The thought of going live on video to market your business might be more than a little scary, but the benefits really can make it worth the effort.
By creating video content, you can make instant connections to your audience, get feedback on your products and services, learn what people really want to know about your business, and more. You can build up a following of people who look forward to seeing your videos and enjoy engaging and interacting with you.
While the business benefits might not be immediately obvious from that, here’s why creating video content matters as a marketing strategy:
- Find out what your customers really think about your business and use that knowledge to improve.
- Learn what people like and don’t like about your products and services so you can do more of what they really want and sell more.
- Understand how people in your audience think and speak. Find out what language they use and any jargon so that you can speak to them in their language and more quickly build a bond with them.
- Instantly answer any questions people have while you’re live. This is hugely reassuring for people and they will find your business to be open and responsive.
- Build a community around your brand where fans can’t wait to get their hands on your new products or services.
- Test out new ideas and features and find out if your ideas work for real customers.
- Establish your authority as the expert in your field by offering advice, help, and answers to common questions.
If those benefits don’t encourage you to get on camera as soon as possible, here are some statistics that just might:
According to TechJury in their article, 37+ Live Streaming Statistics Every Marketer Should Keep In Mind in 2022:
- “96% of people say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.”
- “79% say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or an app.”
- “Videos on social media generate 1200% more shares than texts and images.”
- “Companies that use video enjoy 41% more traffic from searches.”
- “80% of consumers prefer to watch live videos from a brand than read a blog.”
We could go on, but you get the idea. If you’re not using video in your digital marketing plan, then you really are missing out.
Consumers are increasingly using videos to find more information about products, to learn, and to buy. We’d venture to say that few businesses can afford to miss out on the benefits of video marketing.
Wyzowl also has some interesting statistics from their report, The State of Video Marketing 2021:
- “84% of video marketers say video has helped them generate leads. (Up 1% from last year).”
- “84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.”
- “Marketers have rapidly come to understand the ROI of video – from just 33% who believed they got a positive ROI from video in 2015, the number now sits at 87%.”
These aren’t small numbers that you might be able to ignore as a fluke or a fad. When statistics start to get into the seventy, eighty, and ninety percent range, it’s time to pay attention.
Which platforms should you use?
Well, we’ve given it away in our title. The best platforms to use for video, currently, are TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for local businesses.
However, you should always do your own research and go where your customers are. Your first step before you begin any marketing strategy is to research your customers and find out where they hang out.
Here are some more mind-blowing statistics on these platforms to show you just how large a reach you could have if you go ahead with video marketing:
Tiktok
From TechJury’s 33+ Amazing TikTok Statistics You Should Know in 2022:
- “TikTok has 689 million monthly active users.”
- “TikTok users span across 155 countries worldwide.”
- “More than 1 billion videos get viewed each day on TikTok.”
From Sprout Social’s Instagram statistics you need to know for 2022:
- “Instagram has over 2 billion monthly active users.”
- “91% of active IG users watch videos weekly.”
- “70% of shoppers look to Instagram for their next purchase.”
From Thunderclap’s 30 Facebook Live Statistics for 2022:
- “Facebook live videos get 10x more comments than normal videos.”
- “The Facebook Live Video View Count Surpassed 2 Billion Viewers in 2020.”
- “Facebook Live Broadcasts Reached 3.5 Billion in 2018. in 2020, It Marked 8.5 Billion.”
So, now we’ve (hopefully) convinced you to give video a try, here’s how to create a practical video strategy that gets results:
Your Video Marketing Strategy to Get Attention For Your Business
As with any marketing, you’ll need a plan before you start using video to market your business.
Follow our practical tips and you’ll soon be up and running and bringing in new leads for your business.
1) Start with your audience
We’ve already mentioned that it’s important to understand which platforms your customers use. You can create the most amazing videos in the world on TikTok, but if your audience is primarily on Facebook, then it won’t do you any good.
If you haven’t already created buyer personas for your audience, then do that first. You need to thoroughly understand your customers. Research their demographics, and understand who they are and what they want. What are their pain points and frustrations that your company can solve?
Next, find out when they’re most often on your chosen platforms. Each social platform has its own statistics where you can learn even more about your audience as it grows, including when best to post your videos for the greatest effect.
