Video Marketing Strategy for Explosive Startup Growth

Growing a startup is difficult. It takes determination, hard work, and an effective marketing strategy that will fast-track massive growth. Otherwise, investors will pull their funding, leaving you dry.

While a great product can boost sales, video marketing has been proven time and again to be one of the most effective marketing strategies for brand promotion. With stiff competition among startups, you can only stand out if you manage to successfully build a brand.

Given that video accounts for more than 83 percent of all consumer internet traffic, according to Cisco, it’s a trend you must strongly consider in your marketing strategy.

Why Startups Should Use Video Marketing

Did you know that over 90 percent of users discover new brands through video campaigns? Statistics show that consumers are now spending 19 hours a week watching videos online, up from 10 hours in 2018.

This means ignoring video marketing is no longer an option for startups that want to succeed.

But what makes video marketing so powerful? Videos are memorable, engaging, and interactive. They are an effective way to:

• Attract new audiences
• Engage your target audience
• Boost conversions and sales
• Communicate with ease
• Build trust
• Improve SEO

The advantage of video marketing is that even limited-budget videos have the potential to go viral, just like those of established brands.

In addition, video marketing encourages social shares on various platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn, all of which can increase engagement.

Video Marketing Strategy for Your Startup

Not just any video can generate good numbers for your business. You need a good video marketing strategy that will guide you in creating engaging videos. The strategy will give you a clear purpose and what action you expect your target audience to take after watching your video.

Here’s the overview of the steps:

1. Start with goals for video marketing
2. Find your target audience and where they spend their time
3. Determine your video types
4. Set a timeline and budget for your video, and (try) to stick to it
5. Choose where to promote your videos
6. Measure and analyze metrics

1. Start with Goals for Video Marketing

At the very beginning of any new video marketing strategy, you’ll need to outline your goals. Often, the purpose of your video marketing strategy will be determined by the stage of the marketing funnel.

There are four major stages of a marketing funnel:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Conversion/decision
• Delight

Your videos can fall into each stage, so long as you develop a video content strategy that intentionally targets these stages. For example:

• Are you introducing your brand to a new audience? You’ll want to create an awareness stage video to attract new users to your brand.
• Are you offering a solution to a specific problem a consumer has? You’ll want to create a consideration stage video that explains how your product or service offers the most cost-effective and reliable solution to their problems.
• Do you want to convert the interaction into a sale? You’ll want to create a video that proves why the consumer should choose your product or service over your competitor’s.
• In addition, video security should be taken into consideration in your marketing strategies. You should protect your videos against download so that competitors or unauthorized users would no longer be able to steal your videos even with popular video downloaders.

When starting, we recommend creating only a few goals so that you don’t find them overwhelming. Keep in mind that your goals will determine the type of video you’ll produce, as we’ll discuss later.

2. Find Your Target Audience and Where They Spend Their Time

After establishing the stage of the marketing funnel you’ll be creating videos for, the next step is to select your target audience and figure out where they spend their time. Keep in mind that without a specific audience in mind, it won’t reach the intended people, and your strategy is likely to fail.

It’s crucial to understand that you’ll need to target a specific audience with each video. That’s where buyer personas come in. Usually, buyer personas are created during the product or service development stage. If you don’t already have one, you should start creating it.

Once you’re done mapping out your buyer’s persona, you’ll know exactly who your target audience is and where you can find them.

3. Determine Your Video Types

You need to spend time working on the type and content of your video that’s right for your personas. This will vary, depending on what kind of message you feel is best for users at different stages in the buyer journey.

If your product is new, you’ll need to educate users before you start selling to them. If you’re in the decision stage, you’ll want to show how a customer uses your product or service and the satisfaction it offers. Likewise, you’ll need to determine the type of videos that work well with your brand.

Some of the video types to consider include:

• Educational: these are informative videos that help create brand awareness for new users. They use a less casual tone and are created to establish the brand as an expert. Think guides and tips for helping consumers get the most out of your product or service.
• Interviews: advertising your brand through a guest or influencer gives it authenticity and may reach a wider audience.
• Customer Testimonials: users want proof that your product works. These videos highlight how a product or service can be used to solve a problem.
• Entertaining: entertaining videos can increase engagement while building brand awareness. They keep the audience hooked and are likely to boost conversions.

Other types of videos to look into include:

• DIY videos
• Behind-the-scenes
• How-to videos
• Documentaries
• Demos

Remember, consumers are looking for videos that reflect a product or service they are interested in. Use that as your guide in determining the type of video to use.

Pro tip: Emotions are the psychology behind the success of video marketing, with happiness and surprise being the easiest emotions to detect. However, you are the one to decide which emotion you want your story to impart to the user.

4. Set a Timeline and Budget for Your Video, and (Try To) Stick to It

When it comes to content production, there are a lot of resources, including time, that you must consider. From creative ideation to video distribution, you’ll need a timeline that will guide everyone concerned.

Without proper project and time management, you can waste a lot of time, money, and other resources. A clear timeline will show you how much work has been done, what’s left to do, and how long you have.

When working with timelines, consider implementing a time tracker to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes. That way, you’ll avoid wasting time on tasks that aren’t necessary. But most importantly, it will help you stick to your timeline and complete the work as scheduled.

As for budgeting, certain videos and features will cost more than others. So, you want to work with a budget to avoid overspending. For instance, consider figuring out if outsourcing will be cheaper than doing it in-house.
A good way to spend less on video is by using free video resources, they will also help you to find some inspiration.

5. Choose Where to Promote Your Videos

When determining where and how to promote your videos, there are several pointers to guide you. These are:

• The average viewership time
• Your budget
• Size and sound limitations
• Formats

If you’re planning on creating plenty of commercials, explainers, or product videos, YouTube is the best platform. Social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook will require a different approach in terms of size, duration, orientation, subtitles, etc.

Some platforms like Facebook offer built-in promotion features, while others require you to put in the effort. Whichever platform you choose, make sure you prioritize SEO to be easily discoverable.

6. Measure and Analyze Metrics

To understand how your video marketing strategy performs, you’ll need to analyze it. Some of the top metrics you’ll need to track include:

• View counts
• Social shares, likes, and comments
• Play rate
• Conversion rates

Each platform offers native analytics that provides insight into how each video is performed. Just make sure you choose specific key performance indicators that align with your goals.

Wrapping Up

For a growing startup, it’s essential to develop a video marketing strategy that’s directed to the right audience. A video is a powerful tool, and if implemented properly, it can boost your brand value, convert more buyers, and increase sales. Hundreds of thousands of brands that use video marketing have proven it works. So, why not apply it to your startup today?