Video Marketing
Strategy
Ultimate guide +
Free Content
Calendar Template
What should you expect here?
By downloading this ebook, you have taken a serious step towards
understanding video marketing strategy
You can save this PDF in your laptop, and upload it to your drive
too, so that you can access it from any device. We recommend
reading this ebook at your own pace. There are many useful stuff
like quotes, stats and figures in this ebook. Take as much time you
need to absorb the information shared in this book.
Lastly, don’t forget to check out the video calendar template that
comes with this ebook. When it’s time to apply all that you have
learned from this book, this calendar is going to come in handy.
01
What is video marketing?
First, start by understanding what is not video marketing.
Making videos in an unplanned manner just because everyone is
doing it is not video marketing. Instead, video marketing is a very
thoughtful process of using videos to educate your target
audience, and helping them learn about your product. It’s a
process of creating videos regularly to build an engagement with
your audience.
That’s why, making a video marketing strategy in haste will do no
good for you and your business. It’s a responsible job and should
be done with all seriousness. Brands who get this at the initial
stage tend to survive for a longer term with favorable results on
their video marketing initiatives.
- Gael Breton, Authority Hacker
Video marketing is about getting your products or services in
front of your audience in a way that goes beyond traditional
means. It follows the same conventions as traditional marketing
techniques - create a hook, define the features and benefits
and provide a call to action - but it does it in a much more
colorful and creative way. Why tell when you can show
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Evolution of video marketing
To trace the earliest signs of video marketing, we have to go all the
way back to 1941, when Bulova aired a 10-second commercial
before the Boston Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies clash. It was
broadcast on black and white television, and it was viewed by
4,000 people in New York.
There are three areas where you have to pay closer attention to in
the last paragraph: commercial, television, 4,000 people.
Video commercials were synonymous with video marketing for a
long time. However, in the present context, video ads and video
marketing are different sides of the same coin. Video ads directly
focus on selling the product. Video marketing, as we saw in the
definition, focuses more on building relationships with customers.
Earlier, people were aware that if they see a brand making a video
it’s for selling their product. However, companies now invest in
videos not just for ads, but for building a narrative around their
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Television is no longer the only medium for companies to reach
their audience using videos. According to Think with Google, 6 out
of 10 people prefer watching videos online. This changed
exponentially after YouTube was launched and subsequently got
acquired by Google. But, it’s not just YouTube. There’s Instagram,
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok that also generate huge traffic
through videos. Your target audience has more options for
watching videos than before. Therefore, your marketing can longer
be unilateral.
In 1941, only 4,000 people in New York could watch Bulova’s TV ad.
Today, more than 2 billion people watch videos online. New York
has a population of more than 8 million people. To be successful in
video marketing, you have to reach a wider audience. Your target
audience is everywhere, and unless you’re prepared for it, you
could be losing a vital share of your market.
Start here
Get our free video content calendar & start
plotting your video ideas instantly
04
Why is video marketing important?
Numbers are interesting, and they do give abundant insights
about video marketing. But, video marketing is not just a number
game. It’s more serious. When you decide to go forth with video
marketing, you’re making a commitment towards bringing a
change in the way you market your business.
Video marketing brings a shift in the culture of the organization.
You have to share your vision with your employees, show them the
way, and then lead your team through a step-by-step process. This
is necessary because, unless you’re willing to transform the
intrinsic structure of your organization, your video marketing goals
will remain unattainable.
This is just one phase of the importance of video marketing. Like
video marketing attaches itself to the working dynamics of your
organization, it also transforms your relationship with your
customers. And, the fulcrum on which this relationship is built is
personalization.
You can be successful in video marketing when you stress on
personalizing the video experience of your customer. But, how
does this personalization take place? It happens by impacting the
storytelling
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How videos impact your storytelling
The moment you start incorporating videos into your marketing
activities, you start seeing changes. It might take some time to get
an idea of the whole picture, but few areas start getting affected
right from the get-go
The immediate impact that you will see in the messaging is the
addition of visual elements in your marketing. Instead of telling
more about your product, videos will help you to start focusing
on the showing part. While long-form content will have their
place in your strategy, you can add videos to supplement them.
