The importance of a video strategy to your business

If you’re in business and want to advertise your product or service, video is among the most effective ways to do so. To get the very best from your video content and ensure it reaches the right people, you must have an appropriate video marketing strategy.

A study by Wyzowl Research revealed 86% of companies incorporate video content as part of their overall marketing strategy. The same number confirmed its effectiveness for generating leads and 87% saw a positive return on investment.

There’s no wonder it’s a fast-growing area of marketing and communications. If you’re among the 14% of companies yet to develop a comprehensive video strategy, or you’re looking to enhance what’s already in place, our team can help.

At Bouche Media, we are specialists in creative corporate video production, with over a decade of experience working with the finance, tech, property and professional services sectors under our belts.

Before we get into how we can make all that work for you, let’s take a closer look at video marketing strategy and explain why it’s so crucial to the growth and success of your business.

What is a video content strategy?

No video marketing guide would be complete without a definition, so here it is. Video marketing is the practice of using video content to inform audiences about or promote your brand, product or service.

We’ve all grown up watching adverts on television and for decades, that was how brands interacted with consumers visually.

However, since the launch of YouTube in 2005, video advertising on the internet has taken off in a massive way and we simply can’t get enough.

Google clearly knew which way the wind was blowing: it snapped up the social media platform a year after it burst onto the world wide web.

Add into the mix relatively recent leaps in video-making technology, including smartphones and their increasingly sophisticated cameras, and it’s easy to see why it’s never been easier to film and publish video content.

Why is a video marketing strategy so important?

The widespread availability of smart technology and the global popularity of video have prompted hundreds of businesses to use it to advertise their brand, as well as their products or services.

As experts in the production of corporate video, we understand that there’s a place for a ‘point, film and post’ mentality. But we also know that way of advertising will only get even the most innovative company so far.

Audiences have not only grown more sophisticated and tire more quickly of overused concepts, they are also bombarded by video content everywhere they look. That can make it harder for some brands to make their voices heard above the noise.

Likewise, a hurried or ill-conceived video campaign could backfire, at best costing a company sales, at worst irrevocably harming their brand and consumer trust. Why take the risk?

A well-thought out social media marketing strategy for your video content takes more time and effort than flying by the seat of your pants, but the upside is more than worth it.

Let’s explore more of what your video strategy can do for you.

Educate and inform consumers

More than 90% of internet and social media users will merrily watch video content about almost any subject, according to Wyzowl’s previously mentioned research.

On the face of it, that looks like a huge audience for a business or corporation to play to, but those figures break down in a very interesting way.

Wyzol said around one third of viewers were to absorb tutorials or how-to videos, while almost 30% wanted to watch educational content and around 28% were looking for product reviews.

Suddenly that vast pool of potential customers with lots of time on their hands has shrunk to three groups of users: all with rather more specific intentions and needs.

Your video content should set out to meet them. If successful, you will also go a long way toward raising your brand profile, while also building credibility and creating trust among viewers.

Broaden your audience with social media shares

If you didn’t already know, tweets that contain videos receive 10 times more engagement on Twitter, while over on Pinterest, one billion videos are watched every single day.

That’s just two of the current swathe of globally popular social media platforms.

Those viewers will very likely share your content with their friends, family and other social media groups. It’s easy to understand why video has become an incredibly powerful marketing tool for your brand, product or service.

That’s why it’s important to create quality content – whether you’re in the market for explainer videos or a series of product videos.

They should seek to put your brand, product or service at the heart of the world’s biggest online conversations and keep them there.

Increase conversions and sales with enhanced SEO

Mention search engine optimisation – better known as our old friend SEO – and most people immediately think of keywords and written content such as blog posts.

Yet many businesses miss a trick with SEO and video content, which also has an important role to play in boosting your search rankings.

Video neatly and efficiently covers all the flywheel bases: attracting, engaging and delighting potential customers, helping generate more leads and potentially increasing conversions and sales. We’ll explore this in much more detail later.

Engage mobile users

From passing the time during the daily commute to kicking back at home during the evening and weekend, millions of people across the world spend hours happily scrolling their mobile phones.

According to Facebook, users are 1.5 times more likely to watch a video on their smartphone every day, while 77% of viewers use a tablet or mobile to consume their video content, Statista revealed.

That’s a vast audience, ready and waiting to consume your content without the use of a computer screen. Your business could kick-start the next mobile viral video trend and we can help you make it.

How do you develop a video strategy?

Businesses that are serious about using video to creatively engage with their customers and achieve goals such as enhancing conversions and sales, need a video strategy.

