Check-list for your social media video marketing strategy
by Natalia Lopez
Huge congrats, my friends. You’ve realised video marketing is the fastest way to grow your business and have taken the plunge into developing a video marketing strategy.
As curious crabs and seasoned industry pros, let us gently guide you through this vast ocean of limitless possibilities and ensure you emerge victorious on your marketing meander!
Here are our top 5 tips and tricks for getting the most out of your video content strategy.
1.Set measurable goals
Although it seems obvious, you’d be surprised how many brands launch their video marketing without first identifying their goals.
With the sheer amount of content available to consumers increasing every second, forgetting to set measurable goals decreases your chances of delivering effective video campaigns that meet your brand’s aims and the need’s of your all important consumers.
Depending on how it was created, every video that doesn’t grow your audience, generate leads or build brand awareness can cost you a combination of time, money and resources.
Having a clear vision for your marketing strategy and having a way of measuring how well it helps you achieve your goals are integral for optimising your strategy and ensuring it stays on track.
Identifying measurable goals is often the first mission of an expert video production agency when working with new first time clients.
2. Match your goals to certain types of video
From explainer videos to recipe tutorials and behind-the-scenes coverage, sneak peeks, testimonials, product demos and interviews, the type of video content you create matters.
Knowing your target audience, researching your competitors and clearly defining your company values are all necessary steps to take so you can figure out the best type of content to suit your goals.
Matching your content to your target audience is also the best way to increase brand awareness and build those all important follower and subscriber numbers.
Depending on your product or service, certain audiences will prefer specific types of content. For example, using an interview or testimonial video to teach consumers how to use something and get the most out of their purchases may not be the smart choice.
Instead, short and easy to digest demos and tutorials are more likely to help you achieve your goals. Don’t be afraid of flexing your creative muscle when experimenting with video formats however, just be sure to narrow down the list first.
3. Decide and get to know your chosen social media platforms
TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube. Content creators aren’t short of video-hosting platforms, but choosing the right ones for your brand and learning to use them to their fullest potential is vital for increasing your chances of success.
Posting the same video on various platforms, or cross-pollinating your content as they say in the biz, seems like an easy benefit of creating video in the first place. However, the devil is in the detail, and you need to ensure things like your portrait and landscape aspect ratios, orientation, duration, dimensions and file size and video format are within the specifications of everywhere you want to post. Luckily, handy cheat sheets with most of this information are just one click away.
Some platforms also differ in terms of their additional post-production add-ons which include things like subtitles and filters. Getting to the bottom of what each platform offers is essential for leveraging its benefits as much as possible.
Certain audience demographics also form a larger proportion of some social media platforms. Knowing which ones your target audience use will help you develop video content that is more likely to reach their screens.
4. Plan and schedule content
Building brand awareness and growing your audience and follower number takes time. Still, several proven “hacks” help marketers jump-start the process for new businesses or those looking to reinvigorate a stagnating social media presence.
In the hack hierarchy, consistency often reigns supreme. Posting consistently and at specific times and days of the week can all have a huge effect on how well your content lands.
If your aim is to build a loyal following then consistency has the added benefit of encouraging returning viewers and subscribers. An audience will be more likely to keep coming back to your profiles and pages if you keep creating more of what brought them to you in the first place.
Having a plan outlined weeks or months in advance and taking advantage of automated scheduling tools like SocialPilot and Later will also help you keep things organised and further streamline your marketing strategy.
5. Collect and analyse data.
Whilst we know it’s tempting to release content into the world and sit back and hope for the best, such a short-term view won’t yield many results.
Analytics has become its own area of content marketing expertise and leverages the power of data to guide future marketing decisions. Armed with this knowledge companies can then make changes to things like content scheduling, video duration, type of video and choice of where to post.
Without analytics however, collecting data is futile. Always make sure you understand how to make sense of what you collect so you can react in a timely and effective manner.
Metrics like view count are standard but don’t scratch the surface of what content analysis is capable of. Things like click through rate (CTR), play rate, impressions, conversions and engagement are some of the more invaluable data that successful marketers use to determine the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Wrapping Up
So, video content marketing pals, there you have it, our top 5 tips and tricks for getting the most out of your social media video marketing strategy.
Use this essential check-list to give you a head start on your content creation journey.
If you need any help along the way, you know where to find us!
