U.S. consumers spend over 5 hours a day glued to their smartphones, and much of that time is dedicated to social media and entertainment.
The opportunity to reach your target customer through these platforms has never been clearer. And the most effective way to capture their attention is through video content marketing.
For tech companies, implementing the best marketing process that features video takes on added importance. Your brand’s credibility is influenced by how tech-savvy and cutting edge your outreach is.
As you prepare to take your company to the next level in 2018, learn all you need to know about the why, the how, and the where of video content marketing.
Popularity of Video is Rising
In 2016, video accounted for nearly 3/4 of all consumer internet traffic. That number is quickly on the rise, expected to top 80% by 2021.
Failure to engage with your consumers in this way puts you at a competitive disadvantage in the already crowded tech market. Be on the proactive front of your customer’s media consumption patterns and reap the benefits.
Streaming Video Presents New Opportunities
One of the biggest drivers of this increased traffic is live video streaming. People want to connect in real time to each other and to the brands they love without barriers.
The line between advertising and “regular content” is becoming increasingly blurry as content consumption evolves.
There’s a golden opportunity for tech companies to capitalize on this trend. As this sector of the market continues to grow, take advantage of the chance to show off your products and generate live buzz and feedback.
ROI for Video is Higher than Other Advertising Forms
Compared to text-based campaigns, video content marketing provided a better return on investment to the majority of companies that used it. Likewise, video performed better than static picture advertisements.
You can direct more monthly traffic to your website, make consumers more likely to buy your products, and increase consumer confidence all by implementing video content marketing.
This makes sense. We are visual creatures. Designing a campaign that more fully engages all our sensory perceptions triggers a greater emotional response in the consumer.
Not all video content is created equal, however. The quality of your marketing matters. Consider this digital marketing strategy guide to help you improve your overall ROI.
How to Get the Most From Your Video Content Marketing Strategy
As with the rest of your customer outreach, your video content marketing strategy requires good planning, some trial and error, and careful analysis of your results.
But even if you’re no Spielberg or Kubrick, don’t worry! You can make engaging video content that boosts your bottom line.
Consider the following guidelines as you create your content:
Know Your Audience
Before you film anything, have a clear sense of who you’re trying to reach. Understanding the needs, wants, and habits of your target audience should be the backbone of your video content marketing strategy.
Invest time in getting to know what your audience wants to see. Interact with them via social media. Conduct surveys and solicit feedback.
Be sure to include clear calls to action in your outreach. Consumers are more likely to comment and share when overtly instructed to do so.
Use this information to connect more directly with your target audience and they’ll, in turn, respond more favorably to your ads.
Know Your Brand
After you have a sense of what your customer wants to see from you, consider how their desires align with your brand objectives.
Not every idea will fit with your brand’s goals, even if it’s a good idea on the surface. Make sure that the content you create matches in tone and purpose to your company’s identity.
Finding the intersection where your customer’s needs meet your brand’s goals is the sweet spot in advertising. Make sure your video content marketing always strives to execute on this level.
Stir Emotions
If you want to entice your customer to act, you must engage her emotions. Be funny, tear-jerking, provocative, or risque — just don’t be boring.
Videos that evoke emotions are much more likely to earn social shares and gain traction.
As you’re developing your video content marketing, think about what feelings you want to trigger for your audience. Craft your script and choose your soundtrack to support that objective.
Remember, customers connect emotionally before they connect rationally. It’s important to provide useful information, but you must also satisfy their emotional needs if you want them to retain and spread that information.
Measure Your Results
For your video content marketing efforts to work, you must track its effectiveness and learn from the results.
Simply relying on the number of views any given ad receives isn’t enough to gauge its ROI.
How many of those views come from within your target demographic? What percentage of viewers are clicking on your website? And, most importantly, how many sales is your content generating?
Measuring your results will show you what works well for your business and what you need to adjust. In time, your video content marketing plan will become second nature.
Adjust Your Approach to the Platform
Based on your ideal customer profile and your goals for your content, different platforms will yield better results than others. Consider the pros and cons of each potential platform as you’re developing your video content marketing approach.
You may need to create alternate versions of the same campaign to more actively engage your audience. As you measure your results, it may become clear to you certain platforms are a waste of resources while others yield leads.
5 Best Platforms to Try Your Video Content
You know why video content matters for your tech business and how to begin developing and testing your campaign. But where is the most effective place on the web to place your content to reach your target customers?
Consider the advantages of these 5 platforms as you’re designing your video content.
YouTube
As the undisputed hub of internet video, YouTube must play a role in your marketing. With consumers collectively spending billions of hours a day on the platform, YouTube is ideal for you to garner massive attention.
