Video content marketing is more than just an effective way to attract customers. You can use videos to educate your customer base, position yourself as an expert in your field, and add a ton of personality to your brand.

Here are some great tips for crafting video marketing content that will generate conversions and grow your business.

1. Create video content for each stage of the buyer’s journey

According to a Search Engine Journal report in 2018, YouTube is second only to Google as the world’s largest search engine. What this tells us is that people use YouTube not just to search for old Friends episodes, but also to seek information and solutions for problems they’re having.

By providing the answers to their questions in video, you’ll bring customers straight to your doorstep.

You can adapt your videos to meet their needs at every stage of their journey from problem to solution. In the next three tips, we’ll dig a little deeper to explore how you can address each stage.

2. Awareness stage: Identify pain points and provide answers

The first stage of the buyer’s journey is awareness: the point at which they become aware of a problem they’re having and start looking for solutions to that problem.

You can address them at this stage with videos that create awareness of the problem you’re trying to solve. Educational videos and classic commercials are part of this strategy.

3. Consideration stage: Educate and inform potential customers

In the second stage of the buyer’s journey, the customer is researching options for a solution to their problem.

Explainer videos, how-to videos, and webinars are a great fit for this stage. They give the customer useful information that stands on its own while gently pointing them to your brand as the solution they’re looking for.

As an added bonus, high-quality educational videos position your brand as an expert in the field and increase trust in the quality of your services. They make customers feel that you’re not just trying to sell them something, but to actually help them.

4. Decision stage: Tell customers why they should choose your solution

At the third stage of the buyer’s solution, they’ve already decided what kind of solution they want, and now they just need to choose from the options available. This is the time to explain to them why they should choose you over your competitors.

Testimonials, company story videos, and FAQ videos can all meet this need. Product videos showing exactly how your product works and why it’s superior to other products can be particularly effective here.5. Invest in a high-quality production

A customer isn’t going to stick around to watch a video that hurts their eyes and ears.

Even if you can’t invest in a professionally produced video, make sure you’re recording on high-quality equipment, and edit your video to smooth the transitions and make it look more professional.

Apps like Boosted can help you produce professional-looking videos with relatively little effort.

6. Create videos that can be adapted across different social media platforms

Don’t put all your eggs in one social media basket. YouTube may be a great platform to market your services, but why not post the same video to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter?

Each social media platform has its own video hosting — and each comes with its own quirks and benefits. Ideally, you should produce a video that fits snugly and effortlessly into each.

7. Keep your videos short and sweet

When it comes to video content marketing, less is usually more. With the exception of webinars, users want a video that will give them the information they need quickly.

By the way, shorter videos can also be shared easily across more social media platforms!

8. Make a good first impression

The first 10-15 seconds of your video are crucial. They need to get your viewers hooked and let them know what they can expect to see in the rest of the video.

But there’s something they’ll see before they even watch the video: the thumbnail. Select a thumbnail that’s eye-catching (ideally with an image of a face), pairs well with the beginning of the video, and is consistent with your brand.

9. Write engaging, searchable headlines, descriptions, and tags

Viewers are still using text to search for content, so if you want to draw them to your video, you need to make the text around it search-optimized and attention-grabbing.

That includes the headline, the video description, and the tags you select for your video.

10. Add an easy, actionable CTA

On YouTube, you can add endscreens and annotations with clickable links that take viewers straight to your website or landing page.

On other platforms, you can add links in the video description or on your profile page, but those are less visible, so be sure to add a verbal or visual cue to click that link in the video itself.

11. Always add captions!

Adding captions is not only helpful for customers with hearing impairments — though that would be a good enough reason to add them in and of itself. It also makes it possible for customers to watch your video without the sound turned on.

Many viewers prefer to listen without sound: they might be in a setting where listening with sound isn’t appropriate and they don’t want to bother getting out their headphones.

12. Measure the success of your video by keeping tabs on analytics

Once your videos are posted, you can check how well they’re doing by observing the following metrics:

• View count: The number of times the video has been viewed
• Traffic source: How the people who watched your video reached it
• Demographics: Who is watching your video?
• Share count: How many times your video has been shared on social media platforms

Keeping tabs on these analytics will help you learn who your video is reaching and how it’s reaching them, which can help you hone your strategy in the future.

Ready to craft some fantastic video content? Check out Boosted, an app that makes it a snap to create and customize beautiful, on-trend videos for your business.