Gone are the days that every business just needed a website to reach millions of netizens to market online and increase sales. These days, video is the ace in the game if you want to get noticed and be remembered. Assuming that you’ve already made your corporate video(s) professionally, the next step is to share it with the world. There are multiple effective ways to do the above and to help you get it done the right way, I will be listing these methods with some real-life samples and case studies below:
- Publishing on Youtube & Vimeo
With more than 1.9 billion active monthly users on Youtube and 80 million members on Vimeo, it is vital to have at least a video published on these two websites. To start, make sure to get the highest quality copy of your video from your corporate video production company or freelancer. As screen resolutions are advancing on a yearly basis, I’d recommend to publish your video in HD resolution 720p or 1080p (1920×1080 pixel) at least. You got it in 4k? Even better! I am guessing in a few years, viewers will demand for that level of clarity given the advancement in technology and popularity of VR headsets.
- Embedding The Video on Your Official Website
This is probably the most important thing to get the best out of your investment in a video. People definitely prefer to watch videos on your website rather than going through loads of texts. Remember, it’s not 1990s anymore and our dear visitors’ expectations have increased significantly
Where should you place your video?
The location of the video on your website’s layout can have a big impact on its success. You want to make sure it is not hidden in some inner page. It must be somewhere that it is easily found and seen in the first few seconds of a visitor checking your website.
Below are some good examples of where to embed your video
Cravo produced not only one but two corporate videos. One is in animated form and the other one filmed using live action techniques. They are both placed side by side on the main page right below the H1 title. The videos are easily noticeable and made professionally. Especially the animated version which is created by the folks at Kasra Design.
Goodkids agency has its eye-catching video placed right inside the header in full screen size. It loads as you enter the website and there is no way any visitor can miss it. To not annoy the visitors, you should make the video play mutely at first and place a visible button somewhere in your header to turn on the sound should the visitors decide to watch your video with sound.
As you can see in Block66.io, the video is placed on the left side of the website, allowing the inclusion of title and description on the right side. While the video is not directly embedded to the website (for website loading speed I guess), as the video button is very self-explanatory and easy to spot, it will serve the purpose and must receive a fair number of clicks. As a rule of thumb, if you are replacing the actual video player (Vimeo, Youtube, Wistia etc), you should choose either a snapshot of the video or a play button large enough to be spotted easily by your visitors. Any attempt to hide the video in some ways is a grave mistake.
- Publishing on Social Media
The power of social networks can’t be ignored. With 2.2 billion active users on Facebook and about 800 million users on Instagram, you should not hesitate to post your video(s) on these sites. If you don’t have a corporate Facebook or Instagram page, go ahead and make one. Once it’s ready, post your videos right away. There is a catch though, if your social network page is new, you might not have enough followers to get notified and watch your video so you will need to build a pool of followers first. To do so, I’d suggest you read the following articles: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/10/19/get-more-instagram-followers
http://time.com/2843469/get-more-followers-facebook-twitter/
- Good Old Newsletters
Have a list of subscribers? Studies show newsletters are still being opened and read by users and there is a growth forecast for this marketing method. To do so, you will need to open an account in one of the email marketing companies such as Mailchimp, SendPulse, AWeber etc and embed your video in a nice newsletter with some descriptions that appeal to your contact list. Need inspiration? Check what Vertical Wise & Ubisoft did in their newsletters below:
- Hire a Video Marketing Company
You can hire a video marketing company to reach an even wider audience. This includes marketing platforms such as Virool, Vidyard as well. If you have an Adwords account (recently changed name to Google Ads), you can create video ads and drop in your video link from Youtube to start a video ad campaign. The price per view will be determined by the platform once you’ve started your campaign but you can always adjust it based on your daily budget. The more you spend, the more people will see your video.
Final Thoughts
Reaching a larger number of audience and getting zillions of views have always been the ultimate goals for businesses. However, achieving such goals can be expensive and time consuming. With the right marketing strategy and active participation of your team, it is proven to be doable.
As the Internet grows, the methods of marketing grow with it. Being business owners, we should be ready to identify the new technologies becoming available to us and utilize them to stand out from competition.
Let’s not forget that content is the king therefore your primary focus must be on creating videos that people like to watch and bother to share.