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Latest Video Marketing Tips! Easy Ways to Promote Your Business

There’s no doubt about it! Video marketing is the way to get your business noticed, grow your social media following, and most importantly, generate quality leads. I’ve gathered here the latest data, some great tips and links so you can dig deeper and learn more.

First of all, let’s talk about everyone’s main goal here: to generate quality leads that convert. What a conversion is depends on your objectives. It could be a sale on an ecommerce site, or just growing an email list to which you can market your business products or services.

Campaigns, social media posts, website traffic are absolutely useless if a visitor lands on your website and doesn’t do anything but read an article or watch a video. You have to have compelling and enticing calls-to-action. Moreover, there are some steps you need to do first BEFORE you even record your first video! Click here for those.

Video Marketing is Most Effective

A recent article in Convince and Convert featured a study from Ascend2, on which type of content is most effective in building relationships to generate leads that convert. Video marketing was number 1…

What’s interesting is “webinars” become video marketing content once the event is over! So, the question is, where do you post these videos to get your target market’s attention? I’ll cover the most popular platforms and indicate if they work for B2C (business-to-consumer) or B2B (business-to-business) marketing.

What Types of Videos Can You Do?

There are different types of videos that you can create. Some may need to be done professionally to portray the right image. Moreover, many can be done less formally and impromptu. Here are some ideas along with the approximate length of each. However, keep in mind that a video needs to be as long as you need to explain the point. These are also commercials for your company. Imagine that! You can create your own commercials!

What Type of Equipment do You Need?

You don’t need a major investment in a studio and equipment like the one pictured here for your video marketing. It does, however,  look more professional.

Depending on what you want to do, you’re going to have to consider lighting, sound, video production, video quality and editing.

If you’re on a tight budget, use your Smartphone, however, you should invest in a tripod with a clamp for the phone. They’re available for under $40.

If you’re using your laptop’s built-in camera, keep in mind that it reverses any text like a mirror. That goes, for your cell phone, too. If you’re looking at yourself, the image is mirrored. Flip it around.

Facebook – more B2C, but OK for B2B

Facebook, whatever you may think of it, is still the biggest social media network and worth investing your time and effort. It’s where the people are. Yes, their algorithm change in March of 2018, reduced the amount of reach a business page gets. Nevertheless, one of the ways you can overcome that is by doing video. Facebook gives more visibility to videos.

Facebook Native Videos

This is when you prerecord a video and upload it directly to your Facebook page. Don’t just share the YouTube link. Facebook gives more reach to native videos. It works like a post, but you can add a title, description and hashtags (keywords) to help your video get found. Don’t just upload it and run. Fill out the description like you were writing a post. The video will start uploading when you hit “Post”.

You’ll then get a message that the video is processing. Click on “Edit Video” and it will take you to Facebook’s new Publishing Tools. Here’s where you can add the title, tags and a thumbnail.

It’s best to pick a good-looking thumbnail as this will be the video’s “face” when it’s not playing. You don’t want it to catch you with an awkward facial expression. I recommend creating one ahead of time and uploading it. You could also have a pre-branded thumbnail that you just change the video title and use it consistantly. Simply hit save when you’re done. You can always go back and edit it later.

Facebook Live – see Live Streaming Below…

Facebook Groups

There’s a group on Facebook (and LinkedIn, too, for that matter) for every interest and industry out there. Look for groups with a large number of members and that is active. Some groups allow you to join as your business page. This is great for promoting a brand. (It’s something LinkedIn doesn’t allow.)

It’s important to follow the group’s rules and respect the owner and moderators. When you first join, introduce yourself and what you feel you can contribute to the group or gain from it. Don’t spam! Observe for a while before contributing. Answer questions as an expert in your field — not as a salesperson.

If you want to start a group, it helps if you have a core group of people who can invite others. It’s not “if you build it they will come”. It never is. Make sure the group description and rules are clear. Brand it properly.

YouTube – for both B2B & B2C

First, and most importantly, YouTube is owned by Google and when used properly, it does help with search engine optimization (SEO). Furthermore, someone with a video will come up on top of the search engine results page (SERP) above of someone who doesn’t.

Most importantly, your YouTube channel needs to be properly branded and optimized. You can add links to your website and other social media networks as well as a detailed “about” section. If you skip these, you prevent your video from coming up in their algorithm for “related videos”.

Each video that you upload needs to have an optimized description with relevant tags (keywords). There are default settings that can be set up ahead of time to make it quicker to upload videos.

YouTube also, has made it much easier to do live streaming (see the Live Streaming Section below).

Video Marketing on Instagram

If you’re B2C, you have to be on Instagram!

Instagram is 99% mobile. That means that your media — pictures or videos — need to be on a mobile device — phone or tablet.

Links don’t work in Instagram posts. The only live link is on your profile page — unless you do paid advertising. Don’t put a link in a post as it will hinder your reach. You’re allowed up to 30 hashtags per post. Use them! You also have a lot of space in the caption. Use it! Make your descriptions keyword-centric.

Make sure your Instagram account is set up as a business account connected to a Facebook Business Page. That way you’ll get insights on who your followers are and when they are active. Besides that, you can share your post to your Facebook page at the same time.

Instagram Stories

Stories on Instagram, and for that matter Facebook, too, are very popular and get good visibility as they appear at the top of a follower’s feed. However, keep in mind that they disappear in 24 hours. In my opinion, stories are good for quick, informal videos as reminders, pep talks or quick fun “behind-the-scenes” takes. Considering that they are gone in 24 hours, don’t spend much time, effort or money on them.

IGTV is a separate app that connects to your Instagram account where you can upload longer videos. Users will see a button that says “Watch on IGTV”. A few seconds of the video will appear on their Instagram feed, but then if someone taps on it, then they see the whole thing via IGTV.

Instagram Reels

Their latest feature is “Reels”. (They’re trying to mimic Shapchat)

Here are some quick highlights about how to use Instagram Reels in your video marketing from Social Media Examiner they…

Webinars — for B2B mostly, but B2C can use them, too.

It’s amazing how quickly platforms like Zoom and Skype adapted once the COVID_19 pandemic lock-downs started. Besides getting more secure, they added features to make it easy to do just about anything virtually.

Webinars can be attended by anyone anywhere and there are several platforms available. Shop around for the best service to suit your needs. What’s more, is after the webinar is over, you can download the video and upload it to your other channels. Keep in mind that if you charge for your event, it should not be made free to the public afterwards. If you offer free webinars as a marketing tool, you can definitely upload them elsewhere.

Live Streaming – for everyone!

Ever since COVID-19 hit and put a stop to in-person classes, meetings, seminars, even interviews, live streaming has become an essential tool. Even video cameras, the social networks and recording software have added features to make live streaming easier. And it’s not just on Facebook! You can live stream on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Here are some articles with tips on Live Streaming…

Snapchat and TikTok

I rarely get into Snapchat because that such a very young audience. But if that’s who you need to reach, then by all means use it. All these tips work well there.

If you’re on TikTok, lose it. It’s run by the Chinese and they use it to spy on Americans. You definitely don’t need that!

Video Marketing Tips

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