Effective Strategies for Video Marketing – Why and How

Flimp Media Video Solutions: The following is a guest post authored by Asher Elran, CEO of Dynamic Search.

Video is a powerful medium for marketers. It has the ability to reach a vast audience. Look at some of the statistics from just one video outlet – YouTube:

• 1 billion unique visitors each month.
• 6 billion hours watched each month.
• 100 hours of video uploaded each minute.
• 30 percent of traffic is from the United States.
• According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more U.S. adults 18-24 than any cable network.

With such a powerful reach and a widespread audience, it behooves marketers to create videos to showcase their products. However, with such a huge amount of video available, with so much more added every minute, there is a needed to create an effective strategy for your video marketing efforts.

Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Have a Good Story Targeted at Your Audience

How: Your marketing videos need to follow the pattern of any storytelling medium. You need to have a good beginning that draws people in and keeps them watching. You need to have a middle that contains the meat of your message. And you need an ending that prompts people to action.

You also need to have an emotional component to your video, especially if you hope to have any viewers share it. In order to get that emotional impact, you also need to carefully target your audience. No story will resonate with everyone.

Why: If you try for too wide an audience, you may find that it doesn’t really appeal to anyone.

Show, Not Tell

How: A video showing how your product or service will affect the viewer is much more powerful than a series of still images or pages of text. A video that shows users interacting with your product will help viewers to connect emotionally much better than text or even a spokesperson talking about the product. Showing it in action reinforces the message and helps to persuade people that it can make an impact on their lives. It will also add to your company’s credibility.

Why: According to a study commissioned by 3M, presenters that use visual aids were 43 percent more effective in persuading audiences to take action.

Use Interactive Elements

How: Build as much viewer interaction into your video as possible. Whether it is a button or link to get more information, fill out a survey or watch a related presentation, it is important to keep your audience engaged. This allows them to engage more with your brand and can draw them deeper into your website or other videos. It also gives them a feeling of control as you allow them to participate and decide for themselves which direction they wish to take.

Other options might be to let them speak with customer service, technical support or sales, if that applies in your industry. Ultimately, the goal of your video communications is to get viewers into the sales channel, helping out your bottom line.

Why: Using interactive elements in your videos helps to engage viewers. According to Online Publishers Association, 46 percent of viewers took some action after viewing an ad. Do your utmost to make it easy for them.

Define Your Business Objectives First

How: Using video is a powerful tool, and its impact will only increase. According to Cisco, video is expected to account for 57 percent of consumer traffic within the next two years. But it may be far easier to find out how to put video on your site than to figure out why. You need to analyze the objective of each video, plan it carefully and execute it flawlessly.

• There are a number of key factors to consider:
• Where is the viewer in the buying process? Do you still need to convince them, or just help them to buy?
• Who is the audience? Is the video properly targeted, as mentioned above?
• How can you measure success? What metric is the video intended to improve?

By having clear business goals in mind, along with a way to measure success, you will be on your way to an effective video marketing campaign.

Why: Video is a means to meet your goals and objectives. It is not the end of the journey. Having the most widely viewed video of all time won’t help your business if it doesn’t lead to a single sale.