Video and podcasts are like the Swiss army knife of content. They can help you achieve pretty much any marketing goal, from the top of the funnel to the bottom.
Here are four exciting ways that video and podcasts empower your marketing strategy:
1. Videos showcase your personality
A strong brand personality is essential to building brand awareness. Your audience needs to understand who you are and what your brand represents.
When it comes to personality, written content has limitations. You can add some cheeky jokes to your copy to show that you’re a lighthearted company, or write blogs in a polished tone to demonstrate your professionalism, but nothing compares to video for displaying your brand personality.
Ultimately, there’s an emotional aspect to video content that just can’t be achieved through text alone.
Video can incorporate music and storytelling to tug at heartstrings or inspire action. You can take your audience behind the scenes of your operations. You can step in front of the camera and let them get to know YOU, the founder of your business.
All of these elements help the audience connect with your brand personality.
2. Videos build authenticity
How can you establish brand loyalty as a small or emerging business, when you can’t rest on a lengthy reputation or ubiquitous recognition in order to gain your audience’s trust? You need to build authenticity.
Authenticity is honed through transparent communication and demonstrable quality, benefits, and reliability.
Written content can provide some level of authenticity by presenting reviews and other sources of feedback. However, audiences are often mistrustful of written reviews—and they are right to be skeptical. One recent study of over 2.5 million online reviews found that 39% were unreliable, and likely to be fake.
As the saying goes, “Seeing is believing”. Video is an authenticity powerhouse. You’ll achieve a higher level of credibility when your audience is able to watch an actual customer deliver a testimonial or discuss their experience with your product or service.
3. Videos demonstrate your product in action
If you needed to learn to tie a bowtie today, would you search for written instructions or would you watch a how-to video? A video is ALWAYS the best way to explain something, and that includes your products or services.
You can use demonstration videos to highlight unique features and functions, set expectations for how your solution performs, and build excitement about your product or service.
Demonstration videos don’t have to be instruction-booklet bland. For example, you can use this opportunity to tell a story that engages your audience emotionally while noting pain points and the challenges you solve. You can capture attention with case studies or real-life results. Get creative to capture attention.
4. Videos allow you to maximize your reach across different channels with less content production
Video and podcast content is incredibly versatile, allowing you to reshape and repurpose your rich media to meet the needs of your audience at any stage of the buyer’s journey.
One cost-effective method of using video across multiple channels is to take one longer video (like an explainer video podcast or a vlog) and parse it into shorter clips, called micro-content. This micro-content becomes the bite-sized, “snackable” media that can be distributed anywhere from social media to your website to paid ads.
Micro-content makes it simple to place clips in the hotspots that attract leads in each section of the funnel: from top-of-funnel awareness-building channels like SEO and social media to bottom-of-funnel closing channels like your website’s product and pricing pages. And because you’re repurposing content, your ROI on conversions will increase.
Are you ready to jump in and throw video into your mix? Reach out to the experts at Tobe! We’re happy to assist with strategy, production, or anything else you need to navigate the world of video marketing.
