3 simple tips for increasing engagement with online videos
Once you've created the video content for your brand and you've optimised it for search, what do you do now?
Whilst engagement may be the buzzword of the moment, realistically if your target audience / consumers don’t engage with your video content then quite simply, they won’t be influenced by it and they certainly won’t share it amongst their peers, so all you’re left with is just another video on YouTube and your content has no value.
So, here comes the million dollar question, how do you encourage engagement with your audiences to ensure a maximised ROI? See below for my 3 top tips to get you off to a strong start.
1) Share your content
It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? It’s a very simple formula really:
According to YouTube, 500 years’ worth of YouTube video are watched everyday on Facebook, with over 700 YouTube videos being shared every minute on Twitter – that’s a lot of video and a lot of sharing, so why not increase the chances of your content being shared, by sharing it on your social media channels?
If the average tweet life cycle is under 10 minutes (depending on the amount of people you follow), then it seems like a massive shame to just tweet about it, doesn’t it? Sharing your rich media content on all your social networks, gives your audience the chance to share your content with their audiences and give your brand the best chance of achieving increased monthly unique visitors and natural back links.
Remember: use language appropriate of each network and ensure that it’s shared at a relevant and at a time of heightened social engagement. No ‘one size fits all’.
2) Give your viewers a call to action (CTA)
Branded video content reaches nearly half (46%) of all internet users in the UK, with more than half (54%) going on to click through to the brand’s website (Econsultancy). So you need to make sure that you encourage your audience to click through, and to get that, you need to give a clear (and appealing) CTA.
DO
1) Make sure your CTA is within the visitors eye path – i.e. don’t hide it in the corner of the video, make sure that viewers can actually see the CTA
2) Let the visitor know what they will receive. EXPLICITLY ask for peoples’ interaction – what do you want? “upload your version of this video for the chance to win £7million” – errr, yes please
3) If the CTA is ‘clickable’ then make it look like it is!
4) Include large buttons on your video asking people to share your video via social channels
DON’T
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Don’t make your call to action too vague… Click here – “for what” said the viewer
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Don’t use a small CTA – it’s likely that no one will see it!
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Don’t be too wordy
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Don’t use too many CTAs in one page
3) Publish content in several different forms and through multiple channels
Instead of just producing a video, putting it on your website and sharing the same content, why not make the content work harder?
With the eruption of Instagram video and Vine, we, as marketers, are being challenged to create videos in tighter timeframes to be able to capture our audiences. If you’re sharing a video on Instagram or Vine, you have 15 / 6 seconds respectively to make sure that you sum up everything you want to.
According to 7th Chamber, a branded Vine video is four-times more likely to be seen than a regular branded video and since the launch of Instagram video there has been a 37% increase in Instragram shares on Twitter (Buzzfork). When producing your content, make sure you edit a 15 and 6 second version so you maximise possible outlets of your content and spread that message.
If you can, make an editorial version of your video content to be placed on third party websites, this will heighten engagement, maximise natural link building and provide your content with credibility from being placed on respected websites. It also gives you the chance to engage with the websites established communities and followings.
For more information or if you have any questions about maximising the potential of your online video, please contact Jessica at jessica.feldman@markettiers4dc.com