Video marketing is the talk of the town in digital marketing right now and rightly so. An effective video strategy has proven to drive higher engagement rates on social media, higher conversions rates in ecommerce and increased brand awareness online via YouTube video ads. Brand advertisers used to turn to TV advertising first when aiming to reach their target audience, however, Google has reported that by 2025, half of viewers under the age of 32 will not subscribe to a paid TV service. 6 out of 10 people prefer online video compared to live TV and the platform they turn to the most is YouTube, where the time spent on the platform increased by 74% in 2015. Needless to say, the opportunities in video are growing, and if you aren't already considering a video marketing strategy for your business, now is the time to start.
There are a few really good reasons why you should consider video marketing for your business.
Video is Powerful: Video is one of the most powerful mediums online. YouTube, the world's second largest [search engine], has one billion users, billions of daily views and reaches more 18-34 year olds than any cable network company in the U.S. Facebook newsfeeds are flooded with videos and Facebook has reported that video receives a whopping 800 billion views per day on the platform. Instagram is starting to record higher engagement from video posts compared to images, with videos generating more comments.
Video is Personable: Video delivers information in a way that is easy for the human brain to process. It helps to develop a more personal relationship with your customers that leads to a stronger sense of trust between the consumer and the brand. The impact that a well crafted video can have on a customer long outlives a plain text message especially when the customer reaches the point when they are ready to make a buying decision.
Video is Accessible: Video is accessible to all businesses, from huge corporations to small businesses. Over the last 50 years, larger brands have dominated TV ad slots because they could afford the huge price tag. But over the last 5-10 years small businesses have been finding ways to enter into the video advertising space. YouTube uses a cost-per-view bidding strategy that enables smaller businesses to bid and win on certain audiences and demographics. In addition, with the technology available today, businesses of any size can participate in video marketing even if they have zero experience in producing videos. Towards the end of this article you will find some helpful resources so you can get started on your video strategy today.
The argument in favour of a video marketing strategy is strong. If you are looking to either increase the performance of your online ads, to drive brand awareness for your business or product, to increase foot traffic to your retail location, to increase social media engagement with your followers and/or to increase organic search results for your local business, then video is a strategy you need to explore.
Firstly, you need to establish the 'why' of your video marketing effort. This will be the foundation from which you build your video strategy. Determine between 1 to 3 specific goals you want to achieve with your video campaigns. Perhaps you would like to improve the click through rate of your ads online? Or you are seeking to increase the amount of foot traffic to your physical store? Maybe you want to use video SEO to improve how you rank organically within the search results? It is important to set appropriate goals and KPIs so you can measure them later and gauge the success of your video campaigns.
This steps requires some self-reflection - How much decent video content do you already have? And what gaps or opportunities do you have within video? Carefully consider your user journey during this step - are you meeting the needs of your consumer at each milestone along their journey with your brand? Take note, if you are not offering the content your buyers need at the right moment, chances are they will be on to the next competitor without a second thought for you. So what questions do they need answering and do you currently have the content to support those micro-moments?
Based on the data and information you gathered during Step 2, decipher which type of video will fulfill each gap to maintain that relationship with your consumer. Maybe it is a 'How to' video, a video testimonial, webinar or product demo. Link each video in your funnel to the goals and KPIs discussed in Step 1 to ensure all the elements of your campaign tie together.
This step helps to improve the overall branding of your video strategy and encourages consistency amongst a digital team. It is important to produce a video style guide so each video portrays the same look/feel and brings brand consistency, especially as we are dealing with so many different channels. Your consumer will develop trust with your brand if they feel safe, and consistent branding helps to build this confidence. Make sure everyone on your team understands the circumstances under which you would produce a video over a blog. Communicate how CTA's should be used along with other in-video elements. Don't forget the finishing touches such as video introductory text, cover image and more. Defining this from the start will take away any confusion at a later date and ensure a smooth experience for your customer.
Each channels will deliver upon different goals, so understanding what each channel has to offer is vital to your success. For example, Facebook video will help to increase brand awareness and engagement on the social platform, however YouTube acts as a huge signal to Google in terms of video SEO.
YouTube: YouTube offers several different types of video ads. For the purpose of this article, we are going to look at YouTube Trueview ads and Google Preferred.Trueview: Trueview ads are built on the premise that an advertiser will only pay for an ad if the user chooses to watch the video. So you know you are getting a more qualified audience, because they haven't skipped the ad. These are especially good ads to run to capture the mid-to-low funnel customer who is trying to make final decisions about your brand. Imagine you are a travel brand and a consumer has been considering your destination over your competitors. You video highlighting how epic the surf is in your destination could be the push the consumer needed to book in your location.Google Preferred: Brands that select Google Preferred can choose from 12 packages of categories, such as fashion or beauty, and share their message alongside some of the most engaging content on YouTube. In this program, brands get access to the top 5% of content on YouTube.Facebook: As the title of this blog suggests, Facebook is blowing up right now with video and mainly due to their CPM based model of video advertising.CPM: CPM video advertising on Facebook is based on impressions, meaning your video starts to play as soon as the users scrolls to it in their newsfeed. Presuming you have a compelling first 5 seconds of your video, this is a huge opportunity to capture the interest of new customersCPC: The CPC video advertising model on Facebook means you pay if a user actually clicks on your video to play the content. This will serve a different type of user, who is much more qualified, and is more likely to meet your conversion goals.
