7 steps to a successful social media video marketing strategy

With sound, images, music and other engaging elements, video marketing has all the bells and whistles to attract viewers. It’s projected that adults will spend three hours and 30 minutes per day watching digital video by 2028, about half an hour more than the 2024 average. In 2024, digital video consumption surpassed TV viewing time in the U.S. for the third year in a row.

That trend is predicted to continue in the years to come, making digital video a necessity for marketers developing their video marketing strategy on social media.

Luckily, there are many ways video can be used in social media marketing. We’re not limited to TV-style ads or perfectly polished educational videos. With multiple networks supporting short-form video content, an interest in brand authenticity and accessible editing apps, it’s easier than ever to dip your toes into the video marketing world.

Our seven-step guide will walk you through each of the pieces you need to create a successful social media video marketing strategy. You can also watch the below video for a crash course, including tips for scaling your video process from pre-production to post-publishing:

1. Set goals for video marketing

At the beginning of any new marketing strategy, you’ll start by setting goals. What do you want your videos to achieve?

If you’re just starting out, we recommend setting only a few goals so you don’t become overwhelmed. An example of a video marketing goal would be generating brand awareness.

But with the right script and creativity, your video marketing strategy can do more than boost awareness of your brand. It can also guide potential customers through the decision stage of their buyer’s journey, educate customers on their brand new purchase and fuel a brand’s advocacy plans.

There are five stages of a typical marketing funnel and videos can fall into each stage as long as you develop your social media marketing strategy to align with each one.

As you reflect on what your goals are for your video marketing strategy, consider where they’ll fall within each stage of the buyer’s journey and use it to inspire your social media video ideas. Identifying the funnel stage will help you create highly effective calls to action in your video content as well.

Here are five example goals you can achieve within each funnel stage:

Awareness: Reach new customers

According to The 2024 Sprout Social Media Content Strategy Report, social media users are using video-centric channels like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok for product discovery. These are more than “social networks” for audiences, especially Millennial and Gen Z consumers. Digital video content is a way to find and vet brands, products and services.

In the first stage of the buyer’s journey, brands are trying to capture consumers’ attention and introduce themselves. Social media video marketing is a great medium to reach new customers and show them who you are and what you value, what your brand offers and what differentiates it from your competitors.

With video you may only have seconds or minutes to capture your audience’s attention–get right to the point when you’re creating awareness-stage video content. For example, eye-catching educational videos or opinionated thought leadership can establish credibility and your brand identity, so when consumers intend to buy, your brand is top of mind.

Some brands use videos heavily for advertising. These videos can appear on product pages on a brand’s website or in social ads across networks. This is especially useful for direct-to-consumer brands like Patagonia, where product videos are necessary to help the consumer picture themselves with the product.

In the below product video, the outdoor gear brand showcases some of their children’s winter gear, including coats and hats. It features kids wearing the gear while exploring the wonder of the outdoors and participating in sports like skiing. The video is relatable and short, and can be used as both a Facebook post and promoted as a social ad.

Consideration: Generate demand

Once consumers have reached the consideration stage, they may know about your brand and what you offer, but it’s still your job to generate demand for your products and services.

There are several ways you can achieve this goal with social media video marketing. For example, how-tos and tutorials show your product in action and make it easy for the consumer to envision how they’d use the product themselves. Brands in the skincare, makeup and wellness spaces, like HUM Nutrition, are masters of consideration-stage videos.

HUM Nutrition frequently shares short-form videos of influencers, creators, customers and staff members using the brand’s supplements in their daily lives. The videos feature a bright, clean aesthetic that help the supplement bottles’ colorful labels stand out. In the below example, the brand’s Hair Strong vitamins are featured as part of a routine to restore hair health.

It’s a relatable video that offers tips beyond the brand’s products to give followers an easy, applicable routine. When people can see how your product works or how other people use your services to solve a problem, they can visualize themselves doing the same thing.

Animated explainer videos are an alternative option to live-action demonstrations. Though more abstract, they’re still an opportunity to put the customer’s problem into perspective and introduce your services as the solution.

Consideration-stage videos don’t have to focus solely on your products or services, either. Consumers also consider a company’s culture and core values before committing to being their customer.

Data from a Q2 2024 Sprout Social Pulse Survey shows 87% of all consumers strongly or somewhat agree they expect influencers to speak out about causes that align with their values and take a stand on social media. This is a massive difference from our 2023 data, where only 25% of consumers said the most memorable brands speak out about causes/news that align with their values.

Lean into this consumer interest by using video to highlight your brand story and core values. You’ll establish an emotional connection with your audience, making it more likely they’ll choose your company over a competitor.

