How to Use Video in Your 2018 Marketing Strategy

If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail

So you’ve heard that video is pretty important to business this year. Great. You’re already one step ahead of the guys who still have no idea about the importance of video. But you have no idea where to start, or what to do even if you could.

Never fear: incorporating video into your business’ marketing strategy really isn’t as daunting as it seems, especially when you’ve got a professional video production company on your side. Keen to get one step ahead of the pack this year? Here are our tips about incorporating video in your 2018 marketing strategy.

Create an actual calendar

Ok, this might sound a bit ‘duh’, but before you can really effectively incorporate video into your marketing strategy, you need to create a marketing calendar. Within the calendar, include all your social media platforms, website updates, live events, blog … anything that video might either influence, be influenced by, or be required to be at. It doesn’t matter what your calendar looks like or what platform it’s on – a whiteboard works just as well as a Google spreadsheet – as long as you know what video content will be published on what day, and how it relates to everything else going on both within the marketing calendar and the wider business.

Continue doing what’s working – but do it better

Next, look at what kind of video you’re already incorporating into your marketing strategy. If you’ve already got an explainer video on your website and an active Facebook account (minus video content), great – you’ve got an excellent basis to start from. From here, look at what platforms you already use and how you could incorporate video into them, plus what opportunities you have to broaden your video usage. It might be that you only have to make a few tweaks to see great results. Conversely, you might need to turn your entire marketing strategy on its head.

Think of new ideas

You might not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but you can definitely teach a marketing team how to be on top of their game. Think outside the square when it comes to how you can use video – here are some awesome ideas from Hubspot (find more here):

• Create short ‘thank you’ videos from your team to customers
• Film 15-second testimonials from real customers who love your product
• Create longer product demos and instructional videos
• Do a short intro of your company, including your mission and vision
• Turn blog posts into, or accompany blogs posts with, short snappy how-to videos and summaries
• Shoot and live-stream presentations and seminars (and add in each speaker’s slides in post-production so people can go back to them later)
• Use Facebook Live to broadcast from cool industry events you’re attending
• Hold live Q&A sessions with employees, customers or visitors

Remember: when it comes to video, if you can think it, you can do it. And if you can’t do it in real life, there’s always animation.

The best customer is the evangelical one

Real-life, happy customers are the best tools for getting more business. Use video to capture real-life stories about how your product changed your customers’ lives, then share them on social media. Prospective customers who see a real person advocating your product are more likely to swipe their credit card than if the business itself pushed a hard sell.

Explainer videos

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but we reckon video is like a million really fast pictures .. or something. One of the best forms of video is the humble explainer video. Why? Because it’s a short and sweet how-to about a product or service that doesn’t take a lot of effort to engage with, yet leaves the viewer with a whole new insight about your business.

Of course, not everyone is blessed with an in-house video production team … but frankly, you don’t need it. Not when there are already loads of experts out there who not only know their stuff but are also willing to go the extra mile to turn your ideas into a reality. Need help with an explainer video or corporate video for your business? Talk to the team at Onepost Video Production – we’re here to help.