The Complete Guide to Video Marketing That Converts

When you’ve been spending a lot of time online (who doesn’t?), you might notice that video dominates. 

Not only on YouTube. Take a look at some popular social media platforms; TikTok, Instagram, and even Twitter are embracing video content more than ever.

This video craze makes all the savvy marketers leave no stone unturned when it comes to expanding their reach and catching more eyeballs on their businesses. They invest in a variety of videos, from training videos to short social videos.

But, of course, now that the internet is becoming a chock-a-block place with videos, it’s only getting harder for marketers to stand out and engage more audiences.

Today’s internet users are picky. They’ve seen enough mediocre content and it only takes a second to scroll through past them.

So, how do you create a video marketing that really converts?

Here’s the guide.

Why Video Marketing?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty details, let's talk about how video marketing is such a worth-investing marketing tool in the first place.

By 2022, video content is projected to make up 82% of all internet traffic — a 14% increase from 2019.

Not only that, but according to HubSpot research, 54% of consumers want to see more video content from brands and businesses they support. 

So it’s not just us marketers who think so highly of video marketing. Your target audience does, too.

It makes sense now why as many as 86% of businesses have jumped into the video marketing bandwagon today.

But, why are internet users (us included) so attached to videos?

It’s the emotional connection.

See, when we watch videos, our brain processes the information in a way that is different from reading texts or looking at images. We use more of our senses and it engages more areas of our brain. This way, watching videos feels more personal than any other type of content out there.

As a result, we’re more likely to remember the message in the video and have an emotional connection with it. 

When we have an emotional connection with something, we’re more likely to act on it — whether that means making a purchase or sharing it with our social network.

Also, who wants to read bulky, text-heavy paragraphs when everything can be summarized in one minute video?

How Does Video Marketing Help Your Business?

Now that we understand why video marketing is a powerful marketing tool, let’s see how it can help your business in particular.

Some of the many benefits of video marketing are:

• It helps you improve your SEO ranking. Videos can help you rank higher on SERPs, both in organic and paid search results.
• It helps you get more leads. A video on your landing page can increase your conversion rate by up to 80%.
• It helps you boost brand awareness and recognition. Videos can help improve brand recall by as much as 60%.
• It helps you create a strong emotional connection with your audience. As we mentioned earlier, videos create an emotional connection with viewers that other content formats simply cannot match.
• It helps you build trust and credibility. Video helps you show, not just tell, your audience that you’re a credible source of information.
• It helps you increase social media engagement. Videos are more likely to be shared on social media than any other type of content — increasing your reach and boosting engagement.
• It helps you better connect with mobile users. More than half of all video views are on mobile.

How to Create a High-Performing Video Marketing Strategy?

When we talk about building a video marketing strategy, we talk about the whole process of it. A video campaign is so much more than creating a video and making it available on the internet. 

You need to be able to track the performance and analyze how people interact with your videos. Only then you can improve it for the next time.

Here are some steps you can take to create a high-performing video marketing strategy.

Pre-production

The pre-production process is all about planning your video. This includes everything from research to scripting to storyboarding.

During the pre-production process, you need to:

Do your research

First and foremost, you need to understand your audience and what they want to see. 

Remember that they are the ones that will watch your videos, so you have to make sure that your videos are relevant to them.

You can do this by creating buyer personas and doing keyword research. This will help you understand what kind of content is most popular with your target audience, and how you can make your videos more engaging for them.

Define your goals

What do you want your video to achieve? Are you looking to increase brand awareness? Drive traffic to your website? Increase sales?

Your goals will determine the kind of content you create and the call-to-action you include in your videos.

For example, if you’re looking to drive traffic to your website, you would want to create a video that is SEO-optimized and includes a call-to-action to visit your website.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to increase sales, you would want to create a video that is focused on your product or service and includes a call-to-action to purchase.

