webdev If you are looking for a proven way to improve your conversion and stop losing customers, then you need a fool proof video content strategy.
According to statistics released in 2015, 70% of marketers reported that video is more effective at converting than any other form of media. And if the current statistics are anything to go by, before the end of 2019, video will account for 80% of internet traffic. This means that for your small business to compete favourably in your industry, you need to think about creating compelling video content for your audience and your business.
The following ideas will help you get started:
Create a video content plan –
As with everything else in life, the first step to success is putting a good plan in place.
There are dozens of platforms on the internet where you can showcase your videos including YouTube, social media and even your website, but at the end of the day, it is all about the content. Your video content is what will attract, influence, nurture and convert.
Google has this to say about planning for video content “Before making videos for your organisation, create a content plan to ensure that your content is in line with your corporate goals, and can actively engage your intended audience”.
Your video content plan should be able to answer the following questions:
- How does the video content fit into the buyer’s journey?
- Will the video content appeal to your target audience?
- How and where will the video content be delivered, used, and shared?
Take advantage of video SEO –
As a small business owner with an online presence, you have probably heard about SEO. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the activities you carry out that increases your website’s visibility on the internet. But do you know that SEO for video also exist?
The internet is a large place with lots of content for people to choose from therefore to succeed in your video marketing, you will need the right video optimisation strategy. In order for your business videos to rank high in search results (YouTube, Google and social media), you will need to optimise two important parts – video information and user engagement.
Optimising video information means adding relevant keywords to video title and descriptions. It also means using alt tags so that search algorithms can understand what you video is about.
Optimising user engagement means going out of your way to make more people like and share your videos. The more engagement your video has, the higher it ranks.
Optimise for conversion –
Once you have a good video SEO strategy in place, you will have a lot of people viewing your videos. But it is one thing for people to view your videos and another for your videos to actually convert. To move your audience further down the conversion funnel, you will need to optimise your videos for conversion.
How can you do this?
- Have a clear call to action: the success of your video marketing depends on how clear your objective is, whether you want to just pass a message, need more leads or looking to close a sale. Whatever your objective is, it is your CTA that would tell your audience what to do.
There are several ways to do this: include a direct message in the audio of the video, add a link at the end of the video leading to where you want your audience to arrive.
However, don’t forget that it is vital you make it easy for people to engage with your video.
- Know the right time to publish:find out the best time to share your videos so that you can get the most views and engagement as soon as possible. This is actually simpler than it looks; if you properly study and understand your target audience, you will know where and when they spend more time online.
- Offer incentives: consider giving people a reason to watch and share your videos as soon as they are published. This could mean giving out discounts, freebies and so on.
Spy on the competition –
As a small business, you need every help you can get to compete favourably in the marketplace, and knowing what the competition is doing is one way to remain ahead at all times.
Visit websites, social media profiles and video pages of competing businesses to see what they are doing, then carry out a video content audit to see where you are missing out. Are there topics that should be on your platform that would really benefit your audience?
There are a thousand and one things you can learn by spying on the competition. What they are doing that you are not, what they are not doing well and mistakes that you should avoid.
If you have some spare change in your marketing budget, you may want to consider investing in a tool that would let you see the competitor’s top keywords, the pages they get the most traffic and what they are ranking for.
Measure and adjust –
For your video content strategy to succeed, you need to constantly measure to determine your costs, results, failures and successes. This would provide the insight you need to make adjustments until you arrive at the perfect content strategy.
There are dozens of tools on the internet that you can use to determine the content that resonates best with your intended audience, see the number of likes, dislikes and shares, analyse your video demographics and track traffic sources. Look for one that best suits your needs and use it to monitor how well your strategy is working.
Get help if you need it –
Running a successful video marketing campaign for your small business can be daunting at first, especially when you take a look at the resources big business commit to their video campaign. At this point, it may be a prudent idea to consider a professional video production service for your branded content. This alternative has the advantage of putting you on a level playing field (in terms of resources and expertise) with businesses that are ahead of you.
Wrapping up
It takes time and effort to create videos that perform, but with the right video content strategy and a bit of creativity, you can create videos that inspire, engage, connect and encourage people to watch and take the actions you require of them.
