“It’s not what you upload, it’s the strategy with which you upload.”
This post is under the assumption that you HAVE or are about to produce a sweet promo video or marketing video of some kind. (If you are the later, check out my hubby’s fine video and animation work at www.adamstultz.com – we often collaborate on client projects!)
You have invested in an awesome new video to share with the world. Make sure you use that video to the max! Your video must be easy for others to find, watch, share, and engage with. The following 10 Tips will ensure you get the most reach with your promotional efforts.
(And as you read through, I have featured a fine mix of ten video projects that Adam and I have tackled over the last couple years, just to give you a taste of what he can do for you… sometimes with a little help from me!)
1. Customize Your Video’s Cover Thumbnail on YouTube
The video thumbnail is by far the most important component to drive a visitor to play or not play your video. Select an engaging click-worthy thumbnail image. The most successful thumbnail covers include happy, smiling people or a select frame from your video that helps illustrate what the viewer should expect. YouTube, for example, allows you to customize your thumbnail cover by uploading your own image or selecting a still frame from the video itself. Also make sure that at any display size, typography will be large enough to be legible on both computer monitors and smaller handheld devices.
2. Apply the Same SEO Strategy as your Website
Your video needs to be posted (on YouTube and other online outlets) with a catchy title and a keyword-rich description that describes your video’s message and incorporates your end-goal call-to-actions. This benefits both viewers AND sight-impaired listeners. And better yet, it tells the search engines more about your video. These strategies are similar to basic SEO practices you would use for your website. Make sure to include a call-to-action, link references to your website, video landing page, social media outlets, email subscription, and any other references and/or contact information to build momentum. If you want to learn more about SEO in general, I highly recommend Fuel Your Photos free online resources as well as their online course. But also note that the MOST important information should be your first 1 to 2 lines of description text, and that includes hyperlink(s).
3. Create a Video Library
As the second largest search engine, YouTube audiences continue to grow by about 100% year after year. Create your own channel on YouTube to maintain your video library. Take this a step further and create a webpage on your website to embed your YouTube videos. Now visitors to your website will spend more time there, and Google will reward you with higher rankings. Make sure your YouTube video settings are set to “Public” for visibility purposes.
4. Embed Your Video on Landing Webpages
Add your video(s) on your landing webpage(s). In many cases, video is more enticing to your viewer than static images – a video on a landing page can increase conversions by as much as 80 percent. Videos increase the length of time visitors stay on your webpage, giving your brand message longer to sink in.
5. Integrate Video into Email Campaigns
Statistics show that a video in an email can increase your click-through rate by 200 to 300 percent over emails without videos. One of the best ways to incorporate a video into your email campaign is to include a little description in the body text explaining what the viewer is about to see, insert a great video thumbnail that leads to the video when clicked, and now your readers have a convenient way to watch. Just adding the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19%, click-through rates by 65%, and reduces unsubscribes by 26%, according to Animoto.
6. Let Social Media Promote Your Video
Post your video to all of your social media outlets. On Facebook, for example, post your video with “Post Visibility” set to “Public”. Tag people, places, and pages seen in your video. Encourage sharing, and share it yourself! A video posted to a Facebook Page can be shared to a personal page, to a Facebook Group, a Facebook Event, to friend’s pages, sent in Facebook messages, and more! Don’t be afraid to ask people to share your video. In fact, according to HubSpot, audiences are 10 times more likely to engage with video on a social media network, increasing your chance of getting more shares, likes, and comments than any other kind of content.
Videos are most effective on social websites when posted / uploaded DIRECTLY to the platform. Social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn want to keep users on their website, so their search algorithms will suppress posts with external links that take users away (for example, external links may include your website URL, YouTube, Vimeo, etc.). So make sure to take the extra time to upload your videos directly, rather than pasting links to the videos.
7. Put Some Money Behind Promoting Your Video on Social
Fortunately it will not cost you an arm and a leg to promote your video on platforms like Facebook. Pay attention to the audience and campaign settings to run a very successful promotional campaign and drive the right people to your content. Check out this guide to launch your first Facebook video ad campaign.
Keep y our end goals in mind when slating budget for visibility on social media. Paid visibility can be very rewarding. However, views (whether dozens, hundreds, or thousands) may not lead to the conversion you are hoping for, so be sure to test and decide where your budget is best spent. Sometimes the number of “views” is not valuable long term if your end goals are not being met.
8. Shamelessly Ask People to Share Your Video
Ask your friends, colleagues, former colleagues, industry connections, brothers-in-law, nephews and nieces. Of course asking the contacts who are likely closely connected to your target market is the strategic place to start. You never know who is connected to who! A share can go a long way, so do not limit the people you ask.
9. Play Your Video at an Event
We’ve all sat through dull speeches at industry events where we spend the entire time either staring into space, scrolling through our Instagram feeds, or hopelessly trying to keep our eyes open. A great way to combat this is by playing a video! Videos can break up a speech and refuel the audience.
10. Reuse Your Video… Over and Over and Over…
A video posted once is not enough. As long as your video is still relevant, post it again, share it again, reference it again. Every time, your audience and reach will expand. As you begin to share new videos, don’t forget to reference previous videos and other resources when the connection is relevant and helpful to your audience.
