Americans don’t read as much as they used to. The hard data is questionable given that survey respondents tend to exaggerate because they think it makes them look dumb, but it’s a clear trend that will likely never be reversed – unless there’s a prolonged electrical grid blackout.

While we debate the merits of written content, the explosive rise in video marketing has left this atmosphere and is headed to the stratosphere. Let’s let the numbers do the talking.

• 79% of consumers prefer watching video rather than reading when
learning about a new product

• 82% of all internet traffic will be comprised of video in 2021

• 63% of U.S. businesses say they are using some form of video marketing.

There’s no denying that video consumption has become the medium of choice for many consumers. Whether it be short CTA snippets on Snapchat, animated shorts on Facebook or Twitter, or longer explainer videos on YouTube, more and more companies are developing a video strategy with that in mind.

Of course, if you want to extend your brand reach and engage with consumers you have to leave your own backyard and go to where they are. Simple right? Make a quick video and post it to social media and watch the conversions spike and the traffic pour in.

Think Objective, Audience, Destination

It doesn’t hurt to dream. But in reality you first have to develop your strategy. It needs to fit into your overall marketing strategy. You can’t look at social media video as a test lab for your marketing message. Sure, you can – and should – adapt and change up when necessary. But you should think of it as a first chair violin in the orchestra, A virtuoso, yes. But if its out of tune, the whole ensemble sounds terrible.

Suffice to say you need to have a clearly defined objective, a persona-driven knowledge of your audience and then you need to figure out where they congregate. Are you a financial marketer who wants to turn more business banking leads into conversions? Just like you wouldn’t sell ice in Alaska, you wouldn’t produce an eye-catching animated infographic and post it on Snapchat.

When devising a social media video strategy, here are some key questions that your team needs to ask and answer:

● What do we want to achieve? For example, are we trying to generate more website traffic? Are we introducing a new product? Are we looking to boost overall brand awareness?

● We’ve carefully crafted a buyer persona – we have right? Good. Let’s align our objective with our persona(s) and see how they match up. Do we need to tweak one or the other to make the best fit possible?

● What platform(s) should we use to reach them? Let’s look at demographics carefully. It’s not just about audience numbers, although that’s crucial. It’s also about the kind of video we want to produce and how it plays on a particular platform.

● So, we need to ask ourselves, what gives us the best chance to connect and engage? Is it a whiteboard animation to explain a fairly complicated subject succinctly? Is it an explainer video to provide educational value to consumers? Is it a humorous short video to develop brand awareness?

This all sounds complicated, but so does making quiche Lorraine if you haven’t done it before. If you’re planning on starting in-house, know that one of the great things about social media video is that it can be done fairly inexpensively, the turnaround time is very short for most and all the tools you need to create them and then test their effectiveness are at your fingertips.

Learn more about the prevalence of video by downloading our Social Media Video Infographic:

Stackpole & Partners is a privately-owned integrated marketing and branding agency servicing a wide variety of businesses for the past 25 years. We combine strategic discipline, creative talent, and actionable initiatives to build leading brands that drive growth for our customers. Our expertise