5 Social Media Video Marketing Tactics You Should Be Using

For years, people have included images in their social media posts since visual media is the key to driving more engagement. Images produce powerful results and will continue to do so.

57% of marketers agree that video helps them generate a higher volume of leads

But if you want an edge over your competitors, you need to create video content too. Not only do fewer people create videos so there is more room to dominate that marketing channel, but videos drive more engagement than other types of social media content.On Facebook, video ads generate more clicks and conversions than image ads. On Instagram, videos get 2X+ more comments than images. On LinkedIn, 57% of marketers agree that video helps them generate a higher volume of leads. And of course, there are networks like YouTube, with 2 billion monthly active users, where you can only publish videos.As you can see, videos drive better results than images on the top social networks.This is why I want to show you the top five social video marketing tactics you should be using to drive more views, engagement, and sales.

#1 Create more educational videos:

When most businesses get started with social media video marketing, they usually place their focus on creating sales videos that promote one or more products.These videos can drive some sales, but they work best when accompanied by educational videos. This is because you need to treat your video marketing funnel like any other marketing funnel.At the top of the funnel, you need to have free helpful content. You should produce more of this. And at the bottom of the funnel, you should have sales-driven content. You should publish less of this.The videos at the top of the funnel will attract your audience and nurture them, while the videos at the bottom will generate more sales.The best videos for the top of the funnel are how-to videos. A study by Wibbitz found that the type of video that people want to watch the most (80%) is this type of video.

The study found that the other forms of videos that people want to watch are behind the scenes, interviews, news coverage, creative inspiration, and motivational posts.All of these types of videos fall under educational content. So, create more of them and give your audience what they are looking for.For some ideas on how to create the right video content, check out MyProtein’s YouTube channel. Most of their videos are educational. Since their audience consists of fitness enthusiasts, their videos show you how to cook or work out better. An example is this video on why carbohydrates are good.[embed]https://youtu.be/15fDKIY_12c[/embed]Sales videos, like the one below that promotes their products, are published less often.[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2a5iz1aq_Y[/embed]The same goes for their other networks. If you visit their Instagram account, you will notice that they publish more educational video content here too.

The only difference here is that the videos are shorter as they need to adhere to Instagram’s one-minute time limit.Depending on the time you have to dedicate to creating video content will depend on the content you post to each social network. Whether you create new content for each channel or you use the same content for each, make sure your videos are optimized for each network. By that, I’m not only referring to the length of the video but other aspects like the dimensions. For example, videos with landscape dimensions work best on YouTube, but those with square dimensions do better on Instagram. And of course, you will need to create videos with portrait dimensions for Instagram stories.To save time while creating videos you can use a tool like InVideo.

They provide you with templates that make it easy to design videos in the right format for various networks like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. All you need to do is choose a social network, pick a template, upload your video footage and modify it with their editor.After that, you can download and share it to your social networks.

#2 Use thumbnails:

On many of the top social networks, people have the option to turn off autoplay. So no matter how amazing your video is, many people won’t watch it if there isn’t something to persuade them to click on the play button.To get a visitor to watch your video, you should create a thumbnail. Think of your thumbnail as a headline for your videos. Thumbnails attract attention and get people to watch your videos, just like how headlines get people to read articles.To create an attractive thumbnail, all you need to do is take a still from the video or find an attractive photo and add a little bit of text to it. This could be the video headline or an excerpt from the video that will convince people to click the play button.A good example is this video from Nandos.http://www.instagram.com/p/B-XoRDRFP7X/They simply added the title of the recipe to the video. I also like that they used other forms of overlay text throughout the video. This will make it easy for people to watch the video even if they have the sound turned off.To create thumbnails like this you can use the aforementioned InVideo or a tool like Venngage, which also lets you create YouTube banners.

#3 Use calls to action:

You should include a call to action in your video content and many social networks give you this option. So, take advantage of this.The call to action can ask people to learn more, sign up or buy something.The action you ask them to take should depend on the type of video you created. When you create an educational video, it would be better to ask people to learn more or sign up for something free.An example is this video on sleeping hacks from Mind Valley. It is presented by Michael Breus.

Here they embedded a link to a landing page that promotes a free masterclass from Michael Breus in the YouTube video’s end screen.

This strategy will help them gather leads since the topic of the video is highly relevant to the topic of the lead magnet.So, when you come up with your video idea, also come up with a lead magnet idea and create it before you create your video. Gate it behind a landing page that you can create with Shortstack. Then promote it in your video by embedding it directly.Another example is this video from The Earthling Co.

They created a sales video and tagged products in it. This is indicated by the shopping bag icon present in the bottom left corner of the video.When you tap on it, all the products tagged in the video will appear on the post. You can click on them, visit the product landing pages and buy.The Earthling Co. was able to tag products in their videos as their site is built with Shopify.

They have an integration with Instagram. This feature lets them take advantage of shoppable posts and tag products in their photos and videos.Embedding links to landing pages in your videos will make it easy for people to quickly find the page. This step is especially necessary when creating videos for networks like Instagram where you can’t share links in the description.

#4 Share more live videos:

People spend 3x more time watching a Facebook Live video compared to one that isn’t live. This is likely because live videos give people a special feeling - they get to be among the first to see the video and they get to ask you questions in real time.So, make it a habit to organize a live video frequently. This could be an educational video where you just share helpful content or a sales video where you promote a product. It can work well for limited time offers where you have a sale for as long as the video is live.Here they invited a representative from Benefit Cosmetics and asked them to show their viewers how to use their BADgal Mascara. They also inform viewers that those who engage the most will be entered for a giveaway. As a result of this, the video got 197 comments.So, come up with some live and creative social video ideas today.

#5 Retarget video viewers with video ads:

Most social networks let you create custom audiences based on video views and retarget them with ads. So, take advantage of this feature especially when you use live video. This way, even if people miss your call to action and don’t sign up or buy your product, you can still find them.Also, make sure you use video ads to reach these people as they tend to generate 7.5x more clicks than display ads.

Conclusion:

These are the five best social media video marketing tactics you should be using. Start by creating more educational videos and accompany them with the occasional sales video. Also, make sure you optimize these videos with thumbnails and call to actions to drive more views and conversions.Once your video-making confidence improves, you can do live videos and then scale up your results with ads.

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