Sometimes it seems that a solid video strategy is a little like Big Foot. People claim to have seen them, but the evidence can be hard to produce. Like tracks or tufts of fur, people have videos and video libraries, but these bits added together don’t equal a Sasquatch or a strategy.
Like many content trends that people thought they address via marginal effort, video is a critical part of a successful and integrated content strategy. The team at the Content Marketing Institute recently shared a report on the value and growth of video. Some of the notable stats include:
- Online video has increased eightfold in five years.
- In 2016 the gigabyte equivalent of all the movies ever made in the history of film will move across networks every three minutes.
- It will take six million years to watch all the video that will uploaded in one month, in 2016.
- Video will be 55% of all internet traffic by 2016.
- Video on demand will triple by 2016.
- Mobile video traffic will increase by eighteen times by 2016 (from 2011).
Forbes also recently reported that three-quarters of executives said they watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly. More than half watch work-related videos on YouTube at least weekly. Ok, so you get it. Like Big Foot, the need for video is real. But how do you make the leap from having video to integrating it into your strategy? Like anything else it just takes a little time and planning.
Here are a few considerations to help you successfully integrate video into your content strategy:
Learn
Before you can put together a video that will be relevant to your audience, you need to know their content needs and preferences. Audiences have very specific ideas about the type of content they like and in what format. Educate yourself before you consider production to ensure your investment in video will be relevant and of value. Also keep in mind the audience for your video content might be far different than the audience for your blog.
Plan
Consider your brand’s long-term plan for video. What do you hope to achieve? Are you there to entertain, or to educate? Are you there to maintain existing customers, or to attract new visitors to your brand? Like any other form of content, video requires an ongoing pattern of fresh releases to both capture and maintain the attention of your desired audience. Many organizations only consider video as a way to extend other content investments. Do yourself a favor and think of video as a primary tool in your strategy.
Engage
Audiences are about ten times more likely to engage, embed, share and comment on video content than blogs or other social posts. To take advantage of this you have to look at YouTube and other video platforms as highly powerful social media platform. Video viewers can see and hear you, and that establishes a much deeper connection. Embed a call to action in your videos that sparks dialog and drives deep engagement.
Integrate
When creating video many companies fail to consider and integrate with their other content channels. The content you create and distribute across various channels needs to come together to form one cohesive content strategy. Uploading an occasional video will not get the results you need. What will is developing videos that are responsive to audience needs and distributing them across your branded social channels and touch points.
Connect
Video is perfect for creating an emotional bond with your viewers and connecting with them in a meaningful way. Take care to ensure that your videos are not digital commercial full of buzzwords and hype. Use sincere and approachable language to forge a more direct and personal bond with customers and prospects—videos are a living representation of your brand.
In the end, integrating video into your overall content strategy is not far different than adding in any other new channel. They key is to look at video for the unique aspects it brings, and to use it wisely to deliver in a way that you other channel cannot.
