Video Marketing: The Definitive Guide

What Is Video Marketing?

Video marketing is the practice of planning, creating, editing, publishing and promoting video content in an effort to promote a brand, business or product. Common platforms that businesses use for video marketing include YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Vimeo and Instagram.

Why More Businesses Are Going All In With Video

Not surprisingly, more businesses are using video as part of their marketing campaigns.

87% of businesses now use video to help market their product and services (WyzOwl).

80% of marketers state that they’re happy with the ROI that they get from video ads (Animoto).

93% of marketers report that video has helped them get more customers (Animoto).

And maybe the most interesting statistic of all…

Because video has such a high ROI, 99% of marketers state that they plan on continuing using video as part of their digital marketing this year (WyzOwl).

How Video Has Helped My Business Grow

My business is a living example of the power of video.

I created my first online video in 2013.

I was just starting out. I didn’t have a production budget. So I asked my friend to come over and film the video with his DSLR camera.

Because it was my first video, I was SUPER nervous.

Fortunately, people generally liked it.

(Even though, as you can see, I desperately needed a haircut).

Flash forward to today, and I’ve produced hundreds of videos for YouTube, my own website, and for our online courses.

And, unlike my first video that only got about 200 views, 160k people now see my videos every month.

I should also point out that a good chunk of these folks ultimately become customers.

In fact, according to our most recent customer survey, a significant amount of new customers specifically cited our videos as a reason they decided to sign up.

Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot about video marketing over the last 6+ years.

And I’m going to share everything I’ve learned in this guide.

Which leads us to chapter 2…

Template #1: The How-to Video

The How-to Video is just like it sounds…

It’s a video that shows someone how to do something, like bake a cake or do a pushup.

For many businesses, how-to videos will be your bread-and-butter. In fact, how-to videos are like a video version of blog content. They’re not designed to convert people right then and there.

But how-to videos ARE great for getting your brand in front of potential customers. So, along with product demos, I recommend using them in your video marketing.

Here’s the template:

Let’s break each element down.

Intro=Video Preview

The main goal of your preview is to let your viewer know they’re in the right place.

In other words:

There’s no need to tell people why your topic is important. If they landed on your video, they already know it’s important.

This is a mistake I made a lot with my early videos.

Instead of jumping right into the content, I’d go into a long backstory.

Spoiler alert: people HATED these intros. And they clicked away.

(Not to mention the fact that, again, I really needed a haircut 🙂 )

Today, my intros are short, sweet and to-the-point.

Which has dramatically improved my average Audience Retention.

Steps or Tips

Now it’s time for the meat of your content.

Depending on your video, you may outline a series of steps. Or give people a list of tips.

For example, this video from my channel lists out a series of 9 traffic strategies.

On the other hand, this video outlines a specific step-by-step process.

If you watch those videos, you’ll notice that the structure is basically the same.

The only difference is that the steps are in a particular order. While the strategies can be in pretty much any order.

That said, there’s one BIG thing to keep in mind with this section of your how-to video:

Keep things moving.

In other words: there’s no need to cover everything there is to know about a step or tip. Yes, you should cover each step in-depth. But as soon as you’ve covered the basics, it’s time for the next step.

Why?

Well, it’s no secret that people online have super short attention spans. And if you go on and on about the same topic, you’re gonna lose your viewer’s attention.

For example, I used to spend 2-3 minutes on a single step or tip.

And people got REALLY bored.

Today, I spend about 30-60 seconds per tip. And then move right into the next thing I want to cover.

That way, my video content moves fast… which keeps people engaged.

Wrapping Up

Now that you covered your last step, what’s next?

Well, I don’t recommend ending your video out of nowhere. That’s super jarring.

Instead, you want to quickly cover 3 main things in your video conclusion:

• A quick recap
• Examples
• Next steps

For example, in this video, I recap things with:

Note that I don’t repeat the same tips they just heard about.

Instead, I quickly outline what they learned… and start to transition into the end of the video.

And if you have any more examples of how this process helped you, a customer or a friend, mention them here. You probably already mentioned a few examples in the steps section of your video. But feel free to add one more here.

This final example gives people motivation to take action on what they just learned.

Finally, let people know the next steps.

If they’re watching your video on YouTube, it might be to subscribe to your channel.

If you’re hosting your video on your own website, you might ask them to subscribe to your newsletter.

Either way, make sure to cap off your video with a clear set of next steps.

Here’s an example:

Template #3: Explainer Video

Here’s where you explain a tricky concept… a concept tied to your product or service.

Here’s the step-by-step process.

