How to Pick the Most Effective Topics for Your Video Marketing

If you don’t already have 'video' in your marketing mix, you should know how video marketing works.

A staggering 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool and 99% of marketers already use video plans to continue. Video also beats images on social media platforms like Facebook. 

It’s easy to look at those stats and dive straight into building videos. But before you do, take some time to think about your strategy and, in particular, which types of video your business needs.

There’s no one perfect video topic for any brand — there’s more like a million of them, and they’re different for everyone. While there is no one-size-fits-all strategy, it does mean you’ve got a bottomless well of potential just waiting for you to tap into. 

Secure your headlamp and check your carabiner because we’re about to go on a guided tour of your own personal bottomless well, and all the ways you can scoop out the very best topics for your brand. Here are four steps to creating unbeatable video topics. 

1. Set Some Sweet Goals

Knowing where you want to end up is a good place to start. Figure out what you want to achieve with your video marketing and work backward from there. Pinpointing where you want to start in your marketing funnel is a solid start. Awareness? Consideration? Conversion? Whichever purpose you want your video to achieve, use it to help narrow down the best topics for your brand.

2. Know Your Audience 

As with any kind of marketing, tapping into the formidable power of video marketing requires knowing your audience. Before you go any further, define who your ideal audience is.

• Who are they? 
• What’s their demographic? 
• What are their likes and dislikes? 

3. Consider Your Offerings

Once you know your audience, consider what you’re offering to them to make them want to stick around. The core of most marketing is simple: your customer has a problem, and your brand has a solution. Hone in on the problem you solve and all the ways that can be of value to your audience. 

Are you an authority? An expert? Know a lot about a particular niche? Think about what you could offer that might set you apart from the competition. Your video topics don’t always have to prove why you’re the best in the biz, but if your goal is to build rapport with your customers, it’s not a bad move to make.  

4. Research, Like Your Video, Depends on it

If you want to know which topics work for your specific industry, don your detective hat and get researching. There are four primary considerations worth thinking about.

• Audience interests: This comes back to knowing your audience. Facebook knows all kinds of things about who your followers are, but you probably know a whole lot about them too. Let your audience be your compass to what type of content they want to see from you. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and ask yourself what kind of content you’d like to see from your brand. 
• Competitors: Have a look at what your competitors are doing and what’s working and what’s not. Scour their socials, join their mailing lists, and take note of the topics that turn up repeatedly. Let them put in all the legwork while you reap the rewards. 
• Trends: Sometimes a good topic transcends specific audiences and is pretty fool-proof no matter who your brand is. Keep an eye on the trends of the moment and take note when you see something that could work for you. It shows you’re a brand that knows how to stay relevant and connected, too. 
• SEO keywords: These show you what people are looking for when they search for your brand. This gives you a cheat sheet of all the relevant topics people are interested in, and exactly how interested in it they are. 

Turn a Topic Into a Video Masterpiece 

Once you’ve narrowed down the topic of your video, it’s time to get video-making. The video type that best services your topic will depend on how hefty your topic is and where you fall on the marketing funnel. Here are some fail-proof video types to consider. 

• Infographics: Meld education and entertainment like nothing else. Create an engaging and share-worthy capsule to deliver your topic.
• Listicles: List your topic by breaking it down into bite-size pieces, perfect for your socials. 
• Explainers: Explain a concept or deliver a how-to with all your know-how using an explainer video. Explainers are great for heftier topics and can even be used to convert. 
• Polls and questions: For more engagement-forward topics, polls and question videos can really deliver. Encourage conversation by adding a poll or question sticker if you post via Instagram Stories. 

Turn Topics Into Gold

You can turn any topic into gold when you put a little bit of thought behind it. Think outside the box or put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Whatever you do, make sure to do it with your goals and audience in mind. This will help you tackle the ideal topic every time.