How to effectively use videos for your digital marketing

Video has long been a key content marketing tool. It is easy to engage with, requires very little work by the viewer and is very shareable. While the many benefits of videos are undeniable, still many business steer away from video as a form of content marketing, mainly due to two factors – expense and limited videoing expertise.

This is expected to change soon as there is a rumour that Google is planning on launching a system that will make it easier and cheaper for businesses to create high quality and professional videos.

So what does this mean for businesses and video content marketing? It means videos are likely to become as popular as business blogging.

However, in the same way that many businesses have struggled to fully utilise business blogging, the video explosion is likely to be equally as challenging. There are a few steps businesses can take, however, to make the move towards regular videos a key part of their digital marketing strategy.

Create a plan
In just the same way as you should create a blog plan about what subjects will be covered, who will write the post, when it will be posted and on which social media channels it will be promoted on – you should do the same for videos. This plan will also set out who is responsible for creating the videos, which is particularly important if multiple people will be involved with video content marketing. Having this plan in place will help to ensure that you will be organised with your video creation and will enable videos to be uploaded on a regularly basis.  

Ensure your videos are informative
When investing resources into creating videos it is important to ensure that they have a high chance of engaging your target audience and being shareable, this means that you should not create videos just for the sake of it. Already videos are a popular form of content marketing so your videos can easily get overlooked, which is why it is essential that your video is engaging, stands out and is promoted on the right social media platforms. The videos that are the most viewed and shared tend to be those that are entertaining, informative or provide useful information. 

Work with an agency
Many businesses don’t have the knowledge or skills in-house to create videos or promote them effectively on the right social media platforms. Working with an agency on your content marketing can be a cost-effective way of utilising content marketing and social media expert knowledge, experience and skills, but still retaining control over your content. A good agency will work closely with you to ensure that you are happy with the content being created and how it is being promoted on social media platforms.

Take videos seriously
Finally, it is important to take videos, and content marketing in general, seriously and not as something pushed to the back of the to-do list. Videos are an essential part of today’s digital marketing and will help your brand to be seen by potential customers, as well as assisting in your conversion rate. In addition to this, research has shown that customers are more likely to choose a brand that engages with them and this is set to become even more important in the future.

With development of technology, creating and promoting videos as part of your content marketing strategy is becoming easier than ever. This means that it is vital for businesses from all sectors to embrace video to ensure your company is not left behind by the competition.

Written by Derin Clark, Content Strategist