It is old news that video is something every business should be using these days, because it is the most consumed and shared type of content out there. So I’ll assume you already have some video content that either you shot yourself or had professionally created for your company. That’s great, certainly the right move for a company that wants to get noticed. The big question is: how do you share your business video so that it gives you the greatest return? In short, how can you turn your business video from an expense into an investment?
Here are a few tips:
1. SHARE YOUR BUSINESS VIDEO ON YOUR COMPANY WEBSITE
Your website is the first place you want your video(s) to be. The main reason is that people don’t have patience to read, so having a video about your company on your website will help people learn faster and better about who you are and what you do. But beyond that, video makes a huge difference regarding the retention of visitors. If you check your website’s analytics (I hope you do), you have probably heard about bounce rate. It shows you how many people clicked on your website but left immediately. One of the best ways to get visitors to stay on your website longer is to have a video right there on your home page. Research shows that 80% of visitors will stay 2 minutes or more on a website that contains video.
A few tips on how to better use it on your website:
• NEVER upload the video to your server. It will slow down your website and may not play properly. Host it on a video platform such as YouTube or Vimeo and embed it on your website.
• Disable the possibility of it showing suggested videos (maybe from competitors) at the end of the video – it’s easy to do it on YouTube or Vimeo
• Don’t hide your video on the bottom of your homepage. Make sure it’s the first thing a visitor sees when they go to your website,
• Have the link to your video be an attractive thumbnail for people to click instead of just a “Watch Video” button (more about this on a future blog).
2. SHARING AND MARKETING
This is critical. You created a great video and you have it on your website where all visitors can watch it. Now you want to use it to bring more traffic to your website and have your phone ringing off the hook. So here are a few ideas on how to best leverage it:
• Ask the people you know: friends, relatives, clients to watch the video and share it online.
• Share it on social media: Facebook, Google+, Twitter or any other social media vehicle you use for your business. Make sure to link it to your website
• Optimize it for keywords relevant to your business so it can get found on Google searches when people are looking for services or products like yours. This is called video SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and can be a great complement to your website SEO (more about this on a future blog).
• Use it as a YouTube ad – you can target certain audiences that are more relevant to you, make it appear as a pre-roll video before videos related to what you do, and more. (more details on a future blog).
• Use it as a Facebook Video Ad. Most of what people share on Facebook are videos and video ads appear right on people’s timeline. It’s surprisingly affordable, and you can really laser-target your audience to reach exactly who you want.
• Use it in your email marketing: adding videos to your emails will improve your open rate by more than 20%.
• Add it to your email signature – make it easier for people that get your emails to watch it.
These are only a few ideas. There’s a lot more you can do with your video content, but this is a great start. So what are you waiting for? Go on and share your business video!
I would love to know how you are leveraging your video content, and what kind of results you’re getting.