Industrial Video Marketing Strategies - Part 2

Written by Kerry O'Malley Tuesday, 19 July 2011 12:26

Once you've established your goals and objectives, there are three main components to consider in an industrial video marketing strategy: content, viral, and search engine optimization.  Following are some considerations to help you get started.

Content Strategy

Develop videos that your target audience will relate to.  This is really a basic principle for any type of marketing communication.  What problems does your target audience have that your company solves?  What is it your target audience needs that perhaps your competitors aren't giving them?  If your videos provide solutions, they will be viewed and passed along.

• Make your videos as concise as possible.  Most people's attention span for Internet video is 3-4 minutes, especially on social media sites like YouTube.  If you really feel you need 15 minutes to get your message across, do an abbreviated "teaser" video for social media sites and place the full length video on your website.  The shorter version will probably be shared more readily.
• Do something unexpected from time to time.  It's so easy for manufacturing and industrial businesses to get locked into a serious, conservative tone with all their communications.  Who says you can't communicate a message in a more creative, fun way?  People are stressed these days, and humor is a great way to allow them to de-stress, if only for a few minutes.  I'm not talking about outrageously funny, just smart and clever.  If your company is full of engineers who have a hard time making that creative leap there are plenty of professionals out there who make a living at this stuff.

Viral Strategy

• Put some real thought into where your target audience goes for online information.  What blogs do they read?  What trade publication sites do they go to?  How about forums? Go a step beyond and also consider the individuals who influence the decision makers, who may be likely to see your video and pass it on to the right person.
• If necessary, allocate budget to "seed" the video in the right locations.  You will pay up-front, but if the videos are placed on the right pages and viewed by the right people, eventually you will be receiving "earned" as opposed to "paid" views.  Consider highly targeted blogs, trade publications, trade associations, and even social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook.
• Don't forget to promote your videos from your website and all your social networking pages - and do it more than once!  It's an old marketing saying that you have to "tell 'em, tell 'em, and tell 'em again!"  Statisfically, it takes people on average SIX times to act on promotional information.  For every video you produce, you should mention or post about it numerous times on each of your social networking sites.  Use common sense: one self-promo every few days is probably sufficient!

SEO Strategy

• You should already have a pretty good idea of the keywords or search terms your potential customers would use when searching for your products and services.  These are peppered throughout your website and all your other online communications, right?  It's no different with video.  Use the same terms that address your customers' problems and needs and integrate them into your creative.
• Use the videos' titles, descriptions, and tags to optimize them for search.
• If you have videos, you have a YouTube channel - right? (If not, stop reading this and instantly set one up!)  Google owns YouTube, and YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google.  Use YouTube's subtitles and closed captions to create a searchable text version of your videos so everything that is said in the video becomes searchable.

Video is a natural for communicating how engineered products are manufactured or how they work, as well as how complex industrial services are performed.  Take advantage of its potential to draw more visitors to your website and turn more "searchers" into customers!