Videos Company: Inbound Meets Outbound
In 2018, Blackstone, a leading global investment firm, introduced a holiday video that initially targeted internal audiences. The video, which humorously parodied workplace dynamics, unexpectedly gained widespread popularity, attracting millions of views. This success prompted Blackstone to expand its video marketing strategy, aiming to humanise the firm and make its communications more relatable. The annual holiday videos have since become a highly anticipated event, showcasing Blackstone’s innovative approach to blending inbound and outbound marketing through engaging video content. In this article, we will explore how to create video content that serves both inbound SEO and outbound advertising objectives. We will discuss the steps involved, from planning and production to distribution and performance tracking. Additionally, we will highlight the role of a videos company in this process, emphasising how they can assist in creating high-quality videos and monitoring their effectiveness across multiple marketing channels.
Understanding the Dual Objectives
1. Inbound SEO Goals
Inbound marketing focuses on drawing in potential customers by offering valuable content. When it comes to video, this can mean creating videos that drive organic traffic through search engines, such as YouTube and Google. By integrating the right SEO strategies, you can ensure that your videos rank well and attract the right audience. Video content that is optimised for SEO helps improve your website’s visibility, increasing the chances that viewers will engage with your brand and explore your offerings further.
2. Outbound Advertising Goals
On the other hand, outbound marketing is about reaching out to prospects, often through paid advertising channels. Video content in outbound campaigns aims to capture immediate attention and drive direct actions, such as clicks, sign-ups, or purchases. Videos created for outbound efforts are typically more direct, with clear calls to action designed to push the viewer toward a conversion.
The key challenge here is ensuring that your videos can effectively meet both inbound and outbound goals. By combining elements that optimise SEO with those designed for conversion, you can create content that serves both purposes well.
Planning Your Video Content
1. Audience Analysis
Before diving into video creation, it is important to understand who you are creating the content for. Audience analysis is a fundamental step in developing a video strategy that serves both SEO and outbound objectives. Consider factors such as:
- Demographics: Age, gender, location, and occupation.
- Interests: What are the audience’s preferences or pain points?
- Behaviour: Where do they spend time online, and what type of content do they interact with?
A videos company can help refine this step by analysing customer data and advising on the most effective ways to speak to your audience visually.
2. Content Strategy Development
Once you understand your audience, the next step is to develop a content strategy that aligns with both SEO and advertising objectives. The video should serve dual purposes: attracting organic traffic while driving immediate conversions.
For inbound marketing, educational content such as product demos, tutorials, or thought-leadership pieces work well. These videos position your brand as an authority and encourage viewers to learn more through your website. For outbound marketing, shorter, action-oriented videos such as promotions, testimonials, or product highlights are often more effective at prompting immediate responses from the audience.
A videos company can help create a plan that includes both types of content, ensuring that each video is aligned with its intended goal.
Production and Optimisation
1. High-Quality Production
Regardless of your video’s purpose, the production quality needs to be high. Low-quality videos can hurt your brand’s credibility and reduce the effectiveness of your content. Invest in professional video production, which includes aspects such as clear audio, well-lit visuals, and refined editing. Whether you are producing a product demo for SEO or an advertisement for paid campaigns, high production standards should always be maintained.
A videos company can assist with these aspects by offering expertise in filming, lighting, and sound. This is especially important for ensuring that your video content matches the quality standards expected by both search engines and potential customers.
2. SEO Optimisation
Optimising your video for SEO is crucial for inbound success. Below are some strategies to keep in mind:
- Video Titles and Descriptions: Incorporate relevant keywords into your video’s title and description to help search engines understand the content and improve its visibility.
- Transcripts and Subtitles: Including a transcript or subtitles can improve accessibility, making it easier for search engines to index your content. It also helps viewers who may prefer watching videos without sound.
- Tags: Use relevant tags that align with the keywords your audience is searching for.
- Video Hosting: Host videos on your website to increase page relevance and improve on-page SEO.
A videos company can help with creating SEO-optimised video content by offering services such as keyword research, scriptwriting, and ensuring the technical aspects of video production are optimised for search engines.
Distribution and Promotion
1. Multi-Platform Sharing
Once the video is produced and optimised, the next step is distribution. Sharing videos across various platforms helps maximise their reach. For inbound SEO purposes, YouTube is an important platform, given its connection to Google’s search engine. Additionally, embedding videos on your website and sharing them on social media networks can drive further organic traffic.
For outbound campaigns, social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram offer great opportunities for paid ads. These platforms allow you to target specific audiences based on their behaviour, interests, and demographics, which is a key benefit of outbound advertising.
A videos company can assist with platform-specific video adaptations. For example, a video made for YouTube may need adjustments in length, format, or style to work effectively on Instagram or Facebook.
2. Integration with Outbound Campaigns
Outbound marketing strategies, such as paid ads or email campaigns, can benefit from high-quality video content. A video produced for SEO purposes can be repurposed for these campaigns, ensuring consistency across all touchpoints.
For example, if you create a tutorial video that ranks well on YouTube and brings in organic traffic, you can use the same video or a shortened version in your email outreach or paid ads to reach a more targeted audience. The key is ensuring that the content aligns with the objectives of the campaign and provides value to the viewer.
Performance Measurement and Optimisation
1. Analytics Tracking
It is essential to track the performance of your video content. Analytics will help you understand how well your videos are performing in terms of both SEO and advertising goals. Key metrics to track include:
- View Count: Measures the overall reach of your videos.
- Engagement Rate: Indicates how viewers are interacting with your content.
- Conversion Rate: Tracks how many viewers take the desired action after watching the video.
A videos company that specialises in video production and marketing can take care of both creating the content and tracking its performance, so you do not have to worry about managing these metrics yourself.
2. Continuous Improvement
Based on the analytics data, you can refine your video content to improve future performance. Experiment with different video formats, lengths, and styles to see what works best for your audience. Additionally, tweak your promotional strategies for better results.
A videos company can assist by providing ongoing support for editing and revising content based on feedback and performance data.
Conclusion
As you can see, creating video content that works for both inbound SEO and outbound marketing is not just a creative endeavor but a strategic move that can significantly impact your results. The numbers back this up: videos are 53 times more likely to appear on the first page of search results than traditional text content. In fact, 72% of customers prefer learning about a product or service through video rather than text. That is a lot of potential traffic—and sales—waiting to be captured.
By producing videos that draw in organic traffic through effective SEO and also convert that traffic through targeted outbound ads, you can maximise the return on your video production efforts. And this is where a videos company can truly make a difference. Not only can they help you create high-quality content, but they also understand how to track the performance of your videos across both inbound and outbound channels. So, instead of getting bogged down in the details of video analytics and campaign optimisation, you can focus on refining your strategy while they handle the behind-the-scenes work. The beauty of combining inbound and outbound strategies with video is that the same content can work harder for you. The result? More viewers, more conversions, and an overall more cohesive and effective marketing strategy.
Videos that do double duty? Yes, please! Let Sound Idea Digital create content that serves your inbound and outbound goals. Send us a message, and we’ll get started!
We are a full-service Web Development and Content Production Agency in Gauteng specialising in Video Production, Animation, eLearning Content Development, Learning Management Systems, and Content Production.
Contact us for a quote. | enquiries@soundidea.co.za | https://www.soundideavideoproduction.co.za| +27 82 491 5824 |