As algorithms change and the social media giants make more of a push for small businesses to spend money to land in newsfeeds, there’s a need for content marketing techniques that won’t break the marketing budget bank. As you consider new ways to market your business, video must be a priority within the strategic plan. Live video streaming and other methods can create the best marketing videos and place your business in front of a growing audience. Now is not the time to get camera shy – it’s time to grow your brand with these five video marketing trends.

Mobile Video

YouTube reports that more than half of the site’s video views are consumed on a mobile device. With 1 billion hours of YouTube videos being watched each day, the importance of mobile video just skyrocketed. But the goal isn’t to simply make your marketing videos available to mobile users, but to optimize it for the growing group. Give mobile users the best experience with your videos – make it possible to preview in mute (85 percent of Facebook videos are viewed with no sound), use large captioning text, and keep it short.

How-to Videos

Lost the instructions? Wouldn’t read them if you had them? We get it. Who needs a documentary on how to install a ceiling fan – just Google it. From baking lasagna to learning Karate, online users can find instructional videos on how to do…anything. Google reports that “how to” searches on YouTube increase by 70 percent year-over-year on average. Jump into the how-to realm with detailed videos related to your niche and audience.

Live Video

Online users spend nearly three times longer watching live videos compared to pre-recorded, so it’s no surprise that nearly every social media outlet has some version of a live video platform. There are two ways to showcase your live video:

    1. Quality pre-prepared topic: If you’re planning a training session, Q&A, or an interview in your live video, plan to use a stable base and HD quality. You can likely pull double duty from this clip and use some pieces for marketing and promotion.
  1. Raw, behind-the-scenes: Viewers love to get a “real” look at how a company operates and the people that make it happen. Unscripted, unedited live video with an exclusive component leaves your viewers with a connection to the company, not just a love for the product. Staff retreats, tour of the office, or pranks/surprises are perfect for these short videos. (Get extra use out of them by sharing the video on other platforms!)

Use a mix of high-quality, on-topic videos with raw, behind-the-scenes access, and your live videos will be a hit.

Collaborative Live Video

Are you beginning to notice a theme, here? Live video is not a feature to be missed in your marketing strategy. As live video capabilities develop, your marketing plan needs to evolve as well. Live video collaborations bring another level of engagement to your audience. Facebook and Instagram launched versions of the feature in 2017, which allows you to add a friend, coworker or customer to your Facebook Live videos – while they’re in a different location – to keep viewers engaged.

Video Analytics

As you put different marketing video elements into play, you’ll want to keep track of how the content performs with your audience. Users want a personalized experience with your brand, and video analytics will tell you what type of video content resonates with your target audience. The numbers will showcase what works well for your brand and what needs to fall to the wayside. Look beyond video views. How many times a video is shared and the number of comments posted also play into the video’s SEO reach.

Video is a content source that users continue to engage with and demand. Despite the effort by many social media platforms, creating the best marketing videos doesn’t have to be a pay-to-play tool. You can create great video content, reach your audience and increase your revenue without dishing out mega marketing cash.