11 STEPS TO CREATING AN EFFECTIVE VIDEO CONTENT STRATEGY

Cisco predicts that by 2019, 80% of the world’s internet traffic will be video. Well, then you should probably start creating a video content strategy. Every brand needs to see that the importance of video is skyrocketing and realize that they need to be on board or else they’ll be left behind.

“Our job is to make change. Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they’d like to go. Every time we waste that opportunity, every page or sentence that doesn’t do enough to advance the cause, is waste.” — Seth Godin

This quote from Seth Godin about marketing is the heart of developing an effective video content strategy. Marketing is connecting with people and continuing to find the best ways to do that. Video is a huge part of that. This 11-step guide will give you a good foundation for how to create a video content strategy that will connect the right message, to the right people, at the right time.

Educate Yourself

The first step to an effective video content strategy, and maybe most crucial, is educating yourself on video production. Before you even start thinking about a strategy, it is vital that you understand the video production process, what goes into producing a video, and what types of videos are out there and achievable for your brand. While reading blogs and infographics about types of cameras and equipment can be helpful, the best way to educate yourself on video is to watch videos! Check out videos from other businesses and try to notice what styles you like, what techniques and camera movements catch your eye, and how other brands are telling their stories.

While marketing departments understand that they need to get involved with creating a video content strategy, they don’t always know the best place to start. Educating yourself will give you a clearer vision of the video that you want to produce and also the most effective way to utilize a budget. Which brings me to the next step.

Know Your Budget

The big question for every person that comes to our company is always the same. How much for a video? I usually turn it around and ask them a very simple question in return. How much is a house? The answer is very difficult. There are so many factors that go into the pricing of a house. How many beds? Baths? What neighborhood? What city? Property size? Etc. Same thing applies to a video. What is the creative? Who is coming up with the creative? What are we shooting? How long of a video do you want? Are we doing interviews? Do we need an audio operator? What type of camera are we using? How big is our crew? What are the locations? Do we need to hire talent? Not to mention all the questions about post-production and graphics that we will have.

Knowing right off the bat what product you expect to receive and exactly how much your budget is will give you a better shot at collaborating with the production company you hire to produce quality video content.

Set Your Goals

Once you have a better understanding of video and how much you are willing to spend, it is time to set some goals. What are you trying to achieve with your video content strategy? Many marketers and companies clarify success by producing the next viral video. Unfortunately, the chances of actually going viral are slim to none. Anybody telling you that they specialize in creating content that goes viral is lying to you. Going viral means having an extreme amount of luck, on top of creating a super popular video.

Your goals should be much more focused. Reaching your target audience, communicating your message clearly, and telling your story in a unique way that helps you stand out from your competition. Educate your viewers. Explain to them why your leather is the best leather since sliced bread. Or why your financial team is the cream of the crop. Talk about facts, tell stories, and engage with your audience. Having all this in mind will help you come up with the best strategy to achieve these goals.

Identify Your Target Audience

This step is certainly part of your goal setting, but truly knowing your target audience is essential and worth a deeper look. The biggest mistake most clients make is trying to create one long video with 15 different purposes with a bunch of different targets. Don’t do it. It is not effective and it will never work. We strongly recommend creating separate, shorter videos that target specific people. If your goal is to recruit better talent than create a video highlighting the team and work place. If you are doing a product video, highlight the product. People who view content online are selfish. They want to hear about exactly what relates to their needs and that’s it. Creating content that tries to please everybody is a waste of money.

This thought process of concentrating on producing content that speaks to specific audiences is really what creating a video content strategy is all about. A perfect content strategy does not materialize overnight but over a period of time. You will have several opportunities to create awesome video content that addresses all the information about who you are and what you do throughout the duration of your strategy. By putting a plan and schedule in place you are setting yourself up to build a content strategy over time that will ultimately drive the best results.

Make sure you keep things short and sweet and specific to the people watching this video. Think about where this video will be posted (homepage/social media), how those specific viewers will be viewing the content, and what they are looking to get out of the video. You’ll learn to have specific strategies for specific platforms.

Figure Out The Right Message

“When you start with what’s at stake for the buyer, you earn the right to their attention.” –Jake Sorofman

Now that you are clear about who you are targeting with your content, the next step is to focus your message to address the audience. Companies come to us with reference videos of what they are trying to achieve but it doesn’t always match the message they should be sending to their market. Our goal is to help our clients understand their market and guide our clients to fine tuning their message so that it is focused and best represents their brand. Sometimes a 5 minute corporate video is not the right choice for you. For example, a video about a new mobile app would be best suited with a 90 second 3D animation. The target audience here will care more about the technology and the user interface rather than an executive talking head explaining it.

Looking for reference videos is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact we encourage it. However, it is important to keep in mind your specific brand message and the best way to deliver it. It may be different than others. Be a leader, be innovative, and create content that is original and communicates a clear and concise message to the target audience.

