Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals

You may be familiar with the saying, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Well, when it comes to video marketing, a plan without a goal is a waste of time…and a plan with the wrong goal is a nightmare.

The downside of setting the wrong goals:

• You’ll ruin team motivation
• You’re working with no gauge of success
• It can result in overcorrecting or not correcting problems
• You’re basically flying blind

Establishing clear and attainable goals are crucial for gauging campaign success, so let’s talk about how you can set S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Specific

What do you want your campaign to achieve? Are you spreading brand awareness, attracting new customers, retaining current ones, cross-selling or upselling services? From there, figure out specifically what success looks like to you.

• Unspecific goal: Increase customer engagement.
• Specific goal: Generate a 20% increase in loyalty program enrollment among existing customers.

Measurable

Select your KPIs and make sure that they directly reflect the effectiveness of your campaign’s goals. View-through rates, click-through rates, click-to-open rates and what we like to call CTA-Rates (the number of people who followed through on a call-to-action), are all strong choices.

Attainable

Goals that are too easy aren’t motivating because they don’t feel very important. In fact, Dr. Edwin Locke and Dr. Gary Latham did some pioneering research in the area of effective goal-setting and motivation and found that 90% of the time challenging goals led to higher performance than easy goals.

Keep yourself and your team actively working towards your campaign goals by setting parameters that are both challenging and attainable. Consult previous campaign data, look at your baseline performance and remove your “mom goggles” – you know, that marvelously unique filter your mom viewed you through that made her think you were the smartest, cutest, most talented child to ever exist.

Love your brand, love your team, but understand that every campaign has limits. Be realistic about yours.

Relevant

Are your campaign goals relevant to your overall team or business goals? This might sound like a “duh” question, but you’d be surprised at how easily and quickly campaigns lose sight of bigger-picture goals. Throughout your brainstorming and creative processes, frequently ask yourself if your efforts are aligned from the bottom up.

Time-Bound

All campaigns come to an end. Create a publishing calendar if your campaign contains multiple rounds of videos and establish a “finish line” for your team to work towards. Having a clearly defined beginning and end of your campaign helps keep everyone motivated, on schedule and on budget.

Once you’ve completed the steps on the S.M.A.R.T. goal checklist and have clearly communicated all of your targets to your team, you can begin to think of what your video campaign creative will look like. If you fancy yourself a visual person who thrives off reinforcing brand aesthetic and visual storytelling, this will be your favorite part of creating a video marketing campaign. If not…well…we’ll walk you through it.

Get Creative with your Creative

The creative you select for your video has the power to drive an emotional connection with your viewers. When viewers connect with your message, they’re more inclined to click, share, learn more and begin forming a lasting brand relationship.

It’s for this reason that the importance of an emotional connection should not go understated. Ask yourself what you want your consumers to feel when they think of your brand, service or product. Surprise? Familiarity? Excitement? Empathy? Be specific and make sure the emotions you pinpoint reflect your core brand values. Ideally these will be emotions that come in to play time and time again, not just in one campaign.

Once you establish what feelings you want your video to embody, it’s time to craft your visual story around those intentions. How often have you heard someone say, “Show, don’t tell?” Or maybe, “It’s not what you’re saying, it’s how you’re saying it?” The tone you strike and the visuals you employ matter just as much as the information you’re presenting.

That’s where visual storytelling comes in to play. It doesn’t matter if you’re working with 15 seconds or 150 seconds, your video needs to tell a story with impact and emotion. Part of this means identifying your target audience and finding out what types of messaging resonates with those viewers.

Your ad should be unique, of course, but also culturally relevant. Recognize that different audiences like millennials and baby boomers – two huge segments – find connection with greatly different kinds of content. Learn what makes your audience tick and then show them things they’re predisposed to paying attention to.

Now it’s time to throw everything you’re working with, along with all your creative options, onto the proverbial table. See how things look and feel together. Does animation work better than live action? Do you prefer actors or voice-over? Is the music up-tempo or mellow? Think of your video as a puzzle where all these different pieces need to fit together in order to form a sweeping, cohesive picture. Don’t be afraid to take risks, backtrack, undo and redo until it all comes together precisely.

The success of your campaign goals largely rests on the success of your creative. Before you decide you’re finished, run through this list of quality-assurance questions:

Does your video clearly convey the emotions you intended?

Again, ensure that these emotions are ones that are reflective of your overall brand values and will be carried through with relentless consistency in bigger picture initiatives, as well as in your individual campaign.

Does your video feel trustworthy?

People are pretty smart and will see right through creative that feels cheap or doesn’t ring true. Using “authentic” visuals will further help your messaging resonate with the audience. What’s an authentic visual, you ask? Imagine a cheesy, posed stock photo of a happy family. Now think of some of the candid shots from your very real family’s own photo album. There’s a pretty stark difference there, and one is far more believable than the other.

Are you being annoying?

We don’t mean to offend, but make sure that your videos are inviting, not annoying. Be wary of obnoxious personalities, annoying sound effects and distracting visuals. You may think you’re being entertaining, but everyone else might think you’re off-putting.

