Video Marketing Strategy 101: Beginner Video Marketing

The big time online Video Marketing for the masses has come.

The buzz of viral videos we’ve covered such as the Old Spice TV and online commercials for consumers or the achievement of B2B informational videos like Network Hardware Resale’s video, have compelled small and large businesses alike to enter the arena of online video marketing.

You are no doubt aware that if your organization hasn't strategized a video marketing plan yet, you’ll need to – now's the time to start!

You're in the right place to being; in this article I cover the methods to creating a marketing strategy for video.

Then I carry on in-depth about create a video yourself with my article How to Make a Promotional Video  << bookmark this comprehensive guide for later!

Let's get started…

Game Plan for The Medium-to-Large Company

From a marketing standpoint, the typical scenario is a company has identified that there is an opportunity to reach out and grasp the chance to publicize their brand using online video. They have to get a video produced and then get it out there and actually seen!

It’s either be first to market, or play catch-up – a competitor will no doubt implement their own video marketing strategy too!

It’s a choice for all businesses – be a leader, or be a “me-too”.

A company with contemporary vision of what is what will look inward and identify what strategy will work well for them and what they intend to attain by means of video promotion. We recommended to create a plan by having a statement similar to this: Acme Company aims to accomplish X objective and believes that Y video advertising strategy is the correct means to proceed because of Z market realization opportunities.

Strategies for The Small Organization or Business

In addition, it is smart to forecast foreseeable results for a given future date.

Is the video advertising endeavor concentrated on converting sales into profits? Or, perhaps the video is designed as a means to build brand awareness in new channels, inform potential consumers, and connect with clients or present idea to web surfers and the media. Being tactical about this choice is important; be careful with the do-it-yourself versus hiring a production company choice – each have their costs, and will affect your business years to come.

Regardless of which goal is chosen and the outcome aim is, take a crack at explaining the return on investment (ROI) goals. Don't be afraid to make adjustments as necessary if need be! If you’re absolutely serious about investing in professional video marketing, your video strategy needs an expert marketer brought on board. A contractor brought on early will assist with the planning and set-up, hand-holding as necessary.

Hence, it is not dissimilar to a corporate website design or overhaul – as we’ve covered in other articles, just creating a video doesn’t mean your work is done! Make sure you cover all the bases!

Three Golden Nuggets of Advice

A Completed Video is Only Half Done

Expanding on what we just mentioned, often a near 40-50% of a Hollywood Blockbuster film’s total budget is spent on advertising the film itself! If it's a $150 million film, this means a cool $75 million was likely allotted for advertising! If your organization is serious about their marketing, knowing how important promoting an ad is crucial – it's a good idea to apply this percentage rule of thumb to promotional videos too! Assuming that YouTube is the suitable platform to execute your video advertising campaign, then the promotion continues on farther than simply uploading the video YouTube itself. Not to say you ought to spend another 100% on marketing the video you just paid for, but rather, think of the completed video as just the first step of two.

Video Needs a Distribution Strategy

Online distribution is important, and doesn’t have to be expensive. The second-most highly ranked search engine with which is notably integrated with social networking attributes is YouTube. Moreover, videos can be displayed in basic search results like Yahoo and Google and at the same time, these can be embedded right into pages without difficulty on your websites and blogs without limit. Additionally, the mixture of RSS dispersal, incorporation in various social websites such as Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube together with native messaging qualities, offer plentiful viewing platforms for the videos you have created.

Pre-Production Testing

Even if you test your videos with a few viewers in order to gain knowledge for the appropriate set-up and configuration, it is exceptionally helpful to draft a perspective design of your videos that tackles the subject, time length, keywords, distribution channels, and your own chosen metrics of success. On any video camera, test clips can be shot and shared privately using password-protected videos on Vimeo and YouTube to gauge positive reception. As soon as you have found right balance and production style that balances the needs of your audience and your resources, then you can begin producing and broadcasting your videos online as outlined in your strategy!

Beginner Key Action Strategies

Grab a YouTube & Google+ Account:

You need to have a Google account first before you can gain access to YouTube. Your account in Google may contain your personal profile and it may be linked to certain social networking sites, blogs, and other websites.

Points to Consider

• Who else will be moderating your accounts?
• Should a new account be created in the brand's name so that a variety of people can login using this account?

Google+ Business Page and YouTube Channel Set-up

Represent your videos well – house them in a professioanlly laid out YouTube Channel and page, much like a website or brochure.

Points to Consider

• Will you just use the template looks for the YouTube Channel, or will your graphic design/advertising company customize your Channel to match your branding?
• Will time be spent to connect YouTube to other social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and more?

Online Distribution Plan

This comprises the main subject that encompasses your video and the sites where they can be advertised effectively. Aside from YouTube, there are still other websites that host video service like Flickr, Blip.TV, Vimeo and Podcasting. Blip.TV is powerful because it offers syndication services – in essence, if you upload to Blip.TV, it’ll become a Podcast on the very popular iTunes Podcasts! To get started on video your video strategy, click here.

Build your Video Social Networking Klout

In YouTube, there is a social networking element that you must work with. Also of course, the oft-mentioned Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. Spend time with each, set them up and have a strategy to monitor them on a regular basis. It’s no good opening shop if no one’s there to service customers. It’s well advised to hire a social media strategist to consult and assist in the education process if your organization is unfamiliar with these services. But it will really help to understand by doing – build your social media Klout!

Make your Video easily Favorable

There are a lot of ways on how to increase the viewership of your videos. Spend time or hire a professional search engine optimization (SEO) company to work on headings, tags, descriptions, and creative playlists. The playlist may contain videos of other video producers – why not share! It’s win-win. In order to be authoritative on a certain subject, you have to bring in the videos that you have made and incorporate with it videos of other internet users which would bring sales to your site.

Targeting: Video Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Strategically use keywords, ratings, comments, to increase exposure and thereby views, whcih are the aspects by which videos are ranked with popularity. Support the performance and influence of the titles and tags of videos with high ranking on your themes so as you can be inspired to create more videos. To read more in depth on video SEO read  10 Ways to Optimize Keyword Tags!

Measure for Results

[embedit snippet=”ad2″] Built-in measuring tools can be found in YouTube, Twitter, Google Analytics and more can be purchased. Without keeping of track where your campaign started, it’s difficult to know where it is in terms of success, and where it’s headed! Furthermore, look at your competitor’s views and incoming traffic on YouTube videos, and use this free information to further target your own strategies. Examine the set-up, layout, and essence of the content. Ask yourself various questions: “What factors made this work? What chances were lost? What can I present to the public that is exceptional and appealing? With what social media channels can I work with?”

Absorb within your being the goals you want to reach and the needs of your customers. Know what video hosting sites works for you and acclimatize the central points of your videos according to the objectives of the company and most especially to the needs of customers.

Now, Get Started and Create Your Own Video!

You’ve got a good basis now for why it’s important to create a strategy, and how to roughly being your own!