You full understand that video content is a powerful tool to draw engagement. Your video production is up and running to put your brand, product or service in front of millions of potential viewers. Now comes the realization that video production is only half the battle. The next challenge for your video marketing efforts is promoting your video content and standing apart from the rest of the crowd.
Whether you’re producing your beautiful business videos yourself or rely on the help of an outside video team, you should invest time and resources into your promotion strategy just like you do in creating your content. Your efforts will be worth it, because video content (done right) is especially engaging for your audience. We have outlined top marketing tips below so people find, play and watch your video. Pay special attention to the specifics of each channel, as it is important that your video content is optimized for each platform.
1. Ensure Your Video Content Is Engaging
The first step for your video content promotion is still part of video production. You need to be very clear about what kind of content you produce. Satisfy your audience and they will pay you back by sharing and promoting your video. A majority of viewers enjoy instructional videos, humorous content and videos with information about products and services. Not all of your content needs to fall into these three categories, but remember to give viewers what they are looking for.
Find out which promotional channel is best for your type of content. After that, figure out how to adapt your content so it fits other channels as well. Think about what you want to achieve, and what your call-to-action is. Keep in mind that instructions for the next step to take by your viewers could differ from video platform to platform. A basic example: you might want Facebook viewers to interact with your page, whereas people on YouTube should subscribe to your channel and LinkedIn users should visit your landing page.
2. Coordinate And Diversify Your Video Content Promotion Across Channels
Do you need to market your video on every social media platform? Probably not. But like with all your social media efforts, you need to meet your audience where they are to put your video in front of viewers. For your cross channel promotion, be consistent in your theme, tone and message. When coordinating your video promotion, align your content with the rest of your social activities. Your strategy needs to be appropriate and optimized for each channel, from hashtags to video description, thumbnails and call-to-action.
Facebook will let you upload HD videos of up to 20 minutes, though keep in mind that your engaging content should hardly exceed 3 minutes. A majority of viewers prefer to watch videos as direct posts on Facebook instead of being forwarded to a video platform like YouTube or Vimeo. Direct videos have a greater possibility for organic reach than posts with external links. Don’t forget to add a featured video to your page and choose content that represents your brand, company or service well.
YouTube
On YouTube, you can promote your video channel with channel trailers. These videos are great to draw the attention of visitors who are not yet subscribers. Or they can offer an overview of what kind of content your audience can expect from you. You can set a channel trailer to autoplay.
For your videos, research keywords for your title and description and make sure they offer a detailed overview of what your video is about. Make use of YouTube’s tools where necessary or appropriate, such as subtitles, bookmarks or links in your video content. Keep in mind that you can also build the social presence of your YouTube channel by curating content. Playlists with videos you recommend for your customers or viewers in your industry or niche can attract more viewers to your channel.
Vine
Vine’s six seconds video loops pose a great challenge to video marketers. They’re also an opportunity for creativity and fast promotion. Watching a vine is a low time investment, so viewers are inclined to watch them. They usually expect humorous, surprising, exciting or insightful content, so you’ll need to go beyond mere branding or promotion. Big brands have already jumped onto Vine, but that doesn’t mean you can’t utilize the platform as well. Vines are ideal for sneak peeks, behind the scene looks, exclusives and teasers, so get creative!
Instagram is slightly more generous than Vine and offers 15-seconds videos that don’t loop. Use the extra time to combine creative content with your promotion or branding, but also keep it simple so viewers get everything the first time they watch. Instagram’s advantage over Vine is moderate editing capabilities and the option to share your video across platforms – just remember to keep it appropriate rather than blasting everything on every channel.
When you post a video on Twitter, your audience can watch it directly in their timeline and then retweet it directly. Because Twitter is a constant feed of new new posts vying for attention, the platform lends itself to shorter video content. Your shared videos on Twitter remain in the photos and videos section of your profile page where visitors can play them back. Twitter lets you pin a tweet to the top of your feed, so pick your most engaging video tweet and stick it at the top to drive more video views.
