Alright, so you made a video. Yay! That’s the hard easy part. Now, let’s make sure it doesn’t sit in digital purgatory alongside the photos from your last family vacation. With that in mind, we thought we’d share a few quick tips on how to help get your video seen:
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Remember Your Audience (you remember them from the concepting phase… right?)
- Understand who your video is for. New hires? CFO’s? Teens? Your Uncle Steve?
- Figure out where they hang out online: are these folks watching YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or some deep corner of Reddit? Make sure to format/adapt the video to that medium.
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Get Their Attention
- Hook them faster than you grab free samples at Costco. You’ve got 5-10 seconds before they scroll away. Make it count.
- Make your video pretty, make it snappy, and, for the love of Wi-Fi, make it vertical if it’s going on mobile platforms.
- Solve a problem, make them laugh, or teach them something cool. Better yet, all three if you’re feeling frisky.
- Try reading this article about capturing your viewer’s attention in the first 10 seconds. It has a number of lovely tips.
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SEO
- Use keywords. Yes, it’s nerdy, but nerds run the internet, so respect the craft.
- Include captions…. and make sure to use those keywords in your script.
- Thumbnails are your first impression. Think “eye candy”… but keep it PG.
- For more tips – try this article that dives into video SEO.
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Tell Everyone and Their Enemies About It
- Blast it on your social channels like it’s the hottest thing since Tiger King.
- Email it to your audience. But play it cool. Try not to sound like you’re begging. Even though you kinda are.
- Tag any of the participants in the video and encourage them to share!
- Whenever possible, partner up with influencers or brands who can lend you their street cred… i.e. their audience.
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Play Nice with the Algorithms
- Algorithms love attention. Get people to like, comment, and share right away. Think of it as buttering up our moody robot overlord.
- Post regularly so the platform knows you’re more than a one-hit wonder.
- Use playlists to keep viewers binge-watching your content like it’s the last season of ‘Stranger Things’.
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Share It Everywhere (Yes, Even There)
- Embed it on your website, blog, or your child’s sports app account.(No… not really on that last one).
- Share it in groups, forums, or anywhere your target audience lurks.
- Chop it up into bite-sized clips for social media, because apparently, no one has an attention span anymore. Kudos on making it this far in this post BTW…
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Analyze Like a Data-Obsessed Detective
- Keep tabs on the numbers: views, watch time, likes, and whether anyone actually made it to the end.
- If something’s not working, change it. If it is working, do more of that thing. Repeat until you’re viral or delirious.
OK… While this isn’t a guarantee to success… at least it’s some of the ingredients that successful marketing videos share. Whatever happens, at least you know you pulled these levers, so if anyone asks, you can spout out a ton of things you’ve tried. Or, maybe you need to take a step back and think through how you build a distribution strategy for your video.
That said – we’d love to know if you found any of these tips useful! Let us know how your video performs!