The question is, if you’ve never had one or you want to give your existing system a shake-up, where do you start?

Does it begin with the brief? Can you create a video and then put together a strategy? Can you hire someone else to create one for you?

As with so many facets of corporate video production, there’s a process to be followed to ensure you get the right outcome. Let’s take a closer look at the elements needed for a concrete video marketing strategy.

What’s everyone else doing?

Before you rush out and film what you are 100% certain is a totally new idea, it’s worth checking out what your competition is producing.

Not only will it minimise the risk of copycat video campaign content, it will also help determine what resonates and what doesn’t among your shared target audience. Ask yourself as many questions as possible about other companies:

What sorts of video content are they creating?
What are its aims?
Who are they speaking to?
Where are they being published?
What’s the tone?
How many videos are they generating?

Getting the answers to these important questions will ensure your video content is original, innovative and engaging.

What should your video content do?

A robust video marketing strategy should set out to accomplish many things, from boosting engagement on social media channels, conversions and sales, to fostering trust and raising a brand’s profile.

While a single video might reach one or two of those goals, it’s more likely that you’ll need multiple marketing videos to cover every stage of the marketing funnel.

Determine right at the start what aims you want each marketing video to achieve, then your brand message will ring loud and clear, rather than getting muddled.

Identify your target audience

Just as it’s important to know who your competitors are engaging with, you need to understand who your ideal or target audience is too. That means carrying out lots of research.

How old is your ideal customer?
What are their interests?
How does your product or service resolve their pain points and needs?
Do they see your business as reliable and trustworthy?

Knowing the answers to these questions will ensure that your video content 100% hits the spot when it comes to audience engagement.

Choose your video format

One of the most important things when developing a solid video marketing strategy is choosing the right format to deliver your brand message.

Remember, the majority of video for business is short and sweet, so your message has to be imparted quickly and efficiently to your audience. It’s a challenge our team, including founder Nick Coombes, relishes.

No matter how long your content, we work closely with the client to create high performing videos in a style that supports and enhances what they want to say.

There are lots of different forms of video to choose from:

Explainer video

As we said earlier, around one-third of people consuming online videos want to be informed. Few things do that quite as well as an explainer video.

This form of marketing video is a brilliant way to unpack a new product or drill down into a service, helping your intended audience understand how to get the most out of one or both.

Explainer videos can neatly explore the features of a product or service as well as its functions, steps and benefits. They pay off too, with Wyzowl reporting an impressive 96% of people watching one before making a purchase.

Animated videos

If you’re eager to inject as much creativity as possible into your video marketing efforts, animated videos are a must.

They’re incredibly flexible: you can create an animated explainer video for a product launch, or generate cartoon versions of your employees to tell your company’s story.

Animation offers the opportunity to invent a vibrant, colourful world for your brand that will excite, engage and delight your audience. Keep it short and punchy, and they’ll visit again and again.

Educational videos

One of the very best ways to demonstrate how your brand, product or service can help consumers with particular pain points, educational videos should be a core component of your marketing strategy.

Focus on issues or topics that are highly relevant to your target audience and explore them in a fun, natural and engaging way. Don’t seek to talk down to or patronise your potential customers.

With each educational video that you produce, your customers will be increasingly convinced of your authority and reliability, while your organic ranking and brand exposure both get a boost.

How-to video

Although how-to videos are also considered educational, they’re more instructive. This form of video content walks viewers through every stage of a process or task.

They are generally very straightforward and their aim is to answer your viewers’ every question, from how to use a piece of software to maximising a business’ service.

How-to videos should be a key part of your video marketing strategy because they help generate trust among consumers. In turn, that can boost your online profile and increase traffic to your brand’s landing pages or website.

Commercials

Also known as video ads, commercials are usually no longer than 30-second spots and aim to showcase a brand, product or service in a memorable, appealing way.

Like an animated video, there’s endless scope for innovation and creativity, both of which our team excels at.

Commercials tend to focus on one key point, whether it’s a product’s features, a key concept or unique value, and always end with a distinct call to action.

Done well, they can also increase traffic and boost conversions and sales.

Event video

If you’ve never considered putting your company’s round table meetings on camera, you could be missing out on a rich seam to mine for videos.

We’re experts at event video, which also includes coverage of awards ceremonies and business conferences.

Our team films teasers and promos to whip up excitement before an event, then create an entire video of impactful, two-minute testimonials from attendees.

Customer testimonial videos

According to a survey, 93% of consumers are influenced in their decision-making by online reviews. For that reason alone, customer testimonials should form part of your video content strategy.

