Creating viral YouTube content might seem like a game of luck, but it’s more of a science than you think. While there’s no guaranteed formula for making a video go viral, there are tried-and-true strategies that can significantly increase your chances of breaking through the noise and capturing the internet’s attention.
If you’ve been dreaming of skyrocketing your YouTube channel to success, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive into several actionable tips that can help your videos go viral and keep audiences coming back for more.
The first 15 seconds of your video are the most critical. This is when viewers decide whether to stick around or click away. To grab their attention immediately, you need a strong hook.
Your hook might be a thought-provoking question, an unexpected statement, or a quick glimpse of something exciting coming up in the video. For example, if your video is a DIY project, you could start by showing the finished product before rewinding to the beginning.
The goal here is simple: Intrigue your audience so they can’t help but watch more. The longer they stay engaged, the more likely YouTube’s algorithm is to recommend your video to others.
People love stories – it’s human nature. Whether your content is funny, educational, or emotional, weaving a narrative into your video can make it more memorable and shareable. Think about what you want your viewers to feel by the end of your video, then structure your content to evoke that emotion.
Even a tutorial or review can benefit from storytelling. Instead of diving straight into a list of features, share a personal anecdote about how the product solved a problem for you. Stories create connections, and connections lead to shares.
Your thumbnail and title are the first things viewers see, so make them count. A great thumbnail is visually striking, clearly conveys the video’s topic, and piques curiosity.
How do you execute on this? Use bold, readable text, vibrant colors, and an image that tells part of the story without giving too much away. You want to generate insatiable curiosity – which makes people feel like they have to click.
When it comes to titles, balance intrigue with clarity. Clickbait titles may get initial clicks, but they can backfire if they don’t deliver on their promise. Instead, aim for titles that are specific, benefit-driven, and emotionally engaging. For example, “How I Lost 20 Pounds in 30 Days (Without Giving Up Pizza)” is more compelling than “My Weight Loss Journey.”
One of the fastest ways to gain traction on YouTube is by capitalizing on trends. Whether it’s a viral challenge, a popular meme, or breaking news, aligning your content with what’s already buzzing can help you get discovered.
However, don’t just copy what’s trending. Be sure to put your own unique spin on it. If everyone is doing a certain challenge, how can you do it differently? Perhaps you add humor, approach it from a niche perspective, or use the trend as a springboard for a deeper conversation. The key is to stand out while staying relevant.
YouTube’s algorithm plays a significant role in determining which videos go viral. To get the algorithm to work in your favor, you need to focus on metrics like watch time, click-through rate, and engagement (likes, comments, and shares).
Here’s how to optimize your content:
Remember, the algorithm rewards videos that keep people on the platform longer, so focus on creating content that’s engaging and valuable.
If there’s one thing all viral videos have in common, it’s that they evoke strong emotions. Whether it’s laughter, surprise, awe, or even outrage, emotional content gets shared because it makes people feel something.
Think about what emotions align with your video’s purpose. If you’re creating a comedy sketch, aim for laughter. If you’re sharing a personal story, tug on the heartstrings. And if you’re showcasing an incredible talent, leave viewers in awe.
Viral content often strikes a balance between relatability and the unexpected. When viewers see something that resonates with them emotionally but also surprises them, they’re more likely to hit the share button.
Collaboration is a powerful way to reach new audiences and gain subscribers. Partnering with creators in your niche allows you to tap into their fanbase while providing fresh content for your own audience.
When planning a collaboration, think about how you can create a win-win situation. For example, you could team up to produce a challenge video, conduct an interview, or co-host a livestream. Make sure the partnership feels authentic and benefits both parties.
Cross-promotion is another effective strategy. Encourage your collaborator to share the video with their audience, and do the same for them. This mutual support can help both channels grow.
Creating viral YouTube content isn’t just about luck – it’s about understanding your audience, telling great stories, and leveraging YouTube’s tools to your advantage. And while going viral is exciting, it’s important that you think beyond just one big video. To have long-term success, you need consistency in video quality.
