This is a guest post by Qurat-ul-Ain Ghazali, a system engineer with a passion for writing, designing and anything tech related. Currently, she is the digital content manager at Dynamologic Solutions, a leading website design company.
5 Video Marketing Tips to Help Sell Your Book
Video and written content have been pitted against each other. While the written content has its own merits and a shining record of helping companies, videos are not far behind in this race. In fact, 54% of consumers demand to see more video content from the brands or companies they support.
Since there are many individuals who are keenly interested in video content, this creates an opportunity for authors and book promoters to create, publish, and share video content. Of course, for your video marketing attempts to be successful, you need to create something that not only puts your books in the limelight but also fulfills your readers’ needs.
But, how to go about this task?
1. Banish Boring Content with Humor
They do not say ‘laughter is the best medicine’ for no reason! When you poke inoffensive fun at something, you can create a lasting impression–one that keeps readers coming back for more.
For your humorous videos to hit the right chord, you need to ensure that your videos establish a rapport and trigger memorability. For instance, take the example of the DollarShaveClub, a company which delivers a set of razors for a dollar on a monthly basis. To stand out from the tough competition, they introduced their message through an informative video that heavily relies on one-liners and funny facts. Apart from generating 26 million views on YouTube, the video did a great job of putting the company on the map!
Comedy can be daunting, and when it is not done right, it can leave a bad taste in the mouth. However, if you successfully make your readers forget about their harsh realities, even for a few seconds, you can reap the rewards in the form of massive sales.
2. Create a Story, not a Sales Video
For far too long, book promoters and authors have focused on creating videos that put the light on their books. There is nothing wrong with this strategy but if you are ignoring the aspect of storytelling for cheap promotion, then you are doomed to lose your audience rather quickly.
You need to create a video marketing strategy that emphasizes the storytelling aspect as it can breathe new life into your video content. There are two ways to achieve this effect: you can either make your book the hero of the story or you can make the reader the protagonist of a story which highlights your book as well.
Sounds difficult? Then, you can learn from GoPro, where the consumers capture their daredevil moments through the company’s cameras. The consumers are telling their story but they are using GoPro to narrate the story. A win-win situation, right?
Storytelling is the language your readers respond to. With the right drama, emotions, and engagement, you can create an everlasting impression that will compel them to trust and remember your author brand.
3. Get to the Point within a few Seconds
Internet users have a very short attention span. They have tons of other things to do. If your video fails to catch their attention within the first ten seconds, they’ll have no problem replacing you with something else.
I fact, you have a ten-second window at best to grab your audience’s attention, so short and to-the-point video content will work in your favor. In addition, your video should answer the question ‘Why am I watching this?’ as soon as it begins to play. Keep in mind that your target is to grab the attention of readers and keep them curious so that they stick around. Reebok has done this pretty nicely by showing the life of a woman in a reversed cycle. This, accompanied by the curious placement of random numbers, proved sufficient to hook the attention of the consumers until the very end of the video.
Here is a little tip; convey your value but do so in a manner that inspires the audience to take the desired action!
4. Optimize Your Videos for Search Engines
Sure, you created a killer video. But no one watches it. What next?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a great way of reaching out to a wider audience. Yes, you need to post your videos on video sharing platforms. But you also need to host them on your website. You can do so by embedding the video on your web pages. This way, you can increase your chances of inbound links.
YouTube, the largest video sharing platform, is owned by Google. If you play your cards right, there is a high chance your video can secure a great rank in the search engine. Firstly, you need to know which keywords you want to rank for. With the help of the Google Keyword Planner, you can find a list of targeted keywords which you can add in your YouTube’s video description and tags.
Keep in mind that ranking for a specific keyword for videos is a lot easier than ranking for a written piece. This is because there are few videos out there, which means the competition is still significantly low!
5. Include a Strong CTA
Once you’ve caught the attention of your audience through a creatively crafted video, then what?
In order to guide them to your website or Amazon, you need to include a strong Call-to-Action (CTA), i.e. a button encouraging viewers to take appropriate action. You can include your CTA at the end of the video right before the credits start to roll. Or you can put it on the bottom of the video in a way that it is not too distracting for the viewers but it constantly reminds the audience of the action you want them to take. Incorporating your name, book title, or brand logo in the video is also suitable for directing the flow of the traffic from the videos to your website.
Finally, always include your website’s URL along with your contact information in the video description to drive traffic naturally to your website.
Promoting your book through the usual internet marketing services is great, but have you ever tasted the power of what good video marketing strategy could do for your books? If your answer is no, then you are hardly alone: many marketers are afraid of venturing out into the unknown video territory. If only they knew that video marketing, done right, can skyrocket their sales instead of driving their audience away, they might hurry to take the plunge.
So, never be afraid to try new things, especially when it comes to the video marketing arena. Take risks, be creative, and leave a lasting impression with great visual content creation techniques. Use the five simple tips we have mentioned here, jumpstart your video marketing career, and sell those books!
