Ever noticed how the internet is practically bursting at the seams with videos? We’re talking a whopping thousand hours of new content every single minute. It’s like a sea of content and truth be told, it’s pretty easy to get lost in it.

You’re in luck because our guide will get you up and running with our Video Marketing Checklist. In this article, we’ll get you bite-sized insights to kick your videos up a notch. From thumbnails that grab attention to nailing your brand’s metric goals.

This isn’t just about creating videos for the sake of it, it’s about strategically harnessing the power of visual storytelling to leave a lasting mark on your target audience.

Think of this checklist as your go-to guide to keeping you ahead of the curve. This will definitely make your video marketing process more streamlined and efficient.

Video Marketing Checklist #1: Planning Your Content

An effective video marketing campaign always starts with thorough preparations. Here are some key guidelines to ensure the development of great video marketing content.

Video Marketing Checklist #2: Know your audience

Knowing is half the battle as they say, this is why understanding your audience is important. Research and understand the demographics, interests, and preferences of your target audience. This knowledge will guide your content direction process, ensuring it resonates with your brand and your intended viewers.

Video Marketing Checklist #3: Understand your goals

Now that you have settled on your target audience, you’ll have to define the purpose of your video—is it to educate, entertain, inspire, or promote a product? Setting specific goals help you create focused and impactful content.

Example:
Your software can replace the clunky spreadsheet most people use in the current market. The goal is to promote and educate your audience about your new software so that people will shift and buy your software.

Video Marketing Checklist #4: Analyze your competitors

From the Art of War by Sun Tzu, he said to know the enemy and know yourself in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. Therefore, it is incredibly important to add to your process studying the videos and content produced by competitors in your niche. Who knows? You might find there gaps that exist where you can take advantage of, or simply identify what works well and how you can differentiate your content to stand out.

Video Marketing Checklist #5: Set a topic

While “Understanding your Goals” and “Setting a Topic” may seem similar, they are completely different. Setting a topic is important because it lays the foundation for your video’s direction and impact.

This step involves choosing a specific subject or theme for your video. It’s about deciding what the video will be in terms of content. The chosen topic should be relevant to your audience and align with their interest. For instance, if you’re a fitness brand targeting a health-conscious audience, your video topic might be “5 Effective Home Workouts for Busy Professionals”.

The Video Production Process

This next step involves translating your chosen topic into a captivating visual narrative. This includes scripting the content, incorporating engaging visuals such as graphics, or animations, and ensuring a harmonious balance between audio and video elements. By following this process, you bring your vision to life, making it appealing and understandable to your audience.

Highlight your topic/solution/problem

In video marketing, the saying “save the best for last” doesn’t hold true. Instead, begin your videos with captivating, attention-grabbing lines that instantly pique your audience’s interest.

Start with pain points, intriguing questions, and startling statistics. These attention grabbers are designed to immediately capture your viewer’s interest and compel them to continue watching.

Example:
Startling statistic: Did you know that 8 out of 10 people underestimate the impact of proper hydration on their energy levels?

Add compelling graphics or animations

Visual elements such as graphics, animations, and illustrations can enhance the visual appeal of your video. Additionally, text graphics enhance your content as it helps information retention for viewers, thus equating to more impactful content.

Overall, the graphics will help convey complex ideas more effectively and keep your viewers engaged.

Ensure audio and video are balanced

This one, on its own, is pretty self-explanatory. No one is going to watch a poorly balanced video, regardless of the production value on your shots. Viewer engagement will completely drop if, for example, they get 100% volume at the start but then can’t hear the rest of the audio after the fact.

High-quality audio is essential for maintaining viewer engagement. Make sure audio levels are clear and balanced with the video, preventing distractions or loss of interest due to poor audio quality.

Optimizing Your Video

This involves enhancing your video appeal and discoverability. Craft an eye-catching thumbnail that entices clicks, use persuasive call-to-action prompts, and create titles and descriptions rich with relevant keywords. Don’t forget our mobile users as well, ensuring mobile compatibility adds to your video value in the long run. This way you maximize your video’s impact and reach. 

Eye-catching thumbnails

Always keep in mind when creating thumbnails to aim for something that you think will command immediate notice. A good trick is to see what other thumbnails by your competitors are performing well and work around it.

Employ striking visuals, vibrant hues, and pertinent imagery to intrigue viewers into clicking your video. Remember thumbnails are your video’s first impression, so make it irresistible to enhance click-through rates and encourage viewers to explore your content further.

Example: Your video is about exotic food. A thumbnail showcasing a perfect plated dish, adorned with colorful ingredients.