The Big Intro

Here’s where you introduce your concept. There’s no need to beat around the bush here. Just let them know what you have in store for them.

For example, TransferWise gets right into what their video is all about.

The Questions

Before you dive into your explanation, ask a few key questions that people have about this concept

For example, this cool Explainer Video about APIs asks questions like “How does data get from here to there?”.

These questions make the person watching SUPER curious about your explanation.

Why?

Because these are questions they’ve probably wondered themselves. And when you ask those same questions early on, it makes your viewer PRIMED to keep watching.

The Explanation

Now it’s time for the meat of your explainer video: the explanation.

How you structure this depends a lot on what you’re explaining.

But in general, you want this section to be pretty short. Just enough to give someone a basic understanding of the concept.

In other words: you’re not trying to give your viewer a PhD on your topic. Instead, you’re giving them enough information so they have the basics down.

Here’s a great example:

The Product Tie-In (Optional)

If you want to use your explainer video to pitch your product or service, now’s the time to do it.

The key here is to have a smooth transition from your explanation to your product. In other words: it shouldn’t feel like an ad tacked on at the end of the video.

Spiel Creative does a brilliant job with their Product Tie-In section.

Your Location

Yup, cameras and mics are important.

But nothing is more important than where you shoot.

Think about it:

You can have the best camera in the world. But if you shoot in a closet, your video is going to look horrible.

On the other hand, if you shoot in a well-lit room, you can make really nice videos with an iPhone.

That said, when it comes to shooting marketing videos, you have a few different location options:

Your Home or Office

Most homes and offices can be converted into a makeshift video studio.

That said, here are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to shooting at home:

• Pay close attention to echo and noise: Houses and offices aren’t set up for audio recording (why would they be?). So double check that the room doesn’t have a lot of echo (reverb) or noises from the outside. Bad audio can kill an otherwise great video.
• Clean background: Find a room that has a neutral background. Or a static background that’s not distracting (like a bookshelf).
• Consistent lighting: Natural light looks great. But it’s unpredictable. So make sure that you can control the lighting in your room with curtains or shutters.

In fact, I shot a lot of my early videos in my apartment.

And thanks to a fairly soundproofed room, a clean background and nice lighting, they came out pretty good.

But not nearly as good as when I shoot in the studio.

Speaking of…

A Pro Studio

After shooting a handful of videos in my house, I quickly realized something:

The videos looked OK. But I was spending HOURS setting up and taking down lighting, backgrounds and soundproofing. My living room went from a place to chill to a brightly-lit video studio with stuff everywhere.

Not good.

So one day I decided to try a photography studio.

The videos looked well-lit and clean… but the audio was terrible.

(And, as I’ll cover in a minute, how your video sounds is actually more important than how it looks)

Finally, I went to a proper video studio. This time the videos looked AND sounded great.

Plus, I didn’t have to turn my living room into a studio every time I wanted to shoot. I just showed up… and the camera, lighting and background was already set up for me.

Nice.

So that’s the big upside of using a studio: it’s super convenient.

Yes, you MIGHT be able to film studio quality videos in your home or office. But you also have to set everything up (and take it down) whenever you want to shoot.

The downside of a studio is that they can be expensive. The exact price depends on the studio. I’ve personally paid between $800 (Berlin) and $5k (NYC) for a single day of shooting.

On Location

This can be outside. At an event. Or anywhere that’s not where you normally shoot.

The upside of on location shoots is that they look interesting and dynamic.

I used to shoot my video intros outside for this exact reason:

Yes, these look great. But they were a giant pain in the butt.

Why? Because these location shots made our shots 10x more complicated. Lighting, audio, noise, rain, snow, other people… can (and will) affect your shoot.

Which is why I recommend avoiding on location shots when you’re first starting out. Then, once you get a handle on the basics, feel free to spice things up with an on location shoot.

Tripod

If you want to shoot pro videos, you need a tripod. There’s no two ways around it.

Fortunately, there are lots of tripods that are designed specifically for DSLRs.

Lighting

When it comes to lighting, there are a million options.

In general, I recommend using box lights.

That’s because box lights create a soft, flattering light.

The only other thing to keep in mind with lighting is that you can almost never have enough of it.

In fact, for most shots, you’ll need 4-5 different lights to get the job done.

Use a Script Or Outline

This is a lesson I had to learn the hard way.

When I first got started with videos, I’d have a rough idea of what I wanted to cover. But I pretty much freestyled.

Which led to me going off on little tangents, like this:

(Not to mention countless cuts because I lost track of what I was saying)

Today, I script out every single line in advance:

Which helps me move REALLY fast.

