Video content marketing is more engaging than pictures because it keeps users on the website for longer.

If you’re a marketer who is up-to-date, you cannot afford to ignore that statistic.

It is often said that video is one of the most important tools in marketing. This is because it allows businesses and brands to show their personality, to showcase the people behind the logo, and to build a genuine connection.

It’s an opportunity to promote a product by explaining its features and how it works in a quick, visual, and easily understandable way.

Video content marketing is a type of marketing that uses videos to promote and sell products or services. This type of marketing is convenient, valuable, and fun.

You are already familiar with this information. Maybe you have already tried your hand at making videos. Now it is time to bring the videos stored on your hard drive or YouTube channel into your lead-generating strategy.

Many brands have loads of videos. So the questions I want to answer today:

Before we jump into it, here are a few quick takeaways:

Video content marketing involves creating and distributing branded video with the goal of converting users.
Businesses have access to many video hosting platforms beyond YouTube, many with unique offerings.
Web pages with video are favored in search engine results, so you want to add more video to your site.
Your video content marketing efforts will be amplified if you follow these best practices for publishing and promoting them.

What Is Video Content Marketing?

Video content marketing is the creation and distribution of valuable, branded video content to reach a target audience. The goals are to raise awareness and engage and convert leads.

The difference with video content marketing, however, is that it does all this with videos instead of blog posts or articles. Like traditional content marketing, video content marketing is a marketing technique that focuses on creating content that meets the needs of the customer, answers their questions, and drives more business. The key difference is that video content marketing uses videos instead of blog posts or articles.

It’s about figuring out how video can be integrated into the branding process for each stage of the buying process. The content must be useful, valuable, and entertaining so that audiences will engage with the brand again and take the next step.

Video content marketing is not just producing and publishing videos across channels on an inconsistent schedule. Successful video marketing involves planning and optimizing your videos for maximum impact.

But Why Video?

Video is a unique medium that lends itself fantastically to established content marketing strategies. Here are some of the stand-out features of video that make it relevant to today’s consumer:

Video is easy to digest. Most of us scroll through our phones for, on average, 3.3 hours a day. Video stands out because it’s quick and requires no effort to consume.
Video is entertaining. Watching someone demonstrate how a manual coffee grinder works, for example, provides greater entertainment value than, say, a text-based step-by-step guide or manual.
Video is engaging. There’s a reason why more than half of people watch video online on a daily basis – it’s valuable and fun, two traits that lead to impressive engagement levels.
Video is highly accessible. It can be published across all social media platforms, as well as embedded into web pages.

How to Create Videos that Convert

There is no one guaranteed way to make your video content successful with your audience. It depends on your business and what your customers want and need.

It is recommended that you set a specific goal before beginning the creation process. Keep the following in mind when goal setting:

Be specific. Determine whether you want to generate awareness, gather new leads, or convert qualified leads into customers, as examples.
Define the measurables. How will you determine the success of your campaign? Identify key metrics, such as views, engagements, or conversion rate.
Consider the timing. Establishing a realistic deadline is critical to your marketing efforts. Keep possible obstacles and risks in mind and be sure to pivot your expectations accordingly.
Identify your audience. Use demographic, behavioral, and customer journey metrics to identify the target audience of your campaign.
Complementary assets. Will you need blog posts and social media updates to go alongside your video? Be sure to include these in your plan of action.

With goals established, you can determine the types of videos that’ll best assist you in achieving those goals. Video types include:

Product videos that showcase features and functionalities
Animations that are short, engaging, and playful
Educational videos that highlight your industry expertise and authority
Video emails that add a new dimension to your eDMs
Testimonial videos that provide all-important social proof
Slideshow-style videos that are quick to put together, cost-effective, and ideal for educational content

Goals are set. Video type is identified. Here are a few tips to guide you toward excellent video content:

Prioritize quality. Poor-quality video doesn’t send the right message. Instead, invest in proper camera equipment and editing software (or hire someone).
Show your personality (if it matches your brand). If you or a team member is getting in front of the camera, let your quirks show. People want to connect with people – not businesses.
Speak slowly and add captions. If you talk too fast, it’s likely that your message will get lost. Also, keep in mind that many people watch video with the sound off – captions are essential.
Brand your videos. Be sure the look and feel of your video content aligns with your brand.
Add a call to action. If a viewer wants to learn more or take the next step, make it easy for them with a clear, visual CTA.

