Think about it. You’d probably rather watch a 5-minute video than read a 5-minute block of text. Statistics show 69% of consumers prefer to learn about a product or service through a short video. About 85% hope to see more videos from brands.

But not just any video will get consumers’ attention. Google conducted a survey on 12,000 individuals from around the world. The results revealed people prefer:

• Video content that suits their interests and passions.
• Videos that help them relax and unwind.
• Videos that teach them something new.

Another survey indicated 90% of consumers value authenticity and use it to decide if they like a brand or not. With these preferences in mind, influencers provide one of the best ways to share videos that consumers need. About 40% of consumers feel their favorite YouTube influencer understands them better than their friends.

Influencer marketing involves usinniche experts or people with social influence to endorse your brand. It can happen on all forms of social media—Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and YouTube. Combining videos and influencers in your marketing campaigns is one tactic that could drive conversion rates through the roof.

Here are five tips to make your videos and influencer marketing efforts successful.

1. Look For The Right Influencers

Avoid the mistake of prioritizing the size of an influencer’s following over how well he/she fits your target audience. You could have a celebrity-level influencer with hundreds of followers. But unless your influencer’s followers are your target audience, your videos will not achieve conversions.

A study shows micro and nano-influencers have a higher average engagement rate than medium and mega influencers. Take Instagram, for instance. Influencers with less than 10,000 followers get an average engagement of 4.4% compared to the 0.7% of influencers with over a million followers.

A major factor that has led to this inverse relationship is that most people see small influencers as experts in their niche. They view this content as authentic and are more likely to comment, like, and share the content. The followers of big influencers, on the other hand, are more likely to get a commercial vibe video from their endorsements.

It’s also important to look at the social platform most popular among your target audience. If you are a fashion brand, an influencer with a strong following on Instagram will be a better choice than one with a large fan base on Twitter. Influencer marketing is the perfect way to target specific demos if you’re on the right channels.

Here are a few pointers to get you started on choosing an influencer:

• Search for influencers who are already promoting your brand. They are already available and enthusiastic to promote your content. Their enthusiasm will reflect in their content, and when their followers see this passion, they are more likely to convert.
• Reach out to influencers who are casually talking about your competitors in an uncommitted way. It shows that they have the right audience for your brand.
• Use hashtags to find influencers who post topics that are relevant to your business.
• Once you spot a few influencers in your genre, look at who they are following. You could discover a more dominant influencer and a better fit for your brand.

Be sure to pick an influencer who is comfortable and charismatic on video.

2. Educate Your Audience With Influencer Content

Once you have the right influencer, it’s time to create the right content. Provide your audience with information that will have a positive impact.

Use your influencers to improve the market’s understanding of your products or services. They can create tutorials, explainers, and how-to videos that show your audience how to get the most out of your product. Or they can provide tips on how to solve specific problems using your product.

Here is an example from Benjamina Ebuehi, a London-based baker. She shares a unique recipe on her Instagram channel while promoting coffee from Carte Noire UK.

Make good use of user-generated experiences. These are videos involving your brand but created by people who are not official representatives of your business. Data shows that user-generated content influences the purchasing decision of 90% of consumers.

The messages in this kind of video feel more genuine and trustworthy to the consumers mainly because it comes from a peer and not a business.

Another example involves Fabio Wibmer, an Austrian cyclist, using the GoPro camera to capture one of his bike rides. The video has over 70 million views on YouTube. GoPro uses user-generated content to prove the capability of its cameras.

3. Focus on Getting More Mileage Out Of Your Videos

You can get the most mileage from your videos by using episodic content. This is content split into small episodes that revolve around a certain theme. The videos should be engaging to keep your audience interested and yearning for your next video.

Episode-style content is also beneficial in that:

• You produce shorter videos at regular intervals. It’s easier for someone to fit a 5-minute video in their busy schedule than a 30-minute video.
• You can get into deeper details about a topic.

You can use this episode-style method to tell a story that hooks the audience. Ease the burden of creating separate videos for each episode. Shoot one long video and use a powerful video cutter to split it into episodes. Or you can get creative and use the video cutter to create and share teasers for upcoming episodes.

Spotify has taken advantage of the impact of episodic content to reach out to new artists. The video series, The GamePlan educates artists on how to make the most out of Spotify. Each video is less than 5 minutes long and contains valuable advice from music experts and legends.

Get more mileage from your videos by segmenting your audience by age, location, gender, or other criteria. Personalize your videos for each of these segments. Find separate micro-influencers with followers that fit each of the segments. This approach will help you address the unique needs of each segment.

4. Videos Should Be Concise And Interesting

An effective marketing video will grab your viewer’s attention and hold it until the CTA. The core of your video should be the value you provide the customer; not the sale. Appeal to the hidden desires and frustrations of your customers and then offer a solution.

First, grab attention with an eye-grabbing thumbnail. It will get your audience excited about watching your video. Follow the thumbnail with a powerful hook. A hook can be questions and teasers that arouse the audience’s curiosity. This will get your viewers past the vital first few seconds where they decide if they want to watch the video or not. It gives them confidence the video is different from other off-putting salesy videos on the internet.

Next, whatever your video promised in the title and hook, deliver it. Forget the usual stiff business-like tone. Make your audience laugh, amaze them, and leave them positively inspired while still educating them. Avoid being too wordy. Keep your videos brief but comprehensive. The fewer words you use, the more likely your audience will pay attention and remember your message.

Here is an excellent example from Aviation American Gin. The video “The Process | Aviation Gin” explains the creation process of the Gin hilariously and creatively. The video is less than 2 minutes long and has over 4 million views.

5. Build Trust in Your Brand

Part of your audience will wonder if your product will solve their problems or work as expected. Social proof can help clear these doubts. Give your micro-influencers your product and ask them to review and share the video with their followers. Data shows that 82% of consumers are likely to buy after a recommendation from a micro-influencer.

Encourage the micro-influencers to give both positive and negative feedback. Let them share any unique experiences they have had with your products. Consumers are more likely to buy the product if they view the reviews as authentic and unbiased.

Product sampling campaigns are also an excellent way to get honest product reviews for new products. Ask your customers to try a new product for free in exchange for a genuine review on the camera. Use a video editor to cut the most vital parts of the reviews and combine them into one video that you can share on your website and social media.

Your micro-influencers can also share unboxing videos for your new products. These are entertaining. And if the micro-influencer gives a genuine reaction, it can evoke curiosity and encourage the followers to try the product.

Samantha Jane, for instance, is a micro-influencer in the beauty niche with about 95,000 followers. She provides honest reviews for new products on her YouTube channel. For this, her product reviews get thousands of views in only a few months of release.

Within two months of her review of the FentyEaze Drop Skin Tint, the video had over 7,000 views. Based on the comments, her followers trust and are willing to follow her product recommendations.

Take the Next Step

Are you ready to begin exploiting the power of video and influencer marketing? Here is what you need to keep in mind:

• Use micro-influencers. They are more affordable. Multiple micro-influencers could cost less than one mega-influencer.
• Make professional and compelling videos.

Remember to measure the results and make the necessary improvements in your next campaign. It’s common to run into challenges with influencer marketing, but if you follow the steps above, you’ll be on the right track.

Author Bio: Hammad Akbar is the Founder & CEO at Keevi, a video content repurposing tool. He has extensive experience in the world of Digital Marketing, SaaS Application development, and building technology companies.