Video marketing in 2024 can be a real challenge when it comes to deciding which strategy works best for you. Every individual marketer is different, so it’s really no surprise that the videos they’d be using to promote their products would have to be unique as well.
Making your videos go viral when YouTube alone garners billions of views every day can really help you boost your conversion rates. Influencers and sellers alike have been using social media platforms to market their products for well over a decade now. Videos have been an especially essential form of marketing on these.
Video ads run on YouTube, etc., help engage viewer’s attention and make them more amenable to your product offerings. It’s easy to see why it’s so important to put in extra efforts while launching the perfect video marketing campaign in a scenario such as this.
However, there are pitfalls when it comes to launching a successful marketing campaign in 2024, as is this case with all marketing strategies. There are some well-kept video marketing secrets that most influencers, etc., use to help them stay ahead of the competition. Most of these tips and tricks aren’t ones they’d give away easily to their followers.
So, today I’m here to share my expertise with you and allow you to decide for yourself how useful these tips can be. Let’s dive right in.
1. Have Short But Interesting Segments
Most people watching your video will have a disappointingly long attention span. You stand losing their interest if you don’t put your best foot forward within the first few seconds of your video. After all, if you can’t hold their interest for the first ten seconds, what makes you think you can hold it for longer?
There’s evidence to suggest that about 20% of the users watching your video will navigate away within the first few seconds of it. For an approximation, note that the average viewer’s attention span is about 8.5 seconds. Creating a successful or viral video may not be easy, but it’s not rocket science either.
A little research will go a long way in showing you what truly captures a viewer’s attention and keeps them hooked long enough to view your video in its entirety. You could even read up on stories of successful video marketing campaigns to give you a good idea of what works.
After all, who better to learn from than those who’ve already made it?
It’s also imperative that you keep your video fairly brief, don’t ramble, and stick to the point. No one likes a video that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I know I don’t! We barely have enough time to dedicate to watching ads, and if the ad isn’t sticking to the point, what’s the point in watching it in the first place?
Directing questions towards your viewers can be a good way to both engage their attention and put your point across. Make them think, so to speak. You may already have watched scores of ads that open with a question rather than an introductory line. Now you know why they work that in there.
Your questions can be funny, engaging, or plain straightforward. Since your appeal should be unique, how you design your questions is entirely up to you and your product type.
2. Make Your Content As Engaging As Possible
Who says marketing cannot be fun? Most people watching your video aren’t doing so with a serious mindset. It doesn’t matter to them whether your product sells or not; they’re watching videos, scrolling through YouTube’s offerings in the hope that they’ll be entertained. To entertain them.
Now, this isn’t to say that you should be goofing around instead of sticking to your point. I know for a fact that this doesn’t always work. Instead, you’ll have to be clever enough to work your humor and creativity around what your product or service is. You can find humor in any situation if you’re willing to look for it, so to speak.
Many experts believe that humor doesn’t really belong in the corporate world. However, they’ve been proven woefully wrong time and time again. Some of the most successful ad campaigns have been the most humorous ones.
Have fun with your content, use playful language, and invite your audience’s curiosity. If you don’t enjoy talking about your product, why expect the same from your audience? Many of your competitors may have cold, business-like undertones to their video marketing campaigns. You needn’t go the same way at all.
3. Engage In Keyword Research
Keyword research is the key to understanding what can really resonate with your audience. Doing adequate keyword research will help you garner more views and increase conversion rates.
Also, using the right keywords can really prompt useful feedback from your audience.
This feedback includes your audience’s preferences on the products they’re interested in, the videos they want to watch, and much more. By collecting enough feedback, you’ll be able to direct your videos to your audience more effectively than you ordinarily could.
You can create videos to your audience’s liking from the get-go with the help of this technique. This could save you a great deal of time and money you’d otherwise have spent on trial and error.
Even the biggest ad campaigns from successful businesses had floundered when it came to doing proper keyword research.
You can afford to spend a good amount of time and effort on researching what’s captivating viewers on YouTube. After all, here’s where the big bucks come from.
All you need to do is add keywords on YouTube, sit back, and see what shows up. You’d be surprised how videos that don’t even have a lot of views show up in your search results because of clever keyword usage.
By looking hard enough, you’ll be able to identify a pattern to which keywords the top results have used and how they’ve used them. The secret could be in the title or description box, so watch out for these.
4. Be Original
This almost goes without saying: make your video content as authentic as possible. Upon viewing your ad, if your audience thinks, ‘I’ve seen this a million times already,’ you have a problem. If your ad doesn’t stand out, why should they expect your product to?
