If your brand doesn’t have a decent presence on Facebook, it’s like you don’t have a brand at all. Social media is where all the marketing is. These platforms give you access to your target audience. Facebook has over 1.13 billion daily active users. Some of these users already need your products or services; you just need to show them how your offer is superior to the competition.

You can conquer Facebook with a lot of effort and persistence. It takes content development, sharing useful links with the audience, and engaging them with contests, giveaways, and calls to action. Do you know what works best? Facebook videos!

We’ll give you 5 crucial tips that will take your video marketing efforts in the right direction.

1. Focus on Videos the Audience Likes Watching

Before you get head over heals in the video marketing campaign, you should decide on the type of videos you’re going to present. Here are few options for you to consider:

• How-to videos

People always want to learn new things. They have questions related to your products and services. You can show them how to get the most advantages from a purchase they make, or you can give tips on any topic related to your business. If you’re selling flowers, for example, you can film videos that teach people how to take care of different types of plants.

• Testimonials

When you praise your products or services through a traditional video ad, your efforts seem similar to the ones of any other brand. If, however, the potential customers see someone sharing real experience, they will believe the story they tell.

• How it works

People don’t like reading lengthy user guides. If you introduce videos that show how your products or services work, they will appreciate your effort.

2. Convey the Personality of Your Brand

The video allows the audience to see what your brand is all about. A sales approach won’t work. Instead of focusing on the features of your products, the video should show how they are making people’s lives better. Speak to them directly and share the values your brand stands for.

3. Upload the Videos Directly on Facebook

When you’re promoting your brand through videos, you might wonder: is YouTube a better option than a native Facebook video? It’s not. Native videos get more likes, comments, and shares than third-party video content. A study conducted by the Search Engine Journal showed that native Facebook videos reached twice more people, too.

However, it’s also known that native Facebook videos remain popular over a shorter period of time when compared to YouTube videos. That’s because when you like a video and you want to watch it again, it will be hard for you to locate it on the platform. When a native Facebook video is fresh, the activity of the viewers put it in other people’s feeds. Once that euphoria goes away, the video stops getting love from the audience.

• Here’s what you can do:

- If you’re promoting a current sale that won’t matter two months from now, it’s best to upload the video content directly on Facebook.

- If this is an evergreen video that’s supposed to increase the awareness for your brand, YouTube has an advantage.

- Or, you can upload it both as a native Facebook and a YouTube video. The native video will get you more attention on Facebook, but people will still be able to find it on YouTube.

4. Focus on the Visual Aspect

As people scroll down their feed, the videos play automatically. That’s a huge advantage since you get a chance to capture their attention without a lengthy text that calls to action. However, it’s also a challenge, since the videos are muted and most people don’t bother to turn the sound on.

If you want to engage people, you have to do it from the very first frame. The video has to be visually intriguing, and it needs to convey the purpose even when the sound is off.

If your concept doesn’t allow you to do that, include a text message that explains what the video is about. You can see such an example with this video of an astronaut wringing a wet towel in space.

Another important thing: add captions to the video, so people can go through all of it without turning the sound on. Facebook gives you an option to automatically generate captions on a video ad. If you’re uploading the video as a wall post and you’re not promoting it as an ad, you can use a transcription tool like Rev to add the captions without much effort.

5. Focus on Emotions

Why do people use Facebook, anyway? Most of them are there for the fun. Some users want content related to their interests. Others want to get news. What everybody wants is an emotional response. If your video story triggers such a response, you’ll be on our way to success.

Dove is a brand known for playing the emotional card. The videos promote the products, but they also show the brand’s team understanding of the self-esteem issues we all have.

Whether you’re telling a funny or a deeply touching story, you need to make people feel something. They will relate that emotion to your brand.

According to Mark Zuckerberg, videos are a megatrend, and that’s why Facebook will keep putting video first. Your promotional strategy may be as advanced as it gets, but you’re not using the full potential of Facebook without video marketing. It’s about time to make that effort!