Published: July 28, 2017
Video ROI Series – Part 3
by Justin Difazzio
If you recall, we’ve spent time looking at different ways to measure your video’s return on investment (ROI), and we’ve looked at ways to better focus your video to improve your ROI. In this third entry in our series, we’re going to look at how to get more out of your video marketing strategy.
Where to Launch?
You know you’ll need a clear focus when starting a video campaign, and you know you’ll need a plan for where and when to distribute that video. The four basic places most organizations launch video is onto a YouTube page, onto their website, in their social media circles, and in their serial newsletter. This strategy can cover a lot of ground and makes your video available to anyone who might be looking for it and to people who may not yet even know it exists.
Measuring the ROI of each of these channels can be difficult, and you may want to find a program or hire help to track the statistics of the most important ones. YouTube provides its own analytics that can be helpful. Checking in on these and adjusting your marketing plan can mean the difference between clear ROI and a statistical disaster. Figures that measure play rate (how many people click play), engagement (how much of the video people watch once they click play), and click-through rate (how many times your video spurs further action) can be helpful in determining just how effective your video might be. Studies show that with a smart video that is focused and distributed well, your page could generate up to three times as much traffic as a page that is only text based. Think about who you could reach with three times as many monthly visitors!
Viral? Better to Get Organic
Speaking of epic returns, you might have high hopes of your video going viral. While that isn’t exactly impossible, having good organic marketing is a more realistic goal. Organic marketing refers to all that liking and sharing and up-voting you do on a daily basis. It doesn’t cost anything, and it furthers your message. Photos used to be the best way to reach people in organic marketing, but recently video has come up as king. Not only has it surpassed photography as the number one tool, photography has dropped to the bottom of the list, with a 135% gap between them. Video has over a hundred percent more organic reach, according to Socialbakers, with Facebook being the most effective place to launch. That’s pretty great news for free traffic on a free social network where all that organic marketing adds up to a more impressive ROI.
The facts are clear. Video is here to stay in a big way. Whether you’re trying to generate new leads, get your audience to join you in a cause, or sell a product or service, video is the most effective tool for reaching your goals. And while measuring ROI isn’t yet a science, there are enough ways to track it, boost it, and work with it that it doesn’t have to be exact. Plenty of factors go in to determining what reach your promotional video has, from making a good first impression to selling that small batch potato salad. It doesn’t have to be all about the numbers! With a focused, catchy video made by professionals, there’s no telling how far your marketing campaign could go!