Your customers are on YouTube to watch videos in the first place. Anticipate their needs with your video content.
You can highlight your brand in many different ways. How to videos, product demos, tutorials, and testimonials all have potential to attract lots of attention and increase your brand credibility.
A customer who appreciates your tutorial on a particular product is more likely to engage with your follow-up content.
Create a comprehensive video library that supports your overall online presence. Drive traffic to your website, for example, with a featured video from YouTube. You can rotate the video depending on what you’re currently promoting.
Make sure your videos are optimized to be found in searches. SEO strategy should be as important to your video content marketing as your text-based strategy.
Facebook should be a staple of your video content marketing plan. As the most popular social media platform, using Facebook gives you a great opportunity to use video to attract a large audience.
The increasing prominence of Facebook Live opens up a new avenue for connecting with your target customer and increasing brand reputation.
Want to know what your customers need from you? Ask them directly on Facebook Live.
Getting real-time feedback is invaluable for future marketing efforts and is a very cost-effective way to create meaningful content. You can engage with your audience for little to no money while showcasing both your products and quality customer service.
Facebook live streams can be saved, making them a great source of material for your video library without requiring a fully scripted campaign.
The customers you reach on Instagram are already on the hunt for eye-catching graphics.
A quick, visually-stunning video could prove very effective on this platform. There is a 60-second limit placed on Instagram videos, so you must make use of every moment.
GIFs, time lapses, and video loops can really pop in this format.
While Facebook Live gives you a great way to answer questions or explain features of your tech, Instagram provides a more ideal way to show it off without saying a word.
Typically, Instagram is not the venue for overly sales-driven posts. The more your videos evoke a sense of creativity and playfulness, the easier it will be to drive traffic back to your website.
When developing your overall content marketing strategy, think of Instagram as the outlet to showcase your brand identity and generate excitement about your products without a hard sell.
Though one of the newest (and thus not fully explored) options for video content marketing, LinkedIn offers uniquely targeted access to the kinds of customers you most want to reach.
Create instructional, but engaging content that answers your customers’ questions and establishes your brand as an expert in your field.
LinkedIn is an ideal platform to take your customers behind the scenes of your company or hype upcoming launches. It’s also a great vehicle to introduce your team and showcase the human ingenuity responsible for your amazing tech.
Your LinkedIn connections are already oriented toward business. Focus your video content on appealing to what will help drive sales and bring value to them.
Save more abstract or artistic appeals for other platforms. LinkedIn is the most professional aspect of your video content marketing strategy.
Though overlooked by many companies, Twitter is a useful platform for video content marketing in part because it’s so text heavy in general.
With thousands of tweets flying by every minute, a well-placed video can be a welcomed reprieve for your customer. Your content is more likely to stand out from the crowd and garner the replies, retweets, and follows you need.
Twitter’s 140-second video limit allows for longer engagement than Instagram and gives you ample time to get your message across to your customers.
Since acquiring Periscope, Twitter boasts the ability to support long-form live video streaming like Facebook. It’s an ideal platform to re-share content from your other social media outlets as well.
Whether you choose to create content directly for Twitter or use it as a platform to repurpose the best of your content from other outlets, Twitter should be a prominent part of your marketing plan.
Make Content, Not Excuses
With all the viable platforms for reaching consumers, the only barrier to creating meaning video is hesitation.
You don’t need a film degree, large creative budget, or tons of experience to begin your video content marketing. All you need is to strategize which platforms and content styles suit your strengths.
Are you comfortable off the cuff, interacting with potential buyers in real time? If so, streaming video could work well for you.
Do you thrive with a memorized script or interacting with others on your team? A sponsored ad on Twitter or Facebook may make the most sense.
Is your creative sensibility more abstract and visual? Consider how you can create massive traffic via Instagram with a stunning video campaign.
Web traffic will only become increasingly more dominated by video. The sooner you become comfortable with this type of marketing, the more competitive your brand will be.
If you are new to video content marketing or have little experience in front of a camera, it’s normal to be anxious about the process. Working through this fear is crucial to your success in the evolving internet age.
Remember that even an “unsuccessful” video provides an opportunity to learn how to improve your overall strategy. Err on the side of content creation instead of content stifling.
As your confidence improves and you get feedback from your customers, you should see a noticeable improvement to your ROI.
Marketing Matters
Video content marketing is just one component of your overall strategy to elevate your tech company above the competition.
You need a comprehensive plan that makes sure your great content appears high in search engine rankings, delivering you leads and sales.
Not sure where to begin? Start with a free SEO audit of your website to identify areas you can attract more business. We’d be happy to build a custom-tailored plan for you.
Schedule a consultation with no obligation today!
