Video Promotion: 7 Ways To Promote A New Video

7 Ways to Promote a New VideoCongratulations… you have a new marketing video. Whether you produced it yourself or hired pros to create something awesome, you’re only half-way through the process.

What?

You thought you were done?

Nope.

You might have the best video ever, but it’s useless until people get a chance to see it. It’s now time to promote your video.

Video Promotion Strategy

Contrary to what many people believe, you just don’t post a video to YouTube and watch the views grow and grow.

You might get some, but you’re missing out on your video’s true potential if this is all you do.

We won’t let that happen though, right?

Video promotion needs to be a big part of your video strategy.

Here are some things you can do to get your video out to the masses.

Post your video to YouTube

Wait? Didn’t I just tell you that you need more than this? 

Yes, you do. But you do have to post it to YouTube because it’s great for search engines, especially the big dog. Remember, Google owns YouTube.

Once you post your video, you have more to do. You need to optimize your video. 

Think of it as doing SEO for YouTube. Keywords, semantics phrases… these are good things to use.

Here are a few things you should always make sure to do:

  • go to your video settings and make sure your video is titled properly. The name of the file you upload will be the default title, but you can rename it anything you want.
  • under the title you can enter a description. Write a paragraph or two here.
  • next thing down are tags. Enter as many as you like… think of search words you’d like to tie to your video.
  • enter a transcript. Yes, a written transcript. It’s one more thing Google will to scan to help people find your video.
  • would you like to add subtitles? You can upload a SubRip caption file directly into YouTube. Don’t bother making them yourself, Rev.com and other transcription services like it are inexpensive and give you what you need. You can use it for that transcript as well.

You’re doing all of this to give YouTube (and by extension, Google) written information to crawl to help rank your video and help it show up when people search.

Post it at your website

Now that you’ve uploaded your video to YouTube and optimized it, you need to put it on your website. 

You can create a page just for the video, but I recommend using it in multiple places.

Think about it logically. 

What type of video did you produce? Is it an About Us video, an event video, product demo? 

If you have an About Us page, put your About Us video there.

If you have a blog post about an event you hosted, include your event video.

If you have a product page, add the product demo video to that page.

But don’t stop there, think about who your audience is for your video and place it on the pages those people are most likely to visit.

And again, you can put the same video on multiple pages.

You can host the video yourself, or you can embed the YouTube video. Not sure how to do this? Ask your web professional or contact my buddy Brian Bender at Net Elevation.

Blog about it

If you have a blog for your business, you’re probably always looking for content ideas. Use the video for some inspiration.

Write about what you learned during the production process. If your video is about a specific subject surrounding your business or industry, write a companion piece.

It all depends on the video content, but think about it and I’m sure you can come up with something to write about and to feature the video.

Post it on social media

For many people, this is the most obvious aspect of video promotion strategy.

What’s your social media of choice? Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn… and on and on and on. Post the video wherever your business is active.

If you’re posting to social, you should definitely add subtitles

Most people watch social videos with no sound. 

Again, use Rev.com to create a SubRip captions file, and simply upload the file.

Now… when you’re ready to post… here’s the trick. 

Don’t just post it once. 

Remember, people are looking at social media on their own schedules. If you post the video on Tuesday at 8:00 a.m., people who look at social media that night will likely miss it.

Put together a social media calendar for when to post the video… Tuesday at 8:00 a.m., Wednesday at 7:00 p.m., Thursday at Noon. 

Also, if the video isn’t time sensitive, make sure to bring it back and post it again in a month, 6-months, a year.

Keep in mind, posting it this much seems redundant to you because you’re the one posting it over and over. That’s not the case for your social media followers.

They’re not seeing it posted every time, and you never know when someone might watch the video.

Even if it does appear to them multiple times, a social follower might not watch the video until the third, fourth, or tenth time it appears in their feed.

I like to joke that when you reach the point of being sick of your video because you’ve posted it a gazillion times… POST IT AGAIN!

Finally, don’t forget to use social media to target influencers in your field. Send them a note with a link. They might decide to share it with their networks which will expand your reach.

McCormick Place video player

YouTube video player screenshot

Email campaign

Definitely send an email to your list introducing your new video, but don’t stop there. 

If you do any email marketing at all, include a link to your video in everything you send out.

Make it visually appealing. Use an image of a video player and make sure to make it link to your video. 

An easy way to do it is simply take a screenshot of the YouTube player with your video inside it. Then make sure to link the video player image to your video.

Your About Us video, testimonials… these are great videos to add as staples to all of your newsletters.

Make sure your team knows about it

After the video is done, make sure to send it to every member of your team and encourage them to share it with their networks.

One of the most successful online video campaigns ever, Will It Blend?, was originally an internal series for team members at Blendtec.

They started sharing it with their friends and family and the rest is history.

Share it with your network

Don’t forget your own personal network. They can help with your video promotion as well.

Share it with your friends and family. 

Your Aunt Clara might not have any idea what your company does until she sees the video. For all you know, she’s sitting on a huge contact or business lead for you.

Going back to the last suggestion, ask your team to share it with their personal networks as well.

Not everyone will do it, but you’re bound to get some employees to share it.

BONUS TIP!

I love this one. 

I was talking with a customer at one point and asked how his company had been promoting the video. He listed off some of the ideas mentioned above, but then he added something unexpected.

He said he had all of his team members add a link to the video in their email signatures.

BOOM! 

What an awesome idea.

They have hundreds of employees sending who knows how many emails everyday?

Every email becomes a video promotion!

This is a technique that takes very little effort and is a great way to get the video out there.

You can certainly do it as just a text link, but again, I recommend making it visual by adding a video player image and linking it to the video.

Continue your video promotion education

This is all good stuff, but if you’re hungry for more I have some suggestions. There are two books I highly recommend.

Gini Dietrich is the woman behind what many consider to be the best public relations blog in the country, Spin Sucks.

I have written several guest posts for Spin Sucks, and Gini’s company is a T60 customer.

Her latest book takes the same name as her blog, Spin Sucks, and it’s a digital communications manual for business leaders.
BOOK: Spin Sucks (watch a video preview)

content-chemistry-1We’re big believers in content marketing at T60, and video is a fantastic addition to anyone’s content strategy. If you’re interested in improving your search engine optimization (SEO), or posting your video in email or social media campaigns… Andy Crestodina has done you a big favor.

He and his team at Orbit Media Studios (another T60 customer) have put together a how-to guide complete with charts, graphs, and screen captures to help all of us figure it out. It is an extremely handy guide and something I use frequently.
BOOK: Content Chemistry

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention another T60 customer.

MarketingProfs is a great resource for upping your video promotion and communications strategy game.

Ann Handley and her team deliver amazing content and the more you consume, the easier promoting your video will be.

You’re just getting started

I’m really excited for you. Producing a video and sharing it with the world is fun.

Whatever goal you’ve set for your video, I hope you achieve it.

Fair warning though, it’s addictive. Producing a video and having it connect with an audience… it’s a magical thing. You’re going to want to do more and I hope you do.

One of the great things about video is the more you produce, the more effective a tool it can be.

It has a cumulative effect on viewers. The more they see from you and your team… the more authoritative your opinion will be, the more they’ll feel like they’re getting to know you, the more they’ll want to buy from you.

Good luck with your video.

 

Tony Gnau - T60 ProductionsTony Gnau is the Founder and Chief Storytelling Officer at T60 Productions. He’s a three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, has led T60 Productions to winning 18 Telly Awards for its corporate videos, and is the author of the Amazon #1 Bestseller “Lights, Camera, Impact: storytelling, branding, and production tips for engaging corporate videos.”