Video Marketing Basics for Startups

Let’s state this upfront, and as clearly as possible. Video is the future of digital marketing. It predates digital, and the technology to support video marketing has been around for a long time. In fact, it outperforms PPC by a factor of five. However, it seems that many business owners are just now realizing video marketing’s potential. If you’re just now starting to explore the world of video marketing, there’s a lot you’ll need to know. In this article, we’ll cover the basics of video marketing.

WHY DOES VIDEO MARKETING MATTER TO YOUR BRAND?

Video is incredibly important for your brand as a whole, not just for marketing purposes. It can clearly explain your brand’s story – it can tell potential customers exactly what you do, and why you do it better than your competitors. Imagine landing on a website and struggling to figure out exactly what that firm did based on the text content of their home and about pages. That can take a lot of time, and most consumers aren’t willing to make that investment and will bounce out. A video could explain exactly what your business does in as little as 30 seconds, and encourage visitors to move deeper into your funnel, as opposed to opting out.

HOW CAN YOU HARNESS THE POWER OF VIDEO MARKETING?

An important question to answer before getting started, is what role video marketing plays for a startup (or any mature company growing). You’ll find video is an ideal medium for any number of uses, including to:

Educate

Entertain

Persuade

Convert

Each of these touchpoints is a crucial step deeper into your funnel. It starts with educating your audience about your product or service, or your company as a whole. It moves on to entertaining them and cementing your brand in their minds. Next comes the persuasion stage, where you highlight the benefits of what you offer to your audience. Finally, video can be used to convert – taking what are now warm leads and transforming them into customers. Think of this as a unique combination of push and pull marketing.

WHERE SHOULD YOU UTILIZE VIDEO CONTENT?

When it comes to video marketing for startups, another question that needs to be addressed is where you should put your video to work. What platform should you use?

YouTube is probably the first platform that comes to mind. It’s grown to become the second largest search engine in the world, second only to Google, itself. You can also post much longer videos on YouTube than on other platforms. Understand this is a very broad play and Youtube’s agenda is getting people to watch more and more content, even if it’s not yours. You may want to consider a closed-network platform like Wistia, where you can control the user’s behaviors with CTAs and lead page forms, vs. being presented with several more (competitors) videos to watch. Also the analytics from Wistia give you clear read on viewing engagement dropoffs and actions so that you can optimize the video and reload it again (yes, without losing the link). Youtube doesnt allow you to modify anything but sound.

Facebook is another important platform. And Wistia also allows you to tether API data into FB so that you can have a clearer attribution path from their platform to your platform (your website). You can (and should) also use your video content on commercial sites that allow advertising. Short, punchy video ads can do a great deal to build brand recognition and incite curiosity about what your company offers, and you get to play on the same level as Fortune 500 companies if you want.

Finally, video content also needs to be integrated across your website and all the way down into your email marketing campaigns.

INCORPORATING VIDEOS INTO YOUR CONTENT MARKETING PLAN

Content marketing is a “must” for businesses of all sizes today. You must be able to provide value to your audience. Content marketing includes a wide range of elements, from blog posts and articles to e-books and whitepapers. Video has an important role here. You can use it in brand storytelling, as top of funnel content on landing pages, as educational or how-to content, and more. Press coverage also loves rich media like video to put alongside their articles.

Also note, you can start by repurposing all of your existing written content into a video plan… but hire an expert to put that brand-response touch on it. Video should use storytelling to help it feel more human and emotional.

Understand that short-term value content is less important than long-term value, or evergreen, content. You need to ensure that you’re integrating both types into your overarching marketing plan, using short-term content to drive audiences to your evergreen content, and then deeper into your funnel.

GOALS AND KPIS

When it comes to video marketing for startups, you also need to know a bit more about the goals and KPIs for your video content. These can include everything from building brand awareness to fostering better audience engagement, and improving audience conversion. Brief video ads can build awareness, while longer-format content can educate and inform. Using video on social media and through email can bump up engagement, and how-to or benefits-oriented video content can drive conversion.

IN-HOUSE OR OUTSOURCE YOUR VIDEO?

So, given the importance of video marketing for your startup, you’re faced with the decision of whether to create your videos in-house, or hire an agency. Going the in-house route might seem like the most affordable solution, but it can shortchange you in terms of quality and strategy. Ideally, an agency can ensure that your videos are of professional quality, but also work hand-in-hand with your business to build a strategy that enhances success… and by success we mean MAJOR ROI.

In the end, video is the future of content marketing. As mentioned by Forbes, video is expected to make up 80% of all web traffic by 2019, and 90% of consumers report that video content has helped them make a purchase decision. If you’re not using this powerful tool, you’re shortchanging your business.

Noble Digital is a creative-performance partner that helps growth companies translate their vision into an integrated marketing strategy that performs. Find out what we can do to revolutionize your next brand-response video.