Video isn’t a new format for marketers. According to Adobe, over 50% of marketers worldwide have named Video as their top performing asset. But established marketing channels like blogs are a mainstay of every business – so why not use one to drive more engagement from the other?
Adding video to your blog doesn’t have to be a challenge – there are many simple formats of video that you can start producing right away, and even more formats that can be repurposed on your blog to drive even more value. Here are 5 of our favorite videos to feature on your blog.
How-To Content
Creating content that is relevant for your audience is a great way to build brand affinity – especially if you’re not ‘selling’ anything. Having a YouTube channel dedicated to teaching people how to use a software product, ways of building something, or sharing tips for accomplishing a goal gives people a friendly introduction to your brand, and gets your name out there. Zach King, who recently gave an amazing keynote presentation at our user conference Viewtopia, got his start doing Final Cut Pro tutorials on his YouTube channel FinalCutKing. Similarly, InVision has built a huge following with their Design Snacks series.
But this content doesn’t just have to live on YouTube. Featuring this content on your blog not only extends its audience — not everyone who follows your blog is subscribed to your YouTube channel as well — but also means you can get two great benefits with one piece of content. YouTube views help bump up your subscribers on this popular channel, and videos included in blog posts have proven to increase time-on-site, and drive more engagement to other posts.
Bottom Line: If you’re thinking of starting a YouTube channel dedicated to educating your prospects, don’t be afraid to cross-post that content to your blog as well.
Interviews
Interview content is usually where most video marketers get started. A good camera, a tripod, and a half-decent microphone are typically all you need to produce really great interview content, and best of all, those tools are about as portable as it gets. So how can you get the most out of this thought leadership? Turn each interview into a post, and transcribe the information so that people who want to read rather than watch can do so if they desire – and as an added bonus, Google can crawl the content and contribute to your SEO keywords!.
We’ve recently started this on our own blog with our Wise Words series. I take my trusty camera everywhere I go, and try to set aside time to chat with influential marketers working for awesome companies. The interviews go on our YouTube channel, but longer-form versions with transcribed answers also go on our blog. Because we schedule them monthly, we always have at least one slot filled in our content calendar.
Bottom Line: Interviews are easy and inexpensive to film, and they make for great content on your blog. Transcribe interviews, or include additional details to give blog readers something extra to add value.
Event Content
More and more marketers are holding events, whether they are roadshow events or full-on user conferences. Once you’ve spent all that money on travel, venue, food, speakers, and everything in between, what’s the best way to make sure you continue to drive ROI for months afterwards? Record your sessions, and leverage the heck out of that content.
Salesforce is an amazing example of a company that goes big when it comes to event video. Almost all of their Dreamforce sessions are available online and usually they will leverage the event content to create a series of blog posts. Looking to get promotion kicked off for your next event? Put together a trailer out of last year’s footage, and write a post outlining all the exciting details you’re planning for the next one. Event video is evergreen content – especially if your keynotes are from thought leaders that have a big impact in your industry. Get those special talks and workshops on camera, and you can use that content until day one of next year’s event.
Bottom Line: Don’t miss out on the opportunity to record your event sessions. And use that great content as fodder for as many blog posts as you can.
Support Content
Your blog isn’t just for prospects – chances are your customers are reading it as well. If your support team is hearing the same questions over and over again, don’t leave them hanging. Put together a video that answers this common question, and share it on your blog.
Showing off a complex topic in your product is often seen as detrimental. You don’t want people to get the impression that your product or service is difficult to use. But every system has its complexities, and what a better way to share some knowledge than with your dedicated blog audience? The same goes for product updates.
Microsoft does a great job highlighting what’s new in their product with video on their blog, giving potential and current customers an easy glimpse into how new features are going to have a positive impact on their business.
As an added bonus, your sales team can now link to this blog post when telling their prospects about your product update. And anything that gives salespeople content to impress prospects and drive more traffic to your blog is win-win.
Bottom Line: If your customers are looking for answers, a video on your blog is a great way of making that content easy to find and consume. And if you’re putting out a big update that your prospects or customers will find valuable, having a video on your blog means anyone who subscribes gets the news the minute you’re ready to share it.
Culture Content
Today the mannequin challenge, yesterday the ice bucket challenge and the Harlem Shake. Videos showing off your team’s sense of humor, celebrating the holidays, or showing commitment to a worthy cause are awesome culture content that gives viewers a window into the spirit of your company. So why limit this fun content to YouTube and your social channels?
Put together a blog post sharing your Christmas video, your CEO’s response to the latest charitable challenge, or even just celebrating a big milestone as a team, and use that extra content space to give some back story. Ask readers to comment and share their own response, or use the blog post to challenge other companies or individuals to participate as well. Everyone likes to laugh or celebrate along with the companies they admire, and adding this content to your blog means more eyes on the fun, and more opportunities to link off to similar posts, or add some additional content to round out the experience. Even negative experiences can be turned around with fun culture content – Hootsuite turned negative feedback into a hilarious video by spoofing Mean Tweets, and featuring the content on their blog (along with a response from their CEO).
Bottom Line: Culture content is just plain fun, and unless you keep your blog content set to ‘boring only’ your readers will appreciate the opportunity to get in on the action. Plus, blog readers tend to have a longer attention span than social viewers, so you can feature longer-form videos without worrying about losing engagement.
Wrapping it all up
Content calendars are hard enough to fill up – believe me, I wish I had more ideas for the Vidyard blog. But if you’re already producing video content for your marketing campaigns, support, or events, then you’ve already checked off three of the best categories of blog content to feature. Take those videos and drive even more value by featuring them on your blog. Worst case scenario, you only get a few more views, but chances are you’ll see that video asset go even further as people comment, or use it as a stepping stone to other related content.
Want to get started producing your own video content? Check out our guide to creating an internal video studio!
What do you think about using video in your marketing? What has been most successful for you? Share your story in the comments below.
The post 5 Video Content Types Your Blog Audience Will Love appeared first on GetResponse Blog - Online Marketing Tips.
No comments:
Post a Comment