Content marketing is - in a word - broad. It can be anything from written blogs to a website to downloadable PDFs to social media to imagery to video. Content is central to every single part of an organization, whether you work at a B2C, B2B, non-profit, or government organization. But as we’ve said many times, video is the best way to tell a story.

That’s why it’s so important for marketers to learn how to best use video as a core part of their content marketing strategy. But where is video most effective? Typically, we'd say it should be used everywhere, but with the caveat that there are tactics that can greatly improve video performance.

In this blog, we’ll break down the different ways that video can be used in your content marketing, including when and where to distribute video.

Historically, video has been almost exclusively used at the top-of-the-funnel. Marketers would typically upload their videos to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; leaving them to hopefully get organic search traffic, paid views, or simply, go viral. While this strategy can certainly propel a business into success (see: Dollar Shave Club), it’s not a strategy that is sustainable for the vast majority of businesses and their content marketing strategies.

Just like any other piece of content, video needs to be strategic. If video is a stand-alone piece of content, it’s important to optimize it for various distribution channels. But video can also improve results by intertwining it with other pieces of content marketing.

1) Blogs: Every single blog post should have a corresponding video to go along with it. Whether that’s a 30-second video from the author or a short product video explaining an announcement, video can increase the reach on channels like Facebook and LinkedIn. Research even states that videos have 1200% more reach than text and images combined.

In our State of Online Video report, we found that the average Facebook view is :6 seconds, while the average engagement on a website is 4 minutes and 59 seconds. It’s important to not only tease blog content but to also push your audience to engage/read through a link. For example, here’s a short teaser we shared on social for our blog post, 12 Video Marketing Statistics That Will Help Shape Your Digital Strategy:

2) Webinars: At the end of the day, webinars are video content. Whether it’s a person on-camera or slides with audio, webinar content has been driving leads and educating audiences for nearly two decades. Webinars can be sliced up into short clips to be shared on social with links driving back to the full webinar on your website. In order to capture leads, teasers of webinars are valuable to get someone back into your funnel and off of third-party hosting services.

3) eBooks, Reports, & White Papers: Video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by up to 80%. A simple explainer or video note from the author is a simple solution to bumping up conversion rates. If you want to explore how video can impact content on an even deeper level, host a webinar based on a white paper and share both to improve the chances that your content is diversified enough for your audience to consume it in their preferred method.

4) Case Studies: While written case studies can be powerful when they include statistics and stories, video is the best way to tell the story of a customer. Video humanizes the organization that used your solution or product to improve their problems in a way that really resonates with other potential customers. By using video in conjunction with case stories, it will tap into the 59% of executives that would prefer to watch a video than read text.  

5) Product Video: Product marketing is best told visually. When it comes to complex and intricate products (or even simple ones), it’s in a marketer's interest to show instead of telling. In our visual world, people consume video 60,000x faster than text, which is the perfect medium for communicating how a product or service work. Whether it’s a short 60-second explainer or a longer webinar that dives deep into the specifics, video needs to be incorporated into press releases, announcement blogs, and social posts.

6) Website: As marketers, the ultimate goal is to engage your audience and be able to track which content resonates best. Video metrics on a website tell a story and start to shape an entire digital strategy. By using full-funnel tactics of shorter clips on social and pushing an audience towards your website content, it will allow you to measure engagement to see which topics and spokespeople connect.

Customer Loyalty With Content Marketing & Video

While content marketing is meant to engage, educate, and convert your audience, content can also play a crucial role in turning your customers into loyal supporters. Educational customer content plays an important role, as does personal outreach through video. Video creates a humanized brand and builds long term relationships.

By creating those connections, your customers will become more invested in not only your product but also your brand. This connection can build word-of-mouth interactions and turn those customers into advocates.

With video continuing to rise amongst companies around the world (we found that 87% of marketers use video as part of their content marketing strategy), it’s important to run video properly across the entire funnel. To do so successfully requires implementing tactics that are optimized for getting the most out of your video investment and content strategy.