At VID.co, we’re a leading full-service video marketing and video production company that specializes in helping individual creators and companies create better video content. From production and editing to platform-specific optimization for YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, we’re here to help you build a consistent video content machine.
Want to learn more about our services or how we can help you? We’d love to chat with you.
Whether you have dreams of making it big or you just want to support your brand in a fun and engaging way, starting out on YouTube can be tough.
If you make good content and you have some fans or followers already, it's not hard to generate an initial base of subscribers.
But once your small YouTube channel starts gaining momentum, it's going to become increasingly difficult for you to pick up new subscribers and continue growing.
Obviously, much of your success depends on your ability to earn new subscribers. More subscribers lead to more views, more engagements, and ultimately more revenue.
So how are you supposed to get those subscribers as a small YouTube channel?
Start by analyzing your current position. Take a close, deep look at the types of videos you've made, the types of results you've seen, and your current subscriber count.
Pay especially close attention to:
Who is your target audience? What types of people are subscribing and what types of people are currently watching your videos as you publish them? This is one of the most important questions you'll need to answer, and it's going to be nearly impossible for you to see growth unless you can answer it confidently. If you don't know who your audience is, you won't be able to make videos for them successfully.
It's also important to look at your top competitors. Unless you've stumbled on a totally novel, niche area that no one else has touched, there are probably multiple YouTube channels doing what you do, or something similar. What kinds of subscriber counts do these channels have? What do you think is responsible for their success? What are they doing differently from you and how can you distinguish yourself in an even more compelling way?
Finally, examine your past and current strategy for producing and distributing videos. Which of your videos have been most successful? Which ones have fallen flat? How have your subscriber rates changed over what time and what do you think is responsible for these changes?
Hopefully, this analysis will allow you to identify some key strengths and weaknesses associated with your channel, allowing you to generate some initial ideas for how you can improve.
Take a look at your approach to production, post-production, and editing. If you want to consistently earn more subscribers, you need to produce videos that look and sound professional in quality. With the abundance of relatively inexpensive professional equipment and production tools, there's no excuse for not having videos that look amazing.
It can be challenging as a relative newcomer in the world of video production to achieve this professional quality. So if you need some extra support, consider working with a video production agency who can help you give your videos a better final polish.
Many struggling YouTube content creators suffer from their inability to recognize audience generation opportunities. By looking at search trends, you can identify strategically valuable videos to create, fulfilling demand while avoiding competition at the same time.
Take a look at search terms used by your audience. The sweet spot is going to be keywords and phrases that have high search volume, meaning lots of people are searching for them, but relatively low competition, meaning there are few competitors producing videos for these people. This is a niche with high demand and low supply, giving you a critical opportunity to get attention on your work.
You can always make your video content more engaging by pursuing stronger relevance to your target audience. This is one reason why it's so important to know who your audience is, inside and out. What are the demographics of these viewers? What are their values? What's important to them? What styles of video do they prefer?
Additionally, these audience members probably have burning questions and strong desires to see certain types of content. If you can give them specifically what they want, you should have no trouble generating more subscribers. Even if it means alienating portions of your broader audience, it's typically worth the investment to dig deep into a specific niche.
Generally, when people subscribe to, follow, or engage with brands, it’s not a logical decision; it’s an emotional one. Human beings are emotional creatures, whether we like it or not, and most social media platforms are geared toward spurring strong emotions.
To the extent possible, optimize your video titles and descriptions to cater to the emotions of your target audience. Can you make them shocked or excited? Can you make them nervous or intimidated? Can you evoke in them a sense of morbid curiosity?
Obviously, you'll need to be careful here. You don't want to emotionally manipulate your audience, nor do you want to exaggerate your subject matter in pursuit of more clicks; this is typically a losing strategy in the long run, as it erodes trust and respect. Still, if you walk this tightrope carefully, you should be able to generate far more subscribers.
Many YouTube creators have avoided producing Shorts, because they want to primarily focus on long-form content. There's nothing wrong with prioritizing long-form content and you can still pursue it as your primary avenue of video creation. However, if you aren't producing Shorts regularly, you could be missing out on some serious subscriber generation potential.