Video testimonials have become one of the most powerful tools in a brand’s marketing arsenal. The key is authenticity. The more ‘real’ voices you choose to amplify on camera, the more likely your marketing videos are to connect and engage your target audience.

Putting a human face to your product or service will burnish your brand’s reputation and increase trust among viewers, potentially sending your sales skyward.

Company story videos

If your business is launching an employment drive, what better way to showcase your firm’s roots, culture and aims than with a company story video?

It allows you to offer insights into how your business started that go far beyond a few lines on Linkedin.

Company story videos are a great way to connect with people who share your values and demonstrate where the business is heading. They are often the most uplifting and inspiring of all corporate video ads.

Behind the scenes videos

In a similar vein, behind the scenes videos can lift the lid on parts of your business that don’t traditionally get much coverage on social media.

This kind of video content can showcase your hardworking IT crew who pulled off a major upgrade, or the efforts of teams working around the country or globe.

Like video testimonials, behind the scenes content humanises your company, while the insights make your audience feel included in the conversation, more deeply connected to your brand.

Influencer endorsement videos

We’ve already established the power of a customer testimonial video, but they’re not the only people who can have considerable sway over your company’s online profile.

Influencer endorsement videos can give your brand identity a huge boost, increasing trust and expanding your customer base.

Not all influencers are created equal, so it’s wise to pair up with someone whose field of interest and ethical outlook closely match your brand.

FAQ videos

Simple, concise and precise, a good FAQ video will ensure your target audience understands everything they need to know about your brand, product or service.

They can be used to anticipate common doubts and gently reassure people into moving further into the sales funnel, potentially boosting conversions.

Social media videos

There’s a little bit of something for everyone on social media, so it makes sense that you can mix and match your video style to accommodate the platforms.

They provide an endless outlet for creativity and trying fresh ideas, enabling you to feed your target audience’s appetite for relevant informative, educational and engaging content.

Live videos

Live videos are a great way to offer insights into your company, either through conferences, meetings or other formal events.

Social media is a great platform to generate interest and excitement about scheduled live videos. It’s also a brilliant way to start a conversation about your video content and identify what resonates with the viewers.

Don’t forget, in the hands of our expert editors, it can be recut and repackaged into snippets of as-live video for a wider audience.

You can also embed excerpts of a live video into email campaigns or on your landing page to advertise forthcoming events.

Set a budget

After nailing down the video types you want to produce, next you have to determine how much you are prepared to spend to make it a reality.

A good video marketing strategy should include a decent budget that the company can reasonably afford. Not investing enough could be just as bad for your business as overspending.

For example: a low-cost production company advertising their wares may seem attractive on the face of it. But will they have the right equipment and skills to produce genuinely good quality brand video posts?

A cheap end result could do more harm to your business than good. Using us ensures your video creation process will be a good investment both now and in the long term.

Where will the finished video go?

Your video strategy needs to consider more than just the content itself. What happens post production is every bit as important as the creative process.

Which video platform will you use to publish your ad?

Knowing where your video content will be posted before a frame has even been filmed will make production more targeted and efficient, reducing costs.

It means the finished video is also more likely to resonate with and engage your intended audience on a specific platform, because it’s been made precisely for them and it.

Create a distribution plan

A solid video marketing strategy should include a distribution plan to ensure your content is seen by the relevant audience.

There are several ways you can do this, from editing and repurposing live videos to embedding video in email campaigns. We’ll take a closer look at this later.

Measure video performance

The final component for your brand’s video campaigns allows you to determine whether it’s been a success or not.

As well as creating your video content, we can help you understand the online data it has generated. This information can provide a handy guide to what went right with your video strategy and what could be tweaked. This is something we’ll cover in more depth further down this blog.

Tips for an effective video marketing strategy

So far, we’ve looked at some of the fundamental requirements for a video strategy. Now we’ll take a look at some video marketing tips that will enhance your marketing even further.

Optimise for mobile

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking about traditional horizontal filming when developing a video marketing strategy.

Remember, lots of social media videos are shot vertically. It’s worth keeping this front of mind when putting together your video strategy and focus on square filming, so footage, even from live videos, can be adapted accordingly.

Remember the SEO

We briefly touched on SEO earlier in this blog, when we examined the importance of having a video strategy. Here, we’re going to dig a little deeper.

We know websites that feature video content outperform those without. They increase the amount of time visitors spend on your site and boost organic traffic.

That’s great, but you have to do more than simply embed a video ad on your site. Your video strategy should also include the use of SEO to optimise that visual content.