Places to Post Your Video Now That It’s Done

Where to post a video no matter what your goal is

-Your website should be the home for your video content, rather than just another place you post it online. -Creating a dedicated space on your website for video content can improve your SEO, help people understand your products, and boost sales. -According to Wyzowl, 83% of marketers have seen an increase in dwell time on their website after adding video content.

Your social media accounts are an obvious given when you are wondering where to feature your video content. This is because, according to Animoto, 60% of consumers who made a purchase from a brand found out about them on social media, and using video content helps you capture that attention.

Where to post a video to attract more visitors

Since advertising is such an important way to reach new audiences, it is essential to post your video on Facebook and Instagram. These are the first and third most popular social media sites in the world.

While Tumblr and Twitter are not related in the same way as Instagram and Facebook, they have similar functionality when it comes to attracting new visitors using hashtags. Try turning your video content into short GIFs and memes and tagging it with popular tags to promote your video in a unique way.

Yelp is a good way to bring in new potential customers, as it is one of the first places that new visitors will look when they want to know more about you or businesses similar to yours in the area. By having professionally made videos on your Yelp business listing, you will be able to stick out, bring in more viewers, and get more people to come in or make appointments.

Reddit is home to millions of users and just as many subreddits. These are niche communities inside of Reddit that focus on specific topics. The basic video subreddit is a good place to submit your video. You can also find industry-specific subreddits that relate to your video topic. Just remember to join the community and contribute to it regularly instead of just posting a video and expecting the views to roll in.

If you want to increase your business’ reach, you should consider posting a video on TripAdvisor. This is especially effective for businesses with physical locations, like restaurants, bars, and more area-specific experiences and attractions.

Posting your video content on Dailymotion is a good way to attract new leads from a different audience than those on YouTube or other social media sites.

If you’re looking to host your video or GIF content, Imgur is a good option. Your content will be exposed to an active community that can help increase its virality, similar to what Reddit does. In fact, a lot of content posted to Reddit is hosted on Imgur. You can upload your videos to Imgur as private, but making them public allows them to be seen by the entire Imgur community.

LiveLeak allows users to post videos relating to politics, war, and other world events. However, users are free to post any content they want. This site can be used as another source for spreading your video content to new audiences.

StumbleUpon was replaced by Mix, which is a more refined version of StumbleUpon that is organized by interests. Mix also has features similar to Pinterest and Tumblr, where users can create their own collections. This platform has a built-in user base of loyal StumbleUpon fans. You can take advantage of this platform by creating public-facing collections and posting links to your videos.

YouTube is a great way to attract new viewers to your video content. It is the second largest search engine, second most popular social media platform, and one of the first video-specific platforms. Try posting your videos on a schedule (weekly or bi-monthly), and using the tag features to attract a steady stream of new viewers.

Since LinkedIn has started to prioritize video, posting videos on your account has become a key indicator of an actively used LinkedIn profile. If you want your videos to reach a larger amount of your contacts, embed your content natively within the LinkedIn platform instead of using external links to YouTube.

Vimeo is a popular video hosting platform that is user-friendly and has some big differences from YouTube. Vimeo’s brand emphasizes creativity and higher caliber productions. You should put your best videos on Vimeo to engage with other user-creators who might be more interested in the artistic merits of your content than in its promotional aspects.

Where to post a video to nurture more potential prospects

By using your video content in your email marketing, you can provide more value to convince your customers to say yes and give you a chance.

Instead of posting on your main Instagram newsfeed to attract new viewers, share videos in micro-snippets on Instagram Stories to nurture relationships with your current followers. You can upload behind-the-scenes footage, quick tips and tricks, or other daily video content directly from your smartphone.

If you’re looking to nurture your audience, consider posting a video on Pinterest. This is especially effective if your brand or product appeals to the demographics that already use Pinterest regularly, such as DIY, beauty, fashion, and travel enthusiasts. You can even ask followers to re-pin your video to their own boards if they’re interested.

If you’re looking to expand your readership, embedding videos in your blog posts on Medium is a great way to do it. Not only will existing readers appreciate the extra content, but you’ll also attract new readers who may become customers down the line.

If your video is a how-to guide or tutorial, you may be able to share it effectively on Instructables. The site is geared only toward a certain type of content, but if yours fits, it’s a great place to show your video to an interested audience. The type of content on Instructables is exactly the video content that’ll help you nurture more would-be buyers into becoming customers.

You can use LinkedIn Groups to post your videos and build a network of potential customers or brand partnerships. Be sure to comment and interact with the group, and post videos that are valuable to the community instead of being promotional.