Decision: Drive conversion

The decision stage is when prospects can become customers. Here, customer testimonial videos can go a long way to show the real potential and payoff of your products and services.

Codecademy, an online coding school that offers free courses and a thriving community, shares short videos about individual students’ stories. In this video, Codecademy alum Noah shares his journey, from self-taught programmer looking to create a booking solution for his yoga business to full-stack engineer.

Noah tells a strong story and the video features fun, engaging editing. What makes this video a strong decision-stage piece, is the aspirational, yet authentic, “this could be you” feeling. Codecademy isn’t just for folks with a background in coding wanting to uplevel their career. Noah’s story showcases that anyone with any background can jump right into the classes. Codecademy isn’t just making a promise and hoping you take their word for it: they’re showing they’ve already earned their students’ trust and made a difference in their lives.

Use this kind of video content to show potential customers the results and the real benefits that others have reaped and what they stand to gain from choosing your business.

Adoption: Educate customers

It’s not just marketers who want to make sure they’re seeing a return on their investments. Once a prospect becomes a customer and enters the adoption stage, educate them about how they can get the most out of your products and services.

An energetic how-to video is ideal for platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn or Instagram Reels, where people are willing to spend a bit more time watching and learning.

You have a few options:

• Educational video: If your products or services have a lot of features based on specific needs or there’s a learning curve that comes with them, lean into educating your audience. Content that’s focused on hacks, tips, optimization or special features can put complexities into perspective and make customers more confident.
• Webinars: These can be highly effective mediums because they give customers a chance to engage with your brand in real-time and ask questions.
• Live stream: Going live can help you capture a broader audience, especially on a platform like TikTok where live streams are suggested as users scroll their feed. However, it’s your biggest fans and existing followers who are most likely to tune in. Instagram Live streams appear at the top of the interface at the beginning of Stories. Followers who have their app open when you go live will also receive a notification that you’re broadcasting, so they can easily tune in to get the latest from your brand.

Advocacy: Inspire evangelism

By the advocacy stage, you have satisfied customers that’ll sing your praises and champion your brand.

The beautiful thing about advocacy videos is that customers don’t feel like they’re being sold anything. Capitalize on organic, genuine love for your brand and product using social listening tools like Sprout Social’s. With Sprout Social Listening, you can capture brand mentions from engaged profiles and surface user-generated content.

Not every advocacy video will be viral or come straight from your fans. Brand strategies can be bolstered by employee advocacy content. Consider showcasing your colleagues to show the ins and outs of your company and why they love working there.

2. Decide on your social media platforms for video marketing

Every major social media platform has its own form of video, so there’s plenty of real estate to incorporate it into your strategy.

If you’ve never used video on any platform, begin with the ones where you already have audiences established. The 2024 Sprout Social Media Content Strategy Report found that Gen Z and Millennial audiences gravitate toward Instagram with at least three quarters of users in these age groups using the platform. Gen X and Baby Boomer audiences lean toward Facebook and Instagram. YouTube has a place in the top five platforms of all age groups as well.

Choosing any of these networks to begin your video marketing strategy is a good first step. Let’s dive into TikTok and YouTube in more depth.

When to use TikTok for video marketing

Without a doubt, TikTok helped popularize the short-form video and has become one of the internet’s favorite apps because of it.

In the Content Strategy Report, our data showed that 68% of all social media users use TikTok, but Gen Z and Millennials lead the way with 86% and 73% respectively. Gen Z especially uses the channel for both online shopping and as a news source.

The app’s collaborative features like Duets paired with a nuanced culture fueled by TikTok trends and TikTok sounds give brands new ways to get creative with their video marketing.

The app is a powerful awareness driver, but trends like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt show that short-form video can also convert consumers into customers.

When to use YouTube for video marketing

With over 2.5 billion monthly active users, YouTube still reigns as one of the most popular video platforms amongst consumers and marketers. A massive user base is great, but that isn’t the only reason brands should consider YouTube marketing. YouTube is one of the most popular search engines in the world, and videos from the platform show up in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). Marketers can use YouTube to increase their brand’s visibility by producing content that targets commonly searched topics.

YouTube Shorts offer a short-form video option. Short-form video delivers the highest ROI compared to other current marketing trends, so it’s worth considering in your strategy. Use these to showcase clips from longer videos, share user-generated content or offer bite-sized insights alongside your in-depth videos. You can also snag our free social media video workbook for maximizing the value of the short-form videos you create.

You can use YouTube video marketing to address all the stages of the marketing funnel, so you can reach the goals of your strategy no matter what you choose.

