How to maximize ROI on video marketing
Video can serve almost any marketing purpose. It can help people remember your name and industry. It can build trust in what you provide. It can improve your sales. No matter what your goals are, the right video can help get the return on investment your organization needs.
Wyzowl’s 2022 State of Video Marketing Survey found that 92% of marketers agreed that video provides good ROI. If you drill down into the report, there are similar percentages for specific goals from brand awareness to generating leads and beyond. There have been dozens of studies—and even more assertions from marketers—confirming that video generates excellent ROI. Whether organizations should use video or not is no longer in question. The real question is, “how to use video to get the results you’re after.”
The caveat here is that there are many approaches to video, and not all of them will have the same impact, especially if you have to prove that it has generated value. For anyone who wants to use video but has to make it count, here’s how to get the most benefit from your video marketing.
1. Start with clear objectives
We’ll assume that you’ve made a diagnosis of your situation in the marketplace and have an overarching marketing strategy to get where you need to go. From there, you can determine the tactical goal of the video.
If you’re trying to increase brand awareness, for example, the objective of your video may be to just familiarize people with your name and create an emotional association. If the video is for a sales campaign, it may focus on the benefits of a product or service. If you’re a company that provides a technical solution for a niche audience, the video may explain what you do in detail.
Whatever your goals may be, it’s crucial to define them before diving into a video production project. It’s also important to have an idea of what channels you’ll be using. Will you be posting the video on the home page of your website, using it as an ad on social media, using it as YouTube pre-roll—or all of the above? This matters because different channels may require separate cuts of the video, or even different aspect ratios.
And as with any marketing initiative, don’t forget to take benchmarks for whatever KPIs apply before you start.
2. Create compelling content that serves your audience
No one goes about their day looking for random sales pitches. But everyone wants to be entertained, informed and inspired. How will your video do that for them?
Successful videos speak to the wants and needs of your target audience. No matter how proud you are of what you do, it’s vital to remember that this video needs to be compelling from their perspective.
Here’s another way to think about it: great videos get shared. To test the merit of your approach, think about who in your audience would share the video and why. Is it funny, or visually stunning, or does it explain how to solve a problem they face? While no one can guarantee that a video goes viral, having that compelling quality will help you reach any goal.
3. Think about budget and longevity
Part of the ROI equation will depend on what you pay for a video. For a well-lit, well-shot piece with good quality audio, expect to pay a few thousand dollars at minimum (even Dollar Shave Club’s famous “DIY” video cost $4,500 USD). But hiring a creative team to develop a memorable concept and script, hiring actors, and doing a full production can cost much more.
If your business is on such a tight budget that you’re getting sticker shock as you read this, remember that your video should be doing its job for years to come—and quality matters when you’re representing your brand. If you’re a smaller organization, using video for a one-day event might not make sense. But it makes absolute sense if you’re going to be saying something memorable to everyone for years.
4. Factor in SEO and Accessibility
Once your video is ready, posting it on YouTube can improve the exposure it gets for you. Besides being the most popular video platform, YouTube is also the second most popular search engine.
Videos can also get greater visibility with search engines if you take advantage of some simple SEO tactics. Create a useful title and description, and use relevant keywords in them to help people find your content.
Doing a good transcription will make your video more accessible for the hearing impaired. (It’s not only the right thing to do, but don’t forget they’re also potential customers.) Again, this text is indexable, and will boost your video’s chances of appearing in search results.
5. Track and analyze performance
Remember those benchmarks you took at the start? Now it’s time to see if they’re moving or not.
Depending on the purpose of the video and the channels you’re sharing it on, you may want to track metrics like views, engagement (on social media), and click-through rates (for ads and web pages). At a more sophisticated level of marketing, you may want to use survey data to find out if your audience has a better idea of who you are now, or if their C-suite is now considering your software for their business. As Field and Binet showed, ongoing brand awareness efforts (including video) will also improve results with short-term sales campaigns. Ultimately, you should look for correlations between the KPIs for your video and overall revenue and profitability for your organization over time.
Analyzing data early can also mean that you can make refinements to your video and its related assets, as you’ll see below.
6. Test and iterate
If your video isn’t performing as expected, try some simple experiments. You can A/B test different video elements such as thumbnails, titles, calls-to-action, and even try alternate cuts to figure out what your audience responds to best. Use the insights gained from these tests to refine your approach and enhance your ROI.
To get a sense of the potential impact of simply changing the title and thumbnails for your video on YouTube, watch what happened when this educational videographer started experimenting.
7. Reuse and repurpose your content
Video content can be used in different ways at different times to extend its reach and value. Try creating short “teaser” snippets from longer videos to share on social media. You can also combine sections from videos into new videos. For example, you can take cuts from individual customer testimonial videos and combine them into a larger promotional video. You can also use video content in blog posts.
Be sure to explore using video in all of your communication channels. Embedding video on your website can increase engagement with the page and improve KPIs like bounce rates. Using it in email marketing campaigns can help improve conversions. You can use it to explore collaborations with influencers or other industry partners. Video can even be used in business proposals.
The ROI is there if you work for it
When done right, video presents an incredible opportunity for organizations to captivate audiences and drive meaningful results. By making smart choices and going a little further with your distribution, you can ensure that your investment in video content yields substantial ROI.
