3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Diving Into Video Marketing

3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Diving Into Video Marketing

If you’ve paused while scrolling through your Facebook Timeline to watch
the making of
chicken parmesan stuffed garlic bread or a
happy shopper showing off her Chewbacca mask, you’ve contributed to the
eight billion video views, which Facebook experiences daily. And that matters — a lot.

A recent
Demand Metric
 survey found that 74 percent of B2B marketers are reporting higher conversion rates from Video Marketing than any
another form of content. But while businesses of all shapes and sizes are blindly boarding the video train, most entrepreneurs still
struggle to make sense of marketing’s most influential form of content.

Video may seem intimidating, expensive and cumbersome, but if you ask yourself the following three questions during
the production process, you’ll create something that does not only watch worthy but shareworthy.

1. What are my competitors not doing Video Marketing?

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” but I beg to differ.

Let’s not kid ourselves. For as much as you want to play your own game, you can’t ignore the competition. You have
to pay attention to your rivals; it’s simply smart business. But this time when you watch them, put on a new
set of lenses and notice them not for what they are doing, but for what they are not doing.

There is joy to be found in doing what the competition doesn’t.

When you imagine video in the software industry, your mind zaps quickly to a product walkthrough or generic demo.
So when my company decided to make a video, we did something that we noticed no one else had done. None of our
competitors were incorporating humor or storytelling into their brand videos so we snagged that whitespace and
brought our story to life. We also won a
Telly Award.

As video becomes increasingly popular as a medium, consider capitalizing on the spots where you see your competitors
aren’t.

2. Have I checked my ego, info, and emo?

Even if you have a beautiful, high-production video, it’s still only as valuable as its number of views. Since views
are the offspring of shares, make sure that you’re checking these three boxes that underline people’s motivations
for sharing videos.

• Ego: We share proud moments that make us look good to our peers.
  • Delta Airlines, for example, shared its proud support for
    #EqualPayDay, which celebrates every day.

   

• Info: We share stories that inform others because it makes us feel good.
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center explained a difficult topic –
    immunotherapy — by using a video.

   

• Emo: We share stories with a high return on the emotion that produce a reaction.
  • Think P&G’s
    Thank You, Mom commercials for the Olympics.

   

If your story contains one of the three elements of engaging storytelling, you’re well on your way. If it contains
two of three, you’re really onto something. And if it holds three of three? You’ve got yourself a highly shareable
video.

Check your ego, info, and emo. It could be the difference between going viral or going unnoticed.

3. Does my opinion matter?

No, but your data does. Data is a powerful tool that should be referenced every step of the way when determining
your video strategy.

• Before: If you’re still evaluating whether or not the video is for you, ponder this: Video posts on
  Facebook have
  135 percent greater organic reach than photo posts. Use data to understand if the video is the right medium
  to achieve your business and Video Marketing goals.
• During: During production, keep in mind that five percent of viewers
  will stop watching video after one minute, and 60 percent by two minutes. While
  85 percent of Facebook video content is watched without sound. Use data at this stage to make sure you’re
  incorporating the right ingredients for your audience into your video.
• After: Post-production, set opinions aside, and focus on the data to shape your strategy. If your
  key performance indicator (KPI) was viewed, did you hit your goal? Did you miss the mark on shares? Or did
  you exceed your goals, and find that your followers crave witty how-to video content instead? Data at this
  stage will help you optimize your video efforts in the future.

Knowledge is power, and data helps you understand not what you think
 your followers want, but rather what it is that they actually
 want.

Volkswagen recognized this window of opportunity with their audience, and it doubled down on video in the first half
of the year. The automotive manufacturer increased its volume of YouTube content by 82 percent, which led to
a
182 percent increase in views per day.

Today’s social and digital revolution has created the fastest-moving market we’ve ever seen. It’s a challenge to
keep up, much less lead. Remembering the things you’ve learned as you carved out success in the past will be
essential to driving your success in the new media space.

As you push forward and experiment with new content mediums, don’t be afraid to fail a few times in pursuit of success.
Take chances. Test. Learn. Be brave.