Looking at the recent stats about video, it’s pretty clear that it has solidified its place as a significant component of today’s marketing campaigns. A good case in point is YouTube’s growing popularity that has now positioned it as the second largest search engine.
More businesses and individuals use video for different purposes today, which wasn’t the case a few years back. And it’s not because video was unpopular; it’s partly due to the fact that few had the skill to create an innovative marketing video capable of achieving great success.
Of course, this has changed over the years, thanks to easy access to technology, together with other factors. Now anyone, regardless of their skill, can capitalize on the potential of video in marketing. However, that alone isn’t enough. You need a powerful video content distribution strategy as well.
That involves crafting video content that your target audience will love and then identifying channels where the video will have the most impact. But first, there are a couple of things you may want to remind yourself of.
Your Video Campaign Goals
In the early stages of a video marketing campaign, every brilliant marketing strategist sets goals and explicitly defines the purpose of their marketing video. It could be to raise brand awareness, drive traffic to a website, increase sales, etc.
Now, the goal you set is among the things that will determine where you will release your video. For example, social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are a suitable option when you want to raise brand awareness using short videos.
Longer videos created for the same purpose or perhaps to explain a complex concept will perform better on YouTube or Vimeo. Other content, think testimonial videos, product descriptions, profile videos, and the like, perform well when placed on website pages that complement their nature.
Your Target Audience
None of us wants to end up distributing our video content to an audience that doesn’t convert. And to avoid that, there are a couple of things you can do, most important of all being an analysis of buyer personas and establishment of where they are likely to go when looking for different types of information.
Developing a consistent feedback loop for them is one particularly great way to understand the behavior of your audience. It could be a phone-based interview, a face-to-face interview, or a social media listening system; the choice will depend on how much a company is willing to invest into that.
Many consumers, for instance, will likely watch and engage with content like product demos, explainer videos, and customer testimonials when they are placed on a site page about the product/service rather than as a social media post.
That said, let’s now look at a complete guide on how to distribute video content.
1. YouTube
YouTube’s massive audience makes it the platform of choice for anyone who would love to showcase their video content far and wide and to build a large community of loyal customers/followers.
As we mentioned earlier, longer videos perform comparatively better on this platform. That aside, some social media networks, like Twitter and Instagram, have video-length limits. This leaves YouTube as a platform of choice for those affected by that.
If you would love to keep your viewers from the distractions present on YouTube, be sure to add a call-to-action that will drive them back to your website or landing page.
Also important to mention is that while uploading your videos to YouTube, don’t forget to optimize them for search engines.
2. Social Networks
Of all social networks available today, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest no doubt count as some of the best-performing.
For instance, by 2016, Facebook had already hit 100 million hours of video consumption per day.Twitter, Instagram, and the rest, too, have recorded impressive statistics in various areas related to marketing in the recent past.
Each platform is, of course, unique mostly when it comes to the type of audience and age group. For example, more than 90% of Instagram users are less than 35 years old, LinkedIn ranks carries a more professional audience, and so on. These are just but some of the things to consider when using social networks to distribute your content.
More often, users on platforms like Facebook will watch to completion, engage with, and share largely content that is unique to them. That’s why you should consider a clever use of the platforms, like posting personalized videos. With the help of innovative technologies, like VideoRemix’s software, you can easily create and post such videos to Facebook right away.
3. Landing Page or Website
Apart from what we mentioned earlier, where specific videos perform better on certain site pages, posting videos on your website is one way to establish a connection and build a stronger relationship with your website visitors.
In addition to that, you stand a chance to convert more visitors and leads into customers when you have a video on that product or landing page. A video on a landing page, for example, can boost your conversion rate by over 80%.
What’s more, today Google displays videos in their search results, and so, if you optimize the video on your website properly, you stand a chance to get more traffic from search engines.
4. Email Campaigns
Email lists form part of your own network where you can distribute just about any content, including video. Even though the majority of email clients lack the functionality that can enable videos to play in an email, there are other ways you can incorporate video into your email.
You can use a video thumbnail, GIFs, or text; e.g., using the word ‘video’ in subject lines. Hyperlink each to where users can view the video. This way, you’ll be able to boost email open rates and click-through rates, not to mention that your video will be getting traffic from a loyal customer base.
Besides these four, other ways you may want to distribute your videos include partner blogs, a press release, and on your personal blog.
With thousands of videos being uploaded on the web, social networks, and video platforms daily, you are likely going to face challenges such as difficulty in gaining reasonable organic traffic or getting your video content visible to your target audience. To counter that, you’ll have to invest in effective marketing strategies and that may include budgeting for paid promotions.
Summary
Once you have your video ready for distribution, this is another process you’ll have to invest in the most again. This is because, with a good video distribution strategy, it’s possible to reach a wider audience and achieve higher levels of engagement.
On top of showing you how to distribute video content, our guide has explored several other areas of a video content distribution strategy, like goals and audience matters, and now it’s on you to put the lessons to practice. Don’t get tired of finding other new and creative ways to reach your audience.