3. Optimize Your Video Thumbnail For Each Platform
The thumbnail for your video is a crucial factor for tempting your audience and to have them actually click, play and watch your video. Choosing the right thumbnail is challenging. Think of the picture like a cover image for an album. It should be immediately clear what is going on, yet viewers should be intrigued and interested in finding out more. An unexpected or surprising thumbnail can work, but don’t confuse viewers and certainly don’t put anything that doesn’t appear in the video, just to clickbait. A sure bet is a picture of a person from the video, smiling and looking at the camera. As people, we relate to one another, and a human factor can be compelling. Consider using different thumbnails for your various social channels and experiment with what attracts attention on each platform.
4. Connect Your Video And Email Marketing
You have every reason to pair up your video and email marketing efforts. Include your relevant videos in your newsletter or promotional emails to achieve higher click-through rates and reduce unsubscriptions. The thought of having to read a long newsletter can be daunting to subscribers, so include the word video in your subject line and deliver with content straight to the point. You’ll see that many in your audience prefer a short video explanation of a topic to having to find out by themselves by reading several paragraphs.
Video content for your emails automatically provides you with visual material in the form of video stills and thumbnails. Depending on your marketing platform for email campaigns, you can harvest the viewing data from your email videos and funnel it directly into your lead acquisition workflow.
5. Ask Your Viewers To Share And Subscribe
It does not hurt to ask for help in promoting your video. In fact, it can be very effective. Apart from friends, co-workers, industry contacts and influencers on social media, you should ask your viewers directly to like and share your video content. Social media platforms allow you to ask your audience in a playful way for a share. Just don’t resort resort to a rote message you tag on all your videos.
For video platforms such as YouTube, you’ll notice that many video bloggers ask their audience to subscribe to their channel as well. You can easily do this with a text call-to-action near the end of the video. Or follow the example of many professionals and add a short clip at the end where you point out the benefits of subscribing to your channel. Keep it platform specific and only include the message where it’s applicable, of course.
Other public relations techniques are viable for video as well, so use press releases for contacting influential bloggers, editors, producers and journalists in your network to get media coverage catering to your audience for your videos.
6. Make It Easy To Share Your Video
To facilitate viewers sharing your content, make it as easy and painlessly as possible for them. Include social media sharing buttons on your video landing page directly next to the video or at least in a prominent location. Some video hosting services also offer the possibility of adding sharing buttons directly within the video for convenient sharing from the player.
7. Pay To Promote Your Video
Not all video promotion means are free, and you might have to reserve some of your budget to push your content further. If you already have some knowledge about the demographics of your audience, you can leverage that to specifically target viewers on platforms that offer paid campaigns. Study the exact possible settings on Facebook and Twitter to drive a successful campaign and get the most return on your investment. Google AdWords for Video is powerful yet cost-effective. Other keyword advertising opportunities are Bing, Facebook or Yahoo.
8. Share Your Video in Online Communities
Go beyond video platforms and make a push on online communities other than the great networks Facebook, Twitter or Google+. The key here is to insert your video where it’s relevant in discussions and conversations among your target audience. Video content that offers value or a benefit such as tutorials, instructions or explaining videos will work best, but light-hearted, humorous content can also have its place. LinkedIn groups, Quora, Reddit, Hacker News – find the sweet spot where your videos can add to the community and will be well received.
9. Enlist The Help Of SEO
Get help from your SEO department to list your videos and your channel page with the major search engines. Focus on SEO strategies to obtain the best possible listing placements, but also optimize your videos on each platform. Your video filename, title, description and even tags can influence rankings. For researching video keywords, keep in mind that search engines return video results for very specific queries, such as how-to keywords, reviews, tutorials, specific niches or funny content.
10. Learn To Use Outtake Material
Inevitably, your video production will result in a lot of outtakes and bloopers, in short, material you cannot use. Or can you? We’re all human, and we can relate to the trials and tribulations of others. Any takes where things didn’t go as smoothly as planned can be compiled into short videos that offer a humorous behind-the-scenes look at your video production. You can keep it real with these kinds of videos and prove that behind your product, business or brand are everyday human beings.
Employ our top tips for your video content promotion for your company and watch the boost your marketing strategy will receive! If you want to find out how a professional creative agency can help your video marketing efforts, see our case studies and learn how Stark Crew has supported international companies with video content!