How to Start Creating Videos to Amp Up Your Inbound Marketing

You’re inbound marketing efforts are in full swing. Your blog is up and running. Your landing pages are set up and are bringing in leads, and your email campaigns are taking off...but have you implemented video into your inbound marketing efforts yet? Video is quickly becoming the most consumed type of content on the web, and you should be taking advantage of this. Here’s how to start creating videos to amp up your inbound marketing efforts.

The Value of Videos in Inbound Marketing

Did you know 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions (Invodo) Videos are the easiest way to create an emotional connection with your audience. They can also:

• Improve user engagement. While it’s easy for viewers to skim blog posts, ebooks and whitepapers, there isn’t a skim option on video. The visitor either watches the whole thing or stops watching it after a period of time because the video didn’t hold their attention. With video, viewers want to be shown something. They don’t want to dig around through a bunch of copy to find what they’re looking for. They want to understand what you are presenting immediately.

• Increase brand awareness. Video allows for a much more personal connection with your audience than visual content or audio. Furthermore, if a company has the time and money to make a high quality video, it represents professionalism to your audience and a sense that you know what you’re talking about.

• Improve search engine optimization. This can happen in a variety of ways such as improving total traffic to your website, building quality inbound links, and growing your video search engine presence.

How to Develop Videos People Want to Watch

Step 1: Develop Great Ideas

If you’re already in the midst of inbound marketing efforts, you should have a good understanding of who your buyer personas and what their pain points are. Remember, they key with video is to strike an emotional chord with your audience. Here are some important questions to ask yourself when developing your content:

• Who is my buyer persona?

• What does my buyer persona care about?

• What have people done in the past that has worked with my audience?

• What tone and style of video will resonate with my audience?

• Can all of the information I want to convey get done in one video or will I have to create separate videos( five videos can be better than one)?

• What do I want to achieve in these videos?

You don’t have to start from scratch in terms of doing research to answer these questions. Use the keyword tool you use for your blog posts to see what’s being searched and what’s difficult to rank for to help lead you to video content ideas. Do a competitive analysis to see what competitors have done really well in the past and see if you can do it better. Bottom line, don’t reinvent the wheel. You already have the tools to do the research, so use them.

Step 2: Plan Your Messaging and Video Length

Remember to understand why you’re making the video. Once your ideas are in place, here are some best practices to implement these videos:

• Engage the visitors. Focus on your selling points and convey their value.

• Focus on high-level details

• Make the video short and sweet

• Turn your audience’s frustrations into positive experiences.

• Focus on the message. Don’t overload on product. Make it educational.

• Unless it’s a testimonial, use a script. Starting with a questionnaire can be very helpful. Be sure the tone is conversational and do a few practice reads before recording the spot.

• Decide how it will be incorporated within the rest of your marketing efforts.

Step 3: Record the Content

Once you have your ideas and strategy in place, it’s time to record. Here are some tips for recording quality content:

• Use what you have: There’s no need to go out and purchase a bunch of fancy equipment. Quality video can even be made with your phone.
• Use an external microphone: it provides clearer quality and keeps outside noise as minimal as possible.
• Have excellent lighting: Lighting is very important when developing a professional, audience-facing video. The goal with lighting is to create a flat, even light. You should use three lights. Use the first two with diffusion just above the subject’s eye-line. The third should be pointed at the background to eliminate shadows.
• Always edit: When filming, you can go back and edit and you should so that you can keep out any imperfections (like cuts, or unwanted audio in the background).
• Stay human: You want your audience to relate to you. Be yourself, talk easily and make it simple. If you're too rigid, you audience will click away.

Step 4: Launch Your Vidoes

Once the video is complete and ready for posting, consider using Wistia as a hosting platform on your site. Wistia can:

• Maximize the SEO benefits of video

• Capture email addresses and display calls-to-action

• Measure engagement to see which parts resonate with your audience (helps your content team develop future messaging).

• Can see what an individual prospect cares about

Wistia is an excellent platform for hosting videos on your site. In addition however, you should also publish them on YouTube. YouTube is the #2 most used search engine in the world and since it’s owned by Google, you can receive greater SEO benefits from that platform.

Next Steps

Once your video has been created and uploaded, and is live, you must carefully track the results and engagement of the video to plan your strategy moving forward. This is key to the success of your marketing efforts. Done right, videos can be an extremely valuable marketing asset for your company.

Do you have any other tips you would add to the list above? Let us know by tweeting us at @smartbugmedia.