8 Tips on How to Build a Sustainable Video Marketing Strategy as a Company

1. What is video content?
2. What is meant by video marketing strategy?
3. Why is a sustainable video marketing strategy useful?
4. 8 tips to consider when developing a sustainable video marketing strategy
5. 7 steps for every workshop for the development of a sustainable video marketing strategy
6. What tools help you implement your video marketing strategy?
7. Conclusion on online marketing strategy video

The video content format offers a wide range of design options for companies. From simple screencasts, through authentic employee videos, to the live stream of a company event, there are no limits. But how do you build a sustainable video marketing strategy for your company? What tips and steps should be considered? What things should not be done?

Our guest author Jan Pörtner answers these questions for you in this article. The focus of this article is primarily on YouTube and partially includes short video formats.

What is video content?

As a content creator in the company, there are many possibilities for content creation. Video content is the top discipline of content creation, as there are many points needed to produce a good video.

Basically, there are three areas on which good video content is built.

In my opinion, video content is one of the most authentic means to communicate with the target audience, as tonality, gestures, facial expressions and sympathy can be conveyed in the video. As a rule, we decide very quickly whether we like the people in the video or not.

You are surely familiar with it, when videos or videos in general are being talked about in your company, many people think that the effort for such a video is not high and can be produced quickly. With a bit of practice, you can optimize the workflow for video production in the company, but it is a long learning curve that requires a lot of perseverance and time.

In order to achieve your goal faster and to produce sustainably good videos, you can bring in external experts who will accompany you on your journey. This can start with the development of a sustainable video marketing strategy, continue with training your employees on how to create good marketing videos, and end with support in the production of video formats/series. You benefit from the experiences of the experts, who can then point out possible stumbling blocks to you and let you create good video content faster.

What is meant by video marketing strategy?

As with any content strategy, the video area also needs a sustainable plan to regularly generate video content that creates added value. This basically describes very well what a video marketing strategy is.

You can imagine it as similar to the preparation for a marathon. A long-term training plan is also needed to finish after 42.195 km in the end. Without a plan/strategy, you start sprinting at the beginning and then after half realise that your stamina is not enough because you have never run that far before.

The same applies with a video marketing strategy. This provides a guide that you can follow and offers security in your daily work. Here, you clearly have the goal in mind and roughly know in which direction you are going. However, you should bring a certain flexibility to be able to react to current events.

Why is a sustainable video marketing strategy useful?

A sustainable video marketing strategy enables a consistent targeted communication with the target group. This results to sustainable branding and makes the brand/company more personal. Products and services can be specifically highlighted that the company wants to place. Especially when using YouTube as a distribution channel, organic reach can be built up through trends, which benefits the brand. Additionally a video marketing strategy is useful to give all employees a clear and structured guideline. This minimises the coordination effort and leads to more efficient implementation. However, when setting up the video strategy, all stakeholders should be involved.

In today's digital world, a variety of different information is hitting you and your company every day. We are driven by impulses that we have to react to, which in the worst case can lead to a PR disaster/ shitstorm. The best example currently is probably the mask affair around Fynn Kliemann, who also published a not so optimal response video shortly afterwards.

That's why it's important, in a video marketing strategy, to sketch out certain scenarios and have an emergency plan in the drawer. Here one should ask oneself, what can happen in the worst case and how can one react sensibly to it. If this case occurs, one pulls out the emergency plan and everyone knows what to do. This way, your company can act instead of react. This action can then lead to your brand image not being damaged.

8 tips to consider when developing a sustainable video marketing strategy

You are surely asking yourself now: How do I develop such a sustainable video marketing strategy? Basically, there is of course no general procedure here, since every company has different requirements, budget and resources at its disposal. Nevertheless, I would like to give you some tips here, which could be helpful in the development of a sustainable video marketing strategy.

1. Don't just think in terms of channels

When creating videos, it is often immediately thought to publish this on a certain social media platform like Facebook, LinkedIn or TikTok and Instagram. Each platform of course has different requirements for the video format. Where on Instagram and TikTok, everything runs over portrait videos (9:16), the classic landscape formats (16:9) videos are to be found on all other social media platforms.

When creating video strategy in the first step should be thought detached from the channel, to go into the development process as unrestricted as possible. Nevertheless, it should be clear before the video production for which platform the video is. It can be useful to think directly in video format combinations, since the effort here is not much greater. When creating a long YouTube video, teaser videos for Instagram and TikTok can be produced directly. These can then be linked to the main video.

However, which requirements for the individual social media platforms exist, I have included for you in this overview as a PDF for printing.

2. Authentic videos

When you create videos with your company, try to make them as authentic as possible. This means try to transport your company culture and values that you live every day into the videos. For example, if you are a young start-up and the dress code in the office is rather casual, it doesn't make sense to sit in a suit and tie in the videos. Also, the choice of people in front of the camera should ideally not be professional presenters, but employees from the company.

3. Regularity of uploads

One of the most important cornerstones of a sustainable video strategy is a regular upload rhythm. On YouTube, for example, the algorithm rewards your continuous content creation with more organic reach.

To realise regular video output, define a fixed interval for the publication of the videos. For example, every second Wednesday of the month. This way you can work towards this date and your target group knows when a new video will be online. As a long-time YouTube creator, I can give you the tip, especially at the beginning, better to start with fewer videos per month to warm up with the complete video creation process. At a later stage, you can then increase the number.