Shorts are quick, punchy, and appealing to a wide range of people. They're also extremely discoverable. Even if you only produce a couple of Shorts a month, it could help get more eyes on your channel and ultimately earn you more subscribers.
Storytelling is at the heart of every successful YouTube channel. Each YouTube creator tells different types of stories and tells them in different ways, of course, but in every successful video, you'll find some kind of compelling narrative. What kinds of stories do you tell? What are your strengths as a storyteller?
If you've never thought about this, now could be the perfect opportunity to delve into the narrative side of things. Can you illustrate your talking points with the help of narrative examples? Can you introduce characters and a beginning, middle, and end to your stories?
Pay close attention to what's popular on YouTube, even if it's outside your sphere of influence. What are the most popular creators doing? What are the most viral videos of the past couple of weeks?
There are two major reasons for this. First, this gives you a crucial opportunity for inspiration. By studying what other successful youtubers are doing, you can come up with ideas for how to make your own videos better. YouTube creators sometimes find themselves in a rut, producing similar videos over and over. But you need to adapt and incorporate new ideas if you want to continue growing. It doesn't mean sacrificing your brand identity or your style of video, but it does mean gradually evolving.
Second, this is an opportunity for you to plug into the zeitgeist and see what's resonating with people. There is no single formula for a successful YouTube video, in part because any formula that might exist is constantly changing. New technologies, new trends, and changing demographics force significant changes in video production. You need to be attuned to these changes if you don't want to become irrelevant.
Find a way to reward your subscribers. Do subscribers get access to bonus content or other special privileges? Do you regularly enter your subscribers into giveaways? Do you ever shout out your subscribers and thank them for subscribing? Even the smallest rewards can incentivize your existing subscribers to continue subscribing to you while simultaneously inviting new numbers into the folds of your long-term viewership. You don't want to bribe your subscribers, but you do want to make it worth their while to continue subscribing to you.
Collaborating on content production is one of the best ways to increase your subscriber count – and you might be able to boost someone else’s subscriber count at the same time! Collaboration is almost always mutually beneficial, so it’s well worth considering in pursuit of advancing your channel.
Consider reaching out to video creators with similar approaches. Channels with more subscribers have more power to lend to your collaboration, but they also tend to be harder to reach and harder to collaborate with, so use your discretion as you climb this ladder.
In any case, come up with a good pitch that would be relevant to both your target audiences. Depending on the nature of your channel, this could be something simple, like interviewing each other on each other's channels, or something more complicated, like working together on a multi-video story.
No matter what, you should spend more time cross-promoting your videos. In other words, you need to market and showcase your video on other social media channels. YouTube remains the most popular online video platform in the world, and likely will remain in that position for the foreseeable future. But it's certainly not the only video channel, and video channels represent only a small fraction of all social media channels.
It's typically free to share, promote, and comment on videos on social media, so there's no reason not to take advantage of these channels. Doing so could get more eyes on your work and ultimately help you generate the subscribers you want.
If you're not seeing results as quickly as you'd like, you can also consider paying for advertising. Not every YouTube content creator is going to have the budget for this, but for those who do, it's a convenient shortcut that can immediately introduce people in your target demographics to the type of content you produce.
Next, work on closing the gaps in your content strategy. Are there any major topics within your sphere of expertise that you haven't yet covered? Are there any newsworthy events that you haven't commented on? Are there things that all your competitors do that aren't present on your channel? Tightening these things up can make your channel much more attractive.
Finally, be willing to experiment. It's important to be consistent in your video production in terms of both topics and style. But unless you occasionally try new things and measure the results of your changes, you won't be able to meaningfully advance your strategy or grow your subscribers.
Are you hoping to boost the subscriber numbers on your YouTube channel?
Are you ready to seriously invest in your video platform?
We’re here to help. If you’re ready for your free consultation, contact us today!
