How Manufacturers Get Started

You need to be where your customers are. That means you need to be on social media, like Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as other video-friendly platforms. If you're not putting out content that your customers are looking for, they won't find you.

It's also important to have a strong online presence if you want to stay ahead of your competitors. A lot of manufacturers are investing in video marketing to show potential customers what their factories look like.

This article will help you develop a quality, cost-effective video marketing program. This program will help you demonstrate leadership and promote products and services to customers.

What Is Video Marketing

Video marketing is a great way to promote products and services. People like to watch videos more than they like to read about things. In fact, people watch over 500 million hours of videos on YouTube every day! And Facebook has even more people watching videos! Over 500 million people! Plus, 87% of online marketers use video as part of their content marketing strategy.

Almost all marketing professionals think that video marketing is a good investment. They believe that it can lead to more qualified leads, and that it also results in an increase of brand awareness by 54%. In addition, businesses who use video grow revenue at a rate of 49% faster than those who don’t use this type of content.

Traditional marketing methods such as blogging and using ads still have their place, but according to these statistics, they are not as effective as a well-rounded digital marketing strategy.

For manufacturers, video can be a powerful way to show how your products work or how complicated processes are done. This is because video can help people understand your products and connect with your company.

Video Marketing Strategy

Many manufacturers are afraid to invest in video marketing because they think it will be too expensive. However, this doesn't have to be the case. Follow these four steps to get started without spending a lot of money:

Make the commitment

Many marketers resist trying new methods, especially when they are unfamiliar or innovative. However, the first step is to simply make the decision to try out video marketing.

Gather Your Equipment

You don't need a Hollywood film studio to create high-quality video marketing materials for your business. In fact, most modern smartphones have a high-quality camera that's perfectly capable of filming videos for your marketing initiatives. If you can't film with a steady hand, you can find affordable tripods that will fit your smartphone for under $20 at most major electronics retailers. Once you begin to see some marketing ROI from your video efforts, you might want to invest in better quality equipment like lighting, cameras, and sound equipment, as well as software for editing videos.

Video Marketing Is A Team Sport

You may have somebody on your team who is good at playing video games or knows about video editing. If you don't, that's okay because thanks to social media and video being popular among younger people, there is a good chance that somebody on your team knows how to film and edit videos. Ask your employees for help and see who wants to be in charge of your video marketing efforts.

If your staff doesn't have the skills you need, it is easy to find training. You can find videos on YouTube that will teach you what you need to know. There are also paid platforms, like Lynda.com or LinkedIn Learning, that can teach you or your staff the basics for a low price.

Decide What Story You Want to Tell

Now that you have the drive, the team, and the tools, it’s time to start planning your first video. There are several types of videos to choose from that can effectively promote your brand, each of which can help you connect with buyers at different stages of their journey. Here are a few examples of how you can use video marketing to reach buyers:

The Explainer

This video will help explain some things about your company to the people watching it. It is best if it uses animation, but a live action video can also be good. You might want to have someone who is comfortable in front of a camera give a tour of your facilities or talk to workers about why they love their job. You could also explain why your business is a leader in its industry.

The How-To

How-To videos are a great way to show people how your company's services work. People will be able to see what the service is and how it works. The video can be very helpful to people who want to see it. It can also be helpful for people who have questions about the service.

The Demo

Showing your product through video can be an effective way to attract buyers. This is especially useful if what you are selling is hard to explain or it is a new product that is disruptive to the market. Regardless, buyers like to see what they are buying and a video demo is a great way to show them this. This isn't much different from when you might do a product demo for an in-person customer—just the audience you reach will be much larger. 

The Testimonial/Case Study

What other companies say about you is important. If they say good things about you on video, it can be a valuable marketing tool. This type of video can work well as a series of testimonials from different customers or as one longer focus on how your product/service solved a problem for one customer.

No matter what type of video you make, there are a few important things to remember. Make sure you have a script or at least an outline so you can use your time filming effectively. At the end of every video, don't forget to include a call-to-action that encourages viewers to interact with your company in some way. A call-to-action (CTA) is a text link, button, image, or some other web link that encourages site visitors to take an action, like submit a form or go to a new webpage. 

The Factory Tour

Nowadays, it is more important than ever to connect with your customers in new and meaningful ways. A lot of companies are using videos to show their factories to prospective customers because of travel restrictions. In fact, these videos have helped some companies close sales. 

Choosing the Right Free Video Tools 

You probably won't be able to film a video in one take. So you'll need to find an editing tool that works for you. If you're having trouble finding a video marketing budget, don't worry. There are free or low-cost video tools available that will work well for your early stages of video marketing. We've listed some of the most popular tools below:

1. iMovie
2. VSDC Free Video Editor
3. HD Movie Maker
4. Adobe Spark

Publish and Promote Your New Manufacturing Video

Making a video is a lot of work, but it's not worth it if you don't promote it. This is usually where video marketing efforts fail. People spend so much time on making a good video that they don't think about what to do with it afterwards.

First, you need to publish the video. You can upload it to multiple sites, like YouTube, Vimeo, and Wistia. Make sure your profile on each site is set up to drive traffic to your contact page. But don't expect your video to go viral by itself. You'll need to do some extra work

Once you have the video uploaded, you'll need to promote it. You can do this by publishing a blog post about it. You can also send it out in your internal and external newsletters. You can also post the video on your company's social media pages. Make sure that the profiles are optimized to drive traffic back to your website or sales team. If you have money to spare, you can also use paid marketing tactics like sponsored tweets, Facebook posts, and so on.

Now that you have promoted your video, it's time to plan your next one. Even if you can produce videos fairly quickly, make sure that you spread them out and post them regularly on a schedule. 

Get Started With Your Video Marketing Strategy

Video marketing can be a great way to get people to see your website, learn about new products, or become aware of your company. If you're feeling overwhelmed, don't worry. There are studios out there who can prepare awesome videos and animations about your product or services. You can always reach out to them to get started.  

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