Fine Tuning your Video Marketing Strategy
Before anything is ever done in terms of producing a video for your marketing campaign, a video marketing strategy must be in place.
Your video production will take time, effort and resources, so it's crucial to have everything planned before you even start with the shoot.
How will you reach your intended audience? Who are these people in the first place? Will they be worth spending money on as far as video production is concerned? What happens when your goals are not achieved in terms of engaging your market?
These are some questions and concerns that you might have as a marketing strategist for your business. And this is what we will be tackling in our discussion below. We want to make sure that your video marketing strategy is fine-tuned and ready to go before you begin your production.
Why are you making this video?
It's crucial to know the purpose behind your video production since this will direct all your decisions, efforts and resources. Your target audience will also be influenced by the reason why you are creating a film for your marketing strategy.
Are you planning on sending an important message across? Do you want to entertain your existing clients? Is your video meant to draw in new clients? Will it speak to fresh prospects? To which questions you will say yes to will impact everything else down the line in your video marketing strategy. So, it’s essential to be crystal clear about your purpose to know the direction on which you will go in your video production efforts.
Let’s look at some of the objectives for most videos.
To communicate a message
Why you are producing a video may be as simple as wanting to send a message to your recipients. For instance, you may have a policy or a new product or upgraded process that you want to share with your management team, the executives, some particular division in your organization or all the employees.
The people you want to reach are quite clear, and so the video that you will produce will be straightforward and clear cut. You are merely providing information, and you don't need to get into the buyer's persona or any similar consideration.
To entertain your clients
If you want to bring delight to your existing customers, it will also be reasonably effortless since you already know them, and they have already said yes to your offering that's why they are your loyal patrons. However, it's essential to keep entertaining your customer base so they will be your lifetime clients because they know you value them and their needs.
To connect with prospects and create leads
This part is where you will have to be targeting the right audience by knowing who your product or service is for. Who is your buyer? Where are they and how do you connect with them? Videos are fantastic ways to connect and engage, and you have to make sure that your film will talk about their needs and how you can address them better than others.
To draw in new customers and generate a sale
If your goal is to attract prospective customers to make a sale, your video must have a broad reach. You want your video to target as many people as possible within your target market, and to introduce your brand in the most impactful way such that your viewers will be pushed to buy.
They must realize the issues that they are facing today that your product can provide solutions to. It’s vital to cast as large a net as you can to create maximum interest for your brand and let the video work its magic in turning prospective buyers to loyal customers.
Who is your target audience?
As mentioned earlier, your “buyer’s persona” will come into play in your video marketing strategy. If you have already identified your purpose for producing a video, you will also have your target audience in mind. This intended viewer will have a specific set of characteristics: demographics, hobbies, daily problems, interests, and goals, among others.
Keep in mind that this unique personality is who your video is going to talk to. So, it has to be set through much planning and research.
Creating your buyer’s persona
There are several ways to go about developing the personality of your target buyers. But here are some tips and techniques that you can go through to create yours.
Go through all your sources
First, you can try to sit down with your sales team and even your customer service employees to have an idea of the things that people who call in ask about, complain about or the issues that they share with your people.
Also, try going through your online content and check the metrics that show the kind of topics that people mostly engage with, the ones that they like and follow and your social shares. You can also go old school and conduct a focus group discussion to get to know your existing clients or the ones who are customers of a competitor brand.
Lastly, you can try to run over your company lists of contacts and discover trends that have developed over time. There may be other sources that you can tap, so make sure to go over all of them to have a comprehensive basis for your buyer's persona.
Use guide questions
Using the information gathered earlier, you can now answer some directed questions to narrow the characteristics of your buyer.
To start, you must have an overall name for your buyer so that it will be quick and easy to refer to it in your conversations. This name typically includes a first name and an identifier for your buyer. Remember that you are referring to a real person so he must have demographic information such as a particular gender, age, residence and income classification. To go even deeper, your persona must have personality traits. Does this person have specific interests and hobbies? What does he most often listen to or watch? Is shopping online or in physical shops something that this individual likes?
Generate as many questions as you can to give as detailed a description of your buyer's persona as possible. What are the issues that your buyer is facing at the moment? Does he seek help to find solutions? What daily challenges is he going through?
Lastly, home in on the most critical questions that relate to your product or service offering. Will your buyer be interested in trying your brand? Does your company address a particular concern that he has? What will hinder your target buyer from purchasing your product?
Creating your buyer's persona need not be limited to just one. You can have as many as you need depending on how vast the scope of your product's offering is. The essential thing is to cover all your bases, making sure that you capture all primary buyer types that you will be reaching.
How can you best connect with your market?
Deciding on which platforms will best reach your target audience is also one of the most critical factors in your video marketing strategy. Your earlier research and development of buyer's persona will come in handy as you choose among several ways to connect with your viewers.
Some variables that you have to consider are:
Age
How young your market is will dictate where they are in terms of the online scene. In some studies, it shows that the older generation frequent Facebook more than the younger millennials, who prefer visually engaging social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram.
Hangout
Different people hang out in varied places on the web. Consider an email campaign to roll out your videos if you already have a customer base, but if you're attracting prospects, then you may need to post on broad-reach video hosting sites like YouTube.
Performance tracking
It's now relatively easy to track the metrics for your videos as some sites have integrated performance monitoring for your videos. You will know how many people viewed your post, liked or followed it or shared it to others. Facebook even has an audience targeting which can help you significantly.
Final words
Following the simple steps above will help you develop your video marketing strategy and put you on the path towards accomplishing your company objectives. Never begin a video production venture without having to sit down and create this first.
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