What exactly is video marketing? And how do you make it effective?

In order to develop a successful digital marketing strategy, marketing teams, team members and even video experts need to bring videos into the fold. Although the concept of "video marketing" might seem straightforward (essentially, adding videos into your marketing campaigns) however, it's difficult to figure out how you can go about actually doing it effectively.

What is the importance of video marketing?

Thanks to the growth of sites such as and YouTube and other social networks like Facebook and Twitter have now added video to their platforms, as well as dramatic improvement in the video streaming's quality (bye bye to that annoying buffering), videos now appear in all phases of what's referred to as the marketing funnel. The typical funnel looks like this: you introduce someone to your company (awareness stage), educate them about it (consideration stage) and then justify the offer (decision stage) and then keep them (delight stage).

So how do you do video marketing right?

Let's breathe some life into a typical video-marketing funnel through a real-world (but really a made-up) instance. WebThyme is a (imaginary) software firm which assists people in creating and host websites. Jenn is a prospective customer.

• The right prospect: Jenn is about to create a wellness and health website. WebThyme's intended audience are entrepreneurs with small businesses.
• The correct channel: Jenn Googles advice for starting a new business she stumbles upon one of WebThyme's video clips in the form of a blog article which tells the story of an entrepreneur. Enthusiastic, she joins WebThyme's newsletters as well as they provide Jenn a weekly newsletter with helpful info.
  
• The right action:Jenn clicks on a newsletter link that takes her to a landing page which features a video delving into the latest WebThyme features available to entrepreneurs with small businesses. The button she taps will take her to a free trial -- the call to action -- and decides to give it a go.

This is only one of the examples of an conceivable video-marketing scenario. But how does that play out on a more precise and actionable scale? What are the most effective video marketing practices for key channels like emails, social media and your company website? Let's dig in...

Investigating social media

Why is social so effective in promoting growth? When your followers who already follow you like, comment, or share your posts and share your videos to their own contacts and acquaintances, some of whom may start following your account. One way to generate more leads within this community is to include the email capture form, that is included within Business software, which allows you to get your viewers" information directly in the embedded player. After that, you are able to effortlessly import these email addresses into marketing email services such as MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, and Constant Contact.

Maybe you'd like your visitors to go to a landing page where they can learn more. This is also possible! Business lets you add clickable CTAs, so you can send people exactly to the place you'd like them to go.

You can also increase your reach and gain more followers through the use of paid social media. Based on the particular site that you are on, you may be able to target specific audiences, and promote your video via pre-rolls or promoted posts.

Let your email campaigns flourish

If it's about emails, videos play a significant role. time. They can increase click-through rates up to 200-300 percentage (that's hundreds of percents, users) in addition to reducing the amount of people who don't subscribe. However, most email programs can't handle videos that are integrated directly into emailsHowever, you can get around it by overlaying a play button on the still images of your video then driving users to a landing page which has the whole thing.

It's relatively easy to accomplish with the email marketing systems we mentioned above and also in marketing automation systems like HubSpot. And #protip: this is an excellent method to A/B test which video thumbnails get you the highest conversion rates. In general to follow, you can increase your campaign" conversion rates by tailoring your design and copy to correspond with to the landing pages they lead to.

Your website, packed with amazing videos

 Home Page

Most companies create videos for their homepage, one that describes what you're all about the reason why your business is important, and the problem that you're addressing. It's a huge influence how your brand is thought of by people who are just discovering your business. Take Canary, for example.

 Pages for landing

Although your website serves numerous purposes to serve a large audience Your landing pages are great for educating specific segments of your customers about the great things you have to offer in order to convince users to take the desired actions. People who market to your landing pages come via online advertisements, social media blogs, as well as search engines. These videos can help turn these leads into customers. Take the time to visit our Business pages.

 Blog

It is a significant source of traffic inbound to your website -- particularly when you post helpful info, industry news as well as thought leadership regarding topics that your audience cares about because they're probably searching for the topics they're interested in through Google. It is also a great destination for sharing product and corporate news, events and the best practices you've learned from your community. Are you looking for some examples? The very thing you're reading will be (hopefully) more engaging with videos sprinkled throughout.

 Pages for FAQ and Product pages

All that is needed to put it all together

If the video-marketing approach you have chosen works well it creates an amazing environment that helps grow the business of your organization: your social videos are attracted by new customers and are engaging existing ones; your video-filled blog posts rank high on search results; your email campaigns -- with gorgeous video thumbnails -- lead fans to the landing pages of your website, with relevant videos with clear CTAs and clear CTAs. All of them have been optimized to bring leads and increasing sales. And all of that is trackable, measurable and can be adapted over time. And speaking about...