3 Secrets – How to Get More Explainer Video Views

You’ve finally made the step and you have produced the perfect explainer video for your website! You hired a professional and it is just the way you imagined it would be: Awesome. Now it’s time to get views. Surprisingly, for many brands, marketing their video can be one of the more difficult parts of the process. Below is some of our best advice to help you get started with your video marketing strategy so you can get more views for your explainer video.

Secret No. 1: Publish Your Video Strategically on Your Website

Consider these factors when deciding on which page you will place your explainer video: • Will the video add value for the person visiting this web page? • If I put the video on this page, will it help retain the visitor? • What purpose does this web page have? Does the video help facilitate that purpose? Look at this video from the Lasik Video Institute. Where do you think it should be published? On a sales page? Informational page? Home page? As a rule of thumb, test what works for your website, and track metrics, views and drop-off rates. Here are a couple of tools you can use to do A/B tests to help you figure out where on your website is the best spot for your video.

• Visual Website Optimizer
• Optimizely
• Unbounce

Secret No. 2: Make Sure Your Video Is Mobile Optimized

Did you know over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube, and mobile views make up almost 40% of that? If your video isn’t mobile optimized, you are missing out on a huge piece of viewership pie. Here are a few starters to help you make sure your video can be easily viewed on mobile devices.

• Make sure your file is mobile-friendly: MP4 H.264
• If you are publishing your video on Vimeo or YouTube and then embedding it on your website, you don’t have to worry about making it mobile-friendly; it is by default. But, if you are using your own video player, using an HTML 5 video player is a must.

Secret No. 3: Distribute Your Video

Many businesses think that distributing their video means simply blasting it across every social and video platform available, but to be able to achieve specific goals, you have to first identify what they are and then create a plan that aligns with them.

• Drive traffic and increase conversions

If you are trying to drive traffic to your website there are a few things you simply must do when publishing your video, or your traffic will be wasted on a third-party platform. If you are publishing your video on YouTube, optimization and tagging is key. But more than that, you need to take advantage of the description area and be sure you are including your website URL at the very top of the description. That way viewers know where to go to make a purchase or find out more information. If you are hosting your video on your own website, be sure you use a secure hosting platform (Wistia is a great one), optimize it for search and publish a video xml site map on your site.

• Raise brand awareness

In this case, you want as many eyes on your video as possible. In this case, YouTube is the right answer. But remember, YouTube isn’t necessarily the the ideal solution for conversions. Why? You may end up losing your viewers to a host of distractions.

• Build links to your website

Again, if you are trying to build links to your own website, YouTube may not be the best distribution solution for you. Using a secure, reliable video hosting platform to host and embed your videos on your own website may be a better option. Remember, you can combine these distribution methods to maximize your video’s exposure and effectiveness, just be sure to have a plan of attack. For example, if you want to build links to your website and get some brand exposure, upload your video to YouTube, then use Open Site Explorer to find out who has shared your video. Contact them and ask them to share the video that is embedded on your own site, driving traffic straight there. Are you interested in creating and distributing a marketing video for your website? Contact us about animated explainer videos for a free price quote and video marketing options today.   Check out more great info on our blog.