As a YouTuber, you know that compelling, engaging content is the lifeblood of what you do. However, the challenge of consistently coming up with fresh content every week is a tough one. But thankfully there are plenty of tools you can lean on to make the painstaking parts of being a YouTuber simple and stress-free. This is where ChatGPT comes into play.
ChatGPT can step in as a valuable tool, acting like a virtual assistant to streamline your workflow and help you create top-quality content more efficiently.
At a basic level, ChatGPT is an AI language model that processes and generates text based on prompts you provide. Think of it as a virtual assistant that you interact with by typing questions or commands, much like having a conversation. You simply give ChatGPT a prompt – a clear question, idea, or instruction – and it responds with relevant information or suggestions. ChatGPT has been trained on a wide range of topics, allowing it to offer responses that can be helpful in areas like brainstorming, writing, summarizing, or even handling SEO tasks.
For YouTubers, this means you can use ChatGPT to support every stage of your content creation process. Need video ideas? Just ask! Writing a script or optimizing titles for better search visibility? ChatGPT can help with that, too.
Although ChatGPT doesn’t access live information or understand visuals, it’s highly effective at processing language and can be a real time-saver for text-based tasks.
In terms of the different ways in which you can use ChatGPT as a YouTuber, there are literally endless opportunities for creativity and innovation. However, here are a few of the best use cases:
One of the most challenging aspects of YouTube content creation is consistently coming up with fresh ideas that will captivate your audience. ChatGPT can act as an endless source of inspiration, helping you brainstorm unique video ideas and explore new angles for content within your niche.
For example, you can prompt ChatGPT with something like, “Give me 10 unique video ideas for a fitness YouTube channel,” and it will respond with a list of potential topics. If you’re looking for specific trends, you can ask, “What are some current fitness trends I could make videos about?” ChatGPT can provide suggestions based on popular interests and themes, which you can tailor to your channel’s audience.
Additionally, ChatGPT can help you identify ideas based on current events or trending topics. Just ask, “What’s trending in [your topic]?” and explore ways to align your content with what’s currently popular.
An engaging title and an eye-catching thumbnail are essential to attracting viewers to your video. You can ask ChatGPT to help generate catchy and optimized titles for your videos that include relevant keywords and phrases.
For instance, you might say, “Give me some title options for a video about beginner cooking tips.” ChatGPT can offer a range of titles that you can tweak or refine to better fit your style. It’s a quick way to get fresh ideas if you’re struggling to find that perfect combination of words to make viewers click.
And while ChatGPT can’t design thumbnails, it can offer insights on text, colors, and visual elements that could make your thumbnails more appealing. You could ask, “What elements make a YouTube thumbnail attractive?” and use ChatGPT’s advice to design thumbnails that resonate with your target audience.
Scriptwriting can be a time-consuming process, especially if you’re trying to balance being informative and entertaining. ChatGPT can assist by helping you outline or write scripts for your videos. For instance, you could start by asking ChatGPT for an outline: “Create an outline for a video about the best productivity apps for students.”
Once you have an outline, ChatGPT can expand each section into more detailed content. For example, you might input, “Write a short introduction for a video on the best productivity apps for students,” and ChatGPT will generate a few introductory lines for you. You can also use it to generate additional information for each point in your script or to offer variations on your closing remarks.
For interviews or Q&A-style videos, ChatGPT can even suggest questions. Simply ask, “Give me 10 interview questions for a video with a successful entrepreneur,” and you’ll have a list ready to go. ChatGPT helps remove the pressure and ensures your videos stay engaging and professional.
SEO is crucial for getting your videos noticed on YouTube, and ChatGPT can help you optimize your content with relevant keywords, tags, and descriptions. When writing video descriptions, you might ask ChatGPT: “Write a short description for a video about how to start a meditation practice.” It will generate a description that includes keywords related to meditation and mindfulness, making it easier for viewers to find your video.
Additionally, ChatGPT can suggest tags to include in your video’s metadata to improve visibility. Just ask, “What are some keywords I can use for a video about meditation for beginners?” This can save you time researching popular search terms and give you a head start on SEO-optimized content.
