More than 9.9 million firms are owned by women, generating over $1.4 trillion in sales. It’s a number that continues to grow, and even though it’s not yet representative of the general population, women are increasingly working their butts off to break through the barriers that keep them from advancing in the workforce.

It’s no wonder then that, for women in roles of leadership, their number one goal is growth. They’re tuned into women’s spending and consumption habits and know the power that lies in marketing to the right audience.

When it comes to video marketing, women are also leading the way, promoting their companies and brands in new and exciting ways.

We reached out to female leaders in various industries to get their take on how video marketing is changing the landscape, what challenges they’ve faced, and the benefits they’ve seen after incorporating video marketing into their business.

Here’s what they had to say.

1. Use video to make your business stand out.

According to Internet Retailer, people who view product videos are 85 percent more likely to make a purchase than those who don’t. With a powerful statistic like that, businesses should certainly take advantage of creating video content in order to stand out among the noise. From bringing awareness to your products or services, to driving engagement, leads, sales, or conversions, utilizing video content to market your business is beneficial in every sense. Video can help bring your brand to life, while also creating a more personalized connection between your potential customers and your offerings.

2. Avoid these three video marketing pitfalls.

You no longer need a video for your website, you need video content for your brand. A lot of marketers agree with this statement, but struggle with how and where to implement video effectively. Companies tend to struggle with three major things when it comes to video marketing:

1. Aligning your video content with your marketing goals.

Often, business owners and marketers stumble across a video they love and they’re inspired to create something similar for their brand. However, this video idea may or may not be right for their business. The most important thing all marketers should consider is whether or not that video will actually help you reach your goals. Creating videos – no matter how great they are – will not help you grow your business if it’s not strategically crafted for your target audience.

2. Balancing quality and budget.

Traditionally, video production was expensive and required large teams to pull off a great commercial, but not anymore. Today, the industry is filled with freelance producers and production companies. How do you pick the right one for you?

The challenge is finding a video partner that offers high-quality videos at affordable prices. A video is part of your brand, just like your website, logo, and collateral, and a poorly produced video can make your brand look cheap and unprofessional. Make sure to take the time to find a solution that balances this dichotomy.

3. Effectively distributing the videos once they’re done.

How and where do you share your videos once they’re ready? Unless you have hundreds of thousands of followers, simply posting it on your Facebook or YouTube page won’t garner much attention and certainly won’t lead to many sales.

We have a saying here: “Host it, post it, link it, share it, pitch it, promote it, and advertise the holy heck out of it.” Knowing how to effectively distribute your videos can be challenging to most marketers, but the key is to test and optimize the variety of channels that are available.

3. Video can save you time, energy, effort, and money.

Video marketing OF COURSE provides benefits to your business. It allows people to not only see you as a real person and get to know you very quickly, but they can tell your vibe and what you have to offer that much more quickly.

It’s so easy to misread a text, right? But when you get on the phone with someone, their words and message can be plain as day by their TONE. Video allows you to share your tone! This lets people either get you faster or get that you aren’t for them, which saves you time, energy, effort, and money, quite frankly.

The downside to video marketing is, well, there are NONE besides the ones we put on ourselves. We either make ourselves feel like we HAVE to create videos when we don’t want to (by the way, you don’t have to create them and you can still succeed,) or we feel like they have to be perfect. All these rules, standards, and benchmarks we put on OURSELVES is what makes it hard. When you take those away, there isn’t a huge downside. Sure, you may get a troll or two, but you’d get those via text and audio content, as well.

4. You get the highest return rate from quality videos.

Video has become one of the most effective content types out there for social media and the digital space. We see the highest return rate from quality videos for client social media accounts and it’s made us rethink the content process, as well as changed the tools we use.

We now think not only about creating content for each channel, but creating content for each channel and the different features within each channel, which are all prioritizing video. Creating video for Instagram Stories, Paid Ads, IGTV, Snapchat, Youtube, IGTV, etc. has become the forefront of what we’re doing.

5. Don’t neglect yourself when it comes to video.

Do you know the story of the shoemaker’s children, the ones who have no shoes because he’s so busy creating shoes for others? That’s how our agency is with video. We’ve created video for many clients, casual and formal, but we’ve done very little for ourselves. Don’t let this happen to you!

I’d really like to get some short videos created with social media, boosting our marketing tips and tricks. We have many of them up our sleeves, but don’t publicize them well enough.

6. Invest in more than one video.

Video IS the new marketing landscape. It’s penetrated every marketing channel, even snail mail (have you seen video mailers yet?) A few years ago, we could’ve talked about how to incorporate video into your existing marketing mix. Today, we’re talking about how to adopt a video-first mindset when it comes to campaigns.

If you’re just getting started with video, don’t go all in on your first production. You’ll want to test different ideas and channels to see what resonates best with your target audience.

A one-off video is unlikely to make a significant difference to your marketing strategy overall. Producing a series of videos for different purposes will be much more likely to move the needle on your campaigns.

For instance, incorporating video in your company blog on a regular basis, promoting videos on social channels, and adding video throughout your website is much more likely to have an impact on your bottom line than one expensive video with a single purpose, even if that video is awesome.

If you’re intimidated by the potential cost of producing video, remember you can often repurpose content from a single video shoot for different platforms. For example, you might cut a two- or three-minute explainer video for your homepage. You can then take that same footage and select 10- to 20-second clips to use as ads on YouTube or social media. You can also use stills and audio clips from the video to weave into blog posts or podcasts. By building that type of approach into your production planning upfront, you gain lots of efficiency in your marketing spend on video.

Finally, video is not a “set it and forget it” type of content. It’s really important to have good data on your videos’ performance, especially as you’re just getting started and learning what works.  You can use professional video hosting platforms, like SproutVideo, to analyze how your audience is interacting with your videos, and use that information to improve your content over time.

7. Don’t ignore event video.

Video is a must-have in conference or event marketing for several reasons:

1. Video is inherently narrative, and people respond more strongly to feelings and stories than stats and words.
2. Video grabs people’s attention without being too pushy.
3. Video is a great way to show off your company or event’s personality.
4. Video is less expensive than ever.

A recent study indicated that 67 percent of viewers of event content said they’re more likely to buy a ticket to an event after watching a video. So event video can play a huge role in your marketing and event strategies.

8. Video is essential at every stage of the buyer’s journey.

Marketing has experienced huge digitalization during the last decade, and it became crucial for SEMrush to work on projects that would affect our customers and catch their attention using interactive digital channels like video. Video helps transmit a content-rich message in a short time, allows us to experiment with a new medium, and enables us to reach our target audience.

Best of all, video content can be used in different stages: it’s essential in building brand awareness and crucial in nurturing conversions. Once your customers see a dynamic advertisement with great content in it, they start to associate that great content with your brand subconsciously.

Jana Garanko
Head of Corporate PR at SEMrush

9. Tighten up your video strategy for 2019.

We have always used video as an integral component of our marketing strategy. However, it was always a “loose” component. As we head into 2019, we’re tightening up our strategies. Video will be a driving force to fuel our integrated digital platform, brand, and content to inspire, connect, and help our audiences achieve their goals. We will be leveraging video in all phases of the buyer’s journey and sales funnel. Our videos will vary from easily consumable, bite-sized content to longer form video. Excited to help our Social Profit Factor students and agency clients tap into the power of video in 2019!

Need help creating the perfect video for your business? See how we can help you get started – schedule a free creative call with one of our creative producers today.