Both YouTube and Facebook offer sophisticated targeting. YouTube has everything that the mighty Google has to offer in terms of data on customers, and Facebook brags an enormous amount of interest-based information. Here is how you can target on both platform:YouTube: You can target your audience on YouTube based on demographics, interests, topics, keywords and affinity - an audience that Google matches to you regardless of their browsing behaviour on YouTube.Facebook: Facebook video ads can be targeted based on location, age, gender, interests.Video targeting is something you can test for success. Break out your target audiences into segments and test which content performs the highest.
You can learn a lot about your audience by their viewing behaviour and luckily for marketers, video comes with an enormous amount of data. You can track how much video a viewer watches, where they skip the video and what they re-watch. You can understand which topics they enjoy the most and which video's are a flop. This data can become apart of your measurements for success.
As with any marketing effort, measuring the success and failure of the campaign is vital towards the growth of your business. A regular misconception about measuring video is that you only need to measure views. Marketers that are only measuring views are missing out on so much opportunity to see a better ROI. Hopefully you outlined fairly granular goals all the way back at Step 1. The difference between goals and KPIs is that KPIs are metrics you can measure for success, such as CTR. Ensure you look for the lift your video marketing strategy offers to all areas of your business from online ads to foot traffic to SEO.Use the additional viewing behaviour data to determine the success of your content and to identify potential leads. Say a video gets 10,000 views but 75% of those viewers only watch for 5 seconds and under. On the view count front, all looks good, but the length of video watched metric tells a different story. Use this information to help you determine the high quality conversions from the rubbish.
Facebook's video traffic has surpassed 4 billion daily views, meaning Facebook is the first real contender to YouTube for video digital ad money. The reason why? Facebook's engineers have made it easier than ever to watch and share videos, and with the rise of mobile, and users turning to their mobile phones to do pretty much everything, Facebook video has soared in popularity.Case Study:(Do we have one for Prototype?)
As mentioned above, you don't have to be a video genius to develop top quality videos for your brand. Here are some resources to get you started:
""What Personalization Tactics Can Banks Employ To Retain Millennialsblog/what-personalization-tactics-can-banks-employ-to-retain-millennialsMon Aug 01 2016 04:00:00 GMT+0400 (Gulf Standard Time)News,Web DesignAlexRetaining customers in the banking industry is a tricky business. Even though customers would initially prefer to stay with their current provider, 46% of Millennials will look for companies and services that better meet their needsblog2016-08-01-what-personalization-tactics-can-banks-employ-to-retain-millennials.jpg
Retaining customers in the banking industry is a tricky business. Even though customers would initially prefer to stay with their current provider, 46% of Millennials will look for companies and services that better meet their needs Experian That is a large percentage of Millennials that have the potential to jump ship. This article looks into reasons why banks are losing out on opportunities to keep Millennial customers and offers some best practices to help increase customer loyalty.
Banks are great at selling their services and convincing new customers to sign up, however where they lack is in managing and nurturing existing customers. Some areas of the financial industry are worse at this than others, such as credit card and mortgage companies, however there is room for improvement in all areas of banking services.
You know that feeling when you bump into someone you have met several times and they still fail to acknowledge who you are It is the same feeling customers get each time their bank asks if they are an existing customer. Banks need to offer a much more personalized website experience for their customers. If a banking customer receives a seamless experience across service lines, devices and tools, they will be stretched to find a reason to leave, and this is what banks should be striving for to keep their Millennial customers. Here are some ways banks can work on website personalization:Consistency: Banks need to offer a consistent experience across all their service lines. Currently, many banks offer several services that don't appear to be from the same bank. Consistency will offer several benefits in terms of building loyalty. Firstly, if the experience feels familiar, Millennial customers will gain trust for the bank and choose to return to the same bank when they need a new service. Customers will feel more confident in the process of applying for a new service because of its familiarity so that straying to a competing bank will be less likely.Offer a fast mobile experience that doesn't break: 55% of Millennials rank technology failures or the inability to carry out a transaction online in their top three most frustrating banking experiences Medallia
Personalization can be difficult for banks to deliver because of they can be stuck in regulations and their own bureaucracies that block them from moving forward. However, to keep up with Millennials, banks need to break through these boundaries and switch to a customer centric approach. One way banks can do this is via nurturing existing customers with content personalization and financial advice that is relevant to where they are in their journey. This shows that the bank has a genuine interest and commitment to the consumer's well-being. For example, using the data available, banks can offer advice to a new family trying to stay afloat, to students getting through college or the young couple who just bought their first home.
The Commercial Bank of Dubai is an example of a bank that provides a consistent user experience across all services and, in addition, has began to provide personalisation tools to offer a sophisticated nurture experience for its users. Here is an example of a personalization tool they have developed:Virtual Assistant: Sara is CBD's virtual assistant who helps with different questions about products and services available from the bank. Think of her like a Siri for this bank alone. The goal of Sara is to stop any customers waiting for answers and we all know Millennials love instant satisfaction to queries online.
Have you experience excellence in personalization and banking? Tell us your thoughts over on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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