Video is all the rage in social media marketing. It's been known for years that videos are more engaging, memorable, and attention-getting than graphics or text alone. However, video is even more critical because it's what customers want right now.
According to invideo, "72% of customers said they would rather learn about a product or service by way of video." The majority of businesses are using videos for marketing — 86% compared to 63% just three years ago, according to Wyzowl — and you don't want your brand getting left behind. Let’s discuss the role of video in one of the most popular marketing channels: social media.
Why Is Video Content Important?
Video content is a useful tool and should be a primary component of your content marketing strategy. Video can:
- Inform: You can educate prospective customers about how your products work, give them more details about the problems your company can solve, inform them about new product releases, and more.
- Entertain: Creating fun and engaging content keeps your brand top of mind, makes your content more shareable and creates a positive relationship between you and the audience.
- Persuade: Influencer videos, in-depth how-tos, and before-and-after videos can highlight the advantages and benefits of your products or services to move audiences through the buyer's journey quickly.
Video content can take on more than one of these objectives at a time; the best content can achieve all three. By educating your customers and building a relationship with them, you can position yourself as an authority in your market space and be far more recognizable than your competitors.
Creating videos is uniquely impactful; while any type of content can help achieve those objectives, video can more easily attract your audience's passive and active attention. They might have a YouTube video on in the background, pause as they're scrolling through social media to watch a video or even prefer video-based answers to their search queries over text-based articles.
This makes video content a versatile asset in virtually any of your marketing strategies. It's published content for your content strategy, a publishable post for social media marketing, and an investment to drive your ranking in SERPs (search engine result pages) higher and more.
Best Platforms for Video
There is no one answer for the question, "What is the best platform for video?" Instead, it's important to understand the goals of your presence on each platform and then decide if you should publish all or a portion of the video there. Videos might even be published across multiple platforms.
See where these platforms fit into your marketing strategies:
- YouTube: Create long-form educational content, tutorials, reviews, and "behind-the-scenes" content about your brand.
- Facebook & Instagram: Create short, engaging videos that can make viewers pause to watch the entire video; these videos need to be created to spread your message with or without sound.
- TikTok: Create short, tightly edited videos that showcase your products or services in use.
- Your Website: You can embed your YouTube videos to build on-page SEO and to support blogs or articles on the page.
- LinkedIn: Create engaging videos about your products, services, and company value propositions. Add these to your profile for long-term viewability rather than just your feed. On this platform, you can reach B2B clients and potential employees.
You can also create videos for ads on social media, streaming television channels, and other platforms.
3 Tips for Creating Quality Videos That Consumers Love
Successful video marketing campaigns can generate a lot of interest, new customers, and sales. However, figuring out the formula for video marketing success is tricky, and it's different from every brand.
As your team starts creating videos, keep these tips in mind:
- Know precisely who your audience is. Each video should have a very specific objective and audience. Videos have to be short and hold interest.
- Understand each platform's technical requirements and defaults. Know the standard dimensions, video formats, and other aspects of publishing videos on each forum. Also, know if sound, comments, and other features are automatically enabled.
- Create different videos for different channels. The same video that's successful on YouTube may not be the right fit for Instagram. This can be because of length, user intent, and even mood. However, you can repurpose the same footage to create different video assets. For example, snippets from a long tutorial can make a teaser for Facebook.
Why Does Video Help Us Connect?
Video isn't just popular because it's attention-getting. The longer or more often audiences watch your productions, the more of a connection they feel with your brand. They become familiar with your logo and style, recognize recurring employees or figures in your videos, and know what level of quality to expect in your videos. This creates a connection based on recognition, understanding, and expectations. Your brand will stay top of mind, and audiences will have a more dynamic perception of your company.
Partner With WFSB Advertising to Boost Your Social Media Video Marketing Strategy
Creating videos and posting them on social media is a challenging project. Our team at WFSB can help you get started with brainstorming support, strategy development, and more. Start your video content now to reach the 55% of people who watch online videos every day.