Here are a few tips on how to achieve that.

Incorporate keywords

Just as with a blog post, it’s important to identify and incorporate keywords and long-tail keywords when you create video content.

Start with your video’s title: use one that reflects your ideal customer’s needs, with the primary keyword near the beginning. Seed your video description with keywords to increase discoverability.

Ensure the video has the correct tags, with the keyword listed first, to boost your video’s ranking. It’s also worthwhile including a full transcript of any and all spoken text from your video ad to increase searchability.

Create a great thumbnail

Another way to boost your SEO is by optimising the thumbnail for your video. It’s the still image that comes up after a search and has evolved into a powerful marketing tool.

Why? Because it’s what will persuade people to click on it and open the content.

Use a poor-quality image, one that’s irrelevant to the video or one that doesn’t work across social media outlets and technologies, and you risk turning off your target audience.

Use a consistent concept for every video in a campaign

If your video strategy calls for multiple ads, then consistency across all your content is fundamental.

That includes the colour palette and any characters, and will help forge a connection between your video marketing efforts. It will also bolster brand recognition and create unity between several separate videos.

A/B test your video content

Not every company’s video strategy is going to be on the same scale as a Hollywood production, but that doesn’t mean Tinseltown has nothing to teach businesses.

Many films are screened for test audiences before their premiere, providing valuable feedback for the cast and crew.

Companies looking to maximise their video strategy can do the same thing with A/B testing. It enables a mix-and-match approach that can lead to a version of your video ad that prompts the biggest audience response.

The benefits of a robust video marketing strategy

We’ve already highlighted a few of the benefits of developing a video marketing strategy. After exploring what you need to create one, now we can really go to town on how it will boost your business.

A potentially enormous audience

A 2023 Hootsuite survey ranked YouTube as the world’s second most-visited website after Google, with more than 66 billion visits per month.

It found people spent an average of 29 minutes and 37 seconds per visit, with YouTube shorts viewed over more than five trillion times. Facebook’s figures are just as breathtaking: 2.93 billion monthly active users (accounting for over 36% of the world’s total population, while nearly 58% of all internet users use Facebook monthly.

Instagram is the world’s fourth most popular social networking site, while Twitter comes in at number seven. Together they account for almost 1.3 billion active users, while Linkedin brought up the rear with more 875 million.

Given these vast audiences, it’s easy to see why more and more businesses are embracing the video marketing opportunities offered by social media platforms.

Forge a bond with your customers…

Every business, no matter its speciality or field, wants to create a relationship with its customers so they come back again and again.

Your video marketing campaign plays an important role in forging those connections. We already know there’s a near-endless appetite for video content on social media platforms.

A well-tailored marketing strategy allows you to speak to your audience directly, tap into their needs and answer their questions.

Just a few seconds of high-quality video, posted either on social media or on a website, can maximise engagement, while partnering with a trusted influencer will reinforce your reliability in the eyes of your audience.

…and watch those conversion rates soar

Every business wants to engage the widest possible audience when they create a video, no matter what the ultimate goals of its marketing strategies.

Generating and publishing engaging video content will not only attract visitors to your social media, product or service landing pages, it can also increase purchases by an impressive 144%, according to Hubspot.

There’s no better time to invest in that series of product videos, or boost your video SEO with more content.

Boost your SERPs ranking

It’s not just flesh-and-blood consumers who will be drawn to your brand. Engaging video that is laced with keywords will be snapped up by Google, boosting your search engine results page ranking.

Regularly generated, original and relevant content, with a great thumbnail that is optimised for SEO will always be a hit with the search engines.

It’s also worth remembering that while you can include external links on sites like YouTube, don’t go overboard and put off viewers.

Share and share again

One of the biggest benefits about social videos is how quickly they can be picked up by viewers and shared.

That generosity isn’t restricted to their friends or followers. A great landing page video that strikes a chord with someone could find its way onto multiple Facebook communities or shared on Twitter.

Not only does the act of sharing vastly expand the audience for your short videos, it could also increase traffic to your site, boosting conversions as well as your brand profile.

Video is available 24/7

American actress Katharine Hepburn was thought to have quipped “it’s always five o’clock somewhere”, enabling her to enjoy a cheeky cocktail outside traditional drinking hours.

Thanks to social media platforms and the proliferation of smartphones, there are no such rules for consuming video content.

People can watch just about anything just about anywhere. That’s music to the ears of any business planning to create a video marketing strategy or wondering when to post video content to secure the most engagement.

