Videos have become an irreplaceable marketing tool owing to their growing reach, superior convincing power, and unmatched conversion rates. In fact, video marketers get around 66% more qualified leads than marketers primarily using other content types.

However, the competition to leverage video marketing’s potential is growing, and you need to level up your video marketing strategy immediately, or you may fall behind! So, this guide has put together some proven video marketing tips to help you upgrade your video marketing strategy for 2023.

Why should you focus on video marketing?

An impressive 86% of marketing professionals use video to generate and convert leads, and that’s not without reason!  Here are some key indicators that investing in your video marketing strategy could be your best marketing decision this year-

• Video content is very popular

People spend an average of 19 hours every week watching videos online. Also, people typically spend 88% more time browsing websites having videos.

• Video content is persuasive and versatile

Video marketing applies the unmatched engaging, and convincing power of videos to support every stage of the marketing funnel and almost every medium, including blogs, landing pages, emails, etc.

• Videos attract more traffic and improve conversions

Video content typically attracts more clicks and also raises the site traffic and conversion rate when placed on landing pages. In fact, 84% of people say they were convinced to buy a product or service by watching its brand’s video.

• Video marketing has proven its effectiveness 

83% of video marketers say that marketing videos help them generate more leads, while 31% of marketers add videos to improve SEO.

• Videos can also be used to improve customer experience

Service teams can also use video content to improve customer experience and loyalty using customer stories, onboarding videos, knowledge-based videos, meet-the-team videos, and support video calls.

• Video content aligns with modern devices

Research shows that video marketing appeals to the growing population of mobile users, with 77% of those surveyed using a mobile or tablet to watch online videos. 

Secrets of a successful video marketing strategy

Every video marketing strategy follows the same creation and implementation process. You set your marketing goals, decide on your platforms, select your video types, and plan the content. This is followed by the execution phase, where the content is produced and published. Lastly, you may promote the video and analyze its results for improvements.

However, you need to add something extra that sets you apart and gives you an edge over competitors! So, here are some expert video marketing tips you can implement to take your video marketing strategy to the next level in 2023-

1. Focus on sharing valuable content

Social media, and large video-sharing platforms are blurring the lines between entertainment and advertisements. You can now create entertaining or informative content and add promotion to it where appropriate instead of renting a space for advertising. 

Moreover, you can engage with the audience directly on these forums and ask for their direct feedback, unlike standard advertisements. What’s more? People will be able to share your videos easily if they are impressed, raising its reach exponentially.

2. Make the first few seconds count!

The attention spans of internet users are at an all-time low of just 8.5 seconds, and this is your only chance to grab and retain their attention. So, you must bring your story to life quickly and get people engaged in the opening few seconds. 

During this time, you must give clarity to what your video is about and convince viewers that they’re going to watch something worth their time. A time-tested way to grab attention is to start with a hook, which is a quick preview of what’s coming up in your video.

3. Upload an interesting thumbnail and title

The title and thumbnails are the first impressions of your video, based on which people decide if it is worth watching. So, you need to create an interesting and compelling title accompanied by a clear, attractive thumbnail that gets your audience excited in an instant! Also, make sure to keep the title and image specific and relevant instead of making general claims. For example, here are two titles for the same video-

• Top 5 free video editing software for Windows in 2023!
• Try these good video editing tools that are available for free now.

Which one would you choose? Using exciting terms, lists, specific keywords, recent dates, and simple and impactful sentences will likely get better ranking and views. So, the first option is naturally a better choice.

4. Leverage Facebook’s targeting options

Facebook is a powerful content distribution platform that allows you to target specific audiences for your posts and video ads. Targeting is applied in a video marketing strategy to help improve cost-efficiency and ROI from the videos by making sure they reach their desired audience. Facebook targeting options allow you to segment and select audiences based on-

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Language
• Interests

Make sure to research and segment your audience to find the target segment beforehand and select it using the targeting options.

5. Use explainer videos

Explainer videos are a powerful tool to quickly engage the target audience and explain your offering to them in a simple and impressive way that boosts conversions. Moreover, they are amazing traffic generation tools, with up to 80% jump observed in website traffic by just adding an explainer video! 

So, if there’s one thing you need to immediately implement to boost your video marketing strategy, it has got to be explainer videos! Moreover, you should go for a highly experienced and reputed design agency like Infobrandz to get your explainer videos designed.

6. Include CTA’s

The calls to action in your videos are the make-it-or-break-it points in your video marketing strategy. They are the statements that request viewers to take a desired action based on the purpose of your video.