Find The Right Opportunities

With your goals all set in place, you are now ready to build the right strategy. Some questions you should ask yourself: How is video complementing your current content strategy? What are you doing on social media? What are the most pages on your website that are being visited? How are you converting leads from those web pages?

Let’s talk about some specific examples of videos that have worked for our clients in the past.

Brand Videos – As part of a video content strategy, every company should have a flagship video that tells people who you are and what you do. Plant it right on your homepage so people see it immediately and do not waste any time learning about your brand. In our experiences with clients, brand videos work best when you highlight the personality of your brand, core values, visuals of the work environment and employees so that viewers can see the brand as human and really connect with the brand. You do not want to bore people with industry jargon or explain every single service you provide (that’s for later videos). For the flagship video, keep it short and sweet and try to express the heart of the brand.

Video Testimonials – Video testimonials like the ones we produce for Squirrel Systems have been a staple for many of our client strategies. Hearing success stories from real, satisfied customers speaks volumes to potential clients. Testimonials from happy employees can also be useful for recruitment purposes.

Video Blogs – Converting your most shared written blogs to video can build on the success of that content. For example, look at the way Credibly includes their video blog right into their written blog. Visitors to the blog have a choice to consume and share the content in both forms. The blog can potentially reach a wider audience and bring more traffic to your website. You could feature the author of the blog on screen delivering the information, or develop a script for a clever animation that explains the content in a creative way. Or create original video blogs that are more like industry discussions amongst experts. Either way, providing useful information to viewers will increase the likelihood of the video being shared.

“People share, read and generally engage more with any type of content when it’s surfaced through friends and people they know and trust.” –Malorie Lucich

Product Videos – Depending on the brand, different product videos could be an effective tool. There are companies who produce short videos for all of their products for people to view. But for other companies, it makes more sense to only highlight new and exciting products that have a good chance of being shared amongst peers on the web. Product videos give you the ability to promote new products and educate people on how the product works.

Explainer Videos – Not every company sells products. If your company is selling a service and want something similar to a product video, an animation explaining your services to viewers is a great way to communicate those concepts. This 2D explainer animation from Sizmek explains the company’s service using an animated analogy of a cruise ship, something that would be difficult to do using live action video.

CEO Videos – Putting your CEO on-screen delivering the company’s mission can help build trust with viewers. Also, try having your CEO address employees about the state of the company, recognizing accomplishments, and setting new goals. It can be a nice boost for company morale.

Social Media – Everybody is watching video on social media apps like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Marketers need to realize this and learn how to adapt their content to these platforms. Do your research and see what kinds of videos are doing well on each. We encourage our clients to create 15-30 second versions of all their content to be shared on their social media to increase outreach.

Check out what the brand Marks and Spencer are doing on Instagram. They are cleverly incorporating shareable video on their Instagram to build a following.

Training Videos – As part of some of our clients strategies, we produce training videos for products that are used by professionals. For example, a medical device company that sells to a hospital can benefit from a training video explaining to staff how to use the product, saving money on hiring trainers and minimizing customer service calls.

Promotional Videos – Promo videos can come in many forms and be used on many platforms. Generally, they come with the revealing of a new product, event, website, etc. However, we have developed strategies that include promotional videos for clients that just need to refresh their brands. Creating a nice sizzle reel of your company with exciting footage and graphics can remind people about you and keep you fresh in their minds.

We were impressed with Wisita and their “2015 Rap-Up Video” which promoted the company’s success in 2015 while reminding viewers about the people and personality that make the brand who they are.

TV Commercials – There are some differences when producing a commercial for broadcast versus the web. For example, with TV commercials you are limited to 15-30 seconds to tell a story as opposed to unlimited for the web. This has its pros and cons. Having these limitations make writing a script more difficult, but it will force you to narrow your message and really get to the bare bones of who you are. Also, you want to have a bigger budget set aside for TV commercials and boost up the production quality for HD broadcast. Big brands spend millions of dollars on memorable Super Bowl ads every year because they know they are getting massive exposure and need the ad to be exceptional.

Hire The Right Company

Too many marketers are looking for the cheapest company when they should be looking for the right company. We understand that everyone has certain limitations when it comes to budget but you do not want to start reaching out to a bunch of companies and looking for the best quote (we like to call it window-shopping).

You should be more concerned about finding a company that is going to create quality content that will be a great reflection of your brand. Since you have already educated yourself on video production, identified your message and target audience, do your research on companies and find ones that produce content that is going to help your video content strategy be successful. Do not hesitate to call the companies and talk directly to the producers. If they know what they are talking about and seem to be excited about the projects you are proposing to them, a successful video partnership is more likely.

You have to make sure you did your research and decided what is necessary for your scope of work. How are you evaluating talent? What are you trying to achieve? What level of quality and service are you looking to have? And I would say the most important part is be 100 percent transparent with the companies you are vetting. Give them as much information as possible to make sure everybody is on the same page throughout the entire process. At the end of the day you are looking to building a relationship and create a partnership that will result in a successful video content strategy.

