In the early days of YouTube and viral videos from amateur users, it seemed that the shelf life was incredibly long. From Charlie Bit My Finger to the Evolution of Dance, gone are the days when a video could remain popular for weeks at a time. With 72 hours of footage uploaded to YouTube every minute, the video cycle is getting shorter from one hit to the next. In other words, even if you get lucky and strike it rich with a viral video that promotes your business, the reality is that it will soon be forgotten.

Fortunately, there are many ways to combat the shortening shelf life of videos and even improve your video marketing efforts. With all the powerful benefits that video marketing has to offer, it’s important to enhance any benefits provided and make it easier for your videos to make an impact. Looking for a longer video shelf life? Here are some tips:

• Take advantage of social media. Once you upload a video onto YouTube or your website, it’s not enough to simply let the video sit. Instead, promote it on Facebook, Twitter, and your other platforms. According to research, brands that regularly promote their videos get up to 25 percent more views than those that don’t.
• Regularly produce videos. If the shelf life is decreasing, then you want to bump up your content creation. This ensures that your company is consistently gaining exposure from your video marketing. Furthermore, newer videos will actually drive traffic back into your funnel, as people engaged with your new videos will want to see your previous uploads, thereby increasing the shelf life of your videos all around. To be successful with this tactic, you want to produce a range of videos and be regular about it.
• Invest in production. With Vine and MixBit marketing, it’s obvious that not everything you release should be produced in the studio. However, major pieces of video marketing are enhanced and legitimized with professional recording and editing services.
• Optimize the data. From titles, tags, descriptions, and other metadata elements, it’s crucial to optimize the data related to your video. This increases the shelf life of your video by ensuring that people find it if they’re searching for your content. By making it easy for people to find your information, you can ensure that your videos provide value as long as people are searching for your topic. Your video will not only be found in all corners of the web, but will also be found for many weeks – if not months or years – to come.