Creating a commercial or promotional video a lot of time and resources. Whether you create the video in house or get someone to do it for you it can be expensive and/or time consuming. Then comes the most overlooked aspect of video marketing, promoting the video. We now video content resonates incredibly well with audiences; including a video on your landing page can increase conversions by 80%! So it becomes incredibly important that we promote our video.
#1: Have a Good Video Thumbnail
Having a good thumbnail is extremely important to ensure that people click on your video. Using a good freeze-frame for the video with a text overlay is what’s typically used that works. Although anything that gives the audience a good enough idea of what the idea will be is perfect. Why would anyone click on a video if they didn’t know it was about or could be worth their time?
Another tactic is fabricating a custom thumbnail. This works especially for video host which allow you to use a custom thumbnail (e.g Youtube & Vimeo). Typically a photo with a smile with a text overlay works best. So if you decide to make a custom thumbnail just follow that guide.
So next time choose/create your thumbnail carefully and watch the views roll in 🙂
#2: Share Your Video on Facebook or Instagram
The best place to share your video is on social media. Yes you can upload it on Youtube, but that leaves Youtube deciding the fate of your video and how many views it gets. Uploading your video to Facebook or Instagram is the best to get views from the right people on your video.
For Facebook, unfortunately not all friends or followers of your page ever see your post. You have to pay for that option now through a boost. So even if you have 5000 followers on your Facebook page, that doesn’t guarantee at all that those 5000 people will even see your post on their wall ever. It’s critical that you get some initial traction on your video on Facebook so that Facebook continues to post it to other peoples walls. You can get your friends to like the video, share the video on your personal page etc.
For Instagram, it’s a lot simpler. If you’re video is longer than a minute, shorten it down and then post to your page. Make sure you use a good thumbnail! This makes a big difference. Then after posting tag anyone involved or starring in the video to ensure they see it and hopefully post it to their Instagram story. Then after posting instantly make a post with the video using an Instagram story editor and post it to your story. Make at least one post every day for a couple days, depending on your circumstances to ensure you get the most traction.
#3: Shamelessly Ask People to Share Your Video
Another great way to increase your views without spending any money is to just ask people to share your video. You could ask your friends, colleagues, clients, brothers or anyone to share. It’s that simple. Say your friend on Facebook has 400 friends, that’s 400 possible impressions on your video for free!
#4: Use Your Video with Your Email Marketing Efforts
Video and email go hand in hand in email marketing. Just adding the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19%, click-through rates by 65% and reduces unsubscribers by 26%, according to Animoto.
#5: Spend Some Money on Promoting on the Socials
So far all of the tips above have been free ways to promote your video. Although if you’re looking to get even more each spending money on your posts can help immensely and make your video investment worth it.
Don’t worry! It’s not going to cost you an insane amount of money to promote your video on Facebook/Instagram. You can adjust your budget on Facebook and Instagram to be something you can afford or to reach the audience you need. Using the methods above in conjunction with paid promotion is the best way to ensure your video gets maximum reach.
If you’re unsure on how to use the Facebook and Instagram advertising portals, you could always hire a social media company to promote it for you ensuring that none of your money goes to waste in trial and error.
Thats it.
These were the best 5 ways to ensure your investment into video production becomes worth it for you. Go out and try it yourself and be pleased with the results! If you’re looking at these and being overwhelmed with all these details, don’t worry! Sometimes it’s more important to have something up and running than to overthink it and not post anything. Start at step one and work your way through to doing everything right.
