Content marketing no longer has to prove itself: many companies use it, demonstrate its profitability, and it now seems almost archaic to call inbound marketing particularly innovative or unusual. That said, one topic still appears difficult for companies to tackle: video content.
Too complex, too expensive and therefore supposedly not profitable enough: there are many fears and as many excuses not to invest in it, even for organizations that are mature in content marketing. But is making video really that complicated? How do you implement an effective strategy… and one that, above all, lasts over the long term? In this short guide, let’s try to lay the first stones of your future strategy.
Why make video?
On paper, this is the question that’s easiest to answer, yet the responses are more complex than they appear. Above all: by reading between the lines, you’ll understand how video differs from other types of content and how that should shape your strategy on the subject.
Audience-driving platforms
No, SEO will not die as that perennial topic circulating in every marketing media has claimed for more than a decade. No, social networks will not disappear either and are not merely a fad: the sector’s giants have been established for a long time and are now essential in the marketing strategies of many groups. That said, denying that part of the public now gets information more from TikTok and YouTube than from Google or Facebook is as mistaken as being overly pessimistic.
TikTok has been regularly described, over recent months, as the new reference search engine for Gen ZGrandiose headlines, which are nonetheless representative of an underlying trend: audiences are no longer exclusively to be found on traditional websites.
If TikTok is still widely associated with a young audience today, that is changing rapidly, and the development of mainstream media such as Les Échos or Le Monde on the platform, through very high-quality content, shows this well. Growing on TikTok means reaching an audience where your competitors are not. In the long run, it could also allow you to reach an audience that is hard to reach elsewhere.
Of course, the logic is the same with YouTube. The platform, owned by Google, is more mature, reaches a relatively universal audience, and advertisers’ content strategies there are more advanced. That does not make it any less relevant for reaching an audience that is increasingly difficult to reach on other platforms. The generalization of artificial intelligence, which will summarize and anonymize your textual content, will only intensify the trend.
The unique link this creates
Brand attachment is important; it is often what will make you choose one product or service over another. It’s something most companies aim to develop by highlighting their values, their story and, ultimately, any differentiating element compared to competitors. Some players even choose to embody the brand with a mascot to give it a friendly, easily recognizable side. That said, in this area, Nothing beats video.
You can read 40 articles by the same writer and it’s quite rare that you’ll develop a special fondness for that author’s voice. Of course, your sensitivity to their writing style might make you appreciate finding articles signed by them, but that doesn’t compare to the bond created by a team or a person you see every day on video.
The clearest example is probably the TV presenter. Take, for instance, Jean-Pierre Pernaut, known for presenting TF1’s 1 p.m. news for more than 30 years. He had become, for many French people, a familiar figure; one could almost go so far as to say he was “like a member of the family” for households that watched him every midday for years.
Depending on your choices for video content, you will thus have the opportunity to establish a recurring figure who will embody your brand, humanly identify it and therefore to forge a special connection with your customers and prospects.
Responding to new consumption patterns
Whether that saddens us or we observe it neutrally, it must be acknowledged that long articles increasingly seem reserved for a niche willing to invest the energy required to read them… especially on digital platforms. Producing video content, beyond the platform on which you will distribute it, allows you to deliver easily consumable content, even when it is extremely information-rich.
Try transcribing a podcast into written form and you’ll quickly understand why some speeches lend themselves better to audio and/or visual formats. Even beyond that extreme example, short formats of one minute will often capture attention far more effectively than an equivalent text. Reaching your audience is one thing; managing to hook their attention once they arrive at your content is another. In this regard, video is generally a facilitator.
Real constraints, but poorly assessed
In the vast majority of cases, what prevents companies from launching into video creation is often lack of resources. That said, it is not insurmountable and, even more interestingly: creativity can sometimes arise from these constraints.
Technical constraints, often overestimated
Video is inevitably more complex to produce than a written article. Nevertheless, we will return to this in an article dedicated to technical constraints — these are often overestimated.
To film, any entry-level camera will yield excellent results as long as you do not aspire to become the next Spielberg. Even better: smartphones today make excellent capture devices. 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle’s film released in cinemas in 2025, was in part shot with an iPhone. If that works for cinema, it should work for your company videos.
The video editing software is also a topic but, again, it's not necessarily purely a question of cost. CapCut is a very affordable, easy-to-access solution that won't make the software price a blocking factor. Adobe Premiere Pro can suit all kinds of projects, even the most ambitious. Adobe's solution is certainly more expensive, but remains accessible and is sometimes already owned by companies that subscribe to the American brand's suite.
The areas to watch are those where saving money can significantly harm perceived quality: sound and lightingGood news, however: these are not the biggest expense items. An excellent microphone can be bought new for around €100. For lighting, it will largely depend on the conditions in which you shoot.
Human constraints, the most decisive
The biggest problem when starting to create video content remains the human resources you can allocate. This applies both to producing the videos and to on-screen presence, which is so important and mentioned earlier.