Adding videos to landing pages can improve the conversion
rate by 86%. Besides, you can use platforms like YouTube and
Instagram Reels to make how-to and explainer videos to show
your customers how your product works
More show, less talk
- Tony Minh Do, HubSpot
Personalization - marketing has thrived on customizing and
tailoring your message to the audience. The closer you are to
the buyer persona, the better conversions you’ll experience
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Other than being a new move in your marketing plan, videos
can be really helpful for scaling your efforts. Repurposing
content is one of them. If you have just been relying on SEO,
backlink building and social media promotion for content
distribution, then you can also add videos to this list. You can
convert your blogs to videos and publish them on different
platforms. So, your single blog can actually get traffic from
multiple sources without spending money or overshooting
your budget
Easy to scale
- Alex Berman, x27marketing
“The most important part of video marketing is delivering on
your promises. Pick a topic, find a content type that works for
you, and make as many great variations on that theme as
possible.”
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As you get deeper into video marketing, and get better at it,
your videos start becoming the face of your brand. Your target
audience can find you on different platforms, and with
increased visibility, they will start trusting your brand. If you’re
attentive toward the quality of the video content, your
audience will also engage more with the videos
Improved branding
How to build your own
video marketing strategy?
Like any other strategic task that requires a thoughtful approach, a
step-by-step process, and time, making a video marketing strategy
demands all the above three. However, the toughest part is not
planning, but getting started. With that in mind, here are 5 steps
that will help you make your own video marketing strategy without
getting overwhelmed.
Decide a goal
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Choose the platforms
1. Decide a goal
This is where you should start. Deciding a goal gives direction to
your purpose for making videos. Many brands frustrate
themselves too early in this process because they create videos
without factoring in who they’re targeting and what they’re trying
to achieve. It’s like shooting arrows in the dark. Instead of hitting a
target, you would most likely end up hurting your chances of
having successful returns.
All of this sounds great, but again, how do you start? The answer is
the Marketing funnel. A marketing funnel (aka buyer’s journey) is a
series of steps taken by buyers before they decide to buy a
product or service. A marketing funnel can be complex because
buyers are complex. Not everyone follows that same buying
process. Having said that, you can still lay out the broad steps that
define the flow, and create your funnel.
Here are the four broad stages in a marketing funnel: Awareness,
Consideration, Evaluation, Decision
Awareness
Consideration
Decision
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This is also known as the Top of the Funnel (TOFU). People at
the awareness stage are aware of their problem, and are
actively looking for a solution. For example, an ecommerce
seller is having a tough time managing inventory, and now she
is looking for inventory software. This is a great opportunity for
an inventory software company to introduce their product
using a video.
This video should focus on introducing the company, its values
and how it tries to solve the problem of users facing inventory
concerns. A short video with voice-over can help in establishing
a connection with the audience.
Awareness
Consideration
At the consideration stage, your target audience has taken
notice of your video at the awareness stage. They know your
value proposition and how you can solve their problem. But,
they want to learn more about your product. Create explainer
videos by diving deep into your products, singling out your
most important features. There are other ideas too, like
uploading your recorded product webinar videos.
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At this stage, your target audience is closer to conversion. So,
they’re more prudent. They know about your product, your
features, but they are also evaluating a few of your
competitors. You can still lose this customer, if you have
ignored them in your video marketing strategy. To avoid that,
invite your users to your weekly product webinars, send emails
to set up a personalized demo, share user-generated content
and your product ratings on different review platforms to
convince them why they should pick your product.
That’s it. You have convinced your audience that your product
is the best solution for them. Deserting them here would mean
making them rethink their decision. To avoid that, send them a
personalized video about how you’re excited about having
them onboard. You can also share some help videos and
encourage them to write back to your team in case of
concerns.
