Best Video Marketing Tools for 2020

Because technology has advanced so much in recent years, the way that almost everyone markets their products and services has also evolved. Marketing is no longer restricted to print media, television advertising, event management, and product management. With the advent of social media, video marketing has become a key tool to promote your business or product. Web-users are now estimated to spend nearly 6 hours watching videos every day (seriously, where do they find the time?) which means that there are countless daily opportunities to connect with audiences all over the world.

What is Video Marketing?

Video marketing is a forward-looking strategy that uses videos to engage your customers, and it can be used for anything from building rapport with them to promoting your brand, products and services.

Social media and the mass adoption of smartphones has put video material in the hands of millions, and half of all YouTube viewers now watch videos using their mobile devices.

500 million videos are watched every day on Facebook alone, which goes to show that there is a vast appetite for viewable content, and the people watching it expect it to be available on whatever devices they use.

33%​ of tablet owners watch around one hour of video on their devices every day and 28% of smartphone users watch a video on their devices at least once a day.

This all adds up to a huge number of opportunities for your brand to be seen and heard.

Video Content for SEO Link Building

It’s not just about videos being watched though.

Content marketing is critical to search engine optimization too, and video content can generate inbound links and web traffic.

Even though video content itself can’t be crawled by search engines, it still has SEO benefits. That’s because marketers add descriptions and keywords to videos, and they can be crawled.

Huge numbers of videos are shared on the web, so this added metadata can help search visibility and boost rankings in Google’s (and other search engines’) results.

On top of that, putting transcribed text from the video on a website can improve the site’s SEO standing too.

Linking video with written content like an article or metadata has proved to be very effective for SEO.

Even back in 2012, Marketingweek noted that video listings appeared in the top 100 listings for more than 70 percent of searches, and it’s likely to be even more now.

Branding

It’s important to produce videos that set you apart from your competitors.

It can be tempting to imitate but it’s better to innovate because viewers are always hoping to find something that grabs them with its uniqueness.

Dollar Shave Club sold for $1 Billion and disrupted an entire industry, thanks in part to its perfectly pitched viral video and follow-ups. It illustrates the importance of thinking hard about the connection between your brand and the customers you want to attract.

Things to Consider When Choosing Video Marketing Software

One of the other factors that have driven the mass adoption of video marketing, even by smaller businesses is the cost of entry.

It’s dropped drastically in the last decade, putting high-end equipment within reach of almost everyone.

Gone are the days when you needed to spend thousands on professional camera and sound equipment, editing and animation software, and professionals to work it all.

If you’re prepared to roll up your sleeves, you can make effective and professional-looking content without breaking the bank.

If your budget is a little more generous, then you could try hiring someone from the large numbers of excellent creatives from all over the world to make your video for you.

Freelancer websites like Upwork and Fiverr give you access to reasonably-priced professionals who may be cheaper yet just as good as anyone that you can find locally.

But it isn’t always necessary to outsource.

If you’re on a shoestring budget you can still make effective marketing videos, using any one of several cheap or free apps.

However, before you select your video marketing tools, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

1. What Are Your Goals?

Before you think about what video tools to get (and who doesn’t love auditioning new tech?) you need to be clear about your goals.

Here are a few questions to help you narrow them down:

• Why are you creating these videos—are they meant to educate your customers, generate traffic to your website, change perceptions, increase sales, etc.?
• Who is your target audience?
• How will you measure success?

Do you have brand guidelines that new material will need to follow?

2. The Type of Video You are Planning to Make

Next, you need to decide on the types of videos you want to make.

• Will you be creating these videos using your existing text and images?
• What kind of tone (the look or feel) will this video have?
• Will it be a generic video, an interview-driven one, an action-oriented one or a combination of the three?
• Will you be using animation in these videos?
• Will you need voice over talent for this video?
• Will you need to caption the video for the hearing-impaired?
• Where will you be sourcing the music from?
• Does your source guarantee that copyright infringement won’t be an issue?

Will it need a quick publish to social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and so on?

3. Choosing the Music for Your Video

Choosing the right kind of music for your video is critical, but even more important than that is the legality of it.

Can you swear, hand on heart that it won’t be infringing anyone’s copyright?

You need to ensure that you only use royalty-free music or copyright-free music in your videos because if you don’t, you could find yourself at the sharp end of a legal dispute.

The best way to make sure that you do get royalty-free or copyright free music is to use a reliable site that offers you a wide range of legally available music.

Even then, though, it’s essential to read through the terms and conditions of use before you purchase the music on offer so that you understand how it will be licensed, and you understand all the dos and don’ts of how you can use it.

You might be tempted to use websites that offer Creative Commons content, but you’ll probably be better off avoiding them because it’s no guarantee of compliance.

