Considering video’s high costs and competitive playing field, brands need to be smart in how they plan, produce, position, and promote their video content if they want to see reliable returns on their investment. Here are some tips for making sure your offerings are as relevant, memorable, strategic, and purposeful as possible – no matter what your budget may be. And for more expert insights on making this powerful technique work for your brand, stick around to watch our latest video on the subject: What You Need to Know About Video in 2018, at the end of this presentation.

1. 10 TIPS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR
VIDEO CONTENT
INVESTMENT+BONUS VIDEO

2. C
onsidering video’s high costs and competitive playing
field, brands need to be smart in how they plan, produce,
position, and promote their video content if they want to
see reliable returns on their investment.
Here are some tips for making sure your offerings are as relevant,
memorable, strategic, and purposeful as possible – no matter
what your budget may be.
And for more expert insights on making this powerful technique
work for your brand, stick around to watch our latest video on
the subject: What You Need to Know About Video in 2018, at
the end of this presentation.

3. TIP 1:
INVEST IN THE PROCESS,
NOT JUST THE PRODUCT
Your video strategy should be considered part and parcel to your
content marketing strategy – not an adjunct feature. Before you
pick up that camera, think about the role you want video to play in
your brand’s story and what steps it will take to plot out, produce,
position, and measure the performance of this content. Doing
this legwork ahead of time will help you make smarter decisions
about the video projects that will be most worthy of your available
resources.

4. TIP 2:
KEEP YOUR END GOAL IN MIND –
AND DETERMINE HOW YOU WILL
KNOW WHEN YOU’VE REACHED IT
Whether it’s awareness, leads, or another goal, every video should
have a purpose and a means of fulfilling it.
Too often, video success is equated with lots of views rather
than with the actions taken by the right consumers after they’ve
watched. You can avoid falling into this trap by including a call to
action that directs viewers to take the next step on your designated
path, as well as by creating a landing page that will guide their
journey toward conversion.

5. TIP 3:
CREATE A NARRATIVE YOUR
AUDIENCE WILL WANT TO FOLLOW
Video content runs the risk of getting bogged down by overly complex ideas,
heavy jargon, or too many things happening all at once. If you want your video to
communicate simply and brilliantly, remember these scripting guidelines:
n Use a conversational tone – it will make the video sound more natural, rather
than stuffy or forced.
n Use short, concise sentences to emphasize key points and make them easier for
the audience to grasp.
n Avoid jargon like “optimum” or “accomplish” when simpler words like “best” or
“do” will work just as well.
n Read it out loud (or have someone else read it to you) before you hit “record.”
This can give you a sense of any words or phrases the speaker might stumble on,
as well as how long the finished project is likely to run.

6. TIP 4:
KNOW WHEN TO HOST AND
WHEN TO POST
CONTENT GOALS/PRIORITIES RECOMMENDED DISTRIBUTION WHY IT WORKS
• Building a subscribed
audience
• Increasing website visits
and duration
Host videos on your
owned channels, using a
video platform like Vimeo,
Brightcove, or Wistia.
• Greater customization
• Enables gated access to valuable assets
• Video playlists can encourage visitors to spend more
time on your site
• Broadening the reach
of your video content
• Multi-channel re-use
of assets
Post your videos on a
third-party hosting site like
YouTube.
• Basic use of these services is free
• Their video players require little configuration
• Simplifies the process for sharing videos across channels
and embedding them in your other content efforts.
• Engaging your social
communities
• Promoting live events
Deliver videos on-the-
fly using live-streaming
platforms/apps like Facebook
Live, Instagram, or Snapchat
• Helps build and increase audience participation
• Can capture and share spontaneous moments as
they unfold

7. TIP 5:
SET THE RIGHT STAGE
FOR SOCIAL PLAYS
Should you share your videos everywhere and anywhere, or only on certain
social channels? Will it benefit your brand to get your video uploaded and
running immediately on new social networks that emerge, or would it be
wiser to wait until others have tested the waters?
The answers to questions like these (and most other distribution channel
decisions you need to make) lie within your buyer personas. Knowing
who your audience is, how and where they like to spend their online time,
and which channels they prefer for what tasks will help you choose the
social networks that offer the best potential for engaging them with your
video content. Of course, once you’ve made your decisions, don’t forget to
document them in your social media channel plan.

8. TIP 6:
OPTIMIZE YOUR CONTENT
FOR SEARCH
Search engines aren’t as adept at indexing video content as they are
with text. But there are some ways to make up for this SEO shortfall. For
example:
n Create a full transcript of the audio narrative and include it in your video
description copy, or publish it as a blog post along with the video itself.
n Add relevant tags, titles, and descriptions to the meta data of your
video content. This will help your videos be associated with your target
keywords and get them indexed to rank for relevant content searches.

9. TIP 7:
MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE TO ALL
Though video can deliver a feast for both the eyes and the ears,
remember that it will be a less satisfying experience for people with
visual or hearing impairments.
Providing richly descriptive alt tags, written transcripts, and detailed
audio explanations of the action taking place can partially simulate
a sensory experience, closing a small part of the creative gap. And by
also including captioning in your videos, you can make your content
more broadly accessible to those with special needs – as well as for
those who simply prefer to follow the narrative without sounds that
could disturb those around them.

10. TIP 8:
PUSH VIDEOS TO INFLUENCERS,
SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, AND
FOLLOWERS
A screen capture of your videos (along with a link) can be featured
in an email sent to the members of your mailing list. This will alert
your audience that you have new video content for them to check
out, while giving you a forum for requesting their feedback and
soliciting their help in spreading the word.

11. TIP 9:
TRACK ATTENTION SPAN
TO IDENTIFY OPTIMIZATION
OPPORTUNITIES
Engagement data and other key performance indicators can
provide important insights on your audience’s preferences and
behaviors, which you can use to refine and customize your video
strategy. For example, if you notice that prospects are dropping off
10 seconds into your videos, your intros might need to be trimmed.

12. TIP 10:
MONITOR VIEWER REACTIONS
TO GAIN ADDITIONAL CONSUMER
INSIGHTS
Beyond performance statistics, you can also mine the emotional
response to your videos – including platform-specific responses –
to gauge the value consumers are receiving from this content. For
example, in his post on live-streaming video, Josh Brown suggests
analyzing the sentiment behind viewers’ use of the expanded reaction
buttons introduced by Facebook in 2016: Noting whether they “like,”
“love,” or felt “sad” or “angry” after viewing your video can help you
determine if your content is moving the needle in the right direction.

13. THAT’S A WRAP!
It takes a lot of work to position video as the high-performing
centerpiece of a successful content marketing strategy. But with the
right plan, a little creativity, and some smart decision-making, just
about any business can benefit from its powerful potential to tell
engaging stories and inspire audiences to act.
Need more inspiration to start putting the value of video content to
work for your business? Check out our latest spot: What You Need
to Know About Video in 2018.

14. Want more detailed insights on how to harness video’s tremendous
content marketing power – along with some killer brand examples?
Check out our full post on the topic: 10 Tips (and a Ton of Tricks) to
Maximize Your Video Content Investment.
About Content Marketing Institute
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and provides strategic consulting and content marketing research for some of the best-known
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