Focus on quality to beat the competition

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but when it comes to video content, original and fresh is best.

If you’re in a crowded field, it’s crucial to keep an eye on what video footage your rivals are producing before you create a video marketing strategy. Avoiding ploughing the same furrow will ensure your brand message isn’t overwhelmed.

Our experts will work with your marketing team to create innovative, engaging video ads that will make you stand out from the crowd for all the right reasons.

Video + email = higher click through rates!

There have been some pretty impressive statistics about videos in this blog so far, but we’re not done yet.

According to Precision Marketing Group, adding video to an email can increase click-through-rates by up to 300%. It’s just another mind-blowing reason to create a video marketing strategy.

Like social media, email campaigns are a great way to connect directly with video viewers and move them further into the marketing funnel.

They can provide a video introduction for new consumers, showcase the latest of your latest explainer videos or remind them of an upcoming live video event.

Whether you’re seeking to engage, inform or persuade, email and video are a powerful combination.

A bright future for video marketing

One of the most exciting things about being a video production company is the constant evolution.

From social media trends to changing technology and the increased use of virtual and augmented reality, it’s a thrilling time for businesses looking to create videos as part of their marketing strategies.

Our team always has its finger on the pulse, identifying and adopting new trends or systems, ensuring our clients get the very best service while creating video for them.

How Bouche Media creates corporate video content

Which leads us neatly to the question: once you’ve got your video marketing strategy in place, how do you then create high performing videos for your target audience?

Call us. Our team has years of experience creating video marketing campaigns for a wide range of corporations in the finance, tech, property and professional services sectors.

We can turn your video marketing strategy into actual video content that will reap all the benefits we’ve listed in this blog post, whether it’s destined for a landing page or social media.

How do we do that? It begins with an idea…

Storyboarding

All the content that is part of your video marketing strategy starts life as a concept; an idea. To turn that into a fully fleshed-out video either for your website or social media, our expert team starts with a storyboard.

It provides a transparent, easy-to-follow roadmap for your corporate video content, no matter the video types.

Whether you want to create a short explainer animation or generate behind the scenes videos for different sectors of your business, you’ll need a storyboard.

Plan, plan, plan

Don’t be fooled into thinking your 30-second video marketing guide for a new service doesn’t need much planning before filming.

Shooting what appears to be even the most straightforward short videos can quickly descend into chaos: wasting time and resources and, in the worst case scenario, harming your brand.

Using a storyboard will not only help solidify the concept behind your video content, it can also identify where specialist technology may be needed and any potential scheduling obstacles.

Plus, a smooth-running, streamlined production will result in a quality end product, putting a big smile on the faces of any investors who will be more likely to support you again

Script

Your storyboard could include text, but if your video marketing strategy calls for live-action or voice-over work, then a written script is an absolute must.

Will the people featuring in a live-action video know what to say and when? If they have to move, do they know where from and to, so they stay in shot?

Video content without a defined, pre-written script can quickly lose its core message, wasting more precious resources. It could even have a negative impact on the overall video performance if it’s published to social media.

Stay on track

Much like the storyboard, a written script provides guide rails for the creative process, ensuring the brand message stays at the heart of the video.

It can also encourage discussion and an exchange of ideas between our team and the client, potentially taking the video content into new and unexpected directions.

Equipment

We’ve already mentioned how a cheaper video production option could see you use below-par technology.

Imagine trying to create a cutting-edge animated explainer with out-of-date software – would it be a positive reflection of your brand?

As experts in creating corporate video content, we understand how important it is to have access to the right equipment at the right time, as well as the necessary skills and experience to get the best out of it.

A client’s tech requirements can be identified at the storyboarding stage, giving everyone involved in the production time to put whatever is needed in place. No delays, no fuss, just great video footage.

Video editing

When the final shot has been completed, we move into post-production. Here, the video editing experts turn the raw footage into a quality brand video for landing pages and social media.

They can create insightful snippets from a live video to delight your social media target audience, or turn a longer interview with a corporate executive into compelling short videos.

No matter what your video marketing strategies, our experts will shape your brand’s message, bringing your storyboard and script vividly to life for its intended audience.

Soundtracks/subtitles

While the visuals do much to engage audiences and move them further into the marketing funnel, how your video sounds is every bit as important.

Even the most eye-catching content can be scuppered by video production agencies churning out low-quality recordings, dialogue that is out of sync with the images or poor volume levels.

We use professional sound recording equipment to ensure crystal-clear sound quality. Your audience will be hooked on every word and the search engines pick up on every bit of SEO in the script.