A clear and compelling CTA is key to converting your viewers into interested leads and boosting conversions. But keep in mind that excessive calls to action can cause the viewer to lose interest, wasting all the effort you put into the video. So, CTAs must be added wisely and naturally at one or a few points in the video, generally including the ending, for only short durations.  

So, you need to find the right balance and insert the right statements based on your purpose through cards at the end, mid-roll cues, or direct requests in the video. Some common CTAs are-

• Subscribe to our channel
• Follow/Like our Page
• Check out our other content
• Buy or Signup
• Share with your friends
• Comment on video

7. Optimize for search engines

Even the best marketing video will be no good until it is seen by your target audience! And the most effective method of getting relevant and interested viewers is to ensure you come up in the results of relevant searches they make. 

After all, over 3.5 billion searches are performed daily on Google, and the number is over 3 billion on YouTube! You just can’t miss this opportunity!

So, you need to optimize your video for search engines to make your video marketing strategy work. In other words, you must apply Search Engine Optimization techniques such as-

• Use relevant keywords in your title.
• Add a relevant description with keywords to your video and use the right tags.
• Optimize the video’s information, title, meta-data, etc.
• Add transcripts to your video.

8. Collaborate with other brands and influencers

When a trusted influencer recommends a product or service, it naturally feels more genuine and reliable than a brand promoting its own product or service. So, partnering with relevant and reputed influencers to create marketing videos will likely boost your popularity and conversions, especially if your brand is not already well known.

9. Create a posting schedule

A good video marketing strategy includes regular content uploads based on a schedule. This ensures that the audience stays engaged and returns to watch your new content regularly. 

You should think of interesting stories or topics and break them into multiple parts. Then create a schedule to post new updates at regular intervals. Regularly posting helpful or entertaining video content will help you build a loyal audience that waits for your video content.

10. Include tutorials and demos

You can create video content that clearly demonstrates how to use your products and services and proves their features by showing them in action. Such tutorials and demos help people understand your product better and address their concerns. 

They also assure prospective customers that they can easily use it while helping customers after they have made the purchase. As a result, demos and tutorials can help you secure more sales and customer loyalty.

11. Incorporate customer-generated content

Including people, especially customers, in your video posts can skyrocket your engagement while reducing your expenses! You can encourage customers to create videos while using your products and services, then post the videos to your social media profiles or website.

When they see themselves in your brand’s videos, they will likely feel appreciated and share the videos with friends and family. And these shares will grow your content’s reach exponentially. Following this, the prospect of being recognized similarly will get even more people making content for you, triggering a snowball effect!

12. Make optimizations for silent playback

Did you know that 85% of videos on Facebook are watched on mute? In fact, most social media platforms reflect the same trend. So, you must optimize your videos for silent playback using methods like-

• Subtitles
• Beautiful and easily understandable visuals
• Comprehensive text descriptions

Moreover, you can use translated subtitles to increase your video’s reach across countries.

13. Test and improve

In order to create or improve a video marketing strategy, you must measure the important performance indicators to find if your videos are performing well. You can also use A/B testing to determine how specific changes affect your results. 

With the results of these tests, you can make timely improvements to your video marketing strategy. Let us understand how to evaluate and improve your video marketing strategy in further detail. 

How to evaluate the success of your video marketing strategy?

A video marketing campaign is complex and costly, and getting its strategy right in one go  within your budget is next to impossible. So, you need to continuously measure your video marketing strategy’s performance using analytics to find and correct any shortcomings as you work to develop or improve it. 

You can find the required metrics on every video’s hosting site, Google Analytics (for videos on your site), and various analytics tools. Here are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you should consider for your video marketing strategy-

• Number of views
• Play rate
• Social sharing
• Comments/feedback
• Click-through rate
• Traffic generation
• Return on investment
• Other engagement metrics (duration played, likes, reactions, etc.)

Continuously monitoring and correcting flaws based on these KPIs is critical for a successful video marketing strategy. For example, your messaging may be wrong, the time of day you’re deploying your campaign may be incorrect, the channels you’re choosing may be wrong, or you may be targeting the wrong audience. The possibilities of errors and corrections are endless, and you must focus on continuous testing and improvement.

Summing up

Video marketing is taking the lead in content marketing as marketers race to reap the increasing reach and superior convincing power of video content. So, upgrading your video marketing strategy now is imperative to maintain a competitive edge for your business. 

Yes, going for major additions may involve significant expenses. But spending on evaluating and leveling up your video marketing strategy by incorporating these tips is worth every penny!