With many of these sites, even though they claim to offer free music, their terms and conditions are frequently murky, which means that you could end up with a lawyer’s letter in your hands after you have already published your video.

4. Final Evaluation Criteria

Once you understand your goals and you have a clear idea of the type of video you are going to make, then you need to decide what your evaluation criteria will be for choosing the right video marketing software.

Here is a list of criteria you should look at before you pick your video tool:

• Content Management: Is it easy to upload videos or clips, organize them, sync them with online assets and so on?
• Ease of Design: does the tool make it easy to design your video content?
• Templates Available: Does this video marketing tool give you templates for different types of videos? Do you get pre-made music that you can use in your Instagram videos or promotional videos?
• Professional Video and Audio Clips: Does it come with built-in libraries of royalty-free music and video clips that you can use in your creations? Do you have the option to buy music directly with this software?
• Effects and Transitions: Does it let you add fade-ins and fade-outs, animated elements, text effects and so on?
• Animation/Storytelling: Does it let you create animated content?
• Access: Can multiple teams access the software so that they can collaborate on the creation of this video?
• Ease of Integration: Is it easy to integrate this tool with online platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and so on?
• Security and Scale: Is it possible to encrypt the tool for safety, and ensure that the content can be restricted? Can the videos be protected by the administrators?
• Personalization: Can you personalize the content of the video?

Best Video Marketing Software for Marketers

Now that you know the evaluation criteria for choosing the right video marketing software for your company, here is a list of some of the best tools on the market today:

●      Animoto

Animoto is one of the best video marketing software products available today. It is easy to use and works best when you know exactly what you want.

You don’t get the kind of absolute control that high-end video editing software can give you, but then it doesn’t cost as much as high-end video editing software.

It was designed to make video editing easy for most people, and it does that job well. With so many templates, you don’t really need to do much—the tool does most of the work for you.

Pricing starts at $8 a month for Personal plan, $22 for the Professional plan and $34 a month for the Business plan.

●      Filmora

Another favorite with many, Wondershare Filmora is cheap and quite effective if you don’t want total control over the end product.

It offers various filters and overlays so you can re-color your videos, you can chop and rearrange scenes, add split screen effects, sound effects and audio.

There is even a built-in screen recorder—a useful feature that you don’t see much on this type of software.

The cheapest version is free, or you can choose from two excellent-value subscription options—one year at $39.99 or lifetime at $59.99.

●      Magisto

Magisto is the only video marketing tool on the market that uses Artificial Intelligence to analyze the most interesting and shareable parts of video footage, making video creation easier.

The target group for this tool is small-to-medium businesses that need help with developing video concepts that can help to build their client base.

There’s a free plan to start you off, or you can unlock more features for between $4.99 and $19.99 a month.

●      Audio Buzz

One of the most painful parts about creating a video is finding the right music.

Audio Buzz has created a new Video Preview Tool that helps you locate the right piece of royalty-free music for your video.

Music is everywhere, and finding something that you like is fairly simple, but finding legally available music that works with your video is not.

Audio Buzz makes that job much easier for you.

While it isn’t a dedicated video editing tool, its auditioning feature is a unique and invaluable time-saver, and its library is simply enormous. Single track licenses cost $29 or $189 gets you one year of unlimited downloads!

●      Powtoon

Powtoon is great if you are looking for a platform that can help you quickly create professional-looking presentations and videos.

It’s great for people who aren’t very tech-savvy too.

All you need to do is drag and drop elements to create your own customized video.

If a deadline is looming, then it might just be the tool you need to get you over the finish line on time. Prices range from $16 a month for individuals up to $99 for agencies.

●      Promo.com

Promo.com is a great video marketing tool for collaborative projects.

If you need a platform to create premium video clips and want to publish them on social media platforms, then this is the product for you.

Basic membership costs $49 a month, Standard costs $99 a month and Pro costs $359 a month.

●      Wistia

One of the top video editing platforms for businesses, you can create, host, manage, measure and even share your videos using Wistia.

Plans range in price from nothing for the free version, all the way up to $999 a month for the feature-rich Premium Plan.

●      Vimeo

Vimeo has a video editor called Cameo which can be used to create high-quality animations, short films, journalism videos and informative pieces.

Pricing is tiered according to how much you upload and starts at $7 a month.

●      Wideo

An online video marketing tool, Wideo lets you create compelling animated videos and presentations.

It’s a great tool for freelancers, digital agencies, and marketing professionals who want to customize their videos. Plans range from $19 to $79 a month.

Conclusion

When you choose your video marketing tools, ensure that they meet your specific requirements.

Do not choose a tool that is popular but ends up being too complicated or too simple for what you want to achieve with your video.

After all, that marketing video is a key tool for you to promote your company, product, or service so that you achieve your growth goals.