3 Tips For Your Video Content Marketing Path

You have this Content Marketing thing down, right? Or, at the least, you have a plan. You have that strategy and have an idea of where you are going with that content marketing plan.

BTW – if you need some help, here are a couple of articles that can get you going:

• The Best Content Marketing Examples
• 50 Must-Know Statistics to Improve Your Lead Generation Strategy

There are several reasons why you want to incorporate video into your content marketing plan. One important reason to consider is the enhancement of your personal or corporate brand through video marketing. Video is a powerful story telling medium; videos are sharable content assets that can be marketed across multiple platforms.

That said, we all know that video content marketing and video production do not just happen overnight.  They also do not happen without any effort.

What Comes to Mind When Considering the Video Content Marketing

Some of the obvious things coming to mind are video production or video acquisition.

For those of you who are already video producers, think you are video producers, or are the fearless types, this step probably doesn’t hang you up that much.

However, there is another group of people who may wonder how you are going to come by the video in the first place. I am not suggesting that you worry about it, but rather, evaluate your options.

Here are three ideas right from the starting gate:

• Produce the video yourself.
• Purchase the video.
• Hire someone to make the video for you.

The Cost of Doing Business

More than likely, the cost of acquiring your video is going to be in the order that they appear in the above list.  So, producing the video yourself is likely to be the least expensive (but not necessarily inexpensive).  Purchasing the video is the next one up the cost ladder.  Hiring a professional is likely to be the most expensive.

Let’s talk about the different options that you have for each of those, so you can see that it is not just one path, but a variety of options within each method.

Method 1: The Do-It-Yourself Video

If you already have the experience and the video software, then the expense is a different focus.  It is more about video production and the time involved in getting it done.  If you do not yet have the software, there is going to be the cost of the software. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to spend a ton of money.

On the low end of the spectrum, there are some video software packages that may cross your email that range around $30 or so. Granted, they may not be top of the line, but it gets the job done, and that is the goal here.

Moving up that ladder are software packages like Techsmith’s Camtasia, available for Mac or Windows (at very different costs and capabilities). This is a really good option for the midlevel. You can create some really professional results with this software without having to take a second mortgage on the house. Granted, it will likely require some focused time to learn how to use the software.

If you are a little lower on funds and time, another option for the do-it-yourselfer is to create a live video. Fortunately, with the option of the Google Hangout and the Facebook Live, there is the opportunity to create a video of you chatting with your audience or another individual or team.

While it is great to add that polish to the live video, there is a bit of forgiveness for the raw element of the live video. This creates a focus on the content and less about the production skill set. This allows for less time (in production) and less money (not requiring the professional software).

Method 2: Purchase the Video

Another option for obtaining/acquiring that video is to purchase it.

This can be done at sites like Big Stock Photo, where the price of the videos, considering the high quality, is pretty reasonable, or many other similar stock image/video sites.

Technically, you could use the video “as is” after purchasing it on a stock site.  However, more than likely you will want to combine this method with Method #1, the do-it-yourself. You will likely want to combine the video with a bit of production process, adding some text and animation, etc.  Fortunately, Camtasia allows the adding of text/animation.  There are also lower dollar applications that do it, too.

There are online options that provide how-to mechanisms and functionality. Those would include Sparkol (VideoScribe) for whiteboard/explainer videos and PowToon for animations.

One other area of purchase is PLR, which stands for “Private Label Rights.” In some cases, people will create videos and sell them to others. The buyers use the videos in membership sites, articles, or other video marketing endeavors. The best PLR to consider is sold as a limited edition product. That means that there are fewer people out there who are using the same video or set of videos. However, the advantage of PLR is that the price reflects the bulk access of the videos. Because of that, you could acquire videos in a cost saving transaction.

Method 3: Hire a Professional

Finally, there is the option of hiring a professional videographer and/or a professional video marketer to produce and market your video for you.

When hiring quality service, this can be very expensive, and it is not surprising that it can reach the five digits in pricing. Quality service costs money, considering the cost of production, the electricity, the skill, etc.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who will advertise professional video services for $5. Yes, you got it, at places like Fiverr. Two of the categories that come to mind are Whiteboard/Explainer Videos and a search that involves a service, like “do a whiteboard video.”

The key thing to keep in mind, when hiring a professional is that you do get what you are paying for in the service. So, while the person charging $5 may be very talented, you are not likely to get the $5,000 service for $5.

As long as you can manage your expectations, this may be a viable option for you, realizing that low dollar may mean a bit lower quality.

Video Marketing

If it were all about the making of the videos and that is it, we could all retire to our easy chair. However, there is that piece, regardless of the video making method, which requires marketing.

Whether it is the video that is motivating the marketing or we are marketing the video, the same steps are taken. The following articles will help you on your way in that direction:

• 10 Stats About Video That Marketers Need to Know
• 4 Interactive Video Marketing Examples That Mastered the Medium
• Live Video Marketing: What You Need To Know About This Hot Trend in 2017

Conclusion

When it comes to video content marketing, there is an easy way to describe your action step.  That is, get in there and get it going.

There are two parts of any video content marketing strategy (and actually more than two). The one part is the production (or acquisition) of the video, and the other is the distribution or marketing aspect.

It also depends on what the purpose is. Is the video the primary content? Or, is the video the method of marketing something else like a product or service? Either way, you have some action steps that you can even do today.  Hey, that could even be a case of using your Microsoft PowerPoint application to export a video… Then, post it on YouTube.