It’s no secret that the use of video in content marketing is on the rise. Over the last few years, online video has proven to be the most engaging and compelling form of content for users. Social media has become one of the most effective platforms for video marketing, and that’s a fact not to be taken lightly. We have some essential tips for you on how to produce effective videos that capture the attention of your audience so that they eventually take action.
1. Create videos to generate leads
Unlike you, your potential customers aren’t thinking about products or services all day long like you are. Instead, they have their own interests and agendas. In order to make potential customers stop and take notice, you will need to make your content relatable to them.
People love and remember stories. A good story has a clear conflict and a satisfying resolution. If you can frame your business using a story that has a legitimate problem and an effective solution, people are more likely to listen to your message in its entirety and remember what you have to offer.
2. Get your videos discovered and rank better on YouTube
Uploading a video is not enough. In order to get more views and generate results, you need to tell YouTube what your video is about and which target audience will be interested in it. Video optimization gives you the opportunity to get your videos ranked and your content found by the right people. So if you want to get more views, subscribers and traffic from YouTube, follow these simple tips:
Identify your keywords and make sure you optimize your YouTube content for them.
- Write a short, intriguing and compelling title that briefly describes what your video is about. The title should include your targeted keywords.
- Write a detailed description that tells your viewers why your video is important to watch and make sure that it includes your keywords. Note that only the first 3 lines are visible on YouTube without clicking the “SHOW MORE” link, so any links and call to actions should be placed at the top.
- Add relevant tags and categorization. This helps Youtube display your video as a suggested video when users are watching similar videos.
- Add a custom thumbnail for the video that is consistent with your brand so your target audience can easily identify your videos.
- Include subtitles and closed captions. This will boost your YouTube SEO and it will be easier for viewers to watch in a noisy environment or without sound.
- Encourage feedback, comments and questions. This will give your channel authority and help you build a community.
Add YouTube’s native End Screens at the end of the video. These will help you promote your content, channel and even drive traffic to your website.
3. Generate awareness and drive traffic
Video Teasers are designed to grab viewers’ attention and inspire curiosity. Successful ones provide just a taste of what’s to come so that people are eager to receive more information. Nowadays, Social Media offers a quick and easy way to get a lot of information out there about your products or services in a relatively short period of time. Sharing video teasers is an effective way to grab your target audience’s attention and invite them to visit your website for more in-depth videos and information. This will help you educate your prospects, generate more qualified leads and increase your closing rate.
4. Measure and Control
Now that you’ve launched your video, you need to correctly and accurately measure the performance of your video content. And while video views are what most marketers may look at first, they are not always the best way to gauge how well your video is performing.
It’s all about your goal!
Setting video goals should be your first step. This will give you the guidance required to focus only on the data you need and avoid wasting time on irrelevant information. What are you hoping to achieve? What is your primary marketing objective for this campaign? Do you want to generate awareness, help make a decision, or inspire action?
Based on that, you can identify which metrics will apply to each objective.
Now, let’s see which metrics you can use for you goals:
- Total Plays – This is the simplest but most deceptive metric of all. Total plays shows you the raw number of people who clicked the play button on your video regardless of how long they watched the video. While this metric is ideal to measure reach, you cannot determine how effective and engaging your video is.
- Play Rate – Play Rate is the percentage of page visitors who clicked the play button and started watching your video. Play rate is calculated by taking the total number of plays and dividing it by the number of video loads. This will help you determine if the video is embedded in the right place and how attractive your video thumbnail is. If you’re getting low play rates, you might want to consider placing your video in a more prominent location, making the embedded video bigger and having a more engaging thumbnail.
- Engagement Rate – Engagement shows you how much of your video viewers watched, and is expressed as a percentage. This is the main indicator that tells you how relevant and interesting your video is to your viewers, and can help you identify at which point your viewers start losing interest and which parts are being skipped. This will also help you place call-to-action buttons and other interactive elements more strategically during the video.
- Social Sharing – Social Sharing shows how your video content is being shared across social media channels. Sharing content leads to more video views, reaching new audiences and can help you determine how excited your audience is about your content and brand.
- Conversion Rate – Conversion is the number of actions taken during or after video viewing. These could be CTA’s and annotations clicked, leads generated and more. This metric is a little trickier to track, and you will probably require a dedicated video player such as Wistia, Vidyard or Sprout Video for a more detailed breakdown of events. Conversion Rate is a vital metric used to help measure the ROI that your videos are generating.
Want to learn more about how video can help jumpstart your marketing efforts?
Contact us now for a free Video Marketing Consultation.
Please visit our YouTube Channel for more Video Tips that are sure to boost your marketing campaigns.
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