What Is Video Content Marketing? The Ultimate Guide for Beginners

Videos are taking the marketing world by storm, and if you're an aspiring content creator or brand looking to get started on social media, it's not too late to join the trend.

In recent years, video has emerged as a key component of successful marketing strategies. It captures consumer attention, fosters connections with your audience, and significantly enhances engagement metrics.

To create compelling video content, you can use video editing software and social management tools to schedule and promote videos across various platforms.

Video content, such as customer testimonials and explainer videos, is tailored to attract and build trust with potential clients. As your audience engages with your content, they become more familiar with your brand, paving the way for easier conversions into loyal customers.

Once you hook your audience with valuable content, turning them into buyers becomes an easier process.

Why video marketing?

If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine the value of a video – one of the several reasons to use video marketing for your business. 

Videos evoke emotion. When you create a video, you have total control over how you want your viewers to feel. The emotional connection that the viewers make with the video leaves a memorable impact, allowing your brand to make a good impression, too. An impressive video marketing campaign has the power to turn the viewers into frequent content consumers, which is also your primary goal – getting visitors to return to your content.

Video marketing also introduces those customers to your brand who aren’t necessarily looking to purchase any products just yet. As new customers are introduced to your business through content marketing, they grow to trust you as a reliable source of information and come to you for solutions. As brand awareness grows, so does the number of customers in your purchase pipeline, helping you with your lead generation efforts.

Finally, videos help you with search engine optimization (SEO)  and optimize search results engagement. Search algorithms have begun prioritizing videos as they’re highly consumable. Videos don’t just help your search rank; but also increase click-through rates (CTRs) and conversion rates, generate backlinks, and reduce bounce rates. 

If you aren’t using video marketing, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage. Content marketing has been trending toward video for years, and now video dominates this field. It’s important not to fall behind in your marketing plan by sticking with archaic schemes. Video marketing is the future (and the present, too).

Video content marketing strategy

Adding video to your content marketing plan may seem daunting at first, but it’s just a learning curve. People want raw and authentic content, and because of this, accessibility for creating videos has skyrocketed. It may even be as simple as pulling your phone out of your back pocket and filming yourself packing an order. 

Therefore, it has become imperative for businesses to focus on a video marketing strategy to scale their content marketing efforts. 

Developing video content starts with planning. Ask these five questions to lay the foundation for your video marketing strategy.

Q. Why are you creating videos?

The first step in developing a video marketing plan is to ask yourself why you’re making a video. If your only reason to create a video is that “everyone is doing it,” it’s time to dig deeper. There needs to be a purpose behind it. 

The reason you’re creating a video helps you decide who you’re targeting with the video. 

Q. Who is your video for?

Considering your target audience is essential for your video marketing strategy. Videos stir emotion and create a connection between your business and the consumer, so it’s crucial that you evoke the right emotion and tell the right story. 

You should use your why to determine your who. The key step here is to align your purpose with your target audience. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to pull from your buyer personas.

Your target audience determines the content and storyline of your video and contributes to what kind of video you’ll produce. It’s important to decide if all or only a few of your personas will find value in your video content and cater your planning to them. 

Q. What types of video content are you creating? 

The best way to decide what type of content to create is to consider whether you want to share a story, provide insight or knowledge, or demonstrate a process. 

To create a video where you share a story, feature the faces that make up your business. You can vlog a day in your work life, interview your employees, or have customers give moving testimonials. Another great video to share the story of your company is a behind-the-scenes or meet-the-team video. 

When providing information in your video content, it's important to choose a video style that allows you to teach. You can answer common concerns in Q&A or tips and tricks videos or showcase your findings in case studies, educational videos, and documentary videos. 

Lastly, when demonstrating, the focus should be on your product or service. Use tutorials, product demos, explainers, and how-to videos to show people how your product/service works. DIY videos are a great way to demonstrate something about your business while also providing fun, interactive content for your consumers. 

When deciding what content to create, also consider the feasibility of producing a high-quality video. If you’re on a smaller budget, opt for something you can film in-house without a production team. If you have a larger budget, you can create a video marketing division, hire a video crew, or collaborate with influencers to help create your content. The ideas above are flexible enough to accommodate any kind of budget.

