Video marketing is a powerful tool for businesses, including child care centers. Think about how much you could share with new parents if you could show them, instead of trying to explain it during a tour or writing about it in an ad!
Why use video marketing?
A well-planned video marketing strategy is incredibly effective, both because of what you can share and how you can share it. WordStream, a well-known online advertising company, recently published a list of updated video marketing statistics. These facts demonstrate just why using video marketing is a great idea for your daycare.
Millennials ages 25 to 34 (a lot of the new parents you’re trying to reach fall into this category) watch more online videos than any other generation. Video is great for social media, where it reaches more people than links or photos. Video marketing will also boost your SEO and SEM efforts. A website page with a video is 53% more likely to show up on Google’s first page of search results than a page without a video. Including a video on a landing page can increase the number of conversions from that page by 80%.
Not only will more potential clients see your video, they’re more likely to remember what it said. When reading text, people retain about 10% of your message. However, when viewing a video, they are able to remember 95% of your message. That’s almost everything!
Creating Effective Videos
Creating a great video marketing strategy can be more time consuming and costly than other digital marketing tools. Using best practices within your video increases its effectiveness for your daycare, making it worth the investment.
For awesome video content new parents will love, use these best practices:
- Follow a strategy that includes both informational and promotional content. Share value with potential clients using your expertise, while also encouraging people to sign up for your email list or a tour.
- Always use a call to action (CTA) within your video to ask viewers to take the next step. Depending on the video’s content and your goals, your CTA may be something like asking for shares on Facebook or going to your website’s contact page.
- Create videos that can easily be re-edited for different platforms and re-shared throughout the year. This will increase the return on your initial investment into video, whether it was paying for equipment, hiring a professional videographer or using an editing service.
- Add subtitles to your videos. According to WordStream, “85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound.” Don’t waste these viewers’ time with a video they won’t be able to get anything out of.
- Make your video look professional. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to hire a professional, but you want your center to make a great impression on viewers. Everyone featured in the video, as well as your daycare itself, should look their best.
Using Video Across Marketing Channels
One of video marketing’s biggest strengths is its versatility. A single video can be reedited for many different platforms.
Video SEO
Optimize your videos for search engines on YouTube using video SEO. A catchy, descriptive title paired with a well-written description that explains what your video is about helps search engines find it.
Social Media
Snippets of videos can be shared on a regular basis on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Use your content calendar as a guide to mix in videos evenly. It can be tempting to share the YouTube link to your video on Facebook. However, uploading a unique video (such as the first minute) to Facebook will help your video gain views and shares on the platform.
Website Content
Video appeals to website visitors as well, encouraging them to say on your site longer. User engagement metrics, such as the time spent on your site and how many pages are visited, are part of Google’s algorithm. Increasing these metrics can help you outrank other local daycares.
Promotional Video Ideas
Are you ready to jump into a video marketing strategy? You’ll need to decide what you want to share. Use these ideas to start promoting your center to new parents:
- Share a behind the scenes look at your center after-hours. No kids, no messes, just a quick virtual tour that can help parents decide if they want to take the next step and sign up for an in-person tour.
- Use illustrations to share information about an upcoming event or promotion you’re running. This is a great way to stand out and eliminate the need for parental permission.
- Take video footage of parents sharing their experience with your center. You could even include cute interviews with their kids as well.
- For quick social media videos, take photos and edit them into a slideshow.
- Turn a popular blog post or resource from your website into a video. An animated presentation or slideshow can help spread your message even further than the original post.
