11 of the best ways to use digital video marketing in 2023

Digital video marketing means something vastly different today than it used to. Implementing video on multiple channels can improve your brand identity by building credibility and search engine rankings on social media AND owned channels, like your website.

Why is digital video marketing important?

The way we search for something on the internet has changed in the past 10 years. Google and other top search engines are prioritizing video at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). If you want your business to appear at the top of search results, video has become an increasingly important way to get that visibility.

How has voice search changed digital marketing strategy in 2023?

In just the past 12 months, voice search has created a focus on fully formed questions rather than just manually typed-in keywords. You can see these questions when you perform a Google search, under, “People also ask.”

Hot tip: Neil Patel’s tool, Answer The Public, is a great way to find out what questions people are asking about a specific topic, right this minute. Check it out and find your next blog post topic. We use it a lot!

How is video getting results?

Video gets results because it’s delivered to your target audience in search, but that’s not the end of the story. Today’s digital audience is looking for easily consumed content, and video delivers.

Engagement rates for video content are huge in 2023 compared to traditional content. As marketers, we’ve seen audience engagement with video increase exponentially, and we’re not alone. This annual survey by Wyzowl reveals that video content is considered a top producer of marketing ROI by 92 percent of marketing professionals. In the 15 years the company has been producing this annual report, this stat shows the highest level of confidence in the viability of video, ever.

Why should I create video content for my business?

When your company delivers video content that breaks into the top of the SERPs, you’re naturally going to see more traffic going to wherever that video is hosted. Add in video transcripts for things like webinars, vlogs, and podcasts, and you’ve got some great potential to improve your spot in search results through a bit of SEO work.

Video also improves dwell time, can produce leads and sales, and can provide customer answers that help reduce support requests, depending on the type of video content you’re providing.

Note: There’s some debate over these results, since Google tends to deliver the video in full on the results page if it has the right schema markup. That would result in a zero-click search because the user wouldn’t need to visit your source page since they’ve already viewed the video. We’ll tackle zero-click searches another time, but put that in your back pocket when you’re setting up KPIs for video content. They still do great work getting your brand in front of your target audience, so don’t throw that video baby out with the zero-click bath water.

In general, all content is created to serve a specific user intent. Craft your digital video marketing content to address specific questions prospects have during their buyer journey through your sales funnel:

What kind of videos are best for my business?

That’s the beauty of video content: it can be as simple or as complicated as you like. Here’s a sample social media video that uses Canva stock video clips to bring movement and interest to what would otherwise be a static infographic or reel.

A social media post that’s animated and posted as a video, for example, can get some great engagement and even improve website visits if it’s useful and authoritative. Or – let’s be honest – create funny videos or put a branded spin on familiar ones that people already love, and you are in viral territory.

Different types of digital video marketing work best to deliver what your customers and prospects need, right when they need it. And remember: video content can be long or short. Video will outperform static images and most text content as long as it’s entertaining and authentic. Film from your smartphone. Hire a pro. You do you – it’s all digital video marketing content.

Here are 11 ideas to kickstart your digital video marketing content strategy.