It’s also important to listen to your customers and find out what they want to learn about. Use social listening to listen in on what your customers are saying about your business. You will get incredible insights from this which will inform every aspect of your marketing.
You’ll develop and refine this over time. You can experiment with different types of videos and ask questions while you’re live to find out what people want more of.
As you continue with video marketing, you’ll also have more statistics to draw on that will tell you what your most popular videos are.
2) Create a content schedule
It is important to respond to relevant trends as they happen and to respond to what your statistics and your audience are telling you. However, you do need a proper schedule so that you aren’t stuck on what to create each day or each week.
This also gives you time to prep anything you need for your videos, such as backgrounds, locations, people to take part, and more.
Try to plan out at least three months’ worth of content. That gives you long enough to get some solid statistics from your video marketing, but it’s not so long that you can’t change and adapt if something isn’t working.
3) Respond to your audience
When you go live and afterward, once the video is available for anyone to view, you will get questions and comments.
Don’t ignore these. Answer questions and respond to comments and people will think of your company as responsive and interested in them. Don’t be over formal. Enjoy yourself and your audience will too.
These comments and questions are also absolute gold for your business. Your marketing department can take note of what people are asking so that they can create more content on those subjects, both video and written. Comments and questions can generate ideas for blog posts, articles, ebooks, white papers, and, of course, more videos.
You can also mine these interactions for insight into what your audience wants and what they don’t like. You might get ideas for new features, new products, and more.
4) Keep a close eye on your statistics
We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s so important to understand what effect your videos are having on your audience. Every statistic can give you insights into what is working and what to do more or less of.
You can literally refine your marketing and make it even more targeted to your audience as you go.
Don’t neglect your stats. They’ll guide you to even better results over time.
5) Keep learning and improving
With video, you get an education every time you do it. You will get surprises from your audience, and you will learn as you go.
Keep learning from your statistics and your audience and improve as you continue video marketing.
Rapid Fire Tips for Video Marketing
1) Refine your audience per video
Identify your target/general audience for your video marketing as we talked about above, but also look at more defined audiences for specific videos. Not every audience member is ready for your demo videos. It all depends on where they are in the sales funnel.
You might also offer some videos which are tailored to a particular town or location, and you’ll need to research that audience too.
2) Write out your plan of what you’ll say and how you’ll create it
If you’re incredibly confident and well-versed in making videos, you might be able to wing it on occasion, but don’t make a habit of it.
It’s far better to plan out each video and at least have an idea of what you’re going to say. You don’t want to dry while you’re live in front of an audience.
3) Keep it short and sweet
People’s attention spans are short. You might get some die-hard fans who really will sit through your four-hour treatise on your latest product but it’s unlikely.
Keep it short, punchy, and informative and your audience will stick around.
4) Be personable and emotional
You can’t be really formal on video. It just doesn’t work. Instead, try to be yourself. Be friendly, informal, and chatty. It will work wonders on your audience.
If you do have a script, don’t read it like a robot. Familiarize yourself with what you’re going to say and then be as natural as possible. Practice is your friend here.
5) Engage with your audience
Video is all about engagement. We’ve talked about the importance of responding to your comments, but it’s all about giving people what they want.
Think about what types of videos will work well for your audience and test them out. Try Q&As with the CEO, tutorials, quick tips, tours of your building and your staff, and more.
6) Caption your videos
Many people watch videos with the sound off. If you’re not captioning, you’re missing out.
Keep your captions short and punchy, and make them interesting and engaging.
You want to grab people’s attention and keep it.
7) Tell a compelling story
People love to hear a good story. You can catch people’s imagination, engage them, and bond with them with the right story.
This isn’t just about individual videos either. Create a compelling story of your brand across all your content. Use your content planning stage to think about how you want your business to come across.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform demo
With Surefire Local’s all-in-one marketing platform, you can get insights into what customers are asking and what they’re saying about your business online. You can track your business’s overall engagement and visibility from your marketing efforts and ensure you’re tailoring your marketing to increase your results.
Even better, you can execute your entire online marketing strategy from a single platform; with integrations into all of the tools you rely on for simplicity and convenience.
Book a demo with our team today!
