People love watching videos online. This is why video marketing is thriving. Videos are the newest media trend for customers to experience a brand in a positive and fun way. As a matter of fact, Axonn Research found that 7 in 10 people view brands in a more positive light after watching interesting video content from them.

This love for videos is creating a literal explosion of online video content. In fact, numerous studies have indicated that videos are expected to dominate more than 90 percent of total online content within the next ten years. Ninety percent! No wonder businesses everywhere are budgeting for upcoming video marketing. Are you?

If not, you should be!

Video content is extremely effective in establishing brand identity, communicating a value proposition, and ultimately increasing conversions by driving traffic to your social media pages and website. Let’s explore the “how to’s” of video marketing and a few examples of businesses that are running really successful video marketing campaigns.

What is a ”Brand” Video?

A ”brand” video illustrates the brand identity of your business, often including its core employees, and communicates the value proposition. A branding video is usually shot on-location as an interview with the company leadership and employees, and there’s a growing trend in brand videos to replace live shots with visually-stimulating motion graphics animation. These videos make great headliners for website pages and can even be broken up into smaller clips perfect for sharing on social media platforms.

Leveraging Video on Social Media

“Brand” videos can be cut into short 15-second clips that are more easily consumed and shared on social media sites such as Vine, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. In addition, videos can be created specifically for social media. These videos are usually short and either present a product/service in a positive, visual demonstration/description OR provide “how-to” or other informative tips that are fun and relevant to the brand’s audience. The latter example is more common on social media, since it encourages brand engagement without the feel of a sales pitch and is more likely to be shared. According to ClickZ, 37 percent of users are more likely to engage with social content when there is a promise of video.

Video is HUGE on social media for this reason. A creative, well-marketed video has a great opportunity to go viral with shares and get your brand in front of new potential customers and partners. One thing all viral videos have in common is that they are, by nature, attention-grabbing and set apart from the crowd. Give your audience something relevant to laugh, cheer, smile, or generally be thinking “WOW” about, and your brand will have a recipe for video marketing success on social media.

Marketing Your Video

Even if you have the most amazing video ever created, if you haven’t properly optimized and promoted it, it’s going to be really hard for people to find it (and share it). Let’s review useful video promotion tips:

1. Make the title count. You not only want your video title to catch the attention of would-be viewers, you want it to catch the attention of search engines, too. Tactfully choose keywords with low competition and high monthly searches that are most relevant to your video content. Keep the title as concise as possible, preferably less than 70 characters. It’s important to position your keywords as close to the beginning of the title as possible.

2. Use hashtags and tags. When posting videos on platforms such as Vine, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter – always optimize for relevant tags or hashtags.

3. Capture the best thumbnail. Following your video where ever it may be shared online, the thumbnail is a critical component to the SEO value of your video. Always choose a thumbnail that most accurately portrays what to expect in the content. If your video includes real people, use a thumbnail with faces of the actors. When your video is animated, choose a clip that includes the most color and variety. Always be sure the thumbnail is a high resolution image that looks good both small and enlarged.

4. Include call to action (CTA). Always include a CTA – what action you want the viewer to perform. YouTube allows a clickable CTA link within your video. On Twitter, Instagram and other platforms, you can add the CTA in the description or comments with the appropriate links. If your video is a recorded webinar or information-rich, consider requiring a lead capture form to be completed before viewing. This will reduce the number of views your video receives, but, it will likely increase the number of real leads that your video generates. In order to do this, you can use a landing page redirect, or use a lead capture feature provided by your video host. Wistia has a great lead capture tool for its Business level subscribers, and it’s the video delivery platform we use for our website.

5. Consider paid promotion. Most media channels, including YouTube, allow paid video promotion which can give your video a boost and increase visibility. It can never hurt to budget for at least some paid promotion, especially in the early stages of your video marketing campaign.

Optimize Your Videos for Mobile Devices

Videos are huge across all internet devices, but they are especially huge on mobile. After Google’s “Mobilegeddon” search engine update, it’s a necessity to ensure your content looks great on any device, including your videos. When posting your videos to other platforms such as YouTube, mobile optimization is already taken care of. Where you need to exercise caution is when you are posting videos to your own website. Be sure to choose a quality video delivery platform that responsively optimizes for different user screen sizes.

Tips and Tricks to Build Your Brand with Video

• Optimize for search engines. Always optimize your videos for viewers AND search engines. Use keywords that do more than just promote search engine optimization. Choose meta descriptions, title tags and keywords that illustrate and convey the values and beliefs of your company that shape your brand.
• Take advantage of video comments. A big mistake often made is not utilizing video comments. On YouTube, encourage a conversation and make sure to set up alerts in your account for comment activity. Comments provide a great opportunity to identify leads and convey your brand messaging.
• Keep your identity consistent. Make sure the brand identity you are conveying is consistent throughout your videos. This includes your logo, colors, design, theme, even the font you use.
• Keep it simple. A stumbling block that often trips up marketers is the tendency to try to be clever or crafty. Very rarely does this marketing tactic work. Simplicity works. Create a straightforward video that leaves an impression and creates a clear message about your brand.
• Be unique. You need to convince consumers your business offers value that cannot be found from the competition. Create compelling videos that are original and leave an impact and you will increase the views, leads, and shares that your video generates.

Video Branding Success Stories

Here we are – the companies that “get” video marketing! Let’s look at a few video campaigns that do a great job of capturing their brand.

1. Chipotle

Chipotle is using video marketing to effectively convey their brand. In this video, notice how the theme, color scheme, and design reflects the natural approach they’ve taken with food preparation and cooking. Chipotle created this scarecrow video as part of their “Food With Integrity” sustainable farming campaign that helps grow awareness of the unhealthy and cruel practices of industrial food processing and illustrates the story of how Chipotle began.

2. Jamie Casino

When used effectively, video marketing can take your brand awareness from a local level to being a national or even worldwide household name.

This video ad for Casino’s Law, a personal injury law firm in Savannah Georgia went viral. This particular commercial delivers a powerful message that conveys the very heart and soul of his law firm – an important component to the overall brand identity of his business.

3. BlendTec

Promoting a powerful blender, BlendTec decided to demonstrate the strength of its product by demolishing expensive electronics and other unusual items. This video also does a great job of entertaining social media viewers with a short and funny clip.

4. Phonebloks

Creating awareness to the problem of excess electronic waste, this Phonebloks video brings attention to the massive amounts of electronic garbage that accumulate in the landfills. By demonstrating the need for a phone that can be fixed instead of thrown away, the company establishes its brand as one that values product innovation and a cleaner environment.

5. Ram Trucks

Stepping away from traditional truck commercials that highlight the power of the vehicle, this Ram Trucks ad is a perfect example of how to effectively convey your company’s values with video. The Paul Harvey ”God Made a Farmer” recording combined with the powerful images in this video demonstrate the company’s commitment to loyalty, devotion and dedication.

Setting the Plan in Motion

Creating a marketing plan for your video – even if it’s just a quick outline – is essential to its success. Before you invest time and money on production and promotion activities, make sure you plan and document the specifics of how the video is going to help generate buzz and interest in your products or services, and how you’re going to measure its impact.

As a final tip, a good video is better than no video! Video has become so popular that even if you lack the time or resources to make an “outstanding” professional-quality video, a “good” video can still produce results in the areas you are targeting.

No time to create and market your videos? We can help! 🙂 If you loved the post, share this video marketing advice with someone who can use it!