It's no surprise that video marketing is gaining popularity ever since Youtube, Vine, Instagram, and other social media outlets made sharing and production so easy. Luckily for the marketing industry, video content can be a great way to capitalize on attracting new leads, connecting with your visitors, or engaging valued customers.

Did you know that YouTube is second only to Google in volume of searches? That makes YouTube a great (free) space for you to begin your video marketing journey. Why should you? Because creative marketing with video is fun, effective, and can be low cost. So it's time to jump on the video marketing band wagon because if your business isn't using it chances are you are missing out.

To help you launch your new video marketing campaign here are a few tips to get you started:

Know your audience. Before you can really start any video project, you need to know who your audience is or who you want to reach. Do you have a buyer persona or cliental that you are exclusively trying to engage? Are you looking for returning or new traffic to your website? Are trying to entice already loyal customers to stick around? Answering these questions is critical to the beginning of your video marketing strategy.

Decide what you want to accomplish. Set a goal and stick to it. You can't tackle everything right away. Even though your heart is in the right place, an unfocused video marketing campaign is more likely to hurt you than help you. Are your videos going to help you draw in your established audience? Will they be an addition to your mailers or posted weekly like your blogs? Will they be educational, promotional, or both? Once you decide what you want to convey, it's time to pick a topic.

Pick a topic you are comfortable with. One of the best ways to pick a topic for your video marketing campaign is to take a look at the content you've already created. Do you have a blog post that your audience really reacted to positively? Take the main focus of that blog and repurpose it into a script for your video. Try to make your script sound conversational, and practice reading it aloud with some of your coworkers until you think it's perfect. After that, read it again, and try it on a new audience (just to be sure). Don't have an audience to practice with? No problem. Set up a webcam and record yourself. Listen and watch to see it from your viewers perspective.

Still not sure where to start on developing a topic? Use one of these methods:

• Create an educational "How To" Video.
  
• Answer some common questions about your services.
  
• Take your viewers on a behind the scenes tour.
  
• Review a popular product from your industry.
  
• Tell a story to your audience.
  
• Debunk a myth or two.
  

Choose a platform you think is right for your videos. Choosing a platform for your video can be tough, and you don't have to limit yourself to only one. However, YouTube is the best place to start for beginner video marketers. After building up your YouTube channel it's time to branch off into Vine or Instagram video. Keep things fresh by taking each video platform in a different direction. 

 Don't forget about SEO. Even videos should be optimized so your audience can reach it. Video content should be titled, tagged, and slammed with as many keywords as you can possibly think of. Add keywords into the descriptions of your videos to make your videos searchable on the web. If your content isn't easily accessible it might as well be invisible.

If you didn't learn your lesson in kindergarden, remember that sharing is caring. Make sure your videos are posted across all of your social media platforms to ensure that it is easy for viewers to reach it. Your viewers will want to share your content too. Help them by providing share buttons alongside your videos.

Want to get started on your video marketing campaign? Click below for a FREE guide on video for business!