Mastering Video Marketing: Tips for Creating a Winning Strategy

The Importance of video marketing in the digital era

Why is video marketing key

In today’s fast-paced digital era, video marketing in Auckland has emerged as an indispensable tool for businesses seeking to capture the attention of their target audience. Be it clients, customers, potential employees, investors, and anyone in between, video allows brands to communicate their message in an engaging way that resonates with viewers.

Compared to other content formats, video often results in higher engagement rates, increased retention, and ultimately, more conversions. This is because video can seamlessly blend visual, audio, and textual elements to create a more immersive and memorable experience for the viewer.

Consumer/client preferences regarding video over text

Consumer preferences have also shifted significantly in favour of video content over text. In a world of short attention spans and information overload, video stands out as a medium that can quickly capture and retain viewer interest, when done correctly. And yes, this applies to b2b too!

Studies consistently demonstrate that audiences are more likely to engage with and share video content, as it effectively conveys complex ideas and evokes emotions in a way that written content simply cannot. See the statistics section for more.

The opportunity cost of not using videos

The opportunity cost of not having videos in your marketing arsenal is immense. Businesses that fail to embrace video marketing risk falling behind competitors who are leveraging its power to connect with potential customers, generate leads, and drive sales. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, it is crucial for brands to adapt and evolve in order to stay relevant and succeed.

By incorporating video marketing into your overall strategy, your business will be better positioned to engage with your target audience, build brand awareness, and ultimately, increase your bottom line.

Setting Clear goals and Objectives to get the most out of your strategy

To master video marketing, it’s essential to have a well-defined strategy with clear goals and objectives. This ensures that you can effectively target your audience and maximize your return on investment. In this section, we will discuss the various goals that video marketing can help you achieve, the importance of focusing on your main objectives, and how to choose the right types of videos to suit your specific goals.

Video marketing is an incredibly versatile tool that can help you accomplish a wide range of objectives. Some of the most common goals businesses aim to achieve through video marketing include increasing sales, improving brand awareness, enhancing customer engagement, driving website traffic, streamlining recruitment processes, and automating customer or employee onboarding. By understanding what video marketing can do for your business, you’ll be better equipped to set realistic and achievable objectives.

Focus on main objectives instead of trying to do it all

While it may be tempting to try and tackle all of your goals at once, it’s essential to prioritise and focus on your main objectives. Spreading yourself too thin by attempting to achieve too many goals with a single video can result in a diluted message and decreased effectiveness. Instead, concentrate on one or two primary objectives and create a video marketing strategy that targets those specific goals. This will allow you to tailor your content more effectively, making it more likely that your audience will respond positively to your message.

For example, if you are making a promo video that is designed to increase sales, don’t try to also showcase how great the company culture is for potential employees. You will end up with a video that is ineffective in both increasing sales, and recruitment.

A well-defined goal allows you to tailor your message for a singular focus, leading to improved outcomes. For example, while increasing sales is a reasonable objective, a more specific target can yield better results.

Suppose you run a service-based company with a good number leads but low conversion rates. Identifying the root cause first will help you choose the right videos to utilise. If leads misunderstand your services or have pricing misconceptions, an explainer video emphasising your service quality might be beneficial. However, if a lack of trust in your ability to deliver is the issue, testimonial videos would be a more suitable choice.

Using this strategy, you will be able to finetune your objective and create videos that achieve remarkable results.

Video type examples

That being said, here are some examples of different types of videos you can utilise in your strategy. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but should be enough to cover most types of objectives:

• Video testimonials – increase trust, highlight key selling points
• Meet the team videos – increase trust, showcase scale of the business
• Brand videos – showcase the overall strengths of the business to increase conversions
• Recruitment videos – highlight the benefits of working for the company and attract talent
• Educational/thought leadership videos – build trust and goodwill to establish the company as a leader in the niche, increase brand awareness
• Video ads – advertisement videos designed for specific goals
• Explainer video – video explaining how the service/product works, perfect for innovate or unique solutions
• Customer onboarding video – saves times by automating parts of onboarding

Best practices for video marketing

Focus on the audience

Your videos should not be about you or your business, they should be about your audience. By focusing on addressing their needs, challenges, and desires, you create content that resonates with the viewer and establishes a strong connection. This audience-centric approach fosters trust and loyalty, positioning your brand as a valuable resource and solution provider.

Optimise video length

When optimizing video length for your marketing campaigns, consider these three general principles:

1. Make the video as short and concise as possible while being able to deliver the message

Focus on keeping your content brief and to-the-point, ensuring that you effectively communicate your core message without losing viewer engagement.

1. Follow the general conventions of the distribution channel when it comes to video length

Each platform, such as YouTube, Facebook, or even the company’s website, has its own preferred durations. When creating content, consider these conventions to ensure your videos align with audience expectations and maximise engagement across channels.

1. Higher ticket services/products can generally have longer videos

For more expensive or complex offerings, audiences may expect and appreciate more in-depth content. In these cases, it’s acceptable to create longer videos that provide the necessary details and showcase the value of your product or service.

Having a clear call to action

Incorporating a clear and compelling call to action (CTA) within your videos is essential for guiding viewers towards the desired outcome. Examples include prompting viewers to schedule a consultation, request a quote, or make a purchase.

A well-crafted CTA encourages viewers to take the next step and engage further with your brand. Be concise and direct, making it easy for your audience to understand the action you want them to take.

One useful strategy is to mention the audience’s pain point right before the call to action, and mention the positive outcome/benefits of your product or service right after the CTA. By sandwiching the CTA between the pain point and desired outcome, you increase the chances of the audience taking the desired action. This should be used on top of having the conventional CTA at the very end of the video.

