Benefits of video marketing in 2023 and how to develop engaging marketing videos

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Originally

Posted on

December 19, 2022

Emily Desrosiers

Content Marketing

Marketing Strategy

Digital Marketing

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Video marketing has become a powerful promotional tool in recent years — $135 billion worth of power to be specific! The constantly-increasing rate of users watching, interacting, and sharing videos is causing this marketing approach to continuously rise to the top of the digital marketing landscape. So much so, that Cisco recently reported that by 2023, the majority of online traffic (around 80% in total) will be comprised of video content.

Assuming that by now you’ve already dipped your toes into the video marketing pool, you’ve probably noticed a few key characteristics about this content format. The first being that users of all ages, industries, and global regions love seeing video content on their timelines. Gen Z, millennials, and boomers alike have found value and entertainment in both short-form and long-form video content across all platforms.

You may have also noticed that video regularly outperforms other content formats. According to Wyzowl, videos are shared at twice the rate of any other form of content. Further research shows that 87% of marketers have seen increased traffic through the use of video, and 86% of marketers have generated new leads with video marketing as well.

This is only the beginning for video marketing, and what a strong beginning, indeed. However, all video content is not created equal. It’s not enough to simply post a clip and move on — the most effective video marketing strategies involve intentional audience research and an understanding of the goals and KPIs you want to accomplish.

You may be thinking ‘What now? How do I do video marketing — and how do I do it effectively?’ Let’s press play.

How to elevate and infuse your existing digital marketing initiatives with video content

As a seasoned marketer, you likely already have a good understanding of the content funnel and the go-to channels for digital marketing, such as email, social media, blog posts, digital and in-person events, and website pages. While these channels are hugely important and effective for connecting with your audience and increasing brand & product awareness, you can elevate them even further by incorporating video content.

Whether you choose to repurpose existing content from these channels or enhance existing content with new video assets, it’s a win-win for you and your brand. An Oscar win, even.

Interested in working with Aimtal on your next video project? Here’s an example of our work in action:

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Repurpose email newsletter content into video

Already have a high-performing email newsletter that garners lots of positive feedback and engagement? Boost subscriber rate and awareness further by compiling key takeaways and actionable insights from previous newsletter editions and highlighting them in a short ‘how-to’ or ‘pro-tips’ video to promote on your LinkedIn channel.

Include a CTA (call-to-action) at the end of the video — such as ‘Want more? Subscribe to our newsletter for monthly insights’ — and boom, a new email subscriber stream is launched!our LinkedIn engagement will likely enjoy a nice boost from the increase in video content as well.

Embed videos into your blog posts & website

A well-written blog post or webpage is only as effective as the amount of time readers spend with it. So, how can you keep your audience locked into your messaging?

In 2021, Wistia decided to turn their curiosity on this topic into a study. They looked at data from their 100 highest-trafficked pages from January 1, 2021 to April 24, 2022 and focused specifically on the amount of time their visitors spent on these pages, or “time on page,” as Google Analytics calls it.

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Their study concluded that people spend 1.4x more time on blogs and web pages with video as they do on pages without. If you have existing video content, such as YouTube, webinar recordings, a company ‘About us’ feature, product reviews, or tutorials, consider embedding them directly into your blog or website to increase engagement and average time spent on your website. This will also turn your website into a one-stop-shop for any resources and information you need to provide to your audience, which will subsequently increase the rate of return visitors to your homepage.

Bonus: An increase in time spent on your website & blog will also improve organic SEO performance! ⭐ See how everything ties together naturally when you take an integrated & holistic approach?

Improve social media engagement rate with animations or video

The average person spends 147 minutes per day scrolling on social media apps like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok. Whether your audience is browsing for entertainment, for knowledge, or for keeping in touch with friends and family, the point is: your brand has a large window of opportunity to catch their eye.

When creating content, be sure to think about the final product from your audience’s perspective — what would be compelling enough to stop them mid-scroll? Depending on your audience’s interests, demographics, and behavior, video format examples could range from a GIF with a few simple animated elements, a low-production TikTok of a day-in-the-life of your team, or a branded & expertly produced video presenting a customer use case. This will vary based on industry, audience segments, and current online trends, so be sure to do research and stay tapped in on current events to determine what topics and formats will have the most stopping power.

As always, the numbers don’t lie — recent industry trends show that video content on social media generate about 1200% more shares than text and image content combined, and marketing campaigns that include videos show 34% higher conversion rates.