Script your video

Once you know what kind of video you want to see, it’s time to write a script. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy — just a basic outline of what you want to say in your video.

Your script should answer the following questions:

• Who is your video for?
• What do you want your video to achieve?
• What kind of content will you include?
• What is your call to action?

Storyboard your video

Once you have a script, it’s time to start visualizing your video. This is where storyboarding comes in. Storyboarding is the process of creating a visual representation of your video, scene by scene.

You don't have to have superb drawing skills. You can just use a whiteboard or piece of paper to sketch out your ideas. There are also tons of storyboard makers like Boards and Storyboard that offer pre-built templates.

The purpose of storyboarding is to help you plan out your video and ensure that everything flows together smoothly.

Production

The production process is all about creating your video. This includes everything from filming to editing to adding music and graphics.

Live-action or animation?

There are two main types of video content: live-action and animation.

Live-action videos are filmed with real people and settings. They tend to be more personal and relatable, which makes them great for building relationships with your audience.

Animation videos are created using illustrations or motion graphics. They’re often used to explain complex concepts in a simple and engaging way.

Both live-action and animation have their own set of pros and cons, so it’s important to choose the right one in alignment with your video marketing strategy.

Filming your video

If you’re creating a live-action video, you’ll need to film it. This can be done with a DSLR camera, a camcorder, or even your smartphone.

The best thing about video marketing is that you don't have to invest in fancy filming equipment kits to create stunning videos. 

But, of course, proper equipment can make your videos more professional and engaging. 

If you’re creating an animation video, you’ll need to create the illustrations or motion graphics. This can be done with graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. 

Don't have design skills? Online software like Powtoon and Animaker can help with a vast library of pre-built templates and customizable animated characters.

Editing your video

Once you have all your footage or assets, it’s time to start putting everything together. This is where video editing comes in.

Video editing is the process of piecing together your footage, adding transitions, and including graphics and music. 

You can edit your videos yourself with free video editing software like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. But if you want to create more professional-looking videos, you’ll need to use paid software like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro.

Adding music and graphics

Now it’s time to add the finishing touches to your video. This includes adding music and graphics.

Music can help set the tone of your video and make it more engaging. There are plenty of free stock music sites like Bensound and Audio Jungle that you can use. For those looking to automate the process, Movavi's auto music video maker is an excellent tool that can help create engaging music videos quickly and easily. This feature allows users to automate many of the editing processes, making it a breeze to match music to your video content.

Just make sure to read the terms and conditions before using any music in your video.

Graphics can also help make your video more engaging. This could include adding titles, lower thirds, or even animation.

Choosing the right platforms

When you finally have the final version of your video, it’s time to start thinking about where you’re going to host it. 

There are plenty of different platforms to choose from, each with its own set of pros and cons along with its own demographics.

For example, if you create a video for younger audiences, platforms like TikTok and YouTube would be your best bet. But if you’re trying to reach a more corporate audience, LinkedIn would be a better choice.

You can also embed your video on your website or blog.

Learn how to use YouTube Analytics advanced mode to understand performance trends

Read

Post-production

Preparing and creating a marketing video is one thing. Promoting it is another. Just because you have a great video doesn’t mean that people will automatically watch it.

You need to put in the time and effort to promote your video if you want it to be successful. This includes:

Optimizing the video for search engines

You can't simply upload your videos and cross your fingers, hoping people will find and see them. The best way to ensure people will see your videos is to optimize them for search engines. 

This means :

• Use the right keywords and tags so that your video appears when people are searching for related topics. 
• Include a transcript of your video on your website to help with SEO.
• Creating compelling thumbnails and descriptions. Your thumbnail is what shows up on social media and search engines, so it needs to be eye-catching and accurate. The same goes for your video description.
• Include a call-to-action in your description so that viewers know what they need to do after watching your video. 
• Add annotations or cards in your videos that link to others.