Our experienced sound editors will also make sure all sound effects and music soundtracks are crystal clear and timed to perfection across your entire video marketing strategy.

Distributing your video content

When the final editing flourishes have been made, it’s time to move on to the next phase of your video marketing strategy: distribution.

A video hosting platform can play a role in persuading your ideal customers to enter or move deeper into the marketing funnel. They break down into three categories: owned media, paid media and earned media.

Owned media

This covers every possible video hosting platform that your business owns or controls. That includes your website, any apps, ecommerce pages, digital documents and email lists.

They are the most authoritative places for information and news about your brand, and the first place you should publish or distribute your video content.

Your website

Effective video marketing strategies encourage businesses to post content to as many pages on your website as they can. Why? Because it will attract more visitors to your site, where you can engage with them directly.

It’s also the first place where you should start to count video views, but we’ll get to that in a while.

Your blog

One of the most important places to publish your video content is your blog page. It’s a space where your target audience (and anyone else who has found your site), expects to discover brand-specific marketing content, as well as informative, educational items.

Email campaigns

Popping a video alongside written content will increase the chances of visitor engagement, likewise embedding video content into your email blasts or newsletters.

The overall industry average opening rate for emails in December 2022 was more than 34%, according to Constant Contact.

Emails, whether automated or promotional, are a powerful method of directly communicating with existing and potentially new clients. Combine that with the appetite for video content, and your video marketing work is done.

Organic social media

Many businesses developing a video marketing strategy choose to use organic posts on social media, which are part of their owned outlets.

There’s a host of platforms to publish on, from Facebook and YouTube to Instagram and Twitter. It does take a bit of work, ensuring your video content is optimised for each social media site, but the rewards are more than worth it.

Remember the huge audiences we mentioned earlier, ready, willing and eager to consume video content about a brand’s product or service? Tap into even a fraction of them and your video marketing strategy will be considered a hit.

Paid media

No video marketing guide would be complete without taking a look at the benefits of investing in paid media.

Although all manner of businesses benefit from free platforms such as Facebook, bigger firms readily take advantage of paid ads to distribute their video footage on social media channels.

They offer a boost that goes beyond organic search results, and with a range of payment options available, it’s not restricted to brands with deep pockets. There are several ways of doing this:

Paid social media

Companies sticking with organic posts know their video ads will be available to their followers and immediate fans.

However, even a small outlay enables you to target specific customers using filters including location, financial data and interests.

That information ensures more of the people you want to see your ad do so, with conversions and even sales rising as a result.

Native video

This form of distribution embeds your video content on other websites in a way that isn’t disruptive to viewers. It’s a great, natural-looking way to expand your audience.

Native ads can cost more than paid social media, but because your videos are placed in highly relevant sites, the returns are high, making the investment well worth it.

Influencers

Just as television adverts have used celebrities to sell products and services for decades, many brands are calling on high-profile social media influencers to advertise their content.

These partnerships enable start-ups to collaborate with people that have large online followings for little or no fee.

That said, the more high-profile the influencer, the more likely they will require some form of benefit for distributing your videos.

Earned distribution

Although using earned media as part of your video marketing can be more unpredictable than owned or paid, it’s still a valuable tool for businesses prepared to put in a little extra work.

Social media shares

By far and away the simplest method of distributing your video content, social media shares often occur organically. But that doesn’t mean you can’t help the process along.

Share a video ad to all your business’s social media accounts, then urge everyone you know to do the same.

You can even call on colleagues or acquaintances in similar or related industries to give your post a nudge, help your content gain traction and grow your audience.

Product reviews

Another low-cost earned distribution method is asking people – influencers or even celebrities – to review your brand, product or service, and then write (positively) about it.

When it comes to video marketing, it can be a solid way to build up your brand reputation and credibility.

Use a PR agency

There’s a whiff of old-school about using a public relations agency but their expertise can be hugely valuable, particularly if you’re in a niche industry or field.

Send them a direct link to your video for them to put in a press release or on a trade website.

Depending on how much time and money is at your disposal, it’s likely your video marketing strategy will include all three forms of distribution. But how do you know if your video marketing has been successful or not?

Analysing your video marketing success

What’s the definition of a successful video marketing strategy? The answer will depend on what your initial aims or goals were and the video metrics you use to measure them.

A viral video may engage an audience of thousands, but if your customer base or bottom line don’t change, can you really chalk it up as a success?

There are more key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can measure than how many views your videos rack up to determine whether they have performed well.

These KPIs will shift, depending on the metrics you choose as yardsticks for your video. They should be as relevant as possible to what you want your video content to achieve. Let’s explore how that translates to the flywheel.