1. Product Demonstrations and Unboxing. Video demonstrations are a great way to show customers how to use your product, what to expect when it arrives, and highlight its features. This is purely for commercial and transactional prospects in the funnel, so keep it short and sweet and solve their problem. These are better if they’re user-generated content, especially produced by an influencer, or at the very least a real customer.
2. How-To Tutorials. Video tutorials are a great way to teach customers how to do something. Just remember it’s about the problem you’re helping them solve, not the product or the company.
3. Event Promotion. Promote your upcoming events with live video streaming or pre-recorded videos. We also like video invitations to events, to give them a face and a voice. Use those in newsletters and on event sign-up pages.
4. Behind-the-Scenes Content. Give customers a behind-the-scenes look at your company with video content. This could be anything, as long as you make your people the stars of the show and they are relatable and authentic. This is not a sales pitch.
5. Testimonials. Showcase customer testimonials in video format to build trust and credibility. Remember, though, that this is storytelling and needs to connect with people.
6. Interviews. Interview industry experts or customers to create engaging video content. Make it lively, make it fun, and post it everywhere and tag everybody. Again, no hard selling.
7. Live Streaming. Live stream events or Q&A sessions to engage with customers in real-time. This is super helpful as support or help page content for existing customers. Follow a script, but don’t be a stick in the mud. Nobody wants to watch someone be awkward on camera. Usually.
8. Animated Videos. Create animated videos to explain complex concepts in an easy-to-understand way. We love using animated videos for general storytelling as it relates to how-to, especially for shorts used in digital adoption campaigns. Tip: avoid being patronizing. There’s a straightforward way to create these so you don’t insult viewer intelligence. We promise.
9. User-Generated Content. Encourage customers to create and share digital video marketing content to increase engagement and reach. Plus, 80 percent of people look to peer product reviews when they’re considering purchasing a product. User-generated content (UGC) is huge for engagement and brand-building; just make sure you engage with the UGC and share it.
10. Webinars. Host webinars to educate customers and build relationships. These don’t have to be all suit-and-tie. Think Letterman, even, or an informal living room talk with the experts.
11. Virtual Tours. Seriously, with all the virtual tour technology that’s available to you, if you have a brick-and-mortar location that the public might visit, get a video tour on your website and promote it everywhere, yesterday. Since 2020, people place much more importance on the convenience and insights a virtual tour offers when they’re in the consideration stage of the buying funnel. Here’s a sample tour we produced for a local Fort Worth customer’s furniture store, for the new website we’re building them. (Can’t you just smell the leather??)

That’s great, but what if all I have is a smartphone?

Webcam and smartphone videos can be just as useful as professionally produced digital video marketing content. Just keep these tips in mind, do a few test runs and get someone’s impartial feedback, and then start posting. Here are some great pointers that, in our experience, help our clients create high-engagement digital videos using a smartphone:

• Use a tripod or selfie stick for stability. No shaky-shaky; we’re not here to make people nauseous.
• Choose a quiet location with good lighting. No shadows! Natural light is best. Clean up your backdrop and make sure you’re presenting your brand appropriately.
• Use an external microphone for better sound quality. Or, add a voice-over using video editing software if you’re fancy. TikTok has music and voice-over options, too – just keep them on-brand.
• Use natural movements and gestures. Please don’t sit behind a desk or act like you’re at a job interview. #swipe
• Make sure the camera is at eye level. And make eye contact! Unless you’re doing an aerial video, then that would be weird and probably unsafe.
• Avoid zooming in and out. #hurl
• Edit your videos to make them more engaging. Add your logo, cut out dead air… we like Canva for simple edits. You can also add call-out text or captions.
• Add captions to make your videos accessible to a wider audience. Closed captioning is important for hearing-impaired viewers, but it’s also essential since most Zoomers don’t have their volume up. They won’t watch videos with sound on, and they need captions to know what’s going on. Plus, captions help with SEO.

How do I use digital videos in my marketing?

Use them everywhere. We like an SEO-based approach that leverages several channels.

1. First, post the video on your (branded) YouTube channel with a complete description and a link to your website blog page for the full transcript.

2. Second, embed the video on that page with the transcript below. (Make sure you use video schema markup and identify key points in your video – search engine bots LOVE a good schema.)

3. Third, use a clip or a short promo on social media and link back to the website page for the full video.

What you’re doing with this approach is creating a pathway for search engine robots, telling them how to crawl your site and find information, in a language they understand.

You’re also widening the net you’re casting with your video to catch more users on their preferred channels and modes of video consumption: social feeds, search engines, and YouTube. The beauty of it is that all of this links together and contributes to your share of voice in your industry and in search, and the social and YouTube backlinks provide your website with some serious authority (a.k.a. “link juice”).

Tl;dr: you want link juice. It makes your website show up in searches. Get all the REAL backlinks from popular sites to make your website have more “authority” in the eyes of our imperial ruling bots.

I’m still not convinced I need digital video content.

You don’t have to be convinced. You just have to try it and start learning and adjusting.

The bottom line is that your digital video marketing skills will improve, and you’ll be able to track engagement and traffic on your various channels to see what works best with your audience. Video content, just like all forms of content, should be fresh, so post frequently. Use long videos as cornerstone content, and you can break out smaller clips and blog post or newsletter topics for months.

Your brand needs video if you’re going to keep growing in today’s digital landscape. Let’s get started.