Video marketing is past the point of being the “trend to watch” in 2014; it’s now a deeply embedded (pardon the pun) part of marketing strategies and social outreach. If you aren’t already capitalizing on what even brief video marketing outings can do for your SEO, then you’re potentially missing out on a broad demographic of users that are easier to engage through visual and audio means than they are through text. Whether through desktop or mobile browsing, that can be a big chunk of potential traffic that the competitors can and will snag up instead. In this two-part article, we’ll review some of the tips that you should keep in mind as you review your current video marketing strategies, or look to implement a new strategy. We’ll also look at potential mistakes that you could be making, and how to correct them.
- Be a resource. Videos have undoubtedly become popular due to their ability to become an active and instant resource for information and awareness of brands, news, and opinions. They are incredibly easy to create and link through social media, but that doesn’t make every video a worthwhile endeavor. Make sure that any video marketing that you have planned adds value to your viewership in some capacity. Simple advertisement really isn’t enough. Inform, entertain, or give pause.
- Don’t waste your opportunities. As we’ve reviewed in a previous article on click bait, audience trust is of the utmost importance in SEO. If you don’t have it, or if you lose it, you’re going to be facing a much harder time gaining it. Your audience is already giving you the benefit of the doubt when they click on a video to load it and watch it, and giving you their time by letting it play. Do not waste the opportunity by throwing obnoxious advertisement-speak at them. Every video is a potential social media buzz generator, even if it isn’t necessarily a “viral sensation.”
- Be user friendly and link friendly. The format that you use to display your videos, if they are hosted on your own domain, should be optimized for all formats and platforms, which includes mobile internet. If you don’t already have social media sharing buttons, or if your video content isn’t hosted on sites like YouTube, then you should have those ready to use. You want the entire experience to be easy on the audience, and easy to share with others, or it just won’t be effective.
These are just the basics of video marketing, but they can be an eye opener if you’re going full steam ahead without some important, and very human, considerations. In the second article, we’ll review some common mistakes and how to correct them.
