But what exactly is video marketing, and how can 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 in the mix. While the term "video marketing" might seem straightforward (essentially the inclusion of videos into the marketing strategies you are running) but it's difficult to figure out the best way to go about effectively implementing it.

What is the importance of video marketing?

The rise of websites like and YouTube, social channels like Facebook and Twitter have now added video to their platforms, and dramatic improvements in streaming quality itself (bye goodbye to the annoying buffering), videos now appear in all phases of the marketing funnel. The funnel that is traditional is as follows: you introduce someone to your organization (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 give life to the typical funnel for video marketing using a real-world (but actually made-up) example. WebThyme is a (imaginary) software company which helps users create and manage websites. Jenn is an aspiring customer.

• The perfect prospect: Jenn is set to create a wellness and health site. WebThyme's primary target market is small business owners.
• The right channel: Jenn Googles advice for starting a new business and comes across one of WebThyme's video clips in a blog post, one that profiles the story of an entrepreneur. Enthusiastic, she joins WebThyme's email list which send Jenn a weekly newsletter with helpful info.
  
• The correct action:Jenn clicks on a email link, which takes her to a landing site, with a short video, which delves into WebThyme's latest features for entrepreneurs with small businesses. Clicking on the button will lead to a no-cost trial- - the call to decision -- and then decides to give it a go.

It's just one instance of an conceivable video-marketing scenario. How does it play out at a more specific, actionable level? What are the best video-marketing methods for important channels like email, social media, and your company website? Let's dig in...

Social media exploration

What makes social media so efficient to grow your business? When your existing followers follow, like, or share your posts, they essentially expose your content to their personal acquaintances and friends, a few who may decide to follow your page too. One method to get more leads within this community is to add the email capture form, that is included within Business, so you can gather your viewers" contact info directly within the embedded player. You can then easily import the email addresses into email marketing services like MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, as well as Constant Contact.

Maybe you'd like your visitors to go to a landing page where they can discover more. You can do that too! Business permits you to include clickable CTAs which allows you to guide people precisely where you'd like them to go.

It is also possible to expand your reach and acquire new followers on a larger scale by using sponsored social media. Depending on the specific site, you can target key viewers, as well as promote your video by putting it in pre-roll positions or promoted posts.

Let your email campaigns flourish

In the case of emails, videos matter big time: they can increase click-through rates by 200-300% (that's many percentages and people) in addition to reducing the amount of people who don't subscribe. However, most email programs still cannot handle videos integrated directly into emailsHowever, you can solve this problem by overlaying a play button on the still images of your video and driving to a landing page which features the full thing.

It's relatively easy to do with those email marketing systems we mentioned in the past along with marketing automation systems such as HubSpot. It's also an excellent way to A/B test which video thumbnail gets you the best click rates. And as a general rule of thumb, you could increase your campaign" performance by customizing your design and copy to match the landing pages they drive to.

The website is packed with amazing videos

 Homepage

A majority of businesses create an overview video for their website, which describes what you're all about and why your work is important, and the problem your company is solving. This vastly impacts on how you are seen by people who are just discovering your business. Consider Canary, for example.

 Landing pages

Your homepage can serve numerous purposes to serve a large variety of users and visitors, landing pages are ideal to educate specific sections of your target audience on the great things you have to offer, and enticing them to take your desired action. Marketing professionals drive traffic to landing pages from online ads, social media blogs, websites, and websites. Search engines and videos help convert these leads into customers. For instance, take a look at our business page.

 Blog

It's a major source of inbound traffic to your website, especially when your posts include helpful info, industry news, and thought leadership about topics your audience cares about as they're likely to search for these topics on Google. Also, it's a fantastic destination for sharing product and corporate news, events as well as best practices to share with your community. Are you looking for an example? This article will be (hopefully) more engaging with videos scattered throughout.

 Pages for FAQ and Product pages

All that is needed to put everything together

If the video-marketing approach you have chosen is implemented well, you create an incredible network that can grow your business Your social media videos are attracted by new customers and are engaging existing ones; your video-filled blog posts rank highly in results for search engines and your emails -featuring stunning video thumbnails will direct users to your landing pages, with relevant videos and clearly-written CTAs and clear CTAs. All of them can be optimized to generate leads as well as increasing conversions. All of this can be tracked, measured, and can be adapted over time. In the context of...