Producing video takes time and is therefore costly in human resources. There's no magic here: it's hard to avoid, and it will require a marketing team large enough to support it. Skills can be learned on the job, especially with the myriad of tutorials available today, but nothing can replace the time needed for writing, shooting, and editing. This is where the real investment lies.
As you will also have understood from reading the advantages of video, you will need one or more people to represent your company. This is a particularly sensitive point because you will need someone reliable who is unlikely to leave the company in two months; otherwise it loses some of its value. This person will also need to have a certain legitimacy to speak on topics requiring expertiseFinally, not everyone is comfortable in front of a camera. While this can be trained, like any other skill, you can't expect a colleague to take to video production as easily as writing a blog post.
On this last point, the answer will require a case-by-case assessment. Depending on the size of your organization and your team's composition, the answers will differ. On-screen presence can come from an executive as well as from one or more employees. There is no right or wrong approach, only solutions more or less suited to your ambitions and constraints.
Outsourcing everything, a viable option?
Outsourcing can be an option to avoid many constraints, whether technical or human. You will then have several possibilities regarding what to outsource:
- Content strategy
- Building/renting the filming location
- The filming itself
- On-screen performance
- Editing
- Etc.
Each element has advantages and disadvantages and no solution is perfect. It is, however, useful to keep in mind that, like an external professional writer supplying your blog, your content strategy can rely on a third party producing your videos with your collaboration.
This is, moreover, a still uncommon but very relevant way to collaborate with content creators. Rather than seeing a creator you consider relevant as merely an advertising opportunity, it can often be much more effective to develop with them a format specific to your company, on your own channels. Their image will then be useful to you, and so will their broader expertise.
A long-term strategy
Whatever your means and choices, you must avoid the pitfall too often seen in content creation: good intentions that last only six months. No project is perfect at the start, and ambitions are generally wiser when they are modest.. Whether it’s the publishing rhythm or the resources mobilized to produce each video: keep in mind that you must build a strategy that will be sustainable in the long term.
A YouTube interview channel publishing one piece of content per month for a year will be more likely to find its audience than the same channel publishing six pieces in six weeks and then stopping after that flashy start. Similarly, an interview podcast shot with a single wide camera may be less satisfying at first than an equivalent filmed with five cameras from different angles. However, if the simpler setup drastically reduces editing time and thus enables you to maintain consistency over time, the less ambitious choice is probably the one that will benefit you most in the long run.
What content should you produce?
Beyond resources, the main obstacle often mentioned regarding video content creation is the famous phrase " I have nothing to say ". Yet, if your organization exists, it is because in one way or another it has the mission of bringing things to clients, patients, partners. So there are necessarily topics to develop in terms of video content.
SEO & video content, obvious synergies
For a company mature in natural referencing (SEO), the temptation may be to use its knowledge of user searches to produce related video content. As noted at the very start of the article, video platforms are now search engines, and direct expressions of need even exist on YouTube or TikTok.
In many cases, this can represent a perfectly viable initial strategy. Beyond the visibility you will gain on those queries when they are made on video platforms, you will also have chances to appear in SERP Google thanks to your YouTube creations. A strategy that lets you kill two birds with one stone and provides reassurance in case the expression of need appears on Google rather than YouTube.
Be careful, however, not to copy your text-content SEO strategy exactly for your video content strategy. User intent is not always expressed in the same way. Concrete example: if I'm happy to quickly find on Google an article with a table about the tax scale, I don't necessarily want or need that answered in a video format.
As with any content, prioritize providing value
The video platforms' algorithm will suggest content to users, so you may end up closer to a Google Discover-style strategy than a pure SEO strategy. This leads to a different strategic approach that doesn't aim to answer users' direct questions but to spark their interest through content that provides value. This is where marketing persona work becomes truly meaningful.
If I sell a CRM solution to companies, it will be difficult to rank for the direct need expressions of my targets. Those needs are not always expressed as massively as the market actually is, and as a result I quickly face very high competition PPC as in SEO. On the other hand, if I produce a series of videos aimed at the decision-maker persona choosing a CRM and covering various topics that interest them, I have a good chance of creating touchpoints.
Even better, thanks to this content, I could not only create a first acquisition channelbut I could also build an image of expertise if my videos are seen as useful and high-quality. By halo effect, my CRM solution will also benefit from that image. And that's not even mentioning the benefit of the earlier-mentioned personal presence, which is perfect for building trust.
Content repurposing, a crucial challenge
When producing video content, you should also think about reusing it. It's the same logic as a white paper, which can be broken down into blog posts and then used to feed a newsletter. The goal is to get the most value from an expensive primary content asset and, of course, video fits perfectly into this framework.
