Video marketing can be one of the most effective ways to get the word out about your products and services. But unlike the classic movie Field of Dreams, where “if you build it, they will come,” finding an audience for those videos isn’t as easy as most would hope.
In fact, with more than 400 hours of video added to YouTube every minute and 100 million hours of video streamed on Facebook each day, standing out in the crowded video space is harder than ever.
Still, it’s not impossible.
While posting your video to sites like YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo is certainly a starting point, here are a few other methods you can use to give your video content more legs:
Turn the Video Into a Written Blog Post
Some people don’t have time to view a full video, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want the information you have to offer. For these strapped-for-time potential customers, take the transcript from your video and turn it into an easy-to-digest blog post. Focus on adding lots of headings, subtitles, and bulleted lists, and use stills or snippets from your video when appropriate. Add a link to the video at the end of the post for those who want to view the full version. This will help with SEO, too!
If your video is particularly long, you can even break the content down into a several-part blog series and release it over a period of days or weeks. This can draw out the return on your video even more.
Extra bonus: Turning your videos into blog posts also helps cater to the growing number of users who actually watch videos with the sound off, too.
If Your Video is Long, Chop it Up
In the same vein, you can also try to make your video more digestible — particularly if it’s a long-winded one. Statistics show that the average attention span is just a mere 8 seconds — even less than a goldfish! For younger generations, such as Gen Xers, that timeframe is even shorter.
Cater to the younger crowd by cutting your video into shorter, bite-sized chunks. Label them as Part 1, Part 2, etc. and add a short subtitle, so viewers get an idea of what information is contained in each one and where to look for additional information on the same topics.
Go Beyond YouTube
YouTube is certainly the No. 1 spot for video content (and the No. 2 search engine overall, after Google), but it’s not the end-all be-all of online videos. There are plenty of other platforms you can use to market your content and get more exposure.
Social platforms like Facebook and Instagram are great if your content is particularly shareable, while Vimeo and Flickr are solely designed for video and photos. If you’re sharing educational information, you can even post it to SlideShare, LinkedIn, and other knowledge-sharing websites. Get creative, know what sites your target audience hangs out on, and post your videos across multiple platforms.
Incorporate SEO Where You Can
Use appropriate SEO keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and hashtags, and make sure you create strong, attention-grabbing headlines. Headlines that include phrases like, Things to Know, What You Need, and 7 Things are all shown to bring in significant clicks and views, according to recent data.
If you’re not sure what headline or title to create, try using a tool like CoSchedule’s headline analyzer. It can help you hone in on a title that will catch the most attention and get your content more clicks. Adding choice SEO keywords can also help your videos get found in places like Google’s video search, Google News, and more. YouTube also recently added a feature that turns these keywords into searchable hashtags and displays them above your video title.
The Versatility of Video Marketing
It’s important to remember the versatility of video marketing. When you’ve finished production on a video, posting it to YouTube or Facebook isn’t the end of the line — it’s actually only the beginning. Use your video content to create additional posts, content, and shareable bites that help keep the momentum going, and don’t forget to link to, repost, and re-share your videos when the timing is appropriate. There’s no rule saying you can only promote your videos once!
Need help creating a winning video marketing strategy for your brand? Reach out to Tobe today! Our creative team is here to help.
.png)
