How to Make The Best Out of Video Marketing?

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Video marketing or YouTube marketing is no longer an extension to your traditional marketing strategy. It plays an irreplaceable role in your outreach and campaign efforts … especially your social media strategy.

The best part is that video production is very easy today, and cost-effective. You can record videos in 4K high-quality using your pocket smartphone, edit videos on-the-go using free online video editing platforms such as Canva & Figma and upload them on audience-rich platforms to instantly receive feedback on your content.

Having said that, are you planning to shoot your next Oscar-winning content? Simply, NO! Your piece of video content has to reach your desired audience on social media, considering a crisis with time, money and resources.

So how do you make the most and best out of your video and YouTube marketing campaigns, that lands you the right leads?

4 Best Practices For Video & YouTube Marketing

Best Practices #1: Develop Right Content For Your Audience

You’ll rarely hear some guy on the streets of New York scream, ‘Hey, cowboy!’ That’s more common in Texas!

We exchange communication styles with changing geographical regions, why don’t we do the same on digital grounds? Your audience need a different set of tone with changing social media platforms and buyer stages.

Awareness Stage

Your potential buyer realizes a problem or challenge in the real world. Their struggle to find a solution lands them on your video, considering you have tailored your YouTube video for the awareness stage, meaning your video delivers only informational content. In this stage, your videos only cater to the informational search intent of the potential buyer.

Example: instructional videos, how-to videos, webinars and similarly others.

Consideration Stage

Now, your potential buyer is considering your product-as-a-solution to their problem. They’re researching about your product, reading online recommendations, watching product reviews and testimonials that can help them make the purchase decision. As part of your YouTube marketing efforts, at this stage, your videos help the potential buyer navigate to your website or any landing pages, amidst all the chaos.

You should create video content that helps your potential buyer understand your product, its features and why it’s the most cost-effective solution for their mentioned problem-statement.

Example: demo product videos, about-us videos, comparison videos and similarly others.

Decision Stage

The potential buyer has nearly chosen you as their solution-provider. Now, all your videos have to do is confirm that decision. At this stage, a proof of customer satisfaction can help break the tie between you and your competitor.

Example: testimonial videos, full-length product demos and similarly others.

Best Practices #2: Narrow Your Audience

Do you know your audience? Do you know what kind of a person follows your content? This is called, ‘knowing your target audience’.

It’s a crucial step, as without it, your YouTube marketing efforts are going to be a flop. The viewers who are meant to watch it won’t, and those who watch it won’t convert to a lead. So, how do you recognize your target audience?

Develop your buyer’s persona. It’s a fancy name for creating a profile of your potential buyer, including the likes, dislikes, current livelihood, personal achievements, career goals and other personal and behavioral traits.

Develop a buyer’s persona for every product or service offering. This way your YouTube marketing efforts reach the right audience, in other words, your potential buyers. Let me make this easy for you to view the complete picture by using the Who, What, Where formula -

1. Who would buy your product?
2. What do you want to achieve with this piece of video content?
3. Where does your target audience hang out?

By answering these questions, you’ll be able to chart out a strategy to create the right content for the right audience, thereby extracting maximum value out of your video marketing efforts.

Which Kind of Videos Does Your Audience Love?

1. Interviews: You can record a talk-show with thought-leaders and experts. It helps you establish trust and build authority with your target audience.
2. Case Studies: Your most loyal customers are your brand’s best advocates. A video as a case study helps strengthen your prospect’s purchase decision.
3. Personal Recommendation: A video can be a great way to continue a conversation ahead from email or text. Create a delightful experience for your potential buyer by either recording a video providing personal recommendation for the user or a live video to resolve the challenges faced by the potential buyer. You can even choose to upload it on YouTube as a case study, as part of your marketing strategy, of course, by the permission of your prospect.
4. Product Demos: Nobody wants to read an article online to understand how your product works. That would be like reading a manual or a documentation. You can create a product demo showcasing the different features and use cases. The best examples are unboxing videos, drop tests and others.
5. Live Videos: Live videos are trending for brands as they give your viewers a bonus, behind-the-scenes look at your company. Live videos draw higher engagement rates. Live streaming allows you to connect with your audience and answer their questions in real-time.

Best Practices #3: Keep Your Timelines Clear

Your team productivity is a result of strict timelines and time management. There are many discs spinning at varying speeds from creative ideation, adding graphics, editing, rendering, distribution and YouTube marketing to social media and community building.

To succeed at video marketing, you need to co-ordinate between multiple timelines from pre-production and post-production to distribution and marketing timelines and more. It’s easy to lose your way. Your timeline helps you stay on track and leverage time and resources to extract maximum value.

Spending more than allotted time on post-production editing will slice your time off marketing activities, lowering your ROI (Return-on-Investment). Timelines can help you assess where your efforts are not being met with equal returns. Your timeline is your guiding light, keeping you on top of all your tasks and objectives.

Timelines are not only for teams but for individuals as well. It’s not micro-management when every team member knows what to do! Every team member is responsible and accountable to others, keeping everyone informed of schedules and deadlines. So, if the social media manager faces trouble with uploading the video, the post-production editor can quickly get back and render a different version compatible with the platform.

Here’s a timeline you can follow -

Approximately 2 Weeks for Strategy

• Story
• Objectives
• Budget
• Timeline

Approximately 1 Month for Execution/Production

• Pre-production
• Production
• Post-Production

Another 2 Weeks for Distribution & Marketing

• Owned
• Paid
• Earned

Bonus #4: Earn Big Bucks With Affiliate Marketing Using Youtube

As your loyal customers advocate for you and your brand, similarly with affiliate marketing, you advocate for some other product or service that aligns with your marketing strategy in exchange for revenue.

You insert an affiliate link under the description of your YouTube video recommending a product or service for your viewers to buy. You can attract more viewers by providing a coupon code discount for those who click the affiliate link from your description.

If you can get another brand to sponsor your video, you can add an affiliate link for them in your description and mention the product in your video (as per the new norms on YouTube, you have to specify if the video is sponsored or not, specifically selecting a checkbox while uploading your video). With affiliate marketing, you win, your sponsors win, everybody wins!