Thought Leadership Monday Mashup: Inbound Video Marketing

Inbound video marketing is a smart way for businesses to show off their products and services and draw in former and future customers. It's important to invoke some thought when you are crafting your ideas with inbound video marketing. It can be very easy to fall back on familiar tactics and not get to the meat of what your marketing strategy efforts should be all about.

Customer: Focus on your ideal customer. Of course, you know who they may be in a general manner, but when you look at them carefully, you may discover that you are marketing to an altogether different persona then the one who is your own. That is fine if you are trying to reel in different types of qualified leads. Still, if you are speaking to a persona that's not there, then your message may not be as effective as you think.

Use: Once you know who your ideal customer is, then you need to cater your inbound video marketing campaigns and show those customers the greatest use of your products or services. This may seem obvious, but consider what happens if you fail. Say your product can be utilized in the home or on the road, but the most consistent use for your customers is inside the home. If your video shows your product being used in a mobile setting, that's not capitalizing on your broadest use. Highlight the most popular use of your product.

Season: If your product or service is seasonal in nature, then consider marketing your business offering at its non-seasonal time of year. Why? You may be able to increase your bottom line by creating a buzz about your product or service during the down time.

Value: Another thing that businesses often forget to do is show off the value of their products or services to their customers. It can be so easy to just say, "here is the new model or the new offering" without reminding customers of why they buy your product at all. Your inbound video marketing campaign can be a great time to highlight this implicit value and rope back in former customers who may have fallen off the radar. When people are reminded of why they buy something, they are far more likely to step back into your buying arena and engage with you again.

New/Return: Imagine your customers on a timeline, as though every customer who has ever been with you will always stay with you. A customer’s usage of that product or service should be woven into your video marketing campaign strategy. Talk to all of your potential and existing customers in your marketing, the old and the new. Don’t forget that not everyone has been with you from the beginning. No one but you likely knows your business as well as you do, so you should always begin with the assumption that those watching your videos don't know much about your offerings.

Push: Finally, when you are crafting a video marketing campaign, you should do so with "push forward" in mind. That is, how can your audience share, email, or otherwise involve others they believe would benefit from your video of your product or service? This can be tricky, or it can be simple. If you have customers who find you online and are on social media, then leave a link that can be clicked and shared instantly. However, even for those on social media, not everyone likes an exchange in that manner. Make sure you think of different options for viewers to share your video marketing campaign and push your message forward.

If you have considered an inbound video marketing campaign but just don't know where to begin, you do have options to choose from. There are plenty of great agencies that can help produce your video campaign, but you should make sure they know what they are doing. One of the very best in the industry is Direct Images Interactive, an Inbound Marketing Agency. Let them help you at every step of the way, so that your new inbound video marketing campaign is wildly successful!

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