Compelling call-to-action

At the end of (or beginning) your video, include a strong and clear call-to-action (CTA). Whether it’s subscribing, liking, sharing, or visiting a website, guide your viewers on what action to take next.

Adding a CTA at the beginning of the video has recently gained traction as well on most videos, especially on YouTube.

One example could be for a cooking channel: Once the video starts, you can add your CTA like “Subscribe For More!” while blurring out for a second the video behind.

Add a description and an optimized title

Craft a concise and descriptive video title that includes your relevant keywords. Including compelling video descriptions that provide additional context also encourages viewers to watch even more and keeps them engaged.

Example: Let’s say you’ve created a video demonstrating how to make a lava cake. Crafting an optimized title like “Heavenly Chocolate Lava Cake Recipe” instantly communicates the richness of the dessert. In the description, you can provide a brief background of it and even the recipe or a link to your site that will provide the users with the detailed recipe. It creates engagement and conversion! Win-win.

Include a mobile version

Let’s not forget that the majority of consumers are on their phones and usually digest information on their phones as well. Ensuring that your video is also mobile-friendly will guarantee a seamless viewing experience. 

It’s worth noting that some platforms will adjust your video depending on the platform the viewer is getting your content from, so it’s always a rule of thumb to upload your video to the highest quality possible.

Add relevant tags

Use relevant keywords and tags that accurately describe the content of your video. These enhances discoverability on the platform’s search function, search engines, and video-sharing platforms.

Example: Suppose you’ve created a video showcasing a walkthrough of your favorite video game. Your tags could include “game walkthrough”, “[name of the game] guide” “name of the game] and etc.

These tags directly relate to the content, allowing your video to appear in search results when users look for such topics. As a result, your video gains visibility and is more likely to attract viewers interested in walkthrough guides for your game.

Video Deployment and Performance Monitoring

This last step is basically making sure you distribute your videos to all the necessary platforms and continually monitoring its performance for success. Publish it on social media channels, crafting engaging captions to entice viewers. Regularly analyze metrics like views, engagement, and conversion rates to assess how well your video is performing. 

Upload to your social media channels

Share your video on platforms where your target audience is active. Tailor content to fit each platform’s requirements and engage with viewers who leave comments or reactions. All the while actively interacting with those who engage, respond to comments and reactions to foster a sense of community.

Example: You’re doing a video on DIY skincare. Share it on Instagram with visually appealing snippets, concise tips, and relevant hashtags. On YouTube, share a longer version of the video with in-depth explanations suited for a wider audience. By adapting your content to each platform, you optimize engagement and cater to the preferences of different user groups.

Create strong compelling captions for copywriting

When sharing on your social channels, it’s also worth noting that regardless if you have optimized your video title and description and have added all the relevant tags, you make sure you have some good and strong writing to help!  Well-crafted copy captures users’ interest, provides context and entices them to view your video.

Monitor your video performance

Regularly analyze key performance metrics such as views, engagements, and click-through rates. This data-driven approach allows you to fine-tune your video strategy and your next videos to come based on adapting from the insights of your analysis.

Example: You’re running a series of educational videos about different parasitic behaviors in the animal kingdom. After a month, review metrics to see which topics have gathered good numbers in terms of engagements and your other chosen metrics. If videos on obligate parasitism received higher views and engagement, consider focusing more on this area in  future videos.

This process ensures your content remains aligned with audience preferences and continually delivers value.

Repurpose long-form content to short-form content

Here’s another trick to make your brand a content machine, transform your videos into bite-sized clips, teaser trailers, or highlight reels. Distribute these condensed versions across different platforms to broaden your video’s exposure and captivate diverse audience segments.

YouTube Shorts and TikTok has proven to be the most effective platform when sharing short-form content so be sure to capitalize on these areas as well.

Example: You have a top-performing video from one of your cooking tutorial videos about exotic dishes. Extract a short clip showcasing the final plated dish and share it on platforms like YouTube Shorts or FB Reels with a captivating caption.

This method sparks curiosity and ‘reels’ (pun intended) in the viewers to watch the full video for the complete recipe. Repurposing content in this way maximizes its visibility and appeals to users’ preferences for quick and engaging content.

How Do You Start?

This is the real question, how do you proceed with the checklist provided? There’s no universal checklist that perfectly fits every aspect of video marketing or digital marketing in general.

The best way to go about with the guide is to carefully review each item and determine the ones most relevant to your marketing strategy. Incorporate only those best practices that align seamlessly with your unique business objectives.

Here at Socialize,  we stand ready to assist you with video content, production, and distribution. Partnering with experts like us can help you unlock the full potential of your video content. Drop us a message today and let’s start creating those videos!