Original, unique, and creative content is a more powerful tool than you’d think. Giving your product an angle will showcase it in the exact light you want your audience to view it in. If you play your cards right, you’ll have your viewers eating out of your palm waiting to sample the interesting product you’re offering them.
Remember: products don’t sell themselves. The way you approach your ad campaign can make all the difference between having a successful and unsuccessful product or service on your hands. Giving your product an interesting angle can really help you stand out from competitors as well.
If you don’t seem interested enough in designing an ad to captivate your audience, they won’t believe you’re interested enough to design a product that can actually help them in any way either. YouTube, in particular, has been the hub for all kinds of unique content have had their days in the sun.
You’ll really need to rack your brains and come up with the best ideas possible in order to really make your product stand out from others. This may sound intimidating, but it can be quite straightforward. No one knows your product or understands what it does better than you do.
So, who can be better qualified in determining what its best features are and how to showcase them?
5. Collaborate With Influencers
Collaborating with popular influencers can really give your product or service an edge over your competitors in no time. How? Well, influencers already have a pretty good idea of what works, and garners views and high conversion rates on social media.
Since most of their efforts are directed towards increasing their views and followers anyway, they can provide you with an established base of viewers. These viewers are likely to be more amenable to your product offerings as they’re already interested in what the influencers they follow have to say.
They’re called influencers for a reason, you know. Followers trust what their influencers have to say and often take their word for it when it comes to determining whether a product or service is actually useful.
If a follower’s favorite influencer or YouTuber tells them that your product worked wonders for them to solve XYZ problem, they’re very likely to believe it.
You can rest assured that this is not just my opinion; some of the biggest brands in the world have commissioned popular influencers to market their products. They’ve successfully exploited influencers’ expertise to mutual benefit.
A good influencer can even give you tips and tricks on how best you can advertise your products as well. Essentially, you can pay them to help cement your brand’s image in the eye of the public. Since they may understand the dynamics of how viewers respond to different products better than you do, it’ll do no harm to ask for their advice too.
6. Tell A Story
Your focus should be on how you can tell customers that your product will help them rather than your own eagerness to sell it. Since social media allows you to reach out to your audience directly, you can make your stories as personal as possible.
Some of the most successful brands in the world have marketed their stories as much as their products. For instance, who doesn’t know the story of how Colonel Sanders founded KFC? In telling your story, you can even ensure that your audience is entertained rather than instructed during your video.
Remember, on platforms such as YouTube, your ads will be playing before or in the middle of videos. Mostly, users are watching those videos for some entertainment. So it logically follows that if your ad is to interrupt their entertainment, it should be at least a little entertaining by itself as well.
Telling a story can help your audience relate to you and your product better. Associating a story with your brand can even imbue a feeling of nostalgia into your viewers every time your ad shows up on the screen. This is sure to induce them with positive feelings towards your product, helping you convert views into sales effectively.
Focusing on stories can add value for viewers, as it were. Establishing your presence on social media channels is made that much easier by knowing how to tell a story that can capture the imagination of a target audience.
7. Know Your Audience
Few things are more important in the world of video marketing than understanding what your target audience will be. For instance, if you’re going to include pop culture references from the ’80s for a product like an iPod, you’re not likely to make much headway with relating to the target audience of teens or young adults.
Content distribution platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are ideal places to look for inspiration. They can help you understand what your target audience responds to positively. Some of the most viral ad campaigns are those that have appealed successfully to their intended users.
Sharing posts that intrigue viewers can give you more leeway when it comes to elaborating on the features of your product or service. Facebook and other social media platforms have powerful tools that can help you understand and analyze what really captures a viewer’s attention and keeps it.
Understanding your audience’s interests can help you target which one you can exploit to put your point across successfully. Focusing your posts towards your target audience will not limit their appeal in any way. Your posts will continue to resonate with all kinds of users regardless.
You can find a good amount of information online on how you can try and relate to your audience from the stories of other sellers in your niche. I’d love to elaborate here, but it could run into a few thousand words by itself.
8. Take Advantage Of User Preferences
It’s no secret that most users prefer visual content over textual content, especially in today’s day and age. The preferences of your users can prove to be just the kind of tool you’d need to convert clicks into sales – giving you a high conversion rate.
Remember: you need to influence, not instruct. Influencing your users to buy your product through means they favor shouldn’t be a herculean task. They prefer watching videos, so give them something interesting to watch, so to speak.
Use words that are simple yet effective to put your point across and focus more attention on visuals and graphics instead. A well-made video can help you connect with your audience and make them more likely to watch other videos you put out in the future as well.
