Maximizing Your Video Tech Stack: Twin Cities HubSpot User Group Recap

HubSpot has stated, “People have been talking about the ‘year of video’ every year since 2006.” It’s true — video content continues to dominate the digital realm. Marketing strategies that center around video are helping companies of all sizes grow and succeed.

Wyzowl reports that in 2017, “63% of businesses were using video as a marketing tool.” In 2019, that number has grown to over 87%.

“87% of people would like to see more video in brands in 2019.” —Wyzowl

The statistics in Wyzowl’s 5th Annual State of Video Marketing Survey show that video marketing has seen steady growth over the last few years.

But, it’s not the fact that marketers are using video in their strategies, it’s how they are using it.

The key point in all of this is the effect video is having on consumers and companies’ bottom lines.

“83% of marketers now say that video gives them a good ROI, up from 78% twelve months ago.” —Wyzowl

The stakes are being set in the marketing world. It’s no longer about producing video for the sake of having video content. Instead, it’s about creating videos that address consumer needs and pain points.

Next, there should be a strategy for distributing these videos through multichannel marketing (websites, landing pages, social media, etc.) while also creating a seamless experience (desktop, mobile devices, storefront, etc.).

We live in a digital world. Fast, digestible information is what consumers want. By providing quick, easy-to-understand information, you’re helping build trust with your audience and guiding them through the buyer’s journey.

Here is our recap of Q1’s Twin Cities HubSpot User Group (TC HUG) event hosted by our friends Media Junction at Como Park Zoo & Conservatory on Wednesday, March 26, 2019.

How to get started with video marketing

It’s important to understand that video isn’t going away. However, how you use video will be the determining factor of your success moving forward.

So, how do you get started incorporating video into your marketing strategy?

While video can seem like a big undertaking, it really isn’t. Creating video comes down to simply having a content strategy and then filming. So as Nike would say, “Just do it.” Get out there and start shooting your videos.

Here are some items you’ll need in your video tech stack:

• Collaboration and communication (Google docs, Slack, Skype)
• Camera (Sony, Nikon, Canon, smartphone)
• Teleprompter (Prompt Smart, Cue Prompter, etc.)
• Video hosting platforms (Wistia, Vidyard, HubSpot, etc.)
• Video communication (Zoom, etc.)
• Video recorder (Soapbox)
• Video transcriber (Rev)
• Video editor (Adobe Premiere Pro, Premiere Rush, After Effects, Frame.io, and iMovie)
• Analytics (23, Databox, HubSpot, etc.)

Stop overthinking video. People don’t expect your marketing video to be a Hollywood blockbuster. Videos are created for one purpose: to engage your current and potential customers. As long as it accomplishes that, you’re on the right track.

1. Turn questions into killer content

One of the easiest ways to work video into your content strategy is to start small.

Respond to commonly asked questions with video content. If you’re not sure what else to produce, frequently asked questions can drive your video strategy. All you need to do is find someone who is an expert on the question at hand, sit down with them in a well-lit area, and start filming. You may find that in one or two takes you have something that can be distributed across your various digital platforms.

FAQ videos aren’t the only type of video content that provide value and engage consumers.

Here are 8 types of video that drive engagement:

1. Demo videos
2. Brand videos
3. Explainer videos
4. How-to videos
5. Animated videos
6. Case study videos
7. Live videos
8. Micro social videos

You can start adding these into your video strategy today. All you need to do is pick up the camera and start filming!

2. Target your ideal personas

Use your audience to guide your video content creation strategy. Your ideal personas are who you want to direct your attention to.

When determining what type of video content to produce for your ideal customer, consider the following:

• Where do they spend their time online?
• What does your ideal customer want?
• What does your ideal customer need?
• What steps do they take before making a purchase decision?
• What type of video content is most likely to engage your ideal customer?

Videos can make a significant impact on your customers. Start by interviewing experts on your team, using transcripts to make your audio content readable, and cutting your videos into shorter, more digestible chunks.

Remember: the shorter your video, the easier it will be for your audience to consume the information, process it, and then relay that information to others via word of mouth.

