How to Do Video Marketing in Chicago

Video marketing is becoming increasingly popular, particularly among younger audiences. Internet users, in general, spend 6 hours and 48 minutes each week watching videos online. For younger viewers age 18-29, 76% watch videos on Instagram, 75% also use Snapchat, and 55% report viewing on Tik Tok. Video enables consumers to put a face to the company and creates familiarity and attachment to their brand.  

The rise in online video viewing presents a unique advantage for all types of businesses and industries. As evidenced by the viral popularity of cell phone videos on TikTok, the digital era makes video production more accessible to any budget. Your marketing strategy can leverage the power of video, whether it is a quick smartphone video or a high production one. In this post, we’ll discuss some techniques that show you how videos can work alongside traditional aspects of your Chicago marketing strategy, such as radio, to boost your reach and brand recognition.  

Getting Started with Video Marketing  

While video marketing can propel your brand to viral popularity, it takes observing some best practices. Your video marketing efforts can backfire if done improperly. The most common mistakes include lack of planning, not having clear idea of who your audience is, a lack of engaging content, doing a one size fits all video instead of creating one for each goal, and failing to optimize for video SEO. Regardless of these common mistakes, video marketing is highly accessible for businesses of all sizes. 

There are different forms of video marketing. They can be used to support different aspects of your marketing strategy, such as SEO, content marketing, paid media, and social media, depending upon your goals. Various types of video can be more effective during different parts of the marketing funnel. Some examples include: 

• Awareness stage – Brand, experience, and educational videos 
• Consideration stage – Product, testimonial, and company culture videos 
• Decision stage – Demonstration, FAQ, and personalized videos 

Plan Out Your Video Strategy  

Understanding what you want to accomplish is critical for planning your video strategy. You want to know what type of video you plan to shoot, who it is for, and what you want the viewer to take away from it. Then you need to plan how you will track the performance. Establishing the right system to monitor performance allows you to adjust when you don’t see the results you expect and clearly shows the success of your video.  

However, before you do anything, you have to have your goals in mind. Whether it is increasing brand awareness or developing customer loyalty, you must establish your objectives in a Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely way. SMART goals remove ambiguity and give you clearly defined metrics by which you can measure the efficacy of your strategy. As you work through each letter of the acronym, it acts as a funnel to help you fine-tune your goals to ensure they reflect the needs of your business and establish the guidelines for measuring progress.  

Create Videos Based on Your Needs  

The type of video you make will become more apparent after establishing your goals. The choice of style depends on what you want to accomplish. For instance: 

• Educational videos – These are ideal for attracting customers’ attention at the top of the funnel who are gathering information. 
• Inspirational videos – Motivational and inspirational videos evoke emotion in the viewers. Emotion provokes action. 
• Entertaining videos – This type of marketing video is well suited to product exposure and brand awareness. 

The good news is that any type of video is accessible to all budgets. You can hire a professional production team to accomplish this, but you can also accomplish a lot with quick smartphone videos. The advantage of the smartphone videos is it lends a more personal, behind the scenes touch to your content. You can learn by doing, and in time you will continue to improve. 

Optimize For Your Channels  

If you are using videos for content marketing, they should be optimized for SEO, as YouTube uses Google’s search algorithms. Each social media channel may require different optimization. For instance, TikTok and Instagram have similar features like TikTok’s For You page and Instagram’s Discover page. However, TikTok’s is more customized to the user’s interest, requiring a slightly different technique to optimize appropriately. Keep in mind that different formats lend to different video styles too, such as how Facebook and Instagram work well with landscape orientation, whereas TikTok is designed for vertical orientation.  

Team Up with Local Influencers  

Teaming up with Chicago radio influencers to spread your message is an excellent way to expand your reach and attract more attention to your brand. Chicago radio influencers have a vast and loyal audience. You can either include them in your videos or have them post your videos to their social media accounts to leverage the power of their following. You’ll also get the benefit of having your brand promoted on-air for a multi-channel advantage. 

Establish Your Future Success with Video Marketing 

Video is an ever-growing medium easily accessible to all ranges of budgets and company sizes. 52% of consumers report that videos increase their confidence in purchasing a product. By following a few best practices or through finding a digital media partner, your marketing campaign can reach new levels of success by incorporating video to reach your target audience. When you determine your video strategy using SMART goals, film the type of video that fits your objectives, optimize it for the channel, find a radio influencer to help spread your message and expand your reach, and use the filming technique that fits your budget, you are on the way to establishing your future success.