Social media video formats and features

To choose the right platform for your brand’s video marketing, you need to understand what each one offers and what video dimensions can be displayed. If you’d like to repurpose your videos, it’s best to choose platforms that complement each other. Many platforms (including Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts) use a 9×16 vertical video aspect ratio, making it easy to cross post your video on all of them.

As different social platforms add more features, it can be hard to keep track of what type of video content can be uploaded where or when you might need to do some additional editing.

See below for a quick reference, but visit our full social media video specs guide for all the details you need to upload on each network.

Facebook

• Landscape and portrait feed video
• Reels posted or crossposted via Facebook and Instagram
• Facebook Live (live streaming)
• Facebook Stories (disappearing content)

Instagram

• Landscape and portrait feed video
• Live streaming (Instagram Live)
• Instagram Stories (disappearing content)
• Instagram Reels (short-form and long-form content)

Threads

• Landscape and portrait feed video

YouTube

• Landscape video
• Portrait video (may use pillarboxing on some uploads)
• Live streaming
• YouTube Shorts (portrait, short-form video)

TikTok

• Portrait feed video
• Live streaming
• TikTok Stories (disappearing content)

X (formerly known as Twitter)

• Landscape and portrait feed video
• Livestream

LinkedIn

• Landscape feed video
• Livestream

Pinterest

• Portrait feed video
• Idea Pins (set of images, videos or text similar to Stories)

Tasty’s social media content offers great examples of how to tailor your videos for different platforms. The brand frequently uses video marketing, customized for platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Not only are the orientations different, the topics and series also vary between platforms. This diversity of content ensures that the audience will find original content no matter which Tasty social media page they’re on. For example, in this video Tasty shares a compilation of vertical short-form videos in a longer landscape video for mac and cheese recipes:

Repurpose content across platforms that support similar video formats

When you put so much effort into creating quality video content, you want to make sure as many pairs of eyes as possible see it. Why not take advantage of repurposing your video content across channels?

Your audience and thus, your brand, may have a preferred social channel. It makes sense to approach your video content with that network top of mind. Yet, your audience on your other accounts will likely enjoy a well-made video, too.

Video lengths and types can vary by network, but the good news is, feature and length parity are getting closer. YouTube recently increased the maximum length for YouTube Shorts to 3 minutes, making it easier than ever to repurpose your videos from other platforms.

Reels, TikTok‌ and YouTube Shorts all use a vertical 9×16 video style, meaning you won’t need to crop or extensively edit a video to repurpose it. As long as you keep the maximum length in mind, there’s no downside to reposting your carefully made Instagram Reel onto YouTube and TikTok. You may even reach some members of your audience who didn’t catch it in its original form, or find new customers along the way.

3. Select your video types

Determining the type of video that works best for your brand is an important step in your marketing strategy. Not all videos are made the same and that’s okay–what’s most important is that they support your key goals.

Our research in the Content Strategy Report found that consumers are more willing than ever to interact with brands on social media. Some 48% of consumers said they’ve interacted with brands on social media more frequently in the last six months. They’re using these interactions for both connection and consumption, and they value a brand that feels human and real.

The takeaway here? Consumers are looking for all-around authenticity within your content.

Here are a few different types of social media video ideas and their benefits to get you started with accomplishing the genuine content consumers are looking for:

• Educational: These are informative and can create brand awareness for new customers. They often take a more polished tone to establish the brand as an expert. If created for current customers, then the videos could be focused on guides and tips for getting the most out of a product.
• Explainer: Similar to educational videos, explainer content focuses on teaching the audience more about your brand and the product or service you offer. Use these videos to quickly explain what your company does and how the brand can help solve a particular problem. End with a strong call to action to prompt viewers further along the marketing funnel.
• Behind-the-scenes: These give a look into company operations and employees. They serve to entertain the audience or give a virtual peek behind the curtain.
• Interviews: With guest speakers, interviews are a great way of introducing your audience to a new influencer and vice versa. Handing the virtual mic over to a guest can be fun and provide a little more authenticity to your brand.
• Entertaining: These include jokes, cute puppies and even pranks. They serve to entertain the audience but are a great way of emphasizing your brand voice and building a sense of community among your audience. Customers also enjoy “edutainment” content: 66% of respondents in our Content Strategy Report said it’s the most engaging type of brand content.
• Testimonials: These videos look like customer highlights and help to create social proof for your brand. Videos that showcase how a customer uses your product or service and their satisfaction with it operate on a connection level: ideally, a potential customer will see themselves in that video and be persuaded to purchase.
• Product: Highlight the top features of your brand’s most popular product or service by showing it in action. Showing off what makes your product or service unique can help customers envision themselves using your brand.
• Narrative: Put your author’s hat on and tell an engaging story to leave a lasting impression on viewers. Use animation or go documentary-style to explain how your brand was founded or a customer problem you resolved—anything that showcases a memorable story.