Need some inspiration to help you get started? Here are the types of B2B videos that tend to resonate the most on social channels:

Explainer videos
Customer testimonials
Thought-leadership
Case study videos
How-to videos
Culture videos
Trending topic videos

Launch a YouTube channel for every stage of the funnel

While certain marketing channels are impactful during specific stages of the buyer journey, YouTube can act as a stepping stone to easily carry your leads along their trek from start to finish. From initial awareness all the way to the final decision — use YouTube as your avenue.

A recent study from Tubular Insights revealed that around 1 in 3 millennials had bought a product directly as a result of watching a how-to video about it on YouTube. This is backed up by the fact that 70% of YouTube viewers watch videos to solve a problem they're having with their hobbies, studies, or jobs.

To really make a splash with your video campaigns, create a YouTube channel for your brand that gives your audience answers to their questions. Start with these high-level steps and considerations to help guide the initial structure of your channel:

Step 1: Establish purpose and goals

What purpose will your channel serve?
Who are you trying to reach on YouTube?
How will you know the channel is successful?
Will your video launches be tied to a larger integrated campaign?

Step 2: Develop a channel identity

What’s the voice and tone of your channel?
Are there ‘buckets’ of content that you could organize into a few series? Such as how-to’s, product tutorials, Q&As, event recordings, or thought leadership?
Will each video include a branded intro and outro?

‍Step 3: Create a plan for video production and posting

Do you have the resources to create & post one video per week? Per month?
How will you promote your YouTube channel?
How will you repurpose YouTube content?
Who will maintain the YouTube channel?

Video production flow & choosing the right video marketing tools

Now that you have the foundational knowledge for why and where your video content should exist, it’s time to dive into the HOW. Choosing the right tools for video creation is a vital ingredient in your recipe to success. Here’s a list of video marketing tools recommended by Aimtal:

Storyboarding: Figma

A storyboard is a visual organization of the ideas and structure of a proposed video flow in the form of illustrations, images, or screens presented in sequence for pre-visualizing and ordering. Use Figma to align on the concepts, color palette, visual elements, transitions, on-screen text, voiceover timing, and overall flow of your video for a picture-perfect plan before beginning production.

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Video timeline and audio editing: Adobe Premiere Pro

Use Premiere Pro to cut your video files and drag and drop them into your desired sequence. You can also use this tool to edit or synchronize the audio you recorded on set, boost or reduce sound levels, and add music and sound effects to your video. While you can use After Effects for color correction, Premiere Pro is often the better choice thanks to a user-friendly suite of professional color grading, correction, and rendering tools.

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Animation, visual effects, and motion titleist: Adobe After Effects

While Premiere Pro is intended for cutting, arranging, and enhancing things you’ve already shot, After Effects is the industry standard for creating impressive motion graphics and visual effects to your videos.

With a little practice, there’s no limit to what you can create with After Effects. After Effects is renowned for its motion graphics tools, which designers and animators use to create 2D and 3D animations with vectors and rasterized art. You can also import photographs and other pieces of physical media into your animations to generate all sorts of titles and motion graphics.

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While Premiere Pro has some tools for adding text to your video, the motion titles and moving text features in After Effects can bring your visuals to the next level with the creation of animated text layers, allowing your team to make eye-catching opening credits sequences, lower third graphics, 3D motion text, or kinetic typography videos.

Providing feedback & revisions: Frame.io

When you’re ready to share your stunning work of art with your team, use Frame.io to collaborate with team members on edits, questions, comments, revisions, and overall feedback. Frame.io allows feedback to be specific, concise, and actionable, so you can reduce review cycles and speed up approvals.

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File storage & organization: Google Drive

Throughout the process of brainstorming, editing, and saving your videos, use Google Drive to house and store creative assets, project plans, files, brainstorm documents, revised & final versions, and more for easy reference.

Lights, camera, action: Key resources for video marketing

Now that you have a full understanding of why video marketing in 2023 is the play, it’s showtime. By modernizing your marketing initiatives to align with current trends, you can ensure that your content is reaching the right audiences. Have a blog post that didn't get as many views as you hoped? Turn it into a short TikTok video to repurpose the information. Want to boost LinkedIn engagement rates? Incorporate animated GIFs into your content calendar. Looking to increase brand awareness and thought leadership? Launch a YouTube channel. The possibilities are endless.

Still need more context? Here’s a roundup of resources your team can use to hit the ground running as you kick off your next video marketing campaign or initiative: