8 steps to grow your audience with video content marketing

A digital world is often well organized. And although we can't be happy about it, the global Covid 19 pandemic has still forced companies to rethink and adapt their business model. Today, although traditional marketing may still work for some businesses, it is still the majority of businesses that are forced to go digital and quickly adapt their marketing strategy to survive and grow.

If you too live on our beautiful planet Earth, you have surely heard of the phenomenon of social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Pinterest and others). These social platforms are today the main places where billions of people interact and therefore a gold mine for companies able to exploit them effectively by creating engaging content (photos and videos) for their online marketing approach.

The recent arrival of the social network Tik Tok with its focus on sharing music video style content has upset the competition (Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) and forced them to modify their algorithms to prioritize the sharing of video content rather than photos. 

This is always the case when a new player enters the market, although it can be seen in a good way.

Today I want to talk to you about how you can grow your audience through video content marketing, which is increasingly in demand on all social networks. 

Sharing video content helps create and capture the attention of your audience to engage them and become your customers. In the same vein, a posted video can very quickly go viral and transform a life. The best example is that of the incredibly successful Khaby Lame, this young Senegalese whose comic videos have gone viral to the point of making him a celebrity. Creating video content is therefore important and should be a tactic in your online marketing and communication strategy.

Contents

• Determine the type of video content you are interested in
• Prepare your content
• Shoot or create your video
• Add fireworks to your video
• Choose your distribution platforms
• Understand the algorithms of online platforms
• Use promotional videos when it matters
• Clearly name your video content to improve your SEO ranking
• Conclusion

To help you out, I'd like to walk you through 8 steps to growing your audience with video content marketing. 

1- Determine the type of video content you are interested in

There are several types and styles of videos. You should therefore take the time to determine that, What kind of videos would best represent you to your audience? Would these videos also give you the ability to get your message across clearly?
Learn about what type of video content you want to have. It can be a vlog, or short or long video clips over a given period. Your research needs to be done rigorously because if you make inadequate videos, you risk losing your audience and that's the last thing you want to do. 

When talking about video content marketing, always keep in mind that your goal should be to increase the number of visitors to your social networks or your website.

2- Prepare your content

Once you have decided on the type of video you are going to create, it is now necessary to prepare your content. Will it be a learning video or an entertainment video? In all, the video content creation step is important for the future. Sometimes it can be a scenario to be written and organized in storyboard to facilitate the creation of the video at the time of shooting. Sometimes it can also simply be a narrative text to be prepared in order to then do voiceover. 

By writing down all the ideas you have in mind, you make it easier on yourself and others if you have a team to involve in your process of creating such video content. 

3- Shoot or create your video

Of course, there won't be any video content marketing without videos, right! 

So now is the time to have fun and take pleasure in materializing all the hours of work that you have prepared to structure on paper the videos you want to create. A word of advice is to not try to do everything on your own but rather work with a team, especially if you're shooting complex videos. Keep in mind that your brand image is at stake and that the quality of the final rendering of your video content can affect it. Once the shooting is complete, it's time to use your video editing software , and again, the assistance of a team is suggested if you are not an expert in the field. Always focus on quality rather than convenience. 

4- Add fireworks to your video 

Editing a video is not just the exercise of combining several video clips into a single piece of content. It is also a content creation step where you can use the multitude of features (video filters, video transitions, video animations, music, etc.) to make your video content more interactive and therefore more engaging for your audience. 

5- Choose your distribution platforms

Your video content is finally ready. Is it time to determine where you will upload them? Technically, you should have already answered this question in your strategy before you even start creating your video. Will it be the distribution of your videos on social networks, your website, or elsewhere. Either way, the choice is yours. Make this decision based on your business goals, your marketing strategy, and your target customers. Video content is in high demand and will undoubtedly allow you to boost your notoriety and the engagement of your audience. 

6- Understand the algorithms of online platforms

Each social network has its own algorithm and if you understand it, you can accelerate the virality of your video content and reach new heights of awareness and growth. This may seem trivial, but take the time to document yourself to understand how the algorithms of each platform where you plan to publish your video content work. If you have to use hashtags, do it, but regardless of the platform, one thing that the algorithms evaluate for each account is the frequency and consistency of your video posts. So be patient but above all persistent and you will see that it will eventually pay off. 

7- Use promotional videos when it counts

Time is money, and you need to know that. Your audience consumes a lot of content, and videos are supposed to save them time. If you have an online store to promote, for example, bet on videos that present attractive offers in a few seconds. It's something. Test several videos and constantly evaluate their performance until you find the most effective formula for your business 

8- Clearly name your video content to improve your SEO ranking 

Even though SEO is mostly about search engines like Google, Bing and others, your video content can also show up in the results of those internet searches. Think of Youtube, for example, which is today the most important online video hosting and distribution platform and which is also owned by Google. 

The rules of SEO therefore also apply to your video content if you want to broaden their reach. So be sure to properly name your videos, add relevant “tags” and a consistent description that will allow search engines to present them naturally to Internet users who request them.

Conclusion

Barely 10 years ago, creating videos required advanced knowledge and mastery of often very complex editing software. Today technology has solved this problem and it is now possible to shoot and edit even movies with only a mobile phone. 

Your audience is online and they love video content. So if you want to retain them, go ahead and create videos that represent you and engage them. It's often easier said than done, but if you have a good team to support you, then anything is possible. 

At Oshara, we help our clients build the right content creation strategy while giving them access to all of our video content creation resources and partners. To learn more, contact one of our experts today for a free 1 hour consultation . 

See you soon for a new column.