Attracting your audience

Brands looking to draw an audience to their products or services will find this top-of-funnel aim among the easiest to measure.

It’s when a company showcases how they can ease their target audience’s pain points or meet their needs, and is usually the first connection between the two.

You should use the following metrics to analyse this stage:

Views
Impressions
Unique users
Awareness and ad recall lift

Counting views and impressions is relatively straightforward. Sending out surveys or quick questionnaires will help determine how much of an impression your brand made on viewers, and how well they recall your ads.

Engaging them

Companies whose video marketing strategy seeks to engage their audience should focus on how long viewers spend watching their content.

The more captivating, informative or entertaining your videos, the more likely they are to engage your target audience.

Check the following to measure engagement:

View-through rate
Watch time
Favorability/consideration/brand interest lift

Both watch time and the view-through rate will give you a solid idea of whether your videos are grabbing an audience’s attention.

You can also measure engagement rates through the number of times your videos are liked and shared on social media platforms, and how many comments they prompt.

If communities or individuals are talking about your brand or product, it’s a good indication that your video content resonated with them.

What they say could even help shape future video marketing campaigns and enhance targeting.

Nurturing those leads

Moving your audience further into the marketing funnel, this stage is where your video content pays off and you could start to reap rewards with increased conversions.

To determine whether your video marketing has been successful, focus on measuring:

Clicks
Calls
Sign-ups
Sales
Purchase intent lift

It may be that your video prompts an uptick in interactions between you and your ideal customer, who may need a little extra information to make a purchase decision.

Delighting your customers

Turning a viewer into a buyer is an amazing achievement, now you have to ensure they remain interested in your brand and what you’re offering.

The longer they watch your video, the more likely it is they are ‘delighted’ by what they see. Drill down into your views, impressions and view-through rate as well as the following metrics:

Return visits for repeat purchases
Social engagement
Favourability lift

All this rich data will give you a strong indication of how trusted your brand is, enabling you to showcase and nurture customer loyalty after making a sale.

KPIs and ROI

It is a truth universally acknowledged that not all video marketing metrics are directly connected to revenue.

That doesn’t mean you won’t have any idea how much return on investment (ROI) your video ads have generated.

View counts, impressions and unique users measured at the attract phase will provide an indication of how well your video content engaged your audience.

You can also use that data to estimate the number of views your video will need before it turns a profit.

The second stage of the flywheel, engagement, can be more challenging to measure in terms of ROI. That’s when information about user behaviour and visitor path information comes into play. Crunch the numbers and find out the percentage of visitors who made a purchase.

The nurture stage involves creating tracking links to measure what direct action visitors took, and how that impacted revenues.

Data from video ads that delighted visitors and resulted in a completed sale is the easiest to analyse. However, it’s also to know whether return visitors always make a purchase every time.

That behaviour could be incorporated into your next video marketing campaign. If your last effort didn’t give you the results you wanted, call us.

Bouche Media and your video strategy

We have been in the independent video production business for 10 years. In that time, demand for animation and motion graphics has exploded.

Our team are experts at everything from 2D character explainer videos to five-second clips of animated text and gifs, as well as longer-form content.

When it comes to animation, we can generate:

App and software demonstrations
Enhancing film footage
Communicating data
Social media messaging
Corporate brand identities
Brand and/or logo animation
Series designs

As for live-action film, we’ve got you covered too:

Testimonials
Case studies
Educating and messaging
‘About us’ films
Showcasing locations
Thought leadership
Events and conferences
Recruitment and promotion

We understand that video is a key pillar of your marketing and communication strategies. We deliver quality, original projects on time and on budget.

But that’s not all…

Our video strategy service

Knowing how important video is to a corporation’s marketing efforts is one thing. Ensuring it hits the sweet spot for audiences and delivers that all-important ROI can only be done with a solid video strategy in place.

That’s why we provide strategic reviews and planning to help you get the most from your video content and maximise the results before and after filming.

Pre-production support

Our service aims to make sure you understand the value and worth of your video content, by planning and creating video that will engage and delight your audience.

We will also teach you how to increase your content’s longevity – while keeping it relevant – and give you everything you need to keep your stakeholders happy.

Post-production

When the last edit has been made, we’ll ensure your content is distributed effectively and that you understand the data it generates. You’ll be in no doubt of how successful your campaign has been.

We offer this support and guidance via four video strategy services:

Full video content audit

Our team will watch your current content, explaining what has done well spotlighting potential opportunities.

