
3. Figure Out What Video Types You Want To Share
Social media marketing videos can come in many different forms, depending on the end goal they are trying to accomplish. Here’s a brief overview of some of the most popular types of videos to include in your social media video marketing strategy.
- Live videos: These are videos that are recorded and released live. They can generate a lot of excitement, especially for product launches, corporate events, etc. The one drawback of live videos is that they can seem a little choppy and delayed, especially if you’re filming in an area with poor internet service or if the host of your video is taking time to address viewers’ comments while filming.
- Interview videos: Video interviews with customers or special guests are great for boosting your brand reputation. When it comes to testimonials, potential customers often trust video testimonials over written or audio testimonials, so use that to your advantage.
- Explainer videos: If you’ve ever been sucked into a video that used interesting graphics and simplified techniques to teach a complicated subject, you’ve experienced the magic of an explainer video firsthand. Explainer videos are very good at capturing and holding viewer attention and can be an exceptional marketing tool.
- Video ads: These are pretty straightforward video marketing tools. Video ads portray your products and/or services in a positive light. They are designed to be interesting, appealing, and educational when needed.
These are just a few of the popular video types you might consider using your social media video marketing strategy.
4. Customize Your Video for Each Platform
Different social media platforms have different trends and guidelines when it comes to video content. For example, TikTok requires videos to be 15 seconds or less, while videos on Instagram tend to perform best if they are under 60 seconds long (the sweet spot seems to be right around 26 seconds).
Look at video marketing trends for each social media platform you’re currently on and customize your videos accordingly. This takes extra time and effort, but it’s worth it. A lazy, one-size-fits-all social media video marketing strategy won’t yield the type of results you want.
5. Use a Steady Camera
If you think it’s easy to create a quality social media video using a cell phone, think again. Cell phones simply weren’t designed to take professional-quality videos. Due to their light weight, it’s easy to bounce them around unintentionally during filming. If you want your video content to scream “I am an amateur!” then, by all means, use the shaky camera on your cellphone.
But if you’re trying to convince your audience that your company is trustworthy, professional and “the real deal,” use a steady camera for all your marketing videos. Better yet, hire professionals who have top-tier equipment and know how to create video content that turns heads (for all the right reasons).
If you’re wondering whether MatchPoint Studio is the right fit for your marketing video needs, check out our portfolio. We’ve helped many different companies across a wide variety of industries and would love to help you out as well!
6. End With a Call to Action
You might have the most visually interesting, dynamic marketing video in existence. But if you have no clear call to action, you’re missing a huge piece of the puzzle. Viewers who watch your marketing videos need to know what to do next. If you don’t gently guide them to complete a desired action, your video won’t garner the kind of results you expect.
Every time you create a piece of content for your social media video marketing strategy, ask yourself what you want people to do once they’ve finished watching it. Do you want them to visit your website? Purchase a product? Share their own product reviews?
Once you’ve identified what you want your audience to do, make sure the video invites them to do that thing. Don’t be too heavy-handed though, or you’ll probably make people uncomfortable. Never allow yourself to come across like a car salesman. A casual, friendly invitation at the end of your video will probably be received much better than a pushy call to action.
Let Us Help You With Your Social Media Video Marketing Strategy
Here at MatchPoint Studio, we live and breathe video marketing. We’d love to help you create an impactful social media video marketing strategy. To start on a project today, contact us through our convenient online form.
Sources:
https://influencermarketinghub.com/social-media-video-strategy/
