A decade ago, videos weren’t an essential part of a company’s marketing strategy. They were useful but optional. Fast forward to today and you’ll notice how the landscape has changed. There’s an explosion of video content online and demand is on the rise. According to a report, 54% of consumers want to see more videos from brands they like. But before you set out to create videos to promote your business, you need to strategize. If you dive in without a plan, your content won’t help you achieve your goals. So, where should you start? It’s simple: use the inbound marketing methodology to create the type of video content that gets results.
What is the inbound marketing methodology?
This approach relies on inbound marketing. Essentially, it is a non-intrusive methodology centered on providing value to the target audience and empowering them to reach their goals at various stages of their journey with the company.
As an inbound marketer, your goal throughout your strategy should be to attract target audiences with tailored, valuable content; engage them in droves; convert leads by helping them make informed decisions; and then delight them all in a personalized way.
How to implement the inbound methodology
You can implement the inbound methodology in four steps:
1. Attract
This stage involves attracting the right people with valuable content and familiarizing them with your brand. HubSpot’s blog post on how to capture email leads is a prime example of a piece of valuable content that pulls people in.
It’s best to kick things off by creating buyer personas. This will help you focus your efforts and get you better results overall.
Here’s how you can attract your audience:
- Start a blog
- Start a YouTube channel
- Share content on social media
- Work on web page and content SEO
2. Engage
Once you have your target audience’s attention, it’s time to engage with them and focus on building a lasting relationship.
Your aim at this stage—and throughout the inbound strategy in general—should be solution selling rather than product selling.
42courses does a great job of engaging its audience with its emails campaign. The informational content is perfect for an audience that loves to learn.
At this stage, keep these elements in mind:
- A clear call to action (CTA)
- Create targeted landing pages
- Build forms
3. Convert
This is the stage where you get qualified leads to respond to your call to action. Of course, a product/service sale is not the only thing that counts as a conversion.
Depending on your business’s goals, a conversion could include:
- Email signups
- Form completions
If your goal is to get email signups, for example, then you’ll have to offer something valuable in exchange for their personal information. This is where you can put eBooks, whitepapers, online courses, and webinars to good use.
If your end goal is primarily to make a sale, then consider the following:
- Track user behavior
- Email campaigns
- A clear CTA
- A closed loop reporting (CLR) system
Take a look at Under Armour’s welcome email. It works well as a conversion tactic and has two clear CTAs at the bottom. I like the eye-catching design and straightforward messaging.
4.Delight
Some might think that the company-client journey ends at conversion but that’s not the case.
The delight stage is perhaps the most important in the inbound marketing methodology because it can turn your clients into brand advocates.
Another important factor to consider is that according to research done by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company, increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. Therefore, paying attention to this stage is a sensible investment for a company.
Here’s how you can delight your audience:
- Highly targeted CTAs
- Request feedback
- Interact on social media
- Craft personalized messages
Now that you’re acquainted with the inbound marketing methodology, let’s take a look at how you can combine it with the most engaging content medium: video.
Types of videos for your four-stage inbound marketing strategy
Pairing the right type of video content with the different stages of your inbound marketing methodology will yield measurable results.
Here’s a brief look at my recommendations:
- Attract using educational and entertaining videos.
- Engage through how-to videos, explainers, and thought leadership videos.
- Convert with testimonials and case study videos.
- Delight using onboarding or FAQ content and personalized videos.
Videos that attract
For this stage, create videos that are shareable and spark an interest in your company.
Educational content that can help your viewers get closer to solving their problems or entertaining videos that let you express your brand personality are options you could experiment with.
This Tech Insider video is a great example of content that can attract audiences and keep them hooked.
Videos that engage
To engage your viewers, create videos that present your brand as an avid problem solver. The nature of your content should still be educational at its core.
How-to videos and explainers are great at walking viewers through viable solutions to issues they may be experiencing.
Meanwhile, insightful thought leadership content can establish you as a credible figure in your industry.
Here’s an engaging video that incorporates the how-to element into thought leadership content.
Videos that convert
Testimonials and case study videos give your prospects the assurance they need to pick your brand.
According to a 2020 report, 62% of people think that video testimonials help them in making a buying decision.
In contrast to testimonials, case study videos tell the brand’s side of the story and are effective because they offer a glimpse into how your company previously helped a client achieve their goals.
Slack’s testimonial video is probably one of our favorites.
Videos that delight
Videos for this stage aim to empower and support customers, regardless of whether or not your business gets any value from it.
A customer onboarding video indicates that your company cares and is reliable while a personalized video, such as a simple thank you message, is a great way of showing someone they are valued.
Your efforts during this stage will help your company establish enduring relationships with clients.
Here’s the delight principle in action:
The next step is making the videos.
How to get started
Video content creation may seem like a massive undertaking but don’t fret because there are two ways to go about it:
- DIY
- Hire experts
DIY
If this is how you want to go about it, then there are plenty of online DIY video production tools you can take advantage of such as Biteable, Animoto, Powtoon, and more.
There’s one caveat though, this method still takes time and may not get you the sort of quality you’re hoping for.
Hire experts
If you hire video production professionals, they’ll bring their expertise to the table and produce great quality content.
To connect with talented video production freelancers and agencies, you can use platforms like Upwork.
Assess if the professionals are right for you by checking out their portfolio, client reviews, and overall rating.
Now, whichever direction you choose to go in, the point is to get started. Experiment with the types of video content I mentioned, have fun with it, and reap the benefits.
Welcome to the age of video.
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