4. Do not underestimate the effort of a video

As already mentioned at the beginning, you should not underestimate the effort for the production of a video. Depending on the scope, a 5 minute YouTube video can take up to 15 hours in production. Decision-makers in companies often do not have this on their radar and you have to deal with the consequences. That's why I can only recommend you to get external experts on board who can advise and support.

5. Start earlier with the practical implementation and do not invest too much time in strategy

You can spend months dealing with a video marketing strategy and work out the details. However, whether this strategy actually works in practice can only be found out if you really implement it. From my own experience I can report that it can be very useful to develop a basic video marketing strategy, but start quickly with the implementation. Because only in this way you get a real impression of how well the strategy works. There is the possibility of constant improvement/adaptation of the strategy during the whole process.

6. Think in video content formats

Video content formats help you to implement your video marketing strategy better. This way, all participants know what the videos are about. This simplifies the preparation and planning of your videos. You can then structure these formats in individual playlists on your YouTube channel. In the next section, I will give you some concrete examples of format ideas.

7. Recycling of video content

In companies, people often think too one-dimensionally when it comes to the topic of video. Let's assume you organise an event in your company where speakers give presentations. After the pandemic, every company should think ahead and also make this event available online as a live stream. Instead of removing the live stream after the event, you can cut the individual presentations out of the live stream and upload them as a single piece of video content on your YouTube channel. This leads to more organic reach, as the target group can find these videos better.

8. Build your own video content hub on YouTube

When it comes to video content, unfortunately many companies still underestimate the power of YouTube. In Germany, 49 million active users watch 40min per day videos on YouTube. (Numbers come from the OMR Masterclass directly from Google).

Why every company should use a YouTube channel as a second website and where the advantages lie, I explained to you in this video.

7 steps for every workshop for the development of a sustainable video marketing strategy

1. Goal - What is the goal of the videos?

As with any good content strategy, you should first consider what goal you want to pursue with the videos. In most cases, videos serve the sustainable brand building of a brand/company. But there can also be clear sales intentions behind it. These can be connected with selling a product or service. However, one should be careful that it does not become too promotional, but rather show which problem can be solved with the product.

2. Ideas - What content should be shown in the video?

Once the goal is defined, it is a matter of collecting ideas for videos in a brainstorming session with all the people involved in the company. It is best to first record these in a Mindmap Tool. If the workshop is virtual, collaboration tools like Miro offer a promising opportunity to work on a mindmap at the same time. More Collaboration Tools can be found on OMR Reviews.

A very classic example for video ideas are topics from the HR area. These offer insights into the company, interview employees or accompany an apprentice with the camera for a day. If the company offers products, so-called Help Content can be helpful. Here an employee explains in detail how the product works and how to use it. This also helps the support and sales team, because the customer understands the product better. But also branding topics like the presentation of a sustainability strategy and what the company is actually doing for it are perfect for videos.

3. Voting of the subject areas

Once the brainstorming phase is over, all participants vote for the subject areas. Therefore, you should ask yourself in which subject area you immediately have 10 concrete video ideas. If you have difficulty with this, I would recommend not implementing this subject area first.

4. Selection of 2 subject areas

Next, choose a maximum of 2 subject areas to develop in more detail. The other subject areas that have not been selected can certainly be useful at a later stage.

5. Development of content formats

Consider in the team, what a suitable video content format might be for the selected subject areas. The following questions can be helpful here. What would be a suitable format title? What should be shown in the content format? Who has a lot of knowledge about the content format?

In this point, the question who should also be clarified. How often per week, month new videos should come online.

6. Practical W-questions

The PR people know the W-questions from press releases. The following questions can also be helpful for video marketing strategy.

• Who stands in front of the camera?
• On which social media channel should the videos be published?
• Who produces the videos?
• What can be shown visually?
• Who takes care of the content preparation?
• Where should the videos be shot? small studio in the company or real setting
• What could a video workflow look like?
• Is external help in form of a video expert needed?

7. Summarise the results using Business Model Canvas

The results of the workshop can then easily be incorporated in a modified form of a Business Model Canvas. This way, you have everything at a glance and can hang a printed form over your desk. The proposal below shows an example, which we always use in our workshops.

What tools help you implement your video marketing strategy?

The following tools are particularly useful for implementing video content. As already mentioned, collaboration tools such as Miro are a solid option for supporting the entire process of creation.

When the video marketing strategy is in place, it comes to implementing the video. Here Canva Pro can help. In addition to creating attractive video preview pictures (thumbnails), screencasts can also be recorded very well in presentation mode with Canva. Thanks to the large selection of icons and elements, the creation is very fast. Once the screencast is recorded, of course, it still goes to the video editing.

The market leader here is of course Adobe Premiere Pro. This editing program does require a bit of familiarisation. However, I can say from my own experience that there is at least one good video tutorial available on YouTube for almost every question. The costs for Adobe Premiere Pro are not cheap. If you are looking for an alternative, I can recommend DaVinci Resolve. The version for beginners is available for free.

An overview of other video editing programs can be found on OMR Reviews.

Conclusion on online marketing strategy video

The topic of video content is still treated rather stepmotherly in some companies. This could often be due to the responsible employees having only little experience with this content format. A video marketing strategy helps to deal with this material more closely and build sustainable video marketing together with experts.

Video marketing is not a sprint, but a marathon, but it is important to start. As our digital world is becoming more and more fast-paced and people want to absorb information more and more quickly, videos are the perfect means to do so.