Top Secrets for Getting Results with Video

You’ve produced a killer video with a concrete objective and directed at your target audience that connects on an emotional level. Now what? Get. It. Seen.

Your videos are like a flyer. You can have the best one in the world, but you have to get it in front of your audience. If you’re putting it on your website, but not doing anything to drive traffic to it…you’re relying on people coming to you. Take control. Actively seek out your audience.

Choose your channels wisely. Analyze your target audience: how do they want to receive this information? Are they on social media, and if so: which channels? Do they open your emails or get your newsletters? Are they frequent visitors to your website? If you know your target audience, you should be able to answer these questions. Go to them!
Follow best practices. Obviously, if you have multiple channels at your disposal, use them all. But each one has their strengths and weaknesses. You’ll want to edit and format your video according to the best practices for each channel.

Orientation. There are 3 orientations for video landscape/horizontal, portrait/vertical and square. Know what works best for your channel. For example, landscape videos are best for web and YouTube videos. Use portrait videos for Instagram, Facebook stories and TikTok. But for Facebook posts, I like using square videos.
Length of videos. Also think about how people use the various channels and be respectful of their time. Hubspot recommends the following running times for each platform: stick to 30 seconds for Instagram; 45 seconds for Twitter; 1 minute for Facebook; 2 minutes for YouTube.

You should also consider shooting video teasers specifically for social media. Give a quick overview video for Twitter, then link to the full-length version on your website or YouTube page. When you do post on your website, consider breaking your story into a series of shorter videos or chapters and putting them on the same page. Sometimes it’s easier to watch many short videos instead of one long video.

Are you committed to YouTube? YouTube is the second-most popular search engine after Google. And it’s owned by Google. So if you want your video to be found on web searches or want to create your own YouTube channel, there’s a LOT that goes into making it a success. Here are some basics: Get your Google and YouTube accounts properly completed (there’s more to it than you think). Research the keywords and metadata that will target your video topics. Create custom thumbnails that are descriptive and attention-grabbing. But there are even more tricks that can help. Do some research on your own – there’s a lot of resources out there that can help.

Consider a campaign. For your important objectives, like recruiting volunteers or soliciting donations, I’d suggest creating a campaign to generate some momentum and draw attention to what you’re trying to accomplish.

Create a landing page on your website to host the video, then have a form where they can do what you’re asking of them. Sign up to be a volunteer. Make a donation through an online payment system.

Then create teasers for social media, articles in your newsletters, ads on your webpage, links in your emails and whatever else you can think of to drive traffic to that page. On social media, lead up to the ask by putting out a series of entertaining, educational and inspirational posts on that topic to generate some interest ahead of time.
This is just a partial list of ways to promote your video – get creative – find ways to get your video out to your target audience!

If you have any questions about any of these topics, or want to see if Filament would be a good partner for your next video project, give us a holler. I’d love to have a free, no-obligation consultation with you to brainstorm how you can use video to find success for your organization.