Pay attention to the analytics

Your work isn’t done once you hit the "publish" button. In fact, that’s when the real work begins. 

You need to pay attention to your video’s analytics to see how it’s performing and make changes accordingly. 

Many social media platforms provide you with a built-in analytic feature. For instance, Instagram with Instagram Insights and YouTube with YouTube Analytics.

You can check the metrics that align with your goals to see if you’re on track. 

For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you’ll want to pay attention to the number of views, shares, and comments your video is getting. 

But if your goal is more sales-focused, you’ll want to look at the number of clicks and conversions your video is generating.

You can also use analytics to see which parts of your video are performing well and which parts need improvement. 

This will help you create better videos in the future.

Popular Types of Videos and When to Create Them

Video marketing is not a one-size-fits-all type of deal, which means you can use it in various ways to support your business goals — whether that’s generating leads, boosting conversion rates, or increasing brand awareness.

Some popular video content types that help businesses achieve their goals are:

Product videos

This video can be a good go-to for eCommerce businesses. You can use product videos to show off your products in a way that’s more engaging than simply writing out a description.

Customer testimonials

These types of videos are great for social proof and building trust with potential customers, making them ideal for the bottom of the sales funnel. 

Tutorials and how-tos

People love watching videos that teach them how to do something. These types of videos are great for the top and middle of the sales funnel because they help build interest and educate viewers about your product or service.

Teaser videos

A teaser video is a short clip that gives viewers a sneak peek of what they can expect from your upcoming product or service. This type of video is great for building anticipation and generating leads.

Explainer videos

Like tutorials, explainer videos are also helpful for the top and middle of the sales funnel. They’re a bit more in-depth than tutorials and usually focus on a specific problem that your product or service solves. 

Live videos

If you want to aim for engagement and real-live interactions, then consider incorporating live videos into your content strategy.

As you can see, there’s a video type for every stage of the buyer’s journey. And each video serves a different purpose. So, it’s crucial to analyze your marketing funnel to find the best type of marketing video.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Now that you know how to create videos that convert, it’s time to avoid some common mistakes that could ruin your video marketing strategy. Here are a few mistakes to avoid:

Video marketing just for the sake of doing it

When you only create videos because you don't want to get left behind your competitors, it shows. Your videos won’t be high quality and you likely won’t see the results you want. 

Create one video to achieve all goals

Not every video is created the same. Just like you shouldn’t create blog posts or social media posts with the same goals in mind, you shouldn’t create videos with the same goal, either. 

Your video strategy should consist of different types of videos that help you achieve specific business goals.

Creating videos that are too long

You may think that the longer your video is, the better. But, the thing is that most people lose interest after watching a video for just over two minutes. The report by WIstia shows that 2-minute videos get the most engagement.

Relying on production value over quality

Your thousand-bucks visuals mean nothing when your video is boring and doesn’t deliver any value. You don’t need to break the bank to create a high-quality video. Just focus on delivering quality information in an engaging way.

Making it all about you

Your video marketing strategy should not be all about you and your company. They are created to give your audience what they want — whether that’s valuable information, an entertaining story, or both. Make it all about them. Put yourself in their shoes and see things from their perspective.

Creating videos but not promoting them

Just because you create a great video doesn’t mean people will watch it. 

Like it's mentioned before, you need to promote your videos through social media, email marketing, and other channels. If you don’t promote them, no one will know they exist.

Not having a call-to-action

Let's say you create brilliant video content with professionally-produced visuals, but you forget to include a call-to-action (CTA) at the end. 

Viewers have no clue what they should do after watching the video. How can they even convert?

Always remember to include a CTA, whether it’s subscribing to your email list, visiting your website, or following you on social media. 

Wrapping Up

Just like any other marketing tool, video marketing is not a one-time and easy process. You can’t simply create one video and expect it to go viral overnight. Those best practices mentioned above help you to build high-performing video marketing campaigns, from the pre-production to the post-production process.