The Simple 5-Step Yearly Video Success Plan Busy Founders and Marketers Have Been Looking For

Planning for the year does not have to be a big deal. Here’s a minimalist guide to planning for a successful year in video marketing.

Structure:

1. How to identify areas of growth
2. Determine your business goals (next few months, the next year, the next 5 years)
3. What role will video play in this plan?
4. How should I budget for video?
5. How will I assign my video budget?

As a busy founder or marketer, you're likely always looking for ways to streamline your processes and save time without sacrificing the quality of your work. Unfortunately, when it comes to video content creation planning, you might be feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the different options and tasks involved. But don't worry! Planning for the year does not have to be a big deal. We've got you covered with a simple 5-step plan to help you create a successful video strategy for your business.

Step 1: Identify Areas of Growth

Every year you should reassess the areas of your business with the highest potential to grow. This habit will help you decide your marketing strategy and what type of video you will create, so it’s a great place to start. Think about the world and the economy right now.

• What’s in demand?
• What’s your best-selling offering currently?
• What are your customers asking for more and more?

By pinpointing your specific growth areas, you'll be able to create the right type of videos for achieving your goals. Targeted, effective video content. That’s the goal!

Step 2: Determine Your Business Goals

Once you've identified growth areas, it's time to think about your business goals. Consider both short-term and long-term objectives. For example, what do you want to achieve in the next few months, the next year, and even the next 5 years? These objectives are not fixed. It’s just a North Star to guide you along. It answers the question, “what are we trying to achieve”?

Step 3: How will video help you achieve them?

The next question is, “how are you going to achieve it?” Are you trying to become more known? Paid ads or influencer marketing could work for that. Are you trying to increase understanding about what you do or a specific offering? Are you trying to increase your sales revenue or your conversion rate? Explainer videos could help with those. Are you aiming to highlight a particular expertise and build credibility and trust in an area? Content marketing or customer testimonials could help with that. Are you trying to target a specific audience? The channels you choose to publish on and the ads you set up can help with that. It’s good to pick a single goal here and devote 80% of your time and resources to it, as it will move your business closer to your goals than anything else.

The answers to these questions will inform the type of videos you create, the channels you distribute them on, and the message you want to convey.

Step 4: How Should You Budget for Video?

When it comes to video content creation, budgeting is a critical component. A budget isn’t something you get or have; it’s something you need to meet your marketing goals. There’s no one way to budget, but if you’re looking for new customers, a quick way to determine it is “leads times cost per lead”. And stay with me here because this involves a bit of maths… Firstly, get your revenue goal. For example, if your revenue goal this year is an extra €200,000 and your average customer pays you €20,000 per year, your new customer goal is 10. How effective is your marketing currently? Divide your lead generation goal, 10, by your average conversion rate, say 2%, to get the number of leads you need to generate this year, 500. If you don’t know what your average conversion rate is, and you don’t have conversion tracking on Google Analytics on your website, ask yourself what percentage of potential customers that ask you for quotes follow through by purchasing.

It’s essential to keep in mind the conversion rate of your chosen marketing channel too. For example, Instagram might be 10% for you, but Tik only 1%. How much did you have to spend to get your last customer? The last thing you need to do to get your marketing budget is multiply your lead generation goal, 500, by your average cost per lead. Cost per lead varies by industry, marketing channel and company. You can search online what yours is, but the only way you can know for sure is by tracking it.

In this example, you’re a SaaS company creating high-end feature videos, and your cost per lead is €80. So that brings the total budget to €40,000. Phew, we got through it. I bet you’re glad you don’t have to do maths for another year, right?

Step 5: How Will You Assign Your Video Budget?

Ask yourself, what’s worked well in the past? You may want to put 80% of your marketing budget into this. Then, leave 20% for new channels that might or might not work out better. For each channel, mark all the associated costs. For example, for video, will you hire a video production team, or will you do it all in-house? Will you invest in video editing software or use a free online tool? These decisions will impact the quality of your videos and the overall success of your video marketing plan. Just because this money is assigned doesn’t mean you should go off and spend it all. Always start with a test budget on every marketing channel, run it for 2 weeks, measure your success, and if you can hit a similar cost per lead, double the budget weekly until your lead cost goes up.

Your yearly strategy is crucial; if you can, spend more than 15 minutes on it. But if that’s all the time you have, this is a great place to start. You can get more in-depth on specific strategies in your monthly plan. In conclusion, creating a successful video marketing plan doesn't have to be a complex and time-consuming task. By following these five simple steps, you'll be able to develop a plan that works for your business and helps you achieve your goals. So, what are you waiting for? Get started on your video content creation planning today! Our client portal comes pre-built with a Yearly Video Success Plan. Get in touch today to demo the software with us.

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