Sure. Videos drive SEO. They tell brand stories. Videos even increase engagement rates. This is exactly what your organization needs help with, so your team created a video and posted it on your website, but nothing is happening. Now what?
In addition to creating a video, most organizations forget that they need a campaign plan just like they would with any other promotion. The marketing plan for your video needs to identify the project’s:
- Main goals
- Target audiences
- Key messages
- Communication platforms
You may have even discussed items 1-3 (above) when creating your video. If so, your marketing plan is 75% complete. Congrats!
To finish up the rest of your marketing plan, you’ll want to choose a variety of ways to get your video out in front of people. While we won’t dictate the magic ingredients of specific platforms that will make up your communications planning (that will vary for each company), we have put together 8 tips to help with spreading the word.
8 Tips for Video Promotion
1. YouTube – It is the second most used search engine in the world. It is owned by Google, and we all know if you use Google products, you please Google’s algorithms and are rewarded with showing up somewhere in Google search. Keep in mind that if you’re going to post videos on YouTube, setting up a YouTube channel to “house” your videos will also help with your rankings. Having a YouTube channel is one more promotion for your social media marketing as well. Consider creating custom thumbnails for your videos. These images will entice users to click and watch!
2. Website and blog – The nature of your organization’s video will determine where it should be posted on your website. For example, a branding video might be located on the home page or about us page, while a product video might be better located on the champion page for that product. In addition to embedding the video on your website, make sure to write a blog post announcing your video and share that link across your social media platforms.
3. Email marketing – We can’t stress enough how important it is to directly contact your customer and prospects with e-mails that include video content. Make sure to use the word “video” in the subject line of your e-mail as well. Open rates can rise as much as 5% and conversion rates may rise by as much as 21%, according to our friends over at Liveclicker.
4. Cross-promote – Advanced technique? Probably not, but you would be shocked by the number of organizations that forget or disregard cross-promotion. Most companies love promoting their brand with fun custom-printed items so why not include the URL or a QR code that links back to the video? Promoting a logo on a custom item is fun, but directing them to an online location where they can take a specific action is smart. Consider using items such as:
* Collateral materials (such as flyers and business cards)
* Digital products (such as tablets and flash drives with the video pre-loaded
* Apparel (such as t-shirts and hats)
* Office supplies (such as tablet covers and stress balls)
5. Online advertising – If you’re going to spend the time and money to create a video, you might as well go all in and do it right. Spend the money for pay-per-click (PPC) and retargeting campaigns to make sure you are reaching as many qualified leads as possible.
6. Bartering – Choose businesses related to yours and suggest an online marketing barter (referral program). If they link back to your website from theirs or through their social media, you will repay them by doing the same.
7. SEO – Hire (or contract) an SEO specialist to make sure you are getting as much traffic as possible through organic search. SEO experts understand and stay up to date with the latest trends in SEO and they employ best practices, which will be worth your money.
8. Video marketing professionals – Use a video promotion marketing company, like Promolta, to target a specific market with your message on tens of thousands of websites.
Tell Your Story with Video
If you’ve spent the time and money to create a video, don’t forget to build a campaign plan to promote it so that you can maximize its impact. If you need support with this give our team at Webolutions a call at 303-300-2640 or contact us online.
Tell us how you’ve promoted your video.
