The amount of time people spend watching videos online has increased drastically over the last few years. According to this study by Zenith Media, an average person spent about 100 minutes every day consuming video content in 2021. Given its popularity among audiences, it's no secret that videos are ruling the marketing industry today.
The shift towards using video for marketing has brought about a change in the dynamics of the marketing industry today. Digital transformation coupled with innovations in technology and the introduction of cloud-based video editors has made it possible for businesses to create better quality videos in less time.
No wonder, videos are slowly becoming the best tool for inbound marketing, especially in 2022.
If you're not leveraging videos for your inbound marketing strategy, you're losing out on opportunities to deeply engage your audience with your brand.
In this blog, we will share how videos can help in boosting your inbound marketing efforts.
How video is a versatile channel for more effective inbound content marketing
Videos can be used at every step of marketing efforts regardless of which stage in the buyer's journey your target audience belongs to. Whether it's attracting a customer via a blog or converting a lead into paying customer with the help of a testimonial, videos can help you achieve it all.
Here’s how you can leverage the following mediums for video marketing.
Videos in blog posts
Blog posts today are no longer restricted to having just written content and images. Embedding videos in your blog posts can bring your blog alive, enhance the reader's experience and drive more readership to your blog.
Adding a video to your blog post offers readers a chance to absorb the information in different ways. It also helps in increasing reader engagement. They are more likely to revisit your site for relevant content which is a significant boost for your inbound marketing efforts.
For example, if your blog is about educating readers about using your product, you can add video tutorials to make it more engaging. Check out WeVideo’s blog about editing videos on desktop and mobile. It contains a video tutorial along with a summary about the same.
There are several ways to embed videos in your blog posts. You can embed a video directly via media or from sites like Youtube or Vimeo.
Here are a few common mistakes that you should avoid when posting videos on your blog.
No mentions of video in the post
Letting your readers know that your blog post contains a video is an excellent practice. By doing so, you're letting your readers know what they can expect in the blog post. You can specify "Video" in the post title and place the video clip in the top section of your post.
No textual content in the post
It is indeed surprising to find that some blog posts with only embedded video and no written content. This leaves readers frustrated because they do not know anything about the video they are about to watch. It also has a bad impact on the site’s SEO. Ensure that you add a summary, at the very least, of your video in your blog posts.
No optimizations in the video placements
Your content is consumed by readers on devices with varied screen sizes. That is why resizing your video according to the width of your blog is an excellent practice to deliver a seamless reader experience. Ensure that you host your site with a reliable hosting service provider that has excellent uptime.
No lengthy videos
The length of video plays a major role in determining reader engagement. The attention span of readers is considerably lesser these days. Ensure that you create engaging videos based on the post requirements. You can refer to this WeVideo blog to understand how long your marketing videos should be.
Videos for customer stories
Customer stories and testimonials are the most powerful inbound marketing tools. It instills a sense of credibility and trust in the minds of the readers. According to BigCommerce, 92% of customers read online reviews before buying a product or service.
Videos are the best medium to share testimonials and stories because of their ability to persuade and motivate the readers. As the audience can see your customers speaking about their experience using your product, they can easily relate to their pain points and connect with them on an emotional level.
You can embed customer testimonials or story videos in your case studies to make them more compelling and relatable. Focus on mentioning tangible results in your videos in addition to sharing the customer's journey.
For example, this video by Mailchimp focuses on how their client, Onward Reserve, a clothing brand saw a 5x increase in the ROI via Mailchimp postcards.
Here is a quick 5-step guide to help you create powerful video testimonials.
- Introduce your customer and the challenges they faced before using your product
- Offer a solution to their problem
- Mention the results they received
- Do not forget to add a personal touch to the message
- Add a necessary call to action towards the end of the video
Videos in email marketing and newsletters
Videos can act like rocket fuel for email marketing campaigns by increasing open rate, click-through rates and driving greater conversions. People today prefer to watch a 2 min video over reading a 600 word email.
According to Campaign Monitor, including videos in email marketing can increase open rates and click-through rates by 19% and 65% respectively. It is also said to have lowered unsubscribe rates by 26%.
Leverage videos in your event invites, customer communication emails, newsletters, lead nurturing emails and other email messages to build a connection with the recipients. It offers you a hook to keep your recipients engaged with your product and brand.
Remember some email clients like Outlook, Gmail and Apple Mail do not allow you to embed videos within email directly. The best approach here is to share emails with a thumbnail image linking it to the video on your website or YouTube channel.
For example, Shopify sends an informative email to new users guiding them with Shopify store set up.
Here are some tips to help you make the most out of video email marketing.
- Craft your subject line to include the word "Video." Research by SuperOffice revealed having the word "Video" in your subject line can boost open rates by 6%
- Design eye-catching visuals for video thumbnails. You can also include some animations or GIFs to make them more attractive
- Enable autoplay for videos in the emails but ensure you turn the sound off
- Add captions to videos to ensure you convey the right message to viewers who are watching them on mute mode.
Videos in organic social media
Social media is a great platform to promote brands, generate leads and engage with existing customers. The number of social media users worldwide is expected to increase to 4.41 billion by the year 2025.
Videos are an integral part of social media. Leveraging video content in your social media marketing strategy is mandatory if you wish to grow your brand online. It helps you gain more exposure and engagement.
Make the most of trending topics to build a strategy to attract new customers to your brand. Connect with influencers from your industry to reach out to larger audiences.
Later, a social media post scheduling app leverages their Instagram page to share educative posts about social media marketing, product updates, as well as learning courses.
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Similarly, this short video by Slack gives a quick peek into how to use the app to stay productive. This video is shared on their social pages to generate more leads and conversions.
Here are some best video ideas for your social media pages.
- Interview videos
- Behind-the-scenes videos
- Product or features videos
- Tutorials
- Sales or promo videos
- Customer testimonials
- Company announcements
You can also go live on social media to have a chat with your customers and followers in real-time.
The content on social media should be short, crisp, and engaging. Here are a few things to keep in mind while making videos for social media.
- Create videos for each social network based on what your audience is looking for
- Ensure that your videos are entertaining or educating in nature
- Keep your videos short as they tend to perform the best on social media
- Repurpose the video content by optimizing it for various social media channels
Wrapping up
Video creation for inbound marketing is not difficult. With a well-thought-inbound marketing plan and a reliable video editor tool, you can create excellent videos to attract customers and strengthen your brand image.
Get started by adding more video content on your blog or creating demo videos for explaining your product. Good luck!