A B2B Marketer’s Guide to Video Content Planning

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About 87% of U.S. brands and agencies leveraged video for their content marketing programs last year. Contrary to popular belief, the power of video content isn’t exclusive to business to consumer marketing. Business to business marketers are getting in on the action as well. In fact, 52% of BtoB marketers used video in 2012 which was a 27% increase over 2011.*

Unfortunately, many marketers are tasked with the challenge of producing video content and not held accountable for marketing it. So while we see an ever increasing number of videos being added to tried-and-true YouTube as well as newer outlets, the multichannel promotion and optimization of those videos are lackluster and are not producing an ROI. Let’s take a look at how this could negatively impact your video content plans.

The Content Marketing Institute conducted a YouTube video study of the Top 100 brands from Interbrand’s 2012 Best Global Brands. After analyzing 200,000 business videos across 1,270 YouTube channels, they discovered more than 50% had fewer than 1,000 views.

This realization begs the question:

How do I plan appropriately to produce good quality video content that strives for ROI?

To get the best results possible from your video investment, you must thoroughly explore not only the value of the content you’ll produce but also, how that content will be promoted and optimized to reach and engage your target audiences.

There are many questions you must answer before embarking on a video content endeavor. Video – whether it’s professionally developed or user-generated – can be an entertaining, expressive and lucrative component of your marketing mix. But, the resources, time and budget required to create a successful video initiative is serious business. That’s why your marcom counselors at JD have created this Video Content Questionnaire —  to help you get the ball rolling in the right direction.

START HERE TO GET THERE

So, you’ve decided to create one or more videos to boost brand awareness, build your business’ reputation and tell your brand story. Good for you! 

Put the right foot forward by answering these critical questions:

  1. What message(s) or content will your video(s) feature/promote?
    (Corporate Brand, Product/Service, Product Demo/How-to, Customer Review(s), Etc.)
  2. How will the video support your marketing objective(s)?
  3. What are your video objectives/goals?
    (Qualitative, Quantitative)
  4. Professionally-produced? User-generated? Or, a combination?
  5. Where will the video be featured?
    (Co. Websites, YouTube, Ad Networks, Social Media, Etc.)
  6. What’s your budget?
  7. Who is your target audience?
  8. Who do you expect will find/see the video?
  9. What are your key messages?
  10. What tone will effectively express your messaging?
  11. What is your competitive advantage/value proposition?
  12. How will your target audience be most receptive to receiving your video content?
  13. How will the video support your audiences’ need(s)/task(s)?
  14. How will the video be applied within your marketing mix?
  15. How do you want/expect your target audience(s) to find your video?
  16. What tactics will you use to ensure they find it?
  17. In what context/environment/buying stage will they see it?
  18. What is the ideal video length for your message/audience?
  19. What format/style/type of video will perform better among your audiences and distribution platforms?
  20. What action do you want/expect your audience to take upon finding your video?
  21. How will you ensure they take that action?
  22. What action do you want/expect your audience to take after they’ve watched your video?
  23. How will you ensure they take that action?
  24. What will the call-to-action (CTA) be?
  25. How will the CTA be presented?
  26. How will you measure the video’s success?
  27. What will the measurable metrics be?
  28. What is the ROI your organization expects from video content marketing?

YOU’RE WELL ON YOUR WAY

Content marketing is a top priority for marketers like you seeking to drive awareness, generate leads and convert sales. But multichannel content marketing is challenging with audiences spread across different networks, platforms and devices. That’s why proactive planning is so critical to your success. You must carefully consider how you’re reaching your target audiences in addition to what you are communicating via video to maximize lead gen and increase engagement.

Further, to get the most from your video investment, you must identify all possible applications, publishing destinations and sharing outlets. As with many content marketing components, you create the video once and deliver it across many channels including your websites, social media networks (YouTube,  LinkedIn, Facebook, Vimeo, Flickr, Twitter, Google+), blogs, ad networks, and online and traditional media outlets.

You must also prepare in advance to make decisions that will allow for greater reach among your audiences and video distributors/promoters (e.g., social media staff and bloggers, sales people/agents, customer service reps) and how to best optimize your videos for search.

Simply put, there’s a lot more to video content planning than meets the eye! Making the time to map out your video initiative will take you a long way and put you on the road to success.

Don’t hesitate to reach out for support if you need it.

*P.S. If you’re looking for indications as to how other marketers are planning their video endeavors, take a look at 101 Online Video Statistics for 2012.

YouTube Graphic Source: Why Video Is Essential to Your Marketing Mix, Whitepaper, Awareness Social Marketing Software