Your decision on what kind of content you’ll create will help you decide where to share the video for the best results.

Q. Where are you sharing the videos?

Where you share the videos is important in deciding what your final product will look like. For example, if it's a short video that’s helpful but mostly for entertainment, TikTok could be a great choice, but if it's a long, informative video, YouTube could be your go-to. 

When deciding on an online video platform, consider the video length and tone. Here are some optimal video lengths and suitable formats for popular video content platforms.

• YouTube videos can be up to 15 minutes long for unverified accounts and up to 12 hours long for verified YouTube channels. Horizontal videos are ideal. The tone of YouTube videos varies, so you can create fun or formal content.
• Facebook videos can be up to 15 minutes long. Horizontal, vertical, and square videos are supported. The tone of Facebook videos varies but tends to be formal or casual. 
• Instagram has introduced Reels, a feature that allows users to create and share short, engaging videos. Vertical videos are particularly well-suited for Reels, as they fit perfectly on mobile screens. They tend to be more fun and entertaining, often incorporating music and creative effects.
• LinkedIn videos can be 3 seconds to 30 minutes long. Horizontal, vertical, and square videos are supported. The tone of LinkedIn videos is more formal or professional. 
• TikTok videos can be up to 1 minute long. Vertical videos are best. TikTok videos tend to be fun but can also be casually informative.
• Twitter videos can be up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds long. Horizontal or vertical videos can be used on this platform. The tone of Twitter videos varies between fun and casual to formal. 
• Websites give you free rein to choose the length of your video; however, favor erring on the shorter side. For example, videos on a website's landing page would likely be more formal and show the brand personality.

Think about where the video will reach its audience most effectively and which platform allows you to create a video that aligns with the purpose for creation. 

If your business decides to devote a large budget to video marketing, you can also consider paying to distribute your video. The ideas above are examples of posting your video content onto social channels that you own. However, you can also pay to have your videos featured as video ads on different social media platforms. This method has the added benefit of reaching potential consumers without them seeking you out. 

Q. When are you making the video and posting it?

The key to success with video content marketing is consistency. Decide how often you’ll post and whether that’s a feasible schedule for your business. 

Creating a content calendar can help your team stay organized and communicate video marketing campaign ideas. Use the steps above to develop video ideas for your calendar to produce and schedule video production consistently. 

Measuring the success of a video marketing strategy

Key performance indicators (KPIs) can help you measure the success of your video digital marketing strategy. 

Importance measures to look out for:

• Views: Total number of people who watched your video for a designated number of seconds (the designated number of seconds is dictated by the platform the video is on)
• Impressions: Number of times your video was displayed on a user screen
• View-through rate: the number of completed views on your video over the number of initial impressions
• Watch time: The total amount of time viewers spent watching your video
• Clicks: The number of times users have clicked on your video
• Brand lift: The measurement of the impact of your video on consumer perceptions and behaviors typically calculated through the use of a survey

Analyzing your KPIs can help you determine what kind of video content you should continue producing and adding to your content calendar. 

Video marketing statistics

The following numbers prove that video should be at the top of your marketing strategy to-do list from now on.

• 91% of businesses post videos, highlighting their critical role in engaging audiences and driving business growth. [Vidico]
• 52% of companies create videos to educate their audience [Wistia]
• 38% of video marketers create their content in-house. [Wyzowl]
• 86 percent reported using Facebook for marketing, 79% Instagram and 65% LinkedIn. [Statista]
• 75% of people watch short-form video content on their mobile [Inside Intelligence]
• The audience for live video content is expected to increase to 164.6 million viewers by 2024 [Statista]
•  66% of marketers plan to increase their use of YouTube videos [Vidico]

Quiet on the set. Action!

Video content is here to stay and help your business succeed. Adding video marketing to your strategy will allow your business to stay competitive and reap the benefits of smart marketing tactics. As long as you understand why you’re making videos and plan for success by knowing the who, what, where, and when, you can immediately use video as a marketing tool. Now, it’s time for you to get started producing and editing content.

Ready to elevate video marketing for your brand? Discover how social media marketing can lead you to success.

This article was originally published in 2021. It has been updated with new information.