How using video marketing can help New Zealand businesses

Below you can find some of the stats that shows how video marketing in New Zealand can help your business. Some of the stats here are not NZ-specific but are reliable guidelines for what NZ businesses can expect.

• Video ad spend in New Zealand is projected to reach $319 Million NZD in 2023
• By 2027, video ad spend in New Zealand is projected to reach $394 Million NZD
• 89% of people say watching a video has convinced them to buy a product or service.
• 87% of marketers have reported a positive ROI from video marketing
• 74% of marketers think video has a greater ROI than static imagery
• 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool in 2023
• Audiences are twice as likely to share video content compared to other mediums
• 91% of people say they want to see more online videos from brands in 2023

How to calculate the budget you need for video marketing?

Once you’ve determined the objectives, the format of the videos, the number of videos, etc, you can build a budget. Let’s start with the production costs.

Production Cost

Pre-production is the planning phase that takes place before you start shooting your videos. During this stage, you’ll need to account for costs related to:

1. Scriptwriting: Creating a well-crafted script to convey your message effectively. This would not be necessary for interview/testimonial type videos
2. Storyboarding: A storyboard can be great for conveying visual ideas and making sure the end result matches with expectations. Most projects under $10,000 would not require a storyboard
3. Location scouting: Finding suitable locations that align with your concept and message. This could be anywhere from your offices, a profession set, or a public park. This is a key part of any video production process
4. Casting: If your video requires actors or models, casting can be a time consuming process, but a worthwhile one.
5. Crew assembly: Bringing together a team of professionals, which can range from a one man band videographer, to a full on production team with a dozen or more crew members.

It’s important to note that this process is best to be left to an experienced producer or a video production company. As pre-production is a very time consuming process and can be quite costly if things are not sufficiently ready by the time filming commences.

Production

Production is the actual filming phase of your video project. The costs associated with this stage include:

1. Equipment: Renting or purchasing cameras, lighting, microphones, and other gear required for shooting.
2. Location fees: Paying for permits or renting spaces, if necessary.
3. Talent fees: Compensating actors or models for their time and work.
4. Crew wages: Paying crew members and anyone involved in the shoot.
5. Transport and Catering: Depending on the size of the crew and duration of the shoot, this could be a small amount or a considerable portion of the budget.
6. Contingency: For most productions, it’s a good idea to include a contingency amount in the budget to account for unexpected issues. Typically, allocating 10% of the overall budget for contingencies is sufficient.
7. Others: Props, set design, make up, special effects, there are many other possible costs depending the complexity of the production.

The most expensive part of the filming process is often the crew wages. Most crew members charge a full day or half-day rate. Day rates can range from just above minimum wage for production assistants to well over $1,500 a day for experienced heads of departments (such as cinematographers, directors, etc).

You can access the NZ Screen Guild’s rate cards here. It includes a suggested day rate for most types of roles on a production.

If you need to rent equipment, the daily rental costs typically range from 3% to 5% of the retail price. For example, a camera that sells for $10,000 might cost around $500 per day to rent. Many crew members have their own gear, which they can bring to the production at a lower cost than renting from a rental house. However, this will still incur additional charges on top of their day rates.

Post Production

In many cases, post-production involves just one editor who takes care of the entire process. Therefore, the primary expense would be the editor’s fee, which is typically calculated as a day rate, or flat fee for the entire project.

However, productions with overall budgets higher than $15,000 would typically hire people specialised in different areas of post production to ensure the best results. For example, on top of the main editor, you may want to hire a colorist to colour grade the footage to look their best, a sound designer to take care of the audio, and a graphics designer to take care of any motion graphics elements.

For more complex higher end productions, you may even need a composer or a visual effects team.

In conclusion, video production is a complex process that can cost as little or as much as you want. But generally, between $2,000 and $15,000 is a good range for a single video for most use cases. TV commercials would often be in the higher range or cost significantly more, while social media videos could be quite a bit lower than $2,000.

Allocate Funds for Promotion

This is only relevant if paid promotion is a part of your video strategy. For many types of videos, this is not necessary. That being said, when relevant, allocating a portion of your video marketing budget for promotional efforts is crucial to maximize the reach and impact of your content.

Initially, video production may seem like an expensive investment due to the one-time costs involved in creating high-quality content. However, it’s important to recognize the long-term value that these videos can provide. Once produced, videos can be used and repurposed for an extended period. Therefore, it makes sense to allocate a bigger portion of your budget to the production phase at the outset, ensuring you create engaging and professional content. Over time, you can gradually shift your budget allocation towards promotion. This approach allows you to maximize the impact of your video marketing efforts by focusing on creating compelling content first and then driving its visibility and reach through targeted promotional campaigns.

For paid advertising, consider utilising a mix of platforms such as social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.), Google Ads (YouTube, Display Network, and Search), and other relevant ad networks. Each platform offers various targeting options, allowing you to reach specific audiences based on their interests, demographics, and online behavior.

When planning your promotional budget, account for factors such as the cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM), the desired reach, and the length of the campaign. Monitor and analyze the performance of your ads to optimize their effectiveness and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns. By allocating sufficient funds for promotion and adopting a strategic approach to paid advertising, you can significantly enhance the success of your video marketing efforts.

Conclusion

In conclusion, mastering video marketing is crucial for businesses to succeed in the digital era. By setting clear goals and objectives, focusing on audience needs, and utilizing best practices, you can create engaging video content that effectively captures your target audience’s attention. By incorporating video marketing into your overall strategy, you position your brand for success in an increasingly competitive marketplace.