The word ‘viral’ has taken on a whole new meaning in recent years. No longer is it something we all wish to avoid (well, technically, it still is); but if you produce videos, it’s something you actually yearn for.
While ‘to go viral’ shouldn’t be your main marketing goal when creating a branded video, having your clip spread like wildfire on the web is a great indication of success. If people can’t get enough of it and it ends up being viewed by the masses, it’s bound to boost exposure and benefit your brand image.
Here are some insider tips we believe are invaluable in making actionable, viral-worthy videos that will inspire your audience and help you to smash your marketing goals:
Secret #1 – Don’t be dull
A yawn is not a good emotion to elicit from your viewers. Make them laugh, make them cry, make them scratch their heads in contemplation and blurt out an elongated “hmmm” – just don’t make them yawn.
Answer this: would you rather watch an expert discuss the stability and precision of the steering on Volvo’s trucks; or, would you rather see it visually demonstrated by Jean-Claude Van Damme pulling the splits between two truck roofs? I know your answer.
Whatever your industry, you’ll be vying for the attention of your audience along with plenty of other brands. You need to take your product or service and market it in a way that’s as engaging as it is unique; in a way that’ll be remembered. If I say ‘gorilla’, ‘drums’ and ‘Phil Collins’, you instantly know which brand and product I’m talking about.
Secret #2 – Make it engaging with/without sound
With around 85% of Facebook video now watched without sound, relying on a mega-emotive soundtrack to hurl your video to marketing success is a bad move. You need to make sure your video’s story is both clear and engaging with the sound on and off.
First and foremost, silent watchers are sucked in by engaging visuals. You have to capture their attention from the moment they hit ‘play,’ and more challengingly, retain it. Focusing on things like use of colour, framing, movement and other powerful imagery will help to ensure your viewers stay put.
You might need to add some text to your video to keep messaging clear, whether it’s colourful captions, text overlay or subtitles. Captioned videos are watched for 12 times longer than their un-captioned counterparts, says Facebook – just be sure to keep text short and succinct, i.e. say what needs to be said in as few words as possible.
Secret #3 – Tag and optimise it
You want your target demographic to love your video, but you want search engines to love it, too. Before you upload your video onto any sharing sites, host it on your own domain – this will help to guarantee maximum SEO value.
According to statistics cited by Business2Community, incorporating a video within your website’s landing page can make it 53% more likely to show up on the first page of results; while conversion rates can be increased by as much as 86%.
Enabling embedding on your video will see it stand a better chance of receiving marketing links, as will creating a video sitemap (check out this handy Google article for some tips).
Finally, video descriptions are mega important. With the right descriptions, Google will be able to suss out the content of your video and will allow your audience to easily locate it. Make sure your clip is tagged with relevant keywords and explained using long descriptions and original titles. Filling in as much info as possible will help to ensure it gets noticed.
Hopefully, now that I’ve enlightened you with these video success secrets, you’ll be able to create cracking content that resonates with your target audience. But if you need some help, you can always turn to the experts at M2 Bespoke.