From senior marketing professionals to tech journalists to social media enthusiasts,  the feeling is near unanimous — video is poised to be the most impactful marketing and sales tool in 2018. In fact, 53% of consumers want to see more video content, and over 51% of marketing professionals say video content returns the strongest ROI.

Facebook videos see an average of 135% more organic reach than images, and it is estimated that by 2020, online videos will account for more than 80% of all consumer traffic online. The successful results of video content are undeniable.

For many businesses, video can be a great way to increase visibility, engage audiences, and tap into mobile marketing opportunities. So where to begin? Before you begin any new marketing endeavor, you’ll want to develop a marketing strategy.

How to Create a Video Strategy for Your Business

When crafting your video content strategy, start by asking yourself these following questions about your business.

1. What is your expertise? Obviously, you want to create content you’ll be excited by. However, make sure your videos cover topics that are not only of interest to you, but more importantly, to the audience you want to target. Whether your skill is crafting, consulting, financial planning, or even cleaning hamster cages (don’t judge, this YouTuber has a following of nearly 55,000 subscribers), identify your expertise and what you’d like to convey.
2. What is the purpose of your videos? It may sound like a simple concept, but video content – like any other marketing effort—should be designed with your purpose in mind. Do you want the videos you create to bring in sales? Promote brand awareness? Increase user engagement and activity? Identifying your purpose will help you decide what content you are creating as well as the call-to-action (CTA) you will be including.
3. How often will you be able to create and share video content? With marketing content, quality should always take priority over quantity. However, it is still important to post videos frequently, and on a regular basis. Consistency is key to keeping your audience interested and engaged.
4. What will your message be? You want to ensure you are not only speaking to the people you want to reach, but appropriately conveying what you want to get across. Sending the wrong message can be just as harmful to your business as sending no message at all.
5. What type of content will you produce? One of the most popular video formats are “how to” videos. In fact, searches of how-to videos are growing by 70% year over year. It’s important to identify what type of content will be informative, useful and/or entertaining for your audience and focus on that.
6. What will your style be? Your video doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does need to be suited towards your type of business. If you are a high-end clothing boutique, for example, you probably don’t want your videos coming across as overly casual and unadorned.
7. How will you promote it? One of the great things about video is how it can be used across so many platforms. Post it to your Facebook page, embed it in an email and use it as part of your email marketing campaign. Add it to your website for a more dynamic experience. The platforms on which you share your videos are just as important as the videos themselves. They will determine who you reach and how successfully you can do it.

Now that you’re sold on the power of video, how do you set it up? In our next blog we’ll discuss easy steps for setting up a YouTube channel and producing your first video.