How to Boost Your Content Strategy with Video

Video is the hottest digital marketing trend right now. If your content marketing plan does not include making videos, then your brand is at risk of losing out to a competitor. Web users are highly visually oriented now more than ever. So they need to see diverse content, especially video. It’s not like the nineties when it took hours to load a 3-minute video. Also, now smartphone users have become the biggest consumers. People tend to look at pictures and watch videos on handheld devices, rather than read articles. It’s more crucial now than ever to have a video marketing strategy. Here are several tips based on market research and expert advice:

Use Videos Along with Other Content Formats

The best way to use video is to mix it up with other content formats. Occasionally post a video on the brand’s blog or Facebook feed to get people interested. The videos should ideally be short, between 2 and 5 minutes. The longer the video is, the longer it will take to load. But videos shouldn’t be less than a minute either, as customers would feel as if they watched it for nothing.

You Don’t Have to Shoot Expensive Commercials

Making video content these days doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune to shoot a mini-movie, says investor and filmmaker John Burgess. If your budget is limited, you can still make creative videos using editing software. You can use animated text and graphics videos using voiceovers. If you have the budget to shoot a mini commercial or a movie, that would work too. Be creative when it comes to video. That’s what matters, not the budget.

Make Video for Smartphone Viewing

Always keep smartphone users in mind when you create videos. They should be able to load quickly on handheld devices depending on shaky Wi-Fi connections. Two or three-minute videos are the best for smartphone viewer consumption. If you upload videos onto your own site, make sure the site is responsive so that users can view the content on their handheld devices.

Optimize Video Content for Search Engines

Yes, you can optimize video content for search engines. It’s not the same as optimizing text, which search engine algorithms can “crawl.” Search engines are not yet sophisticated enough to “understand” video the same way it does text, so producers have to get creative. Do optimize the heading and the description of the video, wherever it appears. You can use the main keywords once or twice in the description. Also, don’t forget to add meta descriptions, meta tags, and tags. It will be helpful to add a video transcript as well with keywords, which will help in getting better rankings.

Reuse Older Content as Video

Have older content that was once popular? Then you can remake this material into a video. For example, if you had an older blog post that became rather popular, you can make an animated infographic or a voiceover video with images and make a video. This is a neat way to capitalize on content known to be effective.

Don’t ignore the power of video in today’s digital marketing. Use the above suggestions to boost your brand with a great video marketing plan.