Decision
Evaluation
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2. Choose the platforms
After you have figured out the marketing funnel, you know what
type of videos you need to make to address the challenge at every
step of the buyer journey. Now it’s time to focus on reaching them
on different platforms. Keeping your video marketing strategy
tailored for one platform will hurt your success. Because people
have diverse choices. If they enjoy watching full-length videos, they
also like to watch shorter videos like Instagram Reels, TikTok videos
and YouTube Shorts.
Choose the platforms that work the best for you. You don’t need to
be everywhere if you don’t have the bandwidth to focus on all of
them. Focus on a few, and double-down on them. Here are a few
best practices for each of the video platforms that you should know
These are the
social media
platforms
where people
are watching
videos
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Facebook
This one comes straight from the Facebook team. Most of the
Facebook videos are watched on mobile. So, unless your videos
are in a vertical format of 4:5 aspect ratio, your audience will
not choose to engage with your video
Use 4:5 aspect ratio:
85% of videos are watched on Facebook without sound. This
doesn’t imply that you should not use sounds in your videos.
But, it certainly signifies that the visual elements in your videos
should be simple, and self-explanatory. You can also add a
closed caption, so that the viewer can get the details without
turning on the sound. This further optimizes your content for
no sound. If you really need the users to tap on sound, add a
pop-up in the video that doesn’t spoil the watching experience
Optimize for no sound:
Live videos on Facebook can help you build engagement. You
can have live Q&A sessions, release exciting product features,
share company update or invite a customer to share their
experience of using your product. Facebook automatically
publishes the video on your Facebook company page after the
recording, which means people can still watch the video after
the live session is over.
Make live videos:
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Instagram Video Specs
Video Specs
Resolution
1080x1920
1080x1920 1080x1920
Aspect Ratio
Landscape is
16:9,
Square is 1:1
vertical is 4:5
16:9 16:9
Maximum
File Size
4GB
4GB 4GB
Upload Type
.MP4 and .MOV
files
.MP4 and .MOV
files
.MP4 and .MOV
files
Maximum Video
Time
1 Minute
60 Sec
Paid content
Is 2 minutes,
Organic
content is 15
sec
In Feed
IG Stories Reels
Instagram
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Instagram videos can be done in different ways. You can make
Stories, Reels and Live videos too. But, you have to ensure that
you optimize the video for each of them in terms of resolution
and aspect ratio.
Focus on video specs:
Many users head over to Instagram to watch entertaining videos.
If your videos are funny, people will most likely engage with your
videos. This can lead to conversations, building a relationship in
the long term
Keep your videos interesting:
One of the best things that you can do on Instagram to build an
audience is by keeping things exciting. Sharing product teasers is
one way of doing that. Teasers inform people about a big event
coming up without revealing all the details which make them
come back
Share video teasers:
Add ideas for different social platforms using our
video content calendar
Get it for free
15
TikTok
TikTok is known for its short videos. In that case, if your videos
are too long, they will probably not show up on people’s feeds.
Try to keep the video length between 9 and 15 seconds
Keep the video short:
Background music has a special effect on TikTok videos. There
are ample examples of videos going viral on TikTok because of
a catchy music track. If you want your TikTok videos to get
famous, make sure you tune up the music
Use background music:
YouTube
A thumbnail is like an invitation for viewers to watch a YouTube
video. Investing time and effort in making a thumbnail will get
more views for your videos. Focus on creating a professional
looking thumbnail of 18280 X 720 pixel size and 16:9 ratio for
mobile and desktop optimization
Make better thumbnails:
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If you’re sharing great content on YouTube, your audience will
like your videos and comment on them too. Reply to their
comments, share more useful content links and tell them how
their comments are important for your company
Engage with your audience:
3. Make a content plan
A content plan defines how you want to plan the video making
process. Making a video requires group effort, equipment and
aligning everything in a certain way so that you get the
maximum results. All you have to do is keep repeating the same
steps and get better results. You can completely outsource your
content planning to an external agency and take the load off of
you. While you can do that, it can also turn out to be an
expensive choice. Besides, your control over the whole process
is going to be less if you compare it with in-house planning.
