Video content. There’s no denying this is the primary focus of the content creation industry at the moment. All the stats tell us that video content is one of the surest ways to boost visibility, create engagement and draw your fans in closer – but no one can deny good video content can be costly to create, either.

What’s a savvy marketer to do? Is the cost of video content really worth it? Will it deliver return on investment? Zebra 360 Online Marketing takes a closer look at the details.

Is video content worth the cost?

The short answer here is yes, it is. Digital consumption trends have shifted heavily towards video. Smartly created video, even that kept tight by budget, will do measurable things for your brand which you will love. How do you keep the costs in balance, however, and ensure your video delivers a ROI that’s favourable. Here’s a few key areas to focus on.

Know what you are actually trying to do

There’s three key areas your video could be addressing: Generating revenue, creating brand awareness, or customer service/education.

Of course, a video can touch on all three- but have a solid idea what the main goal is to keep the content focused, smart and delivering.

Have meaningful control on metrics

Knowing what impact past video content has had will help you make even better future content. If you have no way to measure that, however, you’ll remain lost at sea. Set meaningful KPIs, have the baseline comparison stats in place, and remember to measure, measure, measure.

Design content to support your goals- and only those goals

Now the nitty-gritty is done, it’s time to get to creating. It’s easy to get too caught up in the creation process, however. Suddenly your 10-second product teaser has speeches from staff members, your CEO’s thoughts, and a ton of other irrelevant, rambling content attached. Not only will this cost you more, but chances are the video content will flop in its purpose, too.

Now imagine the ROI on that same product teaser as 10 short, quality seconds of gloriously focused content that highlights the product perfectly. Quite a difference, hey?

How do I measure my video’s ROI?

Now you know more about creating a video that will bring you that balanced ROI, how do you go about measuring it? While that’s a topic in itself, and one we’ll cover in a different blog, here are some basics to keep in mind.

Data, data and more data

As we cautioned above, it’s essential you have the means in place to trace the impact of your video. Will this be leads generated, click through rate, impressions, play rates, call to action, or a/b tests? Only you and your campaign know what’s best… but make sure that infrastructure in in place.

How much did making this video content save

Rather than focusing on the cost, focus on what the video achieved – and how much it actually saved. Did customers get their questions answered in a 1-minute video instead of a 30-minute phone call, or 10-minutes reading a blog? Does that same instructional cut down on your most repetitive customer service request? Look at the ROI as a long-term, living creature, and you’ll be better able to quantify its effects.

Both of these factors are, of course, quantitative. Measuring the qualitative impact of your video content is harder. How much more do people trust you know they’ve seen that content? How did it boost your brand influence? Create product education? They’re harder questions to answer, but a critical key in calculating video content ROI, however.

There’s no doubt that a sensible, well-constructed video campaign can easily be worth the ROI you spend on creating a high-quality video. Not sure where to start designing your campaign, however? Let Zebra 360 Online Marketing help you boost your brand into the stratosphere this year.