Think about your video as a person. What qualities do your closest friends and trusted advisors have in common? Consider the traits that make you want to know someone and aim to weave them throughout your video.

Is your creative adaptive to all the platforms it will be operating on?

Take into account mobile and desktop users, as well as the inherent quirks of different social media channels. For example, 85% of Facebook video views occur without the volume turned on. If your video relies heavily on voice-over, consider implementing subtitles so your message isn’t lost.

Videos to Create Throughout the Funnel

We all know that timing is everything, but it’s especially true when you’re nurturing customers through a sales funnel. Send an introduction too late and you risk losing a lead to a competitor, send a policy renewal prompt too early and it’ll be forgotten once it comes time to renew. When you’re developing a video marketing drip campaign to correspond to your sales funnel, it’s crucial to know what messaging to send at what time. Here are some key points in your funnel where sending a video can help strengthen the brand relationship.

Nurturing Leads

So you’ve got yourself a bunch of people who are potentially interested in your product or service. Congrats! But where do you go from here? According to Forrester, when brands properly nurture leads, they receive 50% sales-ready customers for 33% less cost. Think about the types of messaging that will get your potential customers primed for the next stage. Video is a great way to provide leads with relevant content to keep them interested and share information needed to sway their decision.

Product Review (For Retail) or Testimonials (For Services)

Have you ever heard of the “hidden sales cycle”? It’s the processes customers take where they independently educate themselves online about products and services before making a purchase decision. As you can image, the vast majority of this self-education comes in the form of consulting reviews and testimonials.

You can help shape the information that’s out there about your brand by producing your own short, informative review videos that speak to the effectiveness of your offering. It should go without saying that the overall feelings you want to convey are authenticity, transparency and trust. By featuring real customers sharing their brand experience, videos will feel less salesy and more native to the “hidden sales cycle” education process.

You can embed the videos directly on relevant pages on your website so anyone browsing has easy access. You can also send them directly to clients via email if they’ve taken steps to inquire about a product or service.

Welcoming and Onboarding

Now that felt nice and reassuring, didn’t it?

Nothing like a little thank you from a brand with whom you’ve chosen to invest your time and money. Sending a video to welcome someone to your community of shoppers or clients is a really great way to roll out the red carpet and say Welcome, you matter to us! It’s also a great opportunity to raise awareness about some of your other offerings like online customer portals or loyalty programs. If your industry is one that’s a bit complex, like insurance or utilities, an onboarding video is also a great opportunity for breaking down some of those tough-to-understand topics in an accessible, visual way.

Cross-Selling and Up-Selling

So you’ve known your customer for a little while and things have been going pretty well. It’s time to take your relationship to the next level by further engaging them with ad-on services, priority memberships and relevant products.

You can especially use the power of Personalized Videos in this instance to target individual customers with opportunities that are specifically relevant to their needs. Millennials, for example, say they are 85% more likely to make a purchase if the suggestion is personalized to their interests. Through personalization, what was one a tone-deaf promotional push becomes an intelligent and, dare we say, useful suggestion to maximize consumer brand experience.

Policy or Plan Renewals (For Services)

Who doesn’t appreciate a friendly reminder? “Hey, it’s time to renew your car insurance!” or “Just a heads up, your mobile plan has been auto-renewed for another year!” These touchpoints are yet another opportunity for maintaining engagement and building trust. And because it’s not uncommon for companies to make updates to fine print and service fees upon renewal, video is especially effective at making everything feel really transparent. When customers feel like you’re working hard to keep them in the loop, they’re going to stick by your side for a lot longer than, say, your competitor’s customers who might feel isolated, confused or not properly communicated with.

Creating Customer Loyalty Through Video Marketing

The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% while the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%. While we can all agree that it’s important to be keeping an eye on lead nurturing and new business generation, let’s take a moment to talk about the value of a) keeping the new customers you’ve gained, and b) the dependability of an existing loyal customer…

• Repeat customers are worth 10X as much as their first purchase
• 82% of companies agree that retention is more cost effective than acquisition.
• In the US, the cost of customers switching due to poor customer service is $1.6 trillion.

…and understand what goes into making a customer so loyal…

• 26% of consumers mention “trust” and “consistency” as key elements of brand loyalty.
• 83% of loyalty program members say that rewards programs make them more likely to continue doing business with a certain brand.
• 56% of consumers say receiving a personalized incentive would improve their perception of a brand.
• 60% of consumers spanning all age groups agree that customer appreciation should be shown by saying thanks directly to the individual. 44% of those consumers believe that that “thank you” should be personalized.

3 in 4 respondents said a personalized incentive made them feel respected as a customer.

New Products, Services and Promotions

We talked about this before, but it bears repeating. From the moment a customer makes their first brand interaction, you can begin assembling a highly unique profile for that individual. This is where Personalized Video is really going to come in handy when taking advantage of touchpoints in an educated way.

