The digital world is often well-organized. While we can’t rejoice in it, the global COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to rethink and adapt their business models. Today, even though traditional marketing may still work for some companies, the majority are compelled to embrace the digital shift and quickly adapt their video content marketing strategy to survive and thrive.
The recent arrival of the social media platform TikTok, with its emphasis on sharing short video content, has disrupted the competition (Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) and forced them to adjust their algorithms to prioritize video content sharing over photos. This is often the case when a new player enters the market.
Today, I want to discuss how you can effectively grow your audience through video content marketing, which is increasingly in demand on all social media platforms.
Sharing video content helps to capture your audience’s attention, encouraging them to engage and become your customers. In the same vein, a well-timed video can quickly go viral and transform lives.
The best example of this is the incredible success story of Khaby Lame, a young Senegalese man whose comedic videos went viral, turning him into a celebrity. Creating video content is crucial and should be a key tactic in your online marketing and communication strategy.
To assist you, I’d like to present 8 steps to help you grow your audience through video content marketing.
1- Determine the Type of Video Content You’re Interested In
There are various types and styles of videos. You must take the time to determine which type of video would best represent you to your audience and effectively convey your message. Knowing the type of video content you want is crucial.
It could be vlogs, short or long video clips over a specific period, and your research should be rigorous. Making inappropriate videos could lead to losing your audience, which is the last thing you want. When it comes to video content marketing, always keep in mind that your ultimate goal is to increase the number of visitors to your social media or website.
Creating a successful video marketing strategy involves defining the type of video, crafting an effective content strategy, and optimizing your content for lead generation across social media platforms.
2- Prepare Your Content
Once you’ve chosen the type of video you want to create, it’s time to prepare your content. Will it be an educational video or an entertaining one?
Regardless, the content creation stage is vital. Sometimes it involves writing a script and organizing it into a storyboard to facilitate video creation during filming. Other times, it may simply involve preparing a narrative text for later voice over. Writing down all the ideas you have in mind makes the process easier for yourself and your team if you have one involved in your video content creation process.
3- Shoot or Create Your Video
Obviously, there can be no video content marketing without videos! So, it’s time to have fun and enjoy materializing all those hours of work you’ve spent structuring the videos you want to create. A piece of advice is not to try to do everything on your own, especially when it comes to shooting complex videos. Keep in mind that your brand image is at stake, and the quality of the final rendering of your video content can affect it.
Once filming is complete, it’s time to use your video editing software. Again, the assistance of a team is recommended if you’re not an expert in the field. Always prioritize quality over convenience.
4- Enhance Your Video
Video editing isn’t just about combining multiple video clips into one piece of content. It’s also a content creation stage where you can use various features (video filters, transitions, animations, music, etc.) to make your video content more interactive and engaging for your audience.
5- Choose Your Distribution Platforms
Your video content is finally ready. It’s time to decide where you’ll upload it. Technically, you should have already answered this question in your strategy before even starting to create your video. Will you be sharing your videos on social media, your website, or somewhere else? Regardless, you have options. Make this decision based on your company’s goals, marketing strategy, and target audience.
Video content is in high demand and will undoubtedly help boost your brand’s visibility and audience engagement, without necessarily requiring a substantial budget for ads or dealing with social media algorithms.
6- Understand Online Platform Algorithms
Each social media platform has its algorithm, and understanding it can help you accelerate the virality of your video content, reaching new levels of visibility and growth. It may seem trivial, but take the time to educate yourself on how the algorithms of each platform work before publishing your video content. If using hashtags is necessary, do it.
However, no matter the platform, one thing algorithms evaluate for each account is the frequency and consistency of your video posts. So, be patient, but above all, be persistent, and you’ll see that it will eventually pay off.
7- Use Promotional Videos
When It Counts Time is money, and you should know that. Your audience consumes a significant amount of content, and videos are meant to save them time. For example, if you have an online store to promote, focus on videos that present enticing offers in just a few seconds.
It’s something worth exploring. Test several videos and continually evaluate their performance until you find the most effective formula for your business.
8- Clearly Name Your Video Content for Improved SEO
Even though SEO mainly concerns search engines like Google and Bing, your video content can also appear in search results on the internet. Consider YouTube, for example, which is the most important platform for hosting and sharing online videos and is also owned by Google.
SEO rules apply to your video content if you want to expand its reach. Therefore, make sure to name your videos appropriately, add relevant tags, and provide a consistent description that will naturally present them to internet users in response to their requests.
Conclusion
Just a decade ago, creating videos required advanced knowledge and mastery of often very complex video editing software. Today, technology has solved this problem, and it is now possible to shoot and edit even full-length films with just a mobile phone.
To achieve success in digital marketing, it’s crucial to use video as a key element of your video marketing strategy, ensuring professional video production that effectively promotes your brand and engages your target audience in the competitive landscape of digital marketing.
Your audience is online, and they love video content. So, if you want to keep them engaged, take the plunge and create videos that represent you and engage them. It’s often easier said than done, but with a good team to support you, anything is possible.
At Oshara, we help our clients build the content creation strategy they need while giving them access to all our resources and partners in video content creation. To learn more, contact one of our experts today for a free 1-hour consultation. We run the best web marketing agency in Montreal.