Develop Creative

You don’t have to be the most creative person to produce great content. The creativity lies within using your brand’s uniqueness and combining it with what you have learned in your market research, video watching, and strategy brainstorming. Communicating this with the creative agency you choose to work with is important so that great concepts can be developed.

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” –Simon Sinek

What will always engage people the most is a great story. What is interesting about your brand? Talk about the history, the story, the passion that drives your company. Create a video about the reason your great grandfather started this company, or about how you started this awesome startup because of your passion for the medical industry and the lack of resources there were for your particular product. Make sure it is real, raw, and interesting. Sharing with people how you are different, how you are innovating and solving problems will entice viewers. This is your best chance to capture your audience and win them over from your competition. Make sure your story is awesome and your production matches who you are as a brand. Invest into your brand by making sure you are being represented the correct way. Make sure you convey your message in a clear, creative and engaging manner. Remember to focus on keeping it short, to the point, and targeting the right audiences.

Marketing Your Video Content Strategy

Just creating awesome video content is not enough. The other part of your strategy is using the right techniques and platforms to make sure that people are seeing the content. This is going to take some trial and error to see what really works for your brand and your content. It’s important to try many different techniques and see what combinations drive the best results.

Social Media – All of your social media accounts need to be utilized when marketing your video content. Social media platforms are all about sharing and if you have awesome content, people will be more likely to share it. Do your research and find out when is the best time to post one each platform. It might differ for your personal industry or your following so make sure to try different methods and see what works best. Having your entire team share this on their personal accounts can also increase outreach and gain your company account more followers.

Your Website – Whether it be your homepage, service page, or another, brand videos, explainer animations, product videos, etc. can be utilized on your website. Having video on your website increases search engine optimization and helps people find your site whens searching relevant keywords. Video not only increases traffic to your site but decreases bounce rate. People are less likely to leave your site when a video about your company is being presented to them upon arrival to your page.

YouTube Channel – Setting up a company Youtube channel is beneficial for many reasons, but overall it gives you one platform to host all your video content. Let’s say you share a link to a video on your Youtube channel. They will watch your video and then be a click away from your channel that hosts all your other content. Youtube will also suggest other videos on your channel on the viewing page itself. This greatly increases the chances of your other video content being seen. Keep in mind that Youtube is not the only site to host your content. You may have to figure out which is the best platform for your brand.

Industry Publications and Influencers – Reach out to industry publications, industry blogs, and even social media influencers with a relevant brand and following to see who will be willing to share your content. If your content provides them any value at all, they will be happy to write about it or share it for their readers/followers who may like it enough to check out your company for themselves.

Company Blog – Every company should have their own blog as part of their website. If people are reading your content, why not write a blog about your new video? Talk about the process of producing the video, what went into developing the concept, funny stories from on set, share behind the scenes footage or pics. People generally do not know what goes into video production and are interested to see how it all works. An interesting blog about your video can lead to people to watching it, sharing it, and checking out your other content.

Email Blasts – Utilizing Mailchimp or similar email services to send out email blasts about a new video is a quick and easy way to reach past and current contacts. You can even create lists of contacts so that you only send certain email blasts to specific groups of people.

Your Sales Team – Your sales team deals with people on a personal level everyday. If your content is relevant and exciting, feel free to have your team send the video to their contacts and ask them to watch. This goes for you as well. Share your hottest new content with every customer and client with which you come into contact.

Your Signature – Something new that I’ve been trying is putting a link and short call to action on my email signature. My thought process is that if I am speaking with a potential client via email and they are deciding whether or not to work with me, they will most likely click the link and see what kind of content we are producing. This is a very direct way to acquire new business.

Facebook Ads – Many people do not realize how affordable Facebook Ads can be. You can target people with specific titles, interests, or by websites they’ve visited. Look into using video as part of a Facebook ad to grab people’s attention and make them remember your brand.

Custom Flash Drives – When we have a project that we are really proud of and really want to share, we go above and beyond to make sure people watch it. We ordered flash drives customized to our logo, put our project on the drives, and sent them out to all of our current clients and clients we were trying to acquire. A custom flash drive makes you stand out, and gives clients a physical reminder of who you are and what you do.

Measure Success

“Inspiration is difficult to measure, but the results driven by that inspiration are powerful.” –Scott Harrison

How do we measure success while executing a video content strategy? The easiest way is with numbers. You’ll hopefully start to see an increase in views, social media followers, shares, page views, website traffic etc. You will also see direct results from past and future clients. “Hey Bob, I saw your company video – such a great job – tell me more about the new product you guys have coming out,” or new customers, “Someone sent me your brand video and I’m interested in learning more about your service.” There are two main reasons why customers buy product or services: They like the product, and they trust the product or the person selling the product or service. Effective video content that will educate the audience builds trust with your clientele.

It’s important to keep in mind that it could take months to start seeing real results. But you have to trust all the hard work and research you put into creating the strategy and once you market it the right way…success will follow.