Using data like purchase history, location, age, gender, interests and more, you can craft videos that show your brand as a solution for problems they may not even know they have yet.

For example, you could be introducing a new discount program specifically for seniors. That’s a great opportunity to send a Personalized Video to your applicable customers and share some informed product suggestions. There’s no better way to say, “Hey, remember me?” than with wallet-friendly savings on items people are interested in.

Introduce Your Office Pet!

…Or your secretary who knows how to juggle flaming batons, or the intern who can stand on his head and say the ABCs backwards. The point is, people enjoy getting a peek behind the corporate curtain. Think about your brand values and craft a video to enhance what you stand for.

Let’s say your business is fair-trade, artisanal loopybobs. What’s a loopybob? That’s not important right now, but yours are the best around. Maybe you offer all of your loopybob growers the opportunity to pursue higher education on your dime. That’s pretty awesome! And chances are, if your customers care enough to pay a little extra in support of your ethical practices, they’ll care enough to want to know that you’re helping improve the lives of your workers.

A tour of the farms, interviews with the farmers and families that have benefitted from your goodwill -- this would be incredible video content that hearkens back to your core values, speaks to the interests of your philanthropically-minded consumers and offers a genuinely interesting, humanized view of your company.

Since most of us don’t work in the loopybob industry, let’s think about a sector quite a few of us are more familiar with – insurance. Did you just shudder? That’s because insurance often feels very stiff, corporate and unapproachable. If industries were guests at a cocktail party, insurance would be the guy standing alone in the corner giving you side-eye for taking too much onion dip. Poor insurance.

But who ever said insurance can’t have a little fun? Video is a great way to let your freak flag fly (in moderation, of course). If you’ve got someone or something interesting in your office family, introduce your customers. Round up all the office dogs to quiz them on new policy updates – informative and fun! – or share a silly Q+A with your CEO to show the lighter side of your brand.

Getting people to respond emotionally with what makes you you is an incredibly effective step forward in long-term retention.

Now that we know how important it is to have a loyal customer base, let’s look at how your video campaign can work to create loyalty for you.

Psychologist Albert Mehrabian found that 93% of communication pertaining to feelings and attitudes is done nonverbally. So when someone’s raving about a product or service they feel strongly about, anyone listening is going find more meaning in their body language (55%) and tone of voice (38%) than the literal meaning of their words (7%).

Through your video communications, you have the opportunity not only to present information in a visual and easy-to-understand format, you can humanize your brand by applying the power of gesture, tone and by giving your brand a literal face for customers to become familiar with.

Speaking to your customers on a 1:1 conversational level is ultimately what’s going to drive the highest levels of trust and engagement, which are the two cornerstones of customer loyalty

Looking Ahead to Long-Term Retention

So you’ve made it this far and have amassed the necessary tools to build yourself a pretty darn great video campaign. You don’t need a crystal ball to tell you that you’re on track to cultivate an engaged and loyal customer base. I see you’re about to kick your feet up and savor the success, but I’m here to tell you -- not so fast, my friend.

Loyal customers are the best customers. But it takes effort to keep loyal customers engaged for the long-term, and a marketer’s job is never done when it comes to engagement. Kind of like those cute couples who renew their vows after 30 years of marriage, you’ve got to win the hearts of your customers again and again throughout the relationship. If you think I’m going to say video is here to save the day for you, you’re exactly right. Clearly we’ve been spending a bit of time together. Using video in line with the following triggers and opportunities will keep you at the forefront of buyers’ minds, making you their first stop every time.

Remind Customers That You’re Always There to Help

If you asked your customer service team right now to identify the most frequently asked customer questions, no doubt they can amass a list pretty quickly. Unfortunately call-center wait times, impersonal automated help and unanswered questions frustrate customers to the point of brand abandonment.

Don’t let this happen to you! Build video content around commonly asked questions and then make sure all of your customers are a) aware this content exists and b) know how to easily find it in a moment of need. Because even the best content is worthless if no one knows how to access it. Creating a seamless customer service experience is crucial in maintaining your customers’ loyalty. Use video wherever possible as a self-assistance tool because it’s quick, clear and accessible from a variety of devices.

In Review

Well, you made it. How does it feel to know you hold within you the power the launch an effective, engaging video marketing campaign capable of driving results that will make even the prickliest boss crack a smile? Remember, with great power comes great responsibility, so craft your videos carefully. Here are some highlights to keep in mind…

• Be S.M.A.R.T. about your goals. That’s: Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.
• Your brand is pretty great. Make sure your creative reflects that greatness by using only the highest quality visuals, engaging viewers with a clear emotional message, testing and retesting and testing some more, and finally by making sure your video works on every device someone could reasonably try to watch on.
• Video isn’t a one hit wonder. Use video throughout all stages of your sales funnel!
• Don’t underestimate the power of customer loyalty. Every video marketing move you make should either offer a solution or add value to the customer experience. This is how you drive trust and deepen engagement.
• Be creative with how you keep customers with you for the long haul. Humanize your brand through video so customers feel connected to your values as much as your products or services.