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Content Marketing Best Practices [+ Planning Tips for Video]

Content Marketing Best Practices [+ Planning Tips for Video]

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We know that content marketing, by design, is a technique of marketing built on the creation and distribution of relevant content to attract our desired audience – to influence customer action. 

Switching gears a bit, if I ask you to think of the top industry with the heaviest hand of influence, reaching the broadest audience, what would you say? 

Perhaps what comes to mind is the entertainment industry, bolstered by visual genius juggernauts of Hollywood. 

When I posed the question, if you didn’t think of the entertainment industry, maybe your mind went to the news & information industry. If neither the entertainment nor news & information industries were top of mind for you, I am curious to know what industry came to mind. The next question I pose is this: what are some commonalities between the entertainment and news & information industries? 

They’re storytelling Outlets.

They both have a high level of influence and some level of control over messaging. 

They both use video as the richest means of communication. 

Video allows for an experience of showing, not telling. Furthermore, it encourages showing, not selling. No matter what you’re selling, product or service, video needs to be in your content marketing. It will massively enhance the results of your marketing efforts. 

Case Study: How Video Ads Perform Versus Display & Search

 While I know what we’re talking about is content marketing, I want to share some data from some ad campaigns Purplegator has run. 

The video ad below ran for two weeks. As this table illustrates, the video ad garnered 313, 200 impressions. It had a view rate of 49.95% (sometimes known as interaction rate) and an average cost per view (CPV) of $0.02. 

To further drive this point, allow me to use this data to draw some comparisons.  

Below is a table with data from three types of campaigns: display, search, and video.

The display ad, which ran for two months, garnered 165,788 impressions and an interaction rate of 1.37%. It had an average cost of $0.30. 

The search ad, which has been continually running since December of 2018, has garnered 19,769 impressions and an interaction rate of 2.54%.  Its average cost was $3.09. 

With these numbers in mind, wouldn’t you agree that whether we’re talking about advertising and content marketing, video is a top performer? 

Video in Content Marketing Versus Organic Social Media

 To show some numbers in content marketing, let’s take a look at some data from a few posts Purplegator shared on Facebook. 

As you can see, the video reached a higher number of people and also received more engagements. The image got ~11% of the number of people the video did and ~10% of engagements that the video did. 

Start Doing Your Videos for Content Marketing | Helpful questions to help you plan

As far as best practices for content marketing through video, I like to ask myself the following questions: 

  • Big picture first, what is the goal or marketing objective of this video?
    • Awareness?
    • Conversions?
    • Traffic?
  • With the goal in mind, who is my perfect viewer, or target audience?
    • Do I have a good handle on their buyer persona?
    • Do I understand where they are in their buyer journey?
  • What kind of video is this?
    • Interview
    • Review
    • Vlog
    • Tutorial
    • Case Study
    • Presentation
  • What’s the story? Does the story have all three parts of a well-developed story:
    • Beginning
    • Middle
    • End
  • Is there an opportunity to make this video a part of a series, or is it truly a standalone story?
  • On which platform(s) will I be sharing this video?
  • Do I have accompanying content planned or already composed for diversification and atomization purposes?

Reach for the Stars!

When thinking of answering these questions, I like to filter my thoughts and planning perspective through a Hollywood lens. I’m by no way saying that any video content I produce is Hollywood-worthy. I mean that if Hollywood exemplifies the highest standard of storytelling through video, then that’s the process I’m going to try to replicate. The level of quality I’m aiming for, proportionately, to what is realistically achievable within my industry. 

Brands & Companies to Watch

If you’re curious to explore some examples of brands and industry giants that are leveraging video content exceptionally well, look at Lululemon, Red Bull, Lana Del Rey, Blendtec, and Chef Adam Kenworthy.  


 The inspiration for this post came from a prompt for an expert roundup called “9 Video Marketing Tips to Level Up Your Content Strategy,” compiled and written by Jordan Stella, SEO & Social Media Manager for UpCity

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