10 tips for successful social video marketing

Social video marketing conveys messages and values with the help of short films, live streams and stories. Whether YouTube, TikTok or Instagram is best suited depends on your target group and your topics. With the right strategy and our ten tips, even small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a small budget can benefit.

Why video content works

Why are videos so popular online? Traditional and linear TV is going out of fashion and internet users are becoming their own programme makers. A whopping 400 hours of video material are uploaded every minute to the market leader YouTube alone. When it comes to social video or video marketing, most people think of YouTube. But we don’t want to forget niche providers such as Twitch or rising stars like TikTok in this blog post.

Explaining to your customers how your products work in helpful short films fulfils two objectives:

1. Your customers will be happy to receive a short and snappy explanation instead of having to trudge through pages of instructions. People’s attention spans have become shorter and shorter thanks to the internet and social media.
2. Good explanatory videos take the pressure off your hotline and customer service. Colleagues no longer need to answer questions about the application ten times a day, but perhaps only once a day.

Publish social videos

You can integrate videos into your website, blog or webshop and share them on social media platforms. If you regularly publish videos as a company, it is best to create your own channel on YouTube.

Even if your videos are only visible for a short time, you should take care. Let’s take a livestream as an example. Think about how you want to proceed before you start and at least prepare the introduction well. Also bear in mind that viewers come and go as they please during a livestream. Therefore, it doesn’t hurt to keep coming back to the core topic and repeating yourself.

10 tips for your social video marketing

Tip 1: Get to know your target group

There is little to go wrong with videos, as they are popular with all age groups. Nevertheless, the platforms differ. YouTube has long since become a cross-age platform where even silver surfers look for instructions or reminisce with clips from “Dalli Dalli”. Best agers are also heavily represented on Facebook and also consume videos there.

Twitch and the rapidly growing app TikTok are only gradually attracting people over the age of 30. Twitch still has its origins in the e-game scene and many TikTok users know that it used to be called musical.ly and was mainly used by female teenagers. Those days are long gone and on TikTok we can even find the Tagesschau, which is working hard to reach half a million users, or lawyers and pharmacists. Anyone who is active there has to present content to the point and not be boring with their films.

Nevertheless, the style and story differ considerably. If you can still reach your very young customers with quick image changes and bright colours, the 40+ age group prefers something more serious. As is usual in marketing, it can help to work with personas. Instead of addressing the working mum in the terraced house, you then have a specific person in mind with Monika.

Tip 2: Choose the right equipment in combination with a smart strategy

Now the exciting question: Do I need a professional cameraman with expensive equipment or is my mobile phone camera and a free editing programme enough?

The basic technical equipment for video marketing includes

• A high-quality smartphone or digital camera
• a tripod
• an external microphone and
• a simple tool for post-processing.

As you can see, the necessary equipment can be put together without high costs. This is an advantage, but it can lead to “just shooting on the fly”. But here too, a well thought-out strategy should come first – because what really counts is the story you want to tell

Tip 3: Score points with relevant content and quality

The web is overflowing with content – and there are now also an inflationary number of videos. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need relevant content and creative realisation. The quality should also be right, although your film doesn’t have to be Hollywood-ready. Ideally, your content should be informative or entertaining, or both at the same time.

If you want to produce an explanatory video, it should come across with a wink. Recognition value is important. Let’s take the retail chain Edeka as an example. Their commercials have their own narrative language, which usually makes it easy to recognise where the advertising video comes from after just a few seconds.

Tip 4: Don’t forget the core message and the call to action

You have a good idea and a creative approach. This can turn into a captivating film, but have you also conveyed your core message?

Films are very well suited to conveying a message. Don’t overload the short film: concentrate on the one message you want to address and don’t try to send out several appeals at the same time. To ensure that even unfocused viewers understand the message, it should ideally appear twice or even three times: at the beginning, during the film and again at the end. If you want to lure viewers to your web shop as a call-to-action, your end card should show the URL.

Tip 5: Attract viewers with a crisp introduction and storytelling

To get noticed in the background noise of the internet, you need a great cover image and an understandable title that attracts attention. Of course, that alone is not enough. The first few seconds must captivate viewers. For the video to go viral, it needs to appeal to the emotions and motivate users to share the message in their network.

You may remember the successful #heimkommen advert from Edeka. It was highly emotional storytelling at its best, but perhaps a little too predictable. With a dramatic development, a hero and an antagonist, you are sure to get the attention of your viewers.

Tip 6: Not too long and not too short

Due to the “information overload” of most internet users, their ability to concentrate for long periods of time suffers. As a result, there are only a few long formats that still work. Explanatory videos fall into this category if they are well made, as do films by celebrities. The well-known saying “brevity is the spice of life” seems to have been invented for YouTube and the like. It should also be clear after a few seconds what it is about – otherwise the impatient user will switch to the next film straight away.

Tip 7: Analyse your success on a regular basis

You can see how well your video is received on YouTube based on the likes and dislikes. To learn from the results of your monitoring, you should delve deeper into the analysis. The analytics in YouTube show you where the viewers come from, when they jump off and what proportion watches the film to the end. If many viewers drop out after 20 seconds, there is something wrong with your film at this point. Is it becoming boring or incomprehensible? It also helps if you identify the hotspot of your filmWhere in the video do my users watch repeatedly?

If you compare your previously published videos, you may find that your viewers prefer longer films. Also pay attention to your competitors’ videos: how long are their most successful films?

Important key figures include the number of video views and the number of subscribers. The view-through rate and the engagement rate are also meaningful. The engagement rate puts likes and comments in relation to the number of views of the video. The like/dislike ratio is another important parameter on YouTube.

Tip 8: Think about the subtitles

As many people watch videos without sound, you should provide subtitles. Another reason for subtitles is to make your films accessible. YouTube can automatically create subtitles. You should check these before uploading the video. Depending on how clearly the people in your video speak, errors may have crept in.

Tip 9: Publish a video regularly

On social media platforms, a regular rhythm of publication is nice, for example once a week or even once a month. If you stick to this sequence, loyal fans will know when they can expect new content. With a weekly rhythm, a fixed day of the week for uploading the new film is a good idea. But here too, it is important to take a close look at your own target group and consult the analytics mentioned in point 7: Does it cost followers if you publish a new video too often or, conversely, do you lose fans if you offer a new film too rarely?

Tip 10: Nurture the community

Take a look at your fans’ comments and respond to them promptly and publicly, unless they are trolls. Take any criticism from your fans seriously and benefit from free market research based on viewer feedback. If you activate the “Community” tab in YouTube, you can interact with your fans and also communicate with them between uploading videos. For example, you can give an insight into the making of a particularly popular video. You can also link and tease further contributions.

Conclusion

You can use videos and stories to convey your products and topics vividly. Which platform is suitable for this depends on your target group: You are more likely to reach older people via YouTube, younger people on TikTok or Twitch. With a captivating introduction, a rousing story and a cleverly chosen call to action, you can appeal to fans and customers in a targeted manner. Nurture your community, regularly check the statistics and don’t forget to make sure your films are accessible.