How to get the most out of your video
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Category:
- Video Production
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Year:
2023
So, you’ve created a video to promote your business, but what’s next? How can you ensure your video is a success and you get a good return on investment?
We often work with marketers and business owners who know what they want from a video but don’t know how to get the most out of it. And with 91% of businesses using video as a marketing tool*, you can’t afford to let yours slip into the background.
To ensure all of your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed, here are things you can do to get the most out of your video:
Create your video with a goal in mind
First and foremost, you need to decide on the goal of your video so that you can determine what reaching that goal looks like and how you can measure it. Video can be used in a number of strategic ways from brand awareness, where you might measure success by video views and audience engagement, to increasing conversions such as number of downloads or enquiries generated.
Your video needs a purpose so deciding on your goal will help you measure its success. You should also know what you want your audience’s next step to be so that your video encourages their next action, such as heading to a webpage with a lead capture form.
Make your video easy to find
Your audience isn't going to go looking for your video so you need to make sure it has a good chance of being seen. There are a number of video distribution services you can use to host your video, each with their own style and audiences, and you don’t have to choose just one.
We’re sure you’ve heard of little old YouTube which is only the world’s second-largest search engine! The platform has more than 2.6 billion** monthly active users and you can create your own channel for free.
To help your video appear in search results, ensure it’s optimised with the following:
- Name your video file with a target keyword
- Include the target keyword in the video title
- Tag your video with popular keywords that relate to the topic
- Upload a custom thumbnail image
- Use an SRT file to add subtitles and closed captions
- Add hashtags to increase reach
- Add a call-to-action in your video and description
If you’re going to upload your video to different distribution platforms, change the video title so your video isn’t competing against itself in search engines.
Share on social
Share your video on your social media platforms to increase its reach to your target audience. You can also repurpose your longer videos into shorter versions or sound bites to focus on key parts of your video. We can do this for you so speak to us about creating different versions of your video.
You can increase exposure by:
- Using relevant hashtags that your audience will be searching for
- Tagging people and companies who are in your video
- Tagging those in your network who will benefit from the content
- Asking your employees to share the video to their network
- Pinning to the top of your page so it’s the first post your audience see
Embed on your website
A good place for your video to be is on your website. It will help create human connection and bring your online presence to life. Embedded videos improve the searchability of your content on Google and encourage visitors to stay on your site longer which indirectly boosts SEO - win, win!
If your video doesn’t naturally fit on a main website page, write a blog and include the video on your post. You can either expand on the topic of the video or transcribe your video so visitors have the options to read or watch. Creating complementary blog posts and videos, that cover the same topics and include relevant keywords, will help you reach a wider audience and increase your visibility in search results.
Send in an email
Do you have a mailing list? Embedding or linking to your video in your email will give you more exposure and can help increase your conversion rate. Add the word ‘video’ into your subject line to entice your audience to open the email.
Many email providers don’t support embedded videos so we would recommend adding a thumbnail or screen grab from your video and linking to where it’s hosted, such as a landing page or YouTube.
Make a video ad
If the content and call-to-action is suitable for the audience you want to target, you can create a video ad for social media. Video ads are a great way to showcase your brand in an engaging way that your audience can connect with.
Studies have shown that video ads get a much higher click rate compared to image ads. According to Databox, 68% of survey respondents said that video content drives more ad clicks on Facebook.
Use in sales presentations, conferences and trade shows
You can get more mileage out of your video by playing it during a sales presentation or streaming it at a trade show. The aim is to get as much exposure to your target audience as you can.
Track performance
As with all of your marketing efforts, it’s important to measure the performance of your video. Metrics will tell you how your video is performing and guide your video marketing strategy. For example, if you’re losing a lot of viewers in the first 10 seconds of your video, your intro might be too long. Or if a particular type of video, i.e. explainer videos, attracts more engagement, you’ll want to look at creating more of those.
As you can see, creating the video is only the first step in your video marketing strategy. You need to plan where your videos are going to go and when. Always come back to the reason WHY you created your video and WHO will benefit from watching it.
Part of our video production service includes helping you with your strategy and ensuring your video content aligns with your objective. If you’d like to know how we can help you with your next video project, get in touch today.