They will carry out a thorough audit of all your content, from your website and social media channels to YouTube playlists.

You’ll be given recommendations and practical measures that take into consideration where your business is now, including quick wins and long-term solutions.

Competitor content review and positioning

Remember we advised you to check out your main competition’s video output? We’ll cast an objective eye over how your content stacks up against theirs and determine if it’s cutting through the noise.

Our experts will explore measures, from style to distribution, that will set your content apart, and ensure your brand translates well to video. We will help reinforce any weaknesses while highlighting your strengths.

Video strategy support and planning

Every video begins with a brief, but even at this stage, it’s worth examining how video can support your broader marketing and communications strategy.

Our comprehensive report service covers campaign planning, including channel and timeline priorities, frequency recommendations and suggested messaging.

It will spotlight where video content can most effectively boost your brand’s activities and examine what measures you can take to increase ROI.

The service will also help measure the success of your video ads, providing objective and benchmark-setting as well as progress reports.

60-minute workshop

The final offering from among our video strategy services is an hour-long workshop.

Whether you’re a start-up that’s feeling rather overwhelmed by creating video ads, or a corporation in need of fresh thinking, it can help.

The workshop offers advice and guidance on how to ensure your video content will generate the financial and emotional rewards you need before a frame is filmed.

Attendees will explore the role video plays in their campaigns and marketing strategy, how to use video as part of both, and how to stay on budget.

Why use Bouche Media for your video marketing?

There are lots of reasons. We’re independent for one, and specialists in scripting, planning and producing live action, animation and motion graphics for corporate brands and agencies for two.

Based on criteria including revenue, awards, peer reviews and volume of projects, we were ranked 32nd out of the UK’s top 50 production companies for 2022.

We’re passionate about film, and while our team are excellent listeners, we’ll always go the extra mile to wring every bit of innovation and creativity out of each brief.

There’s nothing like seeing a client realise there are so many more opportunities to spread their brand message than they imagined.

Innovative, responsive and always learning

We pride ourselves on being innovative. Our experts are constantly absorbing new ideas to bring a fresh approach to the table.

We’re agile and responsive too, aiming to build rewarding long-lasting relationships in a friendly, honest environment.

Our team is hugely experienced, but we never stop learning. We regularly attend everything from training courses to industry and cultural events to stay abreast of current trends.

Quality video, on time, every time

We like to think we punch well above our weight as a London-based indie video production company when it comes to the quality of what we deliver.

That doesn’t just cover the final product, it’s baked in at every stage, from initial proposal through the equipment we use, to the editing techniques.

Our commitment to quality is one reason why our clients consistently come back to Bouche again and again.

A team of professionals

We’re proud to say we’re a friendly team that is passionate about all things indie cinema. But we also work with some of the corporate sector’s biggest firms.

We know when to push the envelope and when to be more conservative, and aim to bring as much knowledge and insight to the table as possible with each new project.

What our clients say

Here are just a few comments from customers that have worked with us.

“I can honestly say they are one of the fastest working agencies and it is always a pleasure to deal with them. The team are genuine creative geniuses… so if you want something a bit different and eye-catching, they are your guys!”

Alix Cashmore, Digital Innovation, HSBC UK

“Nick and the team were fantastic to work with, they really took the time to understand what we were looking for and more than delivered – the final videos were better than we could have imagined, thanks to the extra suggestions they had. They were also very accommodating to all of our requests. I would not hesitate to recommend working with Bouche on your next project.”

Patrick Matthews, Marketing and Communications Manager, Bennbridge

“Capitalise is BNP Paribas Real Estate’s flagship UK event and we wanted to set the scene with energy and impact, looking back at the highs and lows of 2021. The video Bouche Media produced provided thought-provoking content in a smart, visually stimulating way, and we were thrilled that it was so well received by our event attendees and beyond. So much so that we are working with Bouche again on another video for our next Capitalise event.”

H Walker, Head of Brand, BNP Paribas Real Estate

Let’s work together on your video strategy

Whether you’re a brand-new business looking to make a splash in your chosen field, or an established corporation keen to try something new, we can help.

We can take your brand message and explore fresh creative avenues, expand your distribution to find a wider audience, eager to be engaged, and help you delight customers so they come back, again and again.

Let us enhance your website with video ads that will boost your ranking, brand profile and, hopefully, your bottom line.

Contact us

If all of that sounds too good to miss, get in touch and let’s get started on your video marketing strategy.

To get the creative ball rolling, email us at info@bouchemedia.com or fill in this contact form and we’ll get back to you straight away.