In the age of social media hyperdrive, reaching potential customers may feel like a daunting and perhaps even impossible task. However, standing out and gaining new business in a world full of immaculate websites and rapid-fire tweets might be more attainable than you would think. Video marketing is a great way to share your business’s unique story and products alike.
WHAT IS VIDEO MARKETING?
Video marketing, or telling people about your product or service utilizing video content, has become increasingly popular in recent years. These videos can be shared on a variety of platforms, ranging from Facebook posts to TikTok videos to YouTube commercials, among many others. Video marketing can also take a variety of different formats, including testimonials, demos, entertainment videos, and even training videos. Though the content certainly ranges, one thing is constant for all types of video marketing: your consumers are looking for it. In fact, 66 percent of consumers actually prefer watching a video as opposed to reading about a product.
HOW DO I OPTIMIZE MY VIDEO MARKETING?
Whether you are a marketing professional or whether you’ve never even thought about it before, here are some helpful hints on how to get started and utilize video marketing services in St. Louis to catapult your business’s reach to the next level:
- Utilize analytics. Most social media platforms come with built-in analytics features that detail how well your posts are doing. When you share a video on social media, you will be able to tell just how many people watched, how long they watched it for, and even some information about who was watching it. Utilizing these statistics to see when and with what people your content is popular can help you continue to drive even more successful and widely-shared posts in the future.
- Tell a story. When creating a video for your small business in St. Louis, it is important to tell a clear story of what you are showing them. When crafting the story, think of what you want the audience to feel and experience as a result of watching the video. According to Masterclass, great storytellers “make it personal to their audience,” which they are able to do because they know their audience. Get to know your audience and tell them a story that’s special to them and to your St. Louis community.
- Be consistent. Ensure your branding and messaging are uniform throughout your videos and other posts. Consumers like to get to know a product. When they feel they know a product, they also can begin to feel they know you and your company. Consistent branding supports a two-way relationship with your customer or potential customer in that they will feel they know you, too.
- Keep it short. Video site Vimeo blogged that the most optimal video length for Facebook in 2021 is between 15 seconds and 3 minutes. However, depending on the platform being utilized, it is actually ideally much less than that upper boundary of 3 minutes. Concise and interesting videos can certainly keep your audience engaged, but not forever, no matter how great the content is!
- Let your passion shine through. The St. Louis community wants to support its local businesses now more than ever. Show who you and your business are to our community by being real and exuding your excitement for what you do every day. The more zeal you can show in the video, the more likely your audience is to also feel passionate about what you do and back your business.
WHY YOUR ST. LOUIS SMALL BUSINESS SHOULD UTILIZE VIDEO MARKETING SERVICES
Your potential customers are watching more content than ever before and are becoming more and more likely to purchase from companies whose ads they have seen. In 2020, 88% of marketers surveyed by Zenith stated that their video marketing provided them with a positive return on investment. This number is only growing, as that number was a meager 33% in 2015. Video marketing is an increasingly effective way to reach people for a number of reasons, including the below points:
ENGAGEMENT
Video posts attract three times the engagement than posts without video do. The more engagement you attract, the more likely people are to explore the rest of your social media pages or website. Even if they don’t purchase anything from you, they become more likely to share your product or service with family or friends when they’ve engaged with your post.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
When tagged correctly with accurate descriptions, utilizing video marketing services as a strategy can also drastically increase your likelihood to come up in search engines, such as Google or Yahoo. More traffic from these sites can often equal bigger revenues.
EASY ANALYTICS
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have made it simpler to understand how your video is performing with pre-made dashboards and reports on demand. When you post a video, you have the confidence of knowing where it is going, when it is going there, and who will likely see it. After you’ve posted the video, you will also be able to tell these statistics in retrospect to learn from what went wrong and capitalize on what went right.
CREATE A BETTER BRAND AWARENESS
They say a picture tells a thousand words. If that’s true, then what can a video do for your business? In 15 to 60 seconds, you will be able to share a ton of information beyond what a simple tweet or slogan can likely describe who you are as a business and what you stand for.
WANT TO GET STARTED?
As the trends for social media usage and video consumption continue to climb, the trends for video marketing are also continuing to grow. Between the ability to share more information, the strong desire is seen from consumers for this type of content, and the powerful data analytics that comes alongside it, it is clear that video marketing is an effective tactic to win and retain customers in St. Louis. If you are looking for support with this, we’d love to help you with our video marketing services that will allow your business to thrive even more in this new age of digital marketing.