Video marketing involves developing videos to help market a brand, product, or service. When these videos are posted to social media platforms and have a well thought out strategy behind them, the impact on your business can be significant.
Social media video marketing can take many forms, and the content you will end up producing is often based on your goals and target audience.
While most brands already have social media accounts, many of them are just beginning to embrace the power of social media video marketing, so in this article we’re going to cover everything you need to know about social media video marketing to give you a head-start on your competition.
Why Is Social Media Video Marketing Important?
Social media video marketing is more important now than ever before!
Many users spend their time on social media watching and interacting with videos - according to a Wyzowl survey done in 2022, 85% of those surveyed indicated that they wanted to see more videos from brands in place of other forms of marketing.
With those types of numbers, it only makes sense for your brand to invest more in social media video marketing and to appeal to your target audience in the correct way.
And with video production becoming more and more accessible, from equiptment to film videos filmed in-house, to hiring a video production company to take care of the your video marketing for you, choosing to put your video strategy on the back-burner will give your competitors a significant head start.
Creating a Social Media Video Marketing Strategy
Creating videos for the sake of creating videos is unlikely to help your business grow; you’re going to want to implement a well thought out strategy for social media videos.
Set Goals
Many marketers begin making social media videos without first taking the time to set goals - as a result they often wind up wasting their time and money.
Before you think of anything else, you need to know what your goals are as this will guide the entire process.
What do you want your video to accomplish?
You may want to increase brand awareness, convince customers to buy something, acquire new customers, or increase trust in your brand.
Different goals will lead to different types of videos and perhaps different social media channels too.
Types of Videos
There are many types of videos to create for your social media video strategy, and as mentioned above, the type of video you create will align with the goal you have in mind.
It will also depend on your target audience and the chosen platform.
Below are a few types of video you may wish to consider:
Explainer
Explainer videos help users learn a new skill related to your industry. These videos may or may not feature one of your products.
Tutorial
Tutorial videos teach your customers how to use a specific product. Tutorial videos are great if your product has detailed instructions for use.
Storytelling
Videos that focus on telling a story are great for building brand awareness.
Behind the Scenes
These videos may give your customers insights into how your brand operates or how products are created and are another way to create brand awareness.
Live
Live videos may be used for a product launch or to build excitement around an announcement from your brand.
Choose Your Channels
All of the major social media channels now have video posting capabilities. Depending on your goals and budget, you may or may not want to create videos for every channel.
You will likely want to start on the channel where your target audience is most likely to spend their time.
While it may seem easiest to create one video and post it on all the channels, that's not the best approach.
Each social media channel has its own style, so a far better approach involves creating videos that are multi-purpose by re-editing videos to fit the style of the platform that it’s being posted on.
Videos can be in landscape or portrait. You can create permanent videos, live videos and disappearing content.
Facebook is great if your target audience is an adult demographic, particularly millennials and beyond. Almost any type of video works well and the platform allows you to create playlists for series.
Instagram offers many options. Videos can be in landscape or portrait. You can create long-form or short-form content and also have the option for live or disappearing content.
Instagram is great for millennials and younger demographics.
TikTok
TikTok is relatively new for marketers but has lots of potential with a younger target audience. You should stick to short, vertical videos.
Twitter allows both portrait and landscape videos. You can create live and disappearing content. This platform is good if you're advertising to a professional market.
YouTube
YouTube primarily uses landscape, but you can use portrait as well. YouTube is great for long-form content, but short and live content also do well. Almost every demographic is on YouTube.
Create Your Videos
Be sure to allow ample time for video creation. You should have a script and storyboard before getting started.
Unless you're doing something simple, you may want to look into hiring professionals for filming. If you have to film it yourself, spend some time learning the best practices for filming a video for online distribution.
Don't Forget About Post Production
Once you've filmed your video, there's still work to do. Post-production is where you'll edit the video. You'll also include any effects, like text or animation. Finally, you'll clean up the sound and add music (if you want music).
Post-production is important because it can give your video the professional quality you want. Some editing is simple enough to do yourself, while other videos may require a professional.
You may opt to repurpose your content. For example, if you filmed the same video in landscape and portrait, it can be edited for different platforms.
Distribution
There are a few factors to consider when it comes to distribution. Be sure to follow each platform's best practices by using the appropriate tags and titles.
You may opt to explore some paid promotion for your videos if you want to ensure that people see them.
Analytics
Don't forget about monitoring your analytics!
Each platform will provide you with analytics for your videos. You can see how many views you get and how much of a video your users view.
These statistics are essential when it comes to refining your video marketing strategy.
Parting Thoughts
A strong social media video marketing strategy can be a game-changer for your brand. With more and more people preferring video content to images or text, it's an easy way to reach your customers. As you learn more about video trends, you'll be able to resonate with them even more.