3. Analytics facilitate business growth

Take a look at the stats of your video and see if you notice any trends. You can use these observations to tweak your video and improve its performance going forward. Analytics insights like these will be a key part of your overall strategy to help you boost the performance of future videos.

Make sure you’re keeping tabs on:

• Who views your material
• How long someone watches the video
• Where people are dropping off within your video
• CTA clicks
• At what point they decide to purchase your product or service

These points can help you understand which direction to take for your next video and how to better engage your audience.

Questions for the panel of experts

There were quite a few questions asked about video strategy at the HUG event. Below, we’ll highlight our top 5 questions and answers.

1. When it comes to video hosting sites, what is the best practice? And if you use hosting sites, can you still use YouTube?

You can always use YouTube, but HubSpot could be a better option as they’ve just added video functionality (although it’s pretty simplistic right now, but that may change in the future). At Denamico, we use Wistia for our video hosting and repost to YouTube.

When creating and hosting your videos, just make sure your videos are branded and that they are optimized with calls to action, appropriate tags, and custom thumbnails.

2. Video production can be expensive, what portion of my marketing budget should go to video?

You don’t need to spend a whole lot of your marketing budget on videos. Take a quick inventory of your current content creation budget — both in time and dollars. Depending on how much you are spending, a portion of that budget could be allocated elsewhere.

As an example, if you’re spending a lot of time creating blogs or eBooks, look at swapping out one of those pieces for video and repurposing the video’s transcript for your written component.

Think about how you can add one or two videos per quarter into your budget. If you were going to write a blog about a common question asked by prospects, consider creating a video response instead. You can easily simplify the concepts of very complex topics in a way that doesn’t break the bank.

3. We’ve talked about videos for marketing, but how can you use videos with sales enablement and how does that fit in with the overall strategy?

This is a great question! There are many different ways you can add videos into your sales strategy.

Personalized videos of general or targeted topics can be sent via email to customers or prospects. This type of personalization can also be carried through to your email signature with videos instead of just a stagnant logo or name. When your sales team adds these functions to their email correspondence, your audience will get to know your brand and your sales team better.

You may also want to consider creating videos for how-to’s, service tickets, proposals, playbooks, and knowledge base articles to improve your customer experience. That way you’ll humanize the sales process and strengthen your customer experience at the same time.

4. Can you embed a video into an email campaign or newsletters within HubSpot?

Unfortunately, the short answer is not at this time. However, you can embed graphics, gifs, photos, and more into your emails and newsletters.

We recommend in your email or newsletter to link from a video still image to a landing page which then transfers people back to your website where the video is located. That way, people can still interact with your email, and it gets them back to your site — a double whammy!

5. How do you set up the project scope appropriately (outside and internally), so that there aren’t too many people involved?

Video projects come with a lot of buzz, especially for clients, so it’s important to set expectations right away. You may even have to over-communicate your expectations. From there, you can decide who will be the specific group of people to sign off at each step of the process.

By creating a solid plan from start to finish, the execution of the project (and the scope) won’t be blown out of proportion or have too many cooks in the kitchen.

Top 3 takeaways from Q1 TC HUG

1. Identify frequently asked questions, find an expert, and start filming.

Keep your videos informative, short, and sweet. Don’t let the message get lost in the overall scale of the production. Just get out there and film.

Video doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to be effective in reaching your audience. Identifying the “who” and “why”should inform your video content and distribution. Use data to learn and improve.

Look towards analytics to see where you can tweak or change your strategy (views, calls to actions, drop off times, etc.) which overall can be beneficial to your company.

See you at the next Twin Cities HUG event!

The Twin Cities HubSpot User Group (TC HUG) is a community of HubSpot users, inbound marketing professionals, and business owners.

Join us for the next HUG if you’re seriously into:

• Harnessing those “aha” moments
• Learning about what works for other businesses in the metro area
• Connecting with like-minded marketers, insightful speakers, and inbound marketing peers

Stay tuned for more information about 2019’s Q2 TC HUG event!