Because my videos are scripted in advance I can literally cover 2-3x more content in the same amount of time.

(Plus, the shoot itself goes smoothly because I don’t have to do a bunch of takes. I just read my lines off the teleprompter).

You don’t necessarily need to write every word ahead of time. But I do recommend using a detailed outline that covers what you want to cover. That way, your final video content comes out super crisp.

Set Up Soundproofing

You can have the best mic in the world…

…but if you shoot in an echoey room, your audio will sound terrible.

If your room has a lot of echo, I’d grab some soundproofing material from Amazon.

And if you want a budget option, throw some thick yoga mats on the floor.

Most echo comes from sound bouncing back-and-forth off the floor and ceiling. And yoga mats stop sound from bouncing up and down.

(You can also hang some thick blankets up around you. They can do wonders for reducing echo).

Color Correction

Color correction is probably the most underrated part of the editing process.

In fact, color correction can completely transform how your video looks and feels (in a good way).

For example, look at the difference between this raw footage from the studio compared to the color-corrected version.

That’s a world of difference.

Graphics and Animations

The #1 question I get about video marketing is “What editing software do you use?”.

The reason people ask me this question is that my YouTube videos use TONS of graphics and animations.

The thing is, I work with a talented video animator that makes these graphics for us. And while he uses Adobe After Effects, it’s really not about the tool.

In other words, there’s no magical software that’s going to bang out custom illustrations and animations.

That said:

If you have experience with animations or illustrations (or want to learn), then feel free to add fancy graphics to your videos.

Otherwise, I’d keep your graphics super simple and straightforward.

For example, Simone Giertz adds lots of text to her videos.

These make her videos more dynamic. Even if you have zero experience with editing, you can do the same thing on your videos.

Nail The First 5-10 Seconds

The first 5-10 seconds of your video are HUGE.

So make sure your video grabs your reader’s attention right away.

In other words, avoid animated logos.

Long-winded background stories.

Or anything else that’s not super compelling.

For example, I always start off my videos telling people what they’re going to learn.

I also try to be more high-energy here to get people excited about the video.

Mix Things Up

In other words, make your video content SUPER dynamic.

A good rule of thumb is that you should change something in your video once every 20 seconds.

This can be as simple as a camera angle change:

Or it can be something more involved, like transitioning to a b-roll or animation.

Either way, mixing things up makes your video more compelling, interesting… and ultimately a video that people will watch all the way to the end.

Use a Consistent Look and Feel

If brand awareness is one of your goals, then your videos should all have a similar look and feel.

This doesn’t mean you have to shoot in the exact same place with the exact same background every single time.

Instead, make sure each video has the same branding and feel.

Marie Forleo does a great job with this.

Even though Marie’s interview videos are in a different location than her normal videos…

…all of her videos have the same branding and atmosphere.

How Andrew Holland Generated
3 Million Views on a Facebook Video

Backlinko reader Andrew Holland was given a difficult task from one of his clients:

Create a social video designed to go viral. From a Facebook page that had 280 followers.

And, oh yeah, his client had about 100 bucks to spend on video ads. So this whole thing had to be pretty much 100% organic and rely on influencers to get the word out.

Here’s what happened next…

First, Andrew created a list of people that his client’s audience of martial arts fans would LOVE to see more content about.

Second, he made an in-depth video about the legendary Bruce Lee.

In the end, Andrew’s video did GREAT.

In fact, to date, this video has picked up over 4 million organic views:

How Jeff Rose Increased His YouTube
Channel’s Views By 880%

A few years ago Jeff Rose had a problem that I know a lot of you can relate to.

Jeff was putting out really good video content.

But no one was watching it.

It was super frustrating. After all, Jeff put a lot of time and effort into his videos.

But all that energy wasn’t translating into success on YouTube.

That’s when Jeff decided to try a different approach.

And that new approach took his monthly views from practically nothing to 301,110 views per month.

Here’s how he did it:

First, to promote his videos, Jeff would share a teaser version on Facebook.

This teaser video is like a YouTube video trailer. That way, people that want to learn more can head over to YouTube to watch the whole thing.

Second, Jeff got feedback on his thumbnails from his audience… before he published a video.

That way, he knew the exact images and layouts that his audience would want to see.

Finally, Jeff used a “No Comment Left Behind” strategy.

In other words: Jeff replies to pretty much every comment that people leave on his videos.

(Even if it’s just a 👍)

This increased engagement on his videos, which is HUGE for SEO on YouTube.