Your audience will be more likely to respond to textual content, too, if they like your videos. Seeking your audience’s feedback over your videos will help you get a clearer picture of what resonates with, so make sure you invite them to send you some.
Don’t be afraid of facing criticism either if you truly want to launch a successful video marketing campaign.
Since videos are already so popular and still growing in popularity, you can use this to your advantage. You won’t have to compel your audience to watch videos if this is something they like doing anyway, in other words.
9. Use strong Visuals
A significant number of people will watch Videos without sounds! According to a survey done by multiple publishers, upto 85% of Facebook videos were watched in silent mode. These findings should inform your video creation to be interesting and captivating both with sound on and off.
As a Video marketer, your story and campaign should be obvious if your content will be effective.
To achieve this you need a video that uses enticing, colorful visuals, text descriptions, captions, and subtitles. Along with optimizing your content for silent viewers, should you still opt to use sound, use the opportunity to communicate more value, and further boost your marketing efforts.
10. Include a Call To Action(CTA) in Your Videos
CTA offers your viewers the opportunity to further interact with your content. It optimizes your videos and encourages viewers to subscribe to your channel, share, comment, follow or like your page. In addition, you can encourage your viewers to check out more related content in the links provided.
You can Call To Action either at the beginning of your video, midway or towards the end. At whichever point you decide to insert your CTA, ensure it’s at a point where the viewer is fully engaged, and in anticipation. That way, they will remember and associate your call to action with positive feelings, therefore increasing your chances of conversion.
According to recent research, 95% of video marketers place their Call To Action at the end of their videos, while 4% choose midway and only 0.1% choose the start. Interestingly, the research also discovered that the most conversion rates happen for midway CTA, 2nd highest for end of the video, with the upfront CTA coming in at number three.
11. Add Value to Your Content
Demonstrate, tutor, entertain! Don’t just sell products and services. Answer your potential customer’s questions and concerns by demonstrating how your products will address their fears. Show videos of satisfied customers and have them say how your product benefitted or changed their lives for the better.
If a potential customer has questions and doubts, you should provide videos showing how purchasing your products or services is a good idea. As long as you can live to your promise, assure your customers of proven benefits and let the videos be available online even before your customers make the purchase. Display the various features, designs and advantages. Demonstrate your claims to the product or service and you’ll only be one sure click away to closing that deal.
Your customers need to know you understand and empathize with their situation, as opposed to just wanting their money. Giving your customers confidence in you, as a brand is what you should aim for. Allowing them to watch “how-to” videos, demos, and reviews for your product or service will increase their confidence and in turn convert their visits to your site into sales.
12. Be Consistent
Nothing puts customers off like using the same content, adverts, and brand presentation year after year! Customers associate your lack of upgrade with a lack of progress, innovation and concern. Most viewers appreciate regular, updated content. Break your content into different parts and post each on a weekly or monthly basis. Have a publishing schedule, be consistent and reliable.
This will encourage viewers to stay on the lookout for your video posts.
You can ultimately use the reliability to make announcements and announce product launch campaigns.
Consistency ensures you a spot among the leaders in your particular niche.
13. Create videos of Customer Testimonials
People like to appear in videos! Turn this fact to your advantage and make your customers the stars in your campaigns. You can urge them to record videos of them using your products and link them to your channel, or send them to you for posting on your social media pages and websites.
Customers will automatically share their videos with their followers, friends, and families and every time that happens, your brand will gain trust and a wider reach.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there isn’t all that much to be said about how effective video marketing is; the impact it has had recently on boosting sales really speaks for itself. Talk about the most popular products, and you’re sure to remember the ad that promoted it.
Also, video marketing tools are not half as expensive as they used to be with the advent of social media. After all, it’s not that difficult to afford a laptop and an internet connection. It can seem daunting at first to think of how you can make your product stand out with the help of visual content, considering that’s all the rage right now.
However, you can use the popularity of this marketing tool to your advantage. All you need to do is marshal your best creative forces to help your product stand out. Since video marketing is known to effective already, you needn’t try and work out how to widen its reach, only how you can channel your strengths through it.
Creating a video marketing campaign that resonates with your audiences is a matter of intuition as much as anything else. You’ll have to draw on your own experiences of responding to ads to understand this best. Focusing on creating interesting rather than stiff, instructional content can make more of a difference than you’d think.
There’s a lot of guidance available today on what works and doesn’t work in the world of video marketing. However, as is the case with many things in life, your own experience and understanding can be the best teachers here.