3 Tips and 3 Things to Try
Want to reach over a half-billion professionals – including 10 million C-Level executives, 63 million decision makers, and 90 million senior-level influencers? Of course you do. And that means you need to launch marketing on LinkedIn. The social media giant has evolved beyond a job-seeking platform or networking tool into an all-encompassing destination for anyone seeking relevant, quality content on professional topics.
If you’re already marketing via LinkedIn, it’s time to optimize your video marketing. Video content is in demand on LinkedIn- in fact, it’s the platform’s fastest growing content type in terms of popularity. And the ROI can be significant. Post a video to LinkedIn instead of a text post, and you might see 4-5 times the engagement.
Ready to link your video strategy to LinkedIn? Here are a few tips and a few things to try.
3 Tips for Successful Video Marketing on LinkedIn
Tip #1: When it comes to Video Marketing on LinkedIn, LinkedIn Knows Best
Data-driven, creative, and dedicated to delivering a professional experience, your best resource for achieving video marketing success on LinkedIn (aside from this post, of course!) is the platform itself. You’ll find a treasure trove of webinars, blog posts, and instructional content within their solutions center for marketers.
Beyond the content generated by LinkedIn, pinpoint the people, companies, and ideas you like to see on LinkedIn. Scroll through their video content. See what resonates with you – and explore their comments, reactions, and followers to see how it’s resonating with others.
Make sure to follow other businesses within your industry, leaders in your field, and innovators you admire. Take note of their video marketing tactics and examine how you can apply the ideas within your video marketing strategy.
Tip #2: Silence is Golden
Visual storytelling is always compelling. But when it comes to successful LinkedIn video marketing, it’s an absolute must.
That’s because 80% of LinkedIn videos are watched with the sound off.
As LinkedIn puts it, you should “think like a silent film director.” Subtitles and captions are essential, but they only go so far. Truly effective messaging will rely on creating an engaging and emotional experience through imagery, camera angles, and other sans-sound factors so that you can keep your audience enthralled no matter where they’re watching.
Tip #3: Put Data in the Driver’s Seat
If you’re looking for a reason to kickstart your video marketing on LinkedIn, the numbers are your best friend – starting with the fact that native videos are 20 times more likely to be shared – and 5 times more likely to start a new conversation – than other forms of content on the platform.
Starting to like the numbers? Great, because you’re only going to get to know them better as your LinkedIn video marketing journey continues.
Get to know your audience by honing in on target demographics – not just basics like age, gender, where visitors live and what they do, but their seniority, industry, income and education level, and more nuanced demographics (like company size) can help you make decisions about the type of video content you create.
Guide your content by determining the “sweet spot” for length – anywhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
Use stats on completion rates (available by quartile) and conversions to finetune your CTAs. And of course, set some KPIs around your likes, clicks, shares, and reach to ensure you’re meeting your own expectations when it comes to LinkedIn video marketing.
3 Things to Try with Video Marketing on LinkedIn
Promote Your Business
Share a sneak peek of an upcoming webinar via video clip, or post an unboxing video of a hot new product.
Give a video demo of a service you’re particularly proud of.
Share a motion graphics rundown of some stats about your clients, or a timeline of what you’ve accomplished to date.
Give your LinkedIn audience something that will resonate with their business needs. After all, LinkedIn is the top B2B platform for lead generation, and its millions of professionals spend triple the time on watching videos vs. scrolling through static content.
Don’t forget to put a unique spin on it – 74% of video viewers are more likely to watch a video they consider “unique.”
Position Yourself as a Thought Leader
One facet of LinkedIn’s broad appeal is that it’s a hub for opportunities. In the early days of LinkedIn, those opportunities were fairly straightforward: it was basically considered a platform for jobseekers.
These days, the opportunities for a business on LinkedIn are exponential.
You might find avenues for PR, be approached with new options for collaboration, or discover new clients, customers, and influencers. All of these opportunities can be enhanced with thought leadership videos. Share a keynote address or an interview with one of your company’s SMEs. Showcase your leading-edge technology, or repurpose a blog post on your company values as a video.
The key to thought leadership is credibility – a genuine connection with your audience goes a long way – which makes video the ideal medium for your thought leadership message.
Find Your Next New Hire
The basic starting point of LinkedIn – networking and hiring – is still the heart of the platform. Video marketing is a fantastic way to shake it up.
Attract your ideal employees by posting video content on LinkedIn to highlight your company culture.
The recruitment video is a great way to amplify engagement for companies who want the best talent. One study showed that adding a video to a job post resulted in 12% more job post views and a 34% higher application rate. In fact, recruitment videos are so popular on LinkedIn that they literally wrote a guide to creating them. We’re talking things like “day in the life” videos of your current team, sneak peeks into where you work, and behind the scenes glimpses into what goes on there from day to day.
You could also use video marketing to take a creative approach to tackling FAQs like “What’s it like to be a computer engineer at your company?” Need some inspiration? Take your cue from companies like Starbucks, Zendesk, and Apple – all have produced stellar recruitment videos.