What is Video Marketing?

Video marketing is an approach that is growing in popularity among brands and agencies because of its perceived effectiveness. The digital era has encouraged brands to be more playful with marketing campaigns, providing them with a broad range of choices when it comes to content.

On digital, especially amid the rise of content marketing and sponsored content, formats keep growing in diversity--including text, infographics, and interactive content.

With more and more audiences choosing smaller screens to consume the content that they used to rely on the television for, marketers are also increasingly looking to video to talk about their brands, products, or services. In most markets, time spent on mobile is now longer than that spent on television.

How do you go about video marketing? And what are the advantages of doing it?

Video marketing is primarily all about promoting brands, and their goods and/or services, through videos. A convincing marketing campaign ideally has at least one or more of its campaign material in video format--whether as customer testimonials, event coverage, how-to videos, explainers, corporate productions, or entertaining clips.

These figures from Hubspot give you clues on why marketers are looking into video:

• By 2019, video is expected to capture 80% of all web traffic
• Video can boost email click-through rate by up to 300%
• Embedding videos on a landing page increases conversions up to 80%
• At least 90% of consumers admit that videos influence their decision to shop
• YouTube says mobile video consumption doubles every year
• As of 2017, visits to video marketing sites reached 69%

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Funnelbox.com identifies four layers in video marketing:

Strategy

All marketing campaigns should start with a strong marketing strategy. For video, you must have a clear idea as to who you will target and what action you want from them. Answers to these questions provide creative direction and also determine distribution and optimization decisions.

Production

Production can be split into three stages:

During pre-production, creative ideas are built, usually in the form of a script or storyboard. You also need to map out important details such as the location of the shoot, the talents who will be involved, down to the small points such as what the talents will wear.

Production involves the process of filming based on decisions made during pre-production. That doesn’t mean that everything will go according to plan, however, with changes often made onsite on elements such as lighting or framing.

Post-production is the last stage, wherein video is prepared for distribution. Graphics, voice-over, and special effects are added during this phase. The production team then makes adjustments based on client feedback before the final video is rendered.

Distribution

No matter how good a video is, all efforts will be in vain without a good distribution plan. Your distribution strategy will determine how popular your video will be and how cost-effective it will be to have as many people as possible watch it. Here are some questions you need to consider:

• Should you promote it through social media? If so, which platform?
• Would you need to pay to get more viewers?
• Will it perform better online or on traditional channels?

Optimization

One of the things we keep repeating at GetCraft is the need for you to monitor the performance of any marketing activity. Set goals for the campaign, regularly check how you’re faring in terms of those goals, and make adjustments when needed.

There’s no one-size-fits-all guide to success in video marketing, but as long as you know what you want to achieve and you’re willing to experiment on the best ways to can get there, you can spell your own success. Start today by connecting with hundreds of videographers in Southeast Asia through our platform.

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