Why Use Content Marketing in The First Place?
Because content marketing is increasingly becoming one of the most effective marketing strategies in business today. By providing value to your audience through content, you become a trusted source for your specific industry. There are many ways to go about providing content to your audience. Blog articles, podcasts, white papers, infographics, case studies, e-books, and videos. With all the options available, it’s hard to make a choice on which direction you should go in your content marketing strategy. After all, without a huge marketing team, it’s nearly impossible to do it all at once. When it comes down to it, you might want to go with the option that you’re best at. The hardest part is just getting started. When considering your options, you should also consider which method of content marketing is going to be most beneficial to your business. This is where video comes into play.
So What Makes Video so Special?
Video is becoming more and more preferred as the medium of choice for internet users today and that trend is only expected to increase into the future. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, in 2017, video traffic made up 75% of all consumer and business internet traffic. They then go on to forecast that number will rise to 82% by the year 2022! With numbers like this, it’s hard to argue why you would use any other strategy other than video in your content marketing playbook.
By implementing video into your content marketing strategy you’re sure to make an impact on your business. If you’re going to go through the trouble of producing content in the first place, why not make sure it’s content your audience is interested in consuming. By putting out value-driven content about your industry, you immediately become the expert in your field. You build tremendous trust within the market as someone to turn to when they have a problem. By putting yourself out there with video content, you become top of mind for consumers. Did you know that YouTube is now the second largest search engine online today (behind Google of course)? When people need to learn something, many of them turn to YouTube to find a video that explains it all for them. Why not go where the attention is?
Content Marketing with Video Can Save You Time.
How many times do potential customers question you, whether through email, phone calls or in person, about what your company does? Instead of having to take valuable time out of your busy day to explain these things, which could potentially add up to hundreds of hours a week, why not direct all these leads to a page on your website with all the answers they’re looking for. Some businesses do this with FAQ pages on their website, but your leads don’t always have the time or capacity to sit down and read your website.
By using a video, it’s nearly the same as being right in front of them explaining the answers to their questions. And even better, you have all the time you need to formulate your answers to these specific questions. You even have the ability to use supplemental graphics, images, animations, and video footage to help get your point across. Consider these videos an investment in your company, they’re evergreen. They can be used to save you time and drive traffic for years to come.
Where Do You Start?
We get it, you might be afraid of the complexities of video production. Who’s going to create these videos for you? Will you have to be in front of the camera for your first time? Do you even know anyone who can edit video? These are all legitimate concerns when it comes to investing in a proper video strategy. But the truth is, the barrier to entry is becoming smaller and smaller. Video is becoming increasingly more accessible to consumers and businesses alike. The price of equipment and software has been drastically reduced from a decade ago. Online learning resources make it easy to figure out how to record and edit videos. DIY options are very doable, or you can hire someone to partner with you in your video content creation.
Here at KG Media, we’re happy to help! We’ll sit down with you and map out how you can best use video for your content marketing. Larger budgets give us the opportunity to take the wheel for you, leaving you with more time to focus on your business. Smaller budgets are still able to get into video for content marketing with a more hands-on approach. We can show you how to shoot your own video footage that is then sent to us for quick and easy edits. A workflow like this makes video marketing affordable for any size business. We’ll instruct you on how to shoot videos about your business and give you a list of all the equipment you need to get started. Most businesses can get away with recording video on a modern smartphone for their content marketing. In fact, we encourage it! Using video for content marketing isn’t about putting out high production value content on a daily basis, it’s about providing as much value to your target audiences as you can. Leave the flashy videos for when you need to sell or promote something.
So how can you get started using video to provide value to your audience? First, you have to come up with the subject matter for your videos. What type of information is your target audience searching for online? If you’re a real estate agent, you might make a set of videos that lead potential buyers through the buying process. You could make a video about how to obtain a loan pre-approval, what to look out for in a home inspection or what happens in the negotiation process. If you own a restaurant, you could start making how-to recipe videos. That might sound like it’s going to take business away from your restaurant but I can assure you, your customers will be much more appreciative of you. After all, it’s not like most people eat out for every meal. Most people cook at least a few meals at home per week and your videos could give them the information they’re searching for. Now when they do have a chance to go out to eat, they’ll think about that restaurant that’s been providing them value and entertaining them online all week.
We’re Glad to Help!
If you’re ready to get started with using video for your content marketing strategy, KG Media can be your partner through the journey. Head over to our contact page and request your FREE Video Marketing Strategy Session and we’ll get you on track. We’ll help you plan out a video strategy that fits comfortably within your budget. Whether you need us in the workflow or not, we’re here to help.
