As videos continue to penetrate deeper into the creator economy, more creators harbor it to boost their reach and engagement, and achieve the primary objective of their business.
Video marketing can be a powerful approach to increase your follower count and provide an add-on value to your existing followers. Not only are videos informational and entertaining, but also provide a deeper connection with your target audience. Videos are easier to comprehend, can make it easier for your audience to understand who you are as a person, and boost engagement of your channel.
Whether you want to tell a persuasive story, make people laugh, or help your fans with solutions, you definitely can–-with videos.
So, how can you do it?
8 Ways to Grow Your Audience with Captivating Videos
Here’s how you can develop a compelling video marketing strategy to effectively grow your audience.
1. Set goals
Set SMART goals. What do we mean by SMART? Well, set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.
• Specific: Aim at only a specific field or niche that you want to grow in.
• Measurable: Create milestones or targets to measure the progress of your goals.
• Achievable: Mention who will carry out the tasks and how.
• Realistic: Determine realistic results with available resources.
• Timely: Define the date or a time frame to achieve your goals.
For example, a SMART goal would be to “increase your Instagram followers by 10,000 in 2022”. This goal is specific to follower count, easily measurable with metrics, achievable and realistic with the right strategy, and set within a time frame.
Once you attain new followers, you need to have a strategy to keep them interested in your channel so then you can set a new goal and reach a greater audience.
2. Choose the right platform
Once you have set your goals, the next is to pick a platform that will yield maximum benefits according to the type of content you create, your niche, and your audience. We recommend picking a social media platform where you already have an established fan base so that it is easier for you to capture their interests.
While picking a platform, also keep in mind how to monetize content. Video monetization platforms allow you to earn money from your content by monetizing your fan base. You can create informational videos in the form of guides and sell them on these platforms or create fan subscriptions. One example of a content monetization platform is Retrieve.
Retrieve allows you to curate new and existing videos and turn them into interactive guides for your fans. Further, you can add a paywall to direct messaging between you and fans, thus enabling monetization wherever possible.
3. Pick video types
Picking a platform will help you out the next step, which is picking video types. Do you provide information on topics like health, fitness, finance? Consider including interviews with experts or collaborative podcast-like videos. Are you into travel, food, adventure? Go for vlogs to capture the raw experience. Consumer's love watching vlogs. There are many video types you can opt for. Don’t restrict yourself to just one type, rather try experimenting with a few. (The more, the better.)
Here are a few video types to consider:
• Vlogs
• Interviews
• Testimonials
• Brand story videos
• Behind-the-scene/uncut videos
• How-to videos
• Live videos/Webinars
• Product reviews
• Unboxing/demo/try-on videos
• VR videos
• Entertaining videos
4. Start creating videos
Before beginning to shoot your content, make sure you have all the proper things in place. Have a script ready and gather any equipment you might need. Is your shoot indoors? Make sure you shoot during the daytime when there’s sufficient light. If not, arrange for lights. Ring lights are especially popular with YouTubers. Get a wardrobe ready. If you are a fashion or lifestyle creator, your wardrobe plays an important role. If your shoot involves multiple outfits, ensure they are well-ironed or steamed.
Before beginning your shoot, have an idea of what camera frames and angles you want to use. Write it down when you finalize your script so that you know which shot requires which angle and draft your script accordingly. Also, have a rough idea about the editing and any VFX beforehand so that you can streamline your shoots accordingly. Especially if you have transitional videos, you need to maintain continuity; keep that in mind while you’re shooting.
5. Search-optimize your videos
You’ve probably heard of search engine optimized (SEO) websites, but what are search-optimized videos? To drive in more traffic and establish an organic audience base, ensure the videos are optimized for search engines. It means adding target keywords to the title and description, adding transcripts, creating eye-catchy thumbnails and more.
Another SEO-friendly practice is to not embed the same video in different locations.
6. Market your videos on social media
The work isn’t done after the video is uploaded. The next step is to market it on social media. Add a link to your new video, give out a short clip to build the curiosity of your fans, write a one-liner explaining what the video is about. Share this link on all your social platforms—The wider the reach, the better chances of earning more views.
Don’t forget, you can also share the same video later in the future. For example, you can plan to share a video once every month, so that those fans who missed it can still watch, including any new followers.
7. Dive into the insights
If you’re getting noteworthy results through videos, it means you’re marketing well and your followers are appreciating your content. To understand what’s working, check the following metrics from the insights tab:
• Views: How many times was your video viewed? The views are not restricted to your followers only, as, if your channel is open to all, your views will come outside your follower base as well.
• Clicks: If your video has a CTA (call to action), how many times was it clicked? It is crucial to know as a creator whether your goal was served.
• Click-through rate: Calculating the CTR = the number of times the CTA is clicked divided by the number of views.
• Shares: Shares are the hardest metrics to gain. Create videos that are so informational, educating, relevant and captivating that people would share them amongst their friends, thus exposing you to a wider audience.
The higher these numbers, the more engaged your viewers are.
8. Monetize your videos
As a smart content creator, you must have more than one way to earn money. If your number one source is brand deals, then don’t rely on just one source. Sell your content on video monetization platforms, design brand merchandise and sell it, give online classes, offer paid learning materials, guides and resources, integrate affiliate links and ads to your content, and so on.
To get maximum income from videos, research how you can earn money as a content creator. Upload your educational video guides on content monetization platforms and monetize your subscriptions. While big video platforms such as YouTube do not allow creators to monetize their subscriptions, content monetization platforms like Retrieve enable you to add a paywall to earn directly from your fans. You can add a paywall to the direct messaging and include various strategies, such as group chats, one-on-one chats in the form of audio/text/video, and a lot more to offer maximum value to your fans.
Ready to get started with your videos? Check out Retrieve.com
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