video marketingSince it’s abundantly clear to anyone with a pulse and an internet connection that video simply rocks, the question then becomes how does the small business owner incorporate them into their business?

Since this falls under the purview of content marketing, we need to approach it that way.

60 Seconds of video is the equivalent of 1.8 million words of textual content. That’s a bunch of blog posts! Moreover, since videos are 4 times more engaging than static content and have been shown to convert better, there’s no reason to put it off any longer.

4 Key steps to a successful video marketing strategy

Decide on the type of videos you’ll make – There are a number of different types of videos that can be created; everything from simple slideshows with narration, animated videos, how-to tutorials, interviews, product demos and more. Don’t think you need a massive investment in video production gear either: todays’ smartphones can handle much of what you need, as well as onscreen recoding tools like Screenflow or Camtasia. Technology is your friend here, as the software and tools are getting easier to use every day, and creating a high-quality video is not out of the reach of practically anyone.

Create a team and an editorial calendar – It’s important to designate someone as the lead on this type of content marketing endeavor. There is a lot to keep track of, and a scattershot approach will yield tepid results at best. Have a videographer in charge, or if you want to outsource this to an agency, a person on your end delegated the task of making sure your company’s interests are taken care of. Also, creating an editorial calendar with dates and deadlines will help you keep the content flowing, as well as enable you to strategically plan your marketing.

Plan to integrate your videos into your marketing – It’s one thing to produce a video, but that doesn’t mean you’re done. Optimizing your videos is a task you either need to learn or outsource, as there are literally 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube each and every day. Your videos need to find their audience too! You need to make sure your video is distributed to the proper channels, as well as all your various social media channels to ensure as wide a reach as possible. These days videos can make an impact far greater than ever before through the use of social media. Definitely set up a company YouTube channel and utilize it!

Install good tracking – Whether you decide to use YouTube, a standalone video player or even simply Google analytics, tracking and understanding your videos performance is essential for long-term planning and marketing. Seeing what types of videos are getting the best response, and which ones aren’t can save you a lot of time and effort!