When should you start using video in your business’s marketing?
The short answer? Now. Any time, but the sooner the better.
The slightly longer answer? It’s never too early to incorporate videos into your marketing strategy and company branding. It can be the first impression you give your potential customers or it can be something you slowly build up over time.
There is no magic 1-year, 5-year, or 10-year point where video can be thrown into your marketing mix and you will immediately see results (especially if video clients haven’t been part of your video marketing strategies). There are many companies that have spent years building up their video experience and still lack noteworthy returns on investment. Even video marketing veterans have to continue working towards video marketing success – there is no ‘set it and forget it’ video strategy.
You want to make sure you’re putting out good content that customers will engage with and share. But, it’s ok to swing and miss with your videos. Every failed video is a learning moment and you’ll figure out what your customers want through posting more content and reevaluating after each video is posted.
So, how do you decide when to incorporate video into your marketing strategy?
The decision is ultimately up to you and your company. But before you get into the exact “when” the video will be live on either your site or social media, you need to figure out what your budget and timeline should be.
You should be asking yourself and your crew a few questions:
- What budget do I have for video marketing?
- What kind of time can I devote to video production?
- What video experience do I have?
- How will I approach producing videos?
- What kind of videos do I want to be associated with my company?
- Am I hiring outside of my current employees to create video marketing content?
Video marketing is more complex than just “point and shoot”. There is video production, video distribution, and video marketing that all need to be considered when you decide to use video.
If you want to take a more passive approach, then videos can be added to your strategy in the form of video search engine optimization (video SEO), which means using video for your title tags and meta descriptions so you can show up in video search results.
Video marketing can also be incorporated into your social networks, including video posting on Twitter and Facebook, as well as placing videos on relevant video distribution sites such as YouTube.
For a more hands-on approach, you could hire video producers to create video content for relevant video distribution sites or have someone create a video for video SEO purposes. C&I Studios is a company that’s ready and excited to create video marketing content, as well as any other marketing content you need, that’s tailored to your business and customers.
The list of options is endless, but the decision belongs to you and your business, which is why video marketing isn’t so much a ‘when to video’ decision, but it’s always video marketing.
What else should I consider when deciding my video marketing timeline?
In order to know when to post your video content to get the most out of it, you should have an idea of what kinds of videos you want to create and how you’re going to incorporate them into your marketing strategy.
Once you’ve decided how video marketing fits into your overall strategy, you can compare video production timelines to video distribution timelines. It’s important to choose video content that is relevant to your business and customers. Think about what times of the year are most successful for your business (holidays, anniversaries, etc.) and start there.
For video SEO and video distribution, you’ll want to create video content that’s engaging and shareworthy.
What does your audience like? Are they business buyers or consumers? Do they love funny videos or do they prefer company testimonials? What kind of video content will get them excited about your products and services? How can you get your followers and customers to engage in your video content?
What kind of video content do you want to create? Do you know what kind of videos will perform the best for your industry? If you want a quick list of video content ideas that are appropriate for different industries, check out this blog post here. It’s important that you know that you’re not limited to this list by any means, it’s meant to be a jumping off point of videos that have performed the best in different industries. Feel free to get creative and think outside the box, but it’s ok if creativity isn’t your strong suit, too.
When deciding where to begin with your video marketing, including when and what, it’s important to consider videos that have evergreen content. Not every video needs to be evergreen, but evergreen content will really work in your favor to consistently bring in new viewers and potential customers, and help you to retain them if it’s a video they’ll want to refer back to over and over again. They’ll even want to share it with their friends and families if they think they’ll enjoy it or learn from it as well.
But, what does “Evergreen Content” mean? It’s simply content that will either never be considered out of date, or will age very slowly and can stay up for years to come. It does not expire, it doesn’t hibernate. It stays evergreen like a pine tree!
For example, if a pet store were to put out a video about interpreting cat behaviors, that video will still be relevant for years to come. But, if that same pet store were to post a video about the best cat litter on the market, that will soon be considered out of date as soon as the next best cat litter becomes available for purchase and the pet store will have to recreate that video to include the new product.
It’s also important to know where you’ll be sharing your video content. Different video hosting platforms have different algorithms and video lengths that work better than others. You’ll also want to consider the demographics of each platform’s viewers and how video marketing can work best for reaching your target market on those platforms.
For example, video marketing on Snapchat or TikTok is a great way to target a young, hip audience. LinkedIn is better for more business-oriented videos, and YouTube still reigns king for video content.
Knowing where you’ll be posting your videos will give you any and all limitations for your videos. You’ll know the maximum length, anything that might get reported and would get your video taken down, and you’ll know what kinds of editing tools the apps will offer you, too!
So, when would be the best time to post my first video?
There are a few key video marketing periods throughout the year that businesses should be aware of and capitalize on!
The first video marketing period is during the holidays. Around Christmas time, buyers are already in the shopping mindset and are looking for video content to help them make informed decisions about what gifts to buy for their loved ones.
The second video marketing period is during the summer. During the summer, people have more free time and are looking for video content that can help keep them entertained.
The third video marketing period is during the back-to-school season. During this time, parents are looking for video content that can help them prepare their children for going back to school.
In order to make sure that you’re using video marketing to its fullest potential, be sure to create video content that is both interesting and informative! Viewers will lose interest quickly if the video isn’t providing them with new or valuable information. So mix things up a bit by including videos that are both entertaining and educational.
Above all, have fun with video marketing! It can be a great way to connect with your viewers and create lasting relationships with them. Just remember to keep your videos short, informative, and entertaining!
In Conclusion…
Video is growing more and more every day, so rather than asking ‘when to video’, you should video marketing video content as soon as possible so it can reach your target audience and help achieve video marketing success.
While you decide “when”, it’s important to figure out the “where”, “why”, “how”, and “what” of the video as well. You also want to pay attention to important marketing times throughout the year and line up your strategy with them.
You don’t need to have everything figured out before you start video marketing, but having a general plan will help you get started on the right foot and increase your chances of video marketing success.
So, when should you start video marketing for your business? The answer is as soon as possible! Get creative with your video content and find the video hosting platform that will work best for you and your target market. And don’t forget, evergreen content is key to a successful video marketing strategy.