It’s difficult to recommend whether you should go with in-house
or outsource the content planning, but if you decide to stick to
in-house video making, here are a few pointers for your
reference
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Write a script
Create a storyboard
Make a list of the equipments needed to make a video
Brief the team on the video content
Making sure that the light and sound systems are apt for the
video requirement
Follow the rule of thirds while filming the video
Get the approval and keep the documentation up to date
Edit the video using video editing software
Make a list of places where you want to share the vide
- Nandini Sharma, Proofhub
Technology has revolutionized our world in ways we wouldn’t
have imagined. We are well-connected to the entire world
through our gadgets and this has helped businesses market
themselves easily and reach the target demographic.
The best way for brands to reach their desired audience is
through Video marketing
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4. Use a video calendar
A video calendar looks like a normal calendar - there are dates,
days, weeks and months. It’s a very useful resource for planning
your video content for a few months or an entire year. As we have
been stressing from the start, video marketing can get
overwhelming if done in an unplanned way. The first three points
in this section tackle 70% of the overwhelming aspects. Video
calendar helps to fill the rest of the gap.
Once you have a certain number of video ideas, decide on their
timeline by plotting them on the video calendar. Assign them
dates while making sure that you keep sufficient gaps between
videos. This will give enough time to your team to work on the
content without compromising on the quality of the video.
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Video content calendar comes with a range of benefits, but here
are a few pointers that should give you an idea -
- By scheduling video ideas this way, you have already set a
direction for your team. Knowing what is planned for the coming
weeks, you don’t have to spend a lot of time brainstorming for
ideas.
- Moreover, because of this organized structure, you can keep
track of your activities. This will be a document which you can
refer to anytime to check if an idea has already been covered.
- As you keep producing videos based on different ideas and
publishing them on different platforms, your audience will remain
engaged for a long time. Your videos will also gain more popularity
with time as they start appearing in people’s feeds.
- A calendar is a simple, but flexible tool. If you think your team is
not ready for the “behind-the-scenes” Instagram Reels schedule
for next Monday, then you can always switch it with another idea.
It hardly takes any time.
A content calendar should be a part of your video marketing
strategy. It brings more order to your overall plan. But, if you have
never seen a video calendar before, try using templates.
We have designed one which you can download for free and get
started with it immediately.
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A content calendar is an excellent tool for
avoiding ideas from overlapping
Check it out
Explainer videos
User-generated content
Short-form videos
Educational videos
Product videos
5. Decide the type of videos you
want to create
You have a goal, your content plan is set, you know the platforms
you want to target, and you have a content calendar too. The final
part of your video marketing strategy is about the type of videos
you want to create.
This section is not for restricting your video ideas, but more for
informing you about the most popular type of videos companies
make
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Explainer videos are made for visually explaining an idea,
concept or a product. These types of videos are extremely
useful for brands to show their audience how their product or
service works. They’re short, more engaging and 72% of
customers prefer learning about a product or service by
watching these types of videos. Explainer videos can be done
in different ways.
Animated explainer videos are very popular with companies.
Using abstract figures and demonstrations, viewers can have a
better understanding of the product. Live videos, whiteboard
explainer videos and screen recorders are other popular ways
of making explainer videos and sharing them with the
audience
Explainer videos
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Short-form videos are of less than 3 minutes duration. The
attention span of the audience has dropped to a miniscule
level. This has given a huge thrust to the growth of short-form
videos. Companies include YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels
and TikTok videos in their video marketing strategy to build
relationships with their audience. There is no particular type of
video that works in this format, but many brands share
challenges, user testimonials and product sneak-peek to keep
the audience engaged.
Short-form videos
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Product videos are for the TOFU audience who are aware of
their challenges and are looking for solutions to overcome
them. Product videos give an overview of what the product is
capable of doing. It neatly demonstrates how the product can
solve the user’s problems and how it’s better than the other
solutions. To have a better impression on your target audience,
have a professional approach towards making product videos.
Hire experts or consult them on what technical areas you
should focus on to make your product videos stand out. Other
than uploading your product videos on different platforms, you
can also use them on your landing pages and blogs to improve
their readability
Product videos
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User-generated content(UGC) is created by your customers.
They are fantastic for growing your brand because they act like
social proof which many customers look for before buying a
product. As a company, you can collaborate with your existing
customers to create more UGC content. You can ask your
customers about the best scenarios where they use your
product, and then record it in the form of a video. Because
your real customers are involved here, this will be seen as
more believable, and not seen as another marketing gimmick.
After you have recorded the video, you can repurpose it by
making multiple short videos of it and posting them on
different platforms.
User-generated content
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Educational videos are in the line of explainer videos, but have a
broader spectrum. Explainer videos are short and talk about the
product features. Educational videos can be longer, detailed, and
educate the users about how to perform a task. For example, if
you’re selling organic floor cleaners, you can make educational
videos on how to identify if a floor cleaner is organic or not. You
can subtly mention your product in the video, but not for the
purpose of direct selling. The biggest advantage of making these
types of videos is that you’re contributing towards growing the
knowledge of your audience. There is no hard-selling involved.
Educational videos
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Not including video SEO in your video marketing strategy will
hinder your videos from generating impressive results. Video SEO
helps the search engine crawlers find your videos and index them.
So that the next time someone is searching for a video, your
content pops up. The higher the visibility, the higher the views.
Here are the five video SEO practices that you can’t miss
The title of your video should be simple and straightforward. If
your video is about how to groom your dog in 3 simple steps,
then make sure you keep the title that way. Using confusing
titles will keep the audience away from clicking on your video.
The other drawback of having bad titles is that people do not
stay on your video for long. As the title doesn’t suggest clearly,
they come with different expectations. Poor watching time on
your videos will indicate to the search engine that your content
is not relevant. This will make your video lose ranking.
Work on the video title
What should you know about
video SEO?
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To improve your chances of video ranking better, use relevant
keywords. Keywords are search terms that people use to search
for content. If your video ranks on the first page for a high
volume keyword, you can generate more traffic to your website
and YouTube channel. To find the relevant keywords, use a
keyword research tool like Ahrefs. Enter the main keyword for
which you want your video to rank, and ahrefs will filter the
most relevant keywords based on volume and relevance.
Use relevant keywords
Using the right keywords and writing a video title is not enough
to make your videos rank. Video descriptions can help to
empower your SEO strategy. Video descriptions appear right
underneath your video where you can be more expressive
about the video. YouTube allows you to write 5,000 characters
here which is great for using more keywords. You can also plug
in the link of your other videos or resources. If a viewer finds
one video useful, they will most likely check out your other
resources too.
Write video descriptions
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A thumbnail image is a small rectangular frame containing an
image which appears when a user searches for a video. A
thumbnail gives an idea to the viewer of what they should
expect. Ergo, choose a video thumbnail consciously. If you don’t
decide on a thumbnail on your own, YouTube will do that for
you. This sounds alluring, but don’t fall for it. It will randomly
pick a moment from your video and add it as a thumbnail. In
this case, your video might end up with an awkward thumbnail
which will repel the users instead of making them feel
interested. While adding your own thumbnail, make sure that it
has a resolution of 1280 X 720, less than 2 MB size and a 16:9
aspect ratio
Use a thumbnail image consciously
The search engine algorithm prefers to rank content that is of
good quality and helps users to understand the topic in the best
way possible. A clear title, relevant thumbnail, thoughtful
description helps with this, but adding a video transcript makes
it even better. A video transcript is your video content in text
form. Uploading your video transcript will help you rank better
as they are crawled for SEO purposes. Moreover, if your
audience has difficulty hearing or are not very familiar with your
accent, they can read the transcript and follow the video.
Use video transcripts
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Before you leave, don’t forget to download our
free video calendar template
Download now
Final word
Video marketing is the need of the hour and making a video
marketing strategy is the way of excelling in it. There are many
things involved in making a video strategy - how to produce
videos, where to publish them, how to optimize them, what type
of videos to publish and how to organize all the video ideas. This
piece of content along with the free content calendar template will
help you get started immediately.
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