Once you’ve determined which types of videos to tackle, it’s time to move on to planning the actual video.

4. Plan the content production

A good content production plan will save you time and money in the long run. Whether you plan with a spreadsheet or old-fashioned pen and paper, you need to establish how you’ll create and film videos.

Evaluate your options for content production and post-production. Hiring an agency or production company will alleviate a lot of the stress. They’ll handle all the planning and approvals, you just need to give the guidance.

But if you’re planning on doing this all in-house, you’ll need to think about all the steps needed to produce a successful video. This includes but isn’t limited to:

• Identifying needed equipment and props
• Writing a script
• Editing the script
• Storyboarding the video
• Planning the shoot for optimal filming. Filming won’t be linear for the most part.
• Gathering and nurturing talent (the people who are featured in the video)
• Identifying the place(s) you’ll film and taking natural daylight into consideration for timing
• Knowing where to send the footage to be edited
• Determining who will do the approval sign-offs for each step. For example, you want to make sure that the script sounds good and is in line with your voice. This might require two people to review it.
• Checking that the music you’re using is licensed for you

As you run through the content plan, you’ll find some ways you need to tweak it or things you missed earlier, especially if this is one of your first efforts putting together a comprehensive video content plan. Be ready to adjust where needed. After a solid plan is executed, it’s time to move on to post-production.

5. Know what post-production entails

Allot plenty of time for post-production, especially if your videos will be used for ads or have heavier editing needs. Post-production does not mean just cutting scenes and putting them back together to music. It also includes additions like closed captions, text overlays, call-to-action screens and more. The more you film and the more polished you want your video to be, the more time you’ll need.

Some videos will only need light edits post production. For example, if you host a Facebook Live, the video is published immediately after it ends. You’ll be able to edit the caption and title but not much else.

Uploaded videos will go through the post-production process. On YouTube, for example, you’ll be able to add tags, multiple language closed captions, detailed captions and more.

Know what you’re getting yourself into before you start: formal, polished videos on YouTube require a lot more work than a basic livestream.

6. Schedule and promote the videos

Now that you have the completed video, it’s time to schedule and promote it. Some management platforms like Sprout Social offer publishing options for videos.

For instance, Sprout’s YouTube publishing options include details like tags, category, playlist and privacy settings. We’re the only social media management software that lets you manage your TikTok content by allowing you to schedule your videos in the same calendar as your other social posts, all on one platform.

Don’t think of videos on social media as one-and-done. One fully produced video could be uploaded to several networks over a month-long time period, depending on your social schedule and plan for repurposing video content. On X (formerly known as Twitter), you could promote it many times. For livestreams, you’ll need to promote often to ensure lots of people will join in at the right time.

One film recording session could produce multiple videos. Different clips could be used for promotion or spliced together to create new videos. Think big when you’re promoting videos.

7. Understand and analyze metrics

The last step in any strategy is the most important of them all: analyzing and reflecting. You won’t know how a video performs unless you take a look at the statistics associated with it. What are the view counts? The watch times? The shares and likes and comments? How is your YouTube engagement or TikTok engagement?

Each network provides different sets of video metrics, so it’s important for you to know what they are before you start on production. Every platform also has native analytics that will tell you how your video content performed. The metrics you use to analyze success should match the goals you set in the beginning. If you wanted brand awareness for a video, the matching metric might be impressions or video views.

Along with scheduling, Sprout offers a suite of analytics tools. For example, you can analyze your performance by reviewing TikTok analytics to identify which video posts were the most successful. TikTok’s native analytics only saves your data for limited time periods, but Sprout’s Reporting and Analytics tools don’t put an expiration date on your post performance data. You can view how your TikTok videos perform over time, and compare it to the content on your other platforms.

Keep in mind that audiences will watch your older videos. With the right combination of keywords and an evergreen topic, a three-year-old video might still be relevant to your users today.

Start your video marketing strategy today

Social media video marketing is one (albeit large and exciting) piece of your overall content strategy. Setting goals that align with your broader social media marketing plan before you start creating content will help you choose the right platforms and type of video for your brand. With a thought out production, promotion and analytics plan, you’ll be ready to craft engaging videos that appeal to your audiences.

Just as your video content needs to be tailored to individual audiences and networks, you’ll need to ensure all of your social media content gets a customized approach. To build a data-informed social media marketing strategy, download our 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report for specific insights by platform.