If I've talked a lot about podcasts so far, it's because I firmly believe they're a perfect example. An interview video format can be repurposed as a podcast on audio platforms. It can also be cut into thematic segments, edited and energized to produce other videos. Clips can also be produced for YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Instagram videos or even Facebook. In short: from a single video at the start, you can actually produce many and, above all, grow your brand presence across numerous platforms.
The podcast is just one example, but the same applies to other formats. Still, this deserves to be planned in advance, especially if you want to calculate the real costs and outputs involved in shooting a video.
How to measure its return on investment?
Significant marketing investments naturally mean you want to calculate your return on investment. Depending on the strategy, this can be measured more or less directly, but you must never forget that video is subject to the same constraints and limits as other content strategies.
Can we seek direct profitability?
Nothing more reassuring than Google Ads. A cost per click, a conversion rate, possibly additional parameters to add such as the sign-up rate or retention, but the profitability calculation is relatively straightforward. For video production, it's quite different.
If you think of your video production as a direct customer acquisition strategy, you're probably already making a first mistake. Video should be thought of as a component of an inbound marketing strategy. It will provide reassurance and retention for some, raise awareness for others, or simply serve as an image asset. A blunt, overtly commercial pitch within content often robs it of all value: so don't expect a profitability calculation as direct as with a search engine advertising campaign.
So, of course, your video production, if successful, will enable direct acquisition, but it should be seen more as a long-term objective than an immediate concern. Moreover, it will only be one of many outcomes.
What can be implemented
Regarding direct profitability, Google Analytics will be your best ally for detecting traffic sources coming from your YouTube videos. You can of course pair this with tracked links or even promo codes distributed exclusively in your videos if your business and content allow it. In terms of direct profitability calculation, a form asking users where they found you can be useful, or making your sales teams routinely ask that question.
The most relevant thing remains to rely on the awareness indicators provided directly on the platforms. The number of subscribers on your account, in the end, matters little: focus on views and their growth. Also monitor the real watch time of your content and that will give you an indication of your content's relevance. Ultimately, these metrics are quite similar to those found on any other traditional social networks.
Examples that should inspire you
Because it's sometimes hard to imagine, here are two strategies presented for three players. These approaches are relatively simple to analyze but their effectiveness is formidable.
Runwise and Finary, two examples of expertise
Runwise is a company offering running coaching, an activity experiencing strong growth but where competition is fierce. All the more so because here coaching is delivered by a human professional and competes with more affordable apps.
Finary is an app designed to simplify the management of one's wealth and investments. A similarly competitive sector where Finary has built a base of more than 500,000 users.
These two companies, which on paper have little in common, have built their YouTube strategy in the same way: educationRunwise will popularize physiology and training methods to help anyone develop their skills in the area. Finary offers a large amount of financial education content to better manage investments. Both YouTube channels also publish long-form content and video podcasts, giving a voice to authorities in their respective fields: inspiring athletes and coaches for Runwise, successful entrepreneurs and financiers for Finary.
In both cases, the logic is the same: provide many free, high-value skills to internet users without trying to push a commercial pitch. It could even be perceived as the opposite. Runners can perfectly build a first coherent training plan thanks to Runwise's content without hiring a coach. For Finary, the competition between the knowledge shared and their platform appears less direct, but the logic can still apply.
That said, for both Runwise and Finary, this allows the companies to develop several things: trust, affection, and recognition of their skillsThus, many runners turn to Runwise when they decide to take the step into coaching, because it seems logical to work with a coach who uses methods similar to those that made them appreciate the YouTube channel. That immediately excludes competing options, despite fierce competition in the sector. For Finary, equipped with new knowledge, a regular viewer of their YouTube channel will logically choose that platform rather than another when they want to manage the investments they have just made.
In both cases, one notes a genuine generosity in the content produced and an approach that uses no direct argument to prove the companies' credibility, but whose videos demonstrate it by themselves.
Leroy Merlin, responding to expressed needs
With almost 1,000 videos over 14 years, the Leroy Merlin channel may seem difficult to analyze at first glance. Yet the chain's biggest successes are fairly revealing and date back to the very first months of the video medium.
These are tutorial videos to help users build a tiled terrace, install surface-mounted electrical wiring, or repair a floor. We mentioned earlier in the article that the expressed need is not necessarily the same for text and video content, and Leroy Merlin seems to have understood this before anyone else. Tutorials for DIY work make perfect sense in video and the brand's content is incredibly useful for the target persona : the person who wants to do the work.
It's devilishly effective: if I notice cracks in a plaster wall at home, I'll search for a tutorial to fix the problem. Leroy Merlin gives me a clear explanation, and so it makes perfect sense that I buy the products needed for the job from them. After all, I already know they'll work: they were the ones shown in the tutorial I watched!
The strategy here is therefore different from what we saw for the two previous companies. The approach is concrete and useful, and it shows that depending on the industry, responding to a directly expressed need can be just as relevant.
The article "How to define a video content strategy for your company?" was published on the site Abondance.
