Back to the Basics: 5 Simple Steps to Create Marketing Videos

About a month ago, we blogged about how to write engaging and informative video content. A few days later, we blogged about maximizing YouTube’s potential for B2B companies. Those blogs provide a solid foundation about video writing and YouTube. Building on that foundation, this blog will cover 5 simple steps to create marketing videos. This tutorial is important because video content is growing both in popularity and necessity. Videos are a powerful opportunity for digital marketing growth and lead generation.

Back to the Basics: 5 Simple Steps to Create Marketing Videos

Gather your resources.

Many video creators use smart phones to record. This is a simple way to start with tools that you already have. However, upgrading to a camera can really boost the impact of your production. Think about investing in a camera (or ask around the company to see if anyone has one they’re not using). In addition, look into mics and lights. A mic that captures the speaker’s voice clearly can cut out any audio fuzz that a phone recording has. A simple wall background with a light set up in the correct place quickly makes a video professional-looking. Once you’ve gathered your resources, you can move on to planning your video.

Focus on a buyer persona.

When beginning to craft your content, figure out your ideal buyer persona. Imagine your perfect customer/business connection. When you picture what this person is like, you can create content focused on them. An ideal buyer persona will affect language and tone. Your language should be appropriate for your target customer. If your ideal buyer is a highly academic scientist (e.g. if you’re marketing technical science tools), you can use technical language. If your ideal buyer is a normal Joe Schmoe, your language should avoid technical jargon. In that instance, if you need to include industry-related terms, offer a brief explanation as well. The video’s tone will also be affected by the buyer persona. A casual, conversational tone is preferred in some circles. In others, a professional tone is warranted. Once again, circle back to your target customer and plan your tone accordingly.

Plan your videos.

In order to create marketing videos, you need to come up with a scheduling and content plan. This will allow for an organized video presence. It will also help you, the video creator, to know what to expect. The timing and the content of the videos are the two major parts to figure out. First, make a scheduling plan. This means you decide how frequently you’ll post videos and when you’ll post them. You could post one video every week on Tuesday, for example. This schedule should work with your personal schedule and be at a time that your audience will watch them (more on that later).

Next comes planning the content of your videos. You have options here. There are educational, how-to, interview, case study, behind the scenes, and product videos, to name a few. If you diversify your content with all of those options, just make sure that they all connect to your company’s brand and purpose. Organizing these videos into series divided by topic or genre can help create a consistent schedule. Getting a schedule down on paper (or screen) will improve your video reliability and production.

Optimize videos for conversion.

To create marketing videos that pack a punch, create videos that are optimized for conversion. This includes a clear call-to-action, giving viewers options, finding the right publishing time, and making sure videos are also optimized for SEO. A call-to-action at the end of the video (or in the description) increases the chance that the viewer will do something with the video once it’s done. Links to your website or social media can get more traffic on your pages. Making the videos short and easy to share on social media also increases the chance that the viewers will share/show to their colleagues. In the same vein, give your viewers a few options for how to contact you. Two to three options (like a phone number, online form, and email address) allows your audience to choose an option they’re comfortable with.

When you publish your videos can also increase your conversion rate. Finding a publishing time when your audience is online allows them to easily come across your videos. To increase your video’s reach, it is important to optimize it for search engines as well. Keywords and link building are involved in this part of the process. When choosing tags and keywords, think about what your target audience might be searching to come across video content that you’re posting. In addition, focus on link-building because the number of links to your video impacts its search engine rankings.

Gather information from metrics.

Gathering information from your metrics is a key step when continuing to create marketing videos. Details to gather include: views, likes, shares, comments, conversion, and click-through-rate (if posted on social media). Once you’ve collected your data you can use it moving forward. For example, if a video has a lot of shares and engagement, continue on in the same vein. If a video isn’t shared or watched much, check the thumbnail, title, topic, and posting time. See if those factors need to be adjusted as you make more videos. Using information collected from previous videos allows you to use your time and resources in a helpful way for your company.

If you’d like to learn more about the how to make your videos stand out among the crowd, contact us at RedMoxy. We’ve been successful in serving our clients to becoming impactful in their industry. Click here or call (262) 303-4238.