Building a loyal community on YouTube goes beyond uploading videos; it’s about engaging with viewers on a personal level. ChatGPT can help you create engaging community posts and replies to comments, helping maintain a consistent tone while keeping your viewers engaged.
If you want to announce an upcoming video, for example, you could prompt, “Write a community post teaser for a new video on productivity tips.” ChatGPT will provide a compelling snippet you can post to build anticipation.
Similarly, responding to comments in a timely and personalized way can strengthen your community. If a viewer asks a detailed question, you could prompt ChatGPT: “Write a reply to a comment asking for more tips on productivity,” and it will generate a thoughtful response. It saves you time and helps you maintain a consistent level of engagement with your audience.
Your YouTube videos may not go viral, but they can certainly have the intended effect.
Providing accurate subtitles and captions makes your videos more accessible, which is essential for growing your channel. Once you have a video transcript, you can use ChatGPT to edit it for readability, ensuring that it’s clear and engaging for viewers reading along.
If you’re creating subtitles in multiple languages, ChatGPT can assist in translating shorter text sections. Just paste the original text and ask ChatGPT to translate it into another language. This can be especially useful if you’re looking to make your content accessible to non-English-speaking audiences.
A successful YouTube channel isn’t just about uploading videos; it’s also about promoting those videos on social media to reach a wider audience. ChatGPT can help you brainstorm promotional ideas and write posts for platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Ask ChatGPT for social media ideas like, “Suggest ways to promote a new video about home workouts on Instagram.” ChatGPT can provide strategies for posts, stories, and other interactive content that will encourage viewers to visit your channel. For each platform, you can request captions or hashtags to ensure you’re reaching the right audience in an engaging way.
Email newsletters are an excellent way to keep your audience informed and engaged outside of YouTube. ChatGPT can help you create professional and engaging email newsletters to update your subscribers about new videos, upcoming projects, or special events.
If you’re planning to send out a newsletter, you can prompt ChatGPT with, “Write an email newsletter announcing my latest video on productivity hacks.” The result will be a clear and engaging newsletter that highlights the content of your new video and encourages subscribers to watch. ChatGPT can help make your communication polished and on-brand, helping you retain and engage your audience even beyond YouTube.
Understanding your audience is key to growth, and analyzing viewer feedback can give you valuable insights. ChatGPT can help summarize comments or extract recurring themes, allowing you to focus on what’s most important.
If, let’s say, you receive thousands of comments on a video, you could copy a few examples into ChatGPT and ask, “What are the main points viewers are making in these comments?” ChatGPT can provide a summary that helps you understand your audience’s preferences and respond more effectively to their feedback. This feedback loop lets you continuously improve your content based on what your viewers value most.
If you’re looking to expand your channel with series-based content, ChatGPT can help you brainstorm concepts that align with your channel’s theme. For instance, you could ask, “Suggest ideas for a content series on mental health for my YouTube channel.” ChatGPT can provide a list of themes, topics, or episode ideas that fit together into a series format.
By establishing a series, you can build momentum and encourage viewers to return to your channel for the next installment, helping boost watch time and engagement.
Are you looking for a partner to help you scale your video production quality and create better, more engaging content on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram? At VID.co, we’re proud to be a full-service video marketing and video production company specializing in strategy, scripting, production, editing, and optimization.
Want to learn more about working with us? Please check out our video production samples and contact us today!
If you've gotten to this guide, you're probably already interested in video marketing.
You know that videos can be a gateway to more visibility, greater reach, and ultimately, more conversions and revenue.
But before you can start capitalizing on those gains, and before you even make your first video, you need to have a video marketing strategy in place.
How are you supposed to start making one?
Video marketing is becoming increasingly important, not only because of the massive benefits of video marketing itself, but also because of the competitive pressure of businesses of all shapes and sizes getting involved in the video marketing game.
If you can fully harness the power of video marketing, you stand to benefit in several ways:
· Visibility and reach. Video is quickly becoming the dominant medium of the online world. Successfully making and promoting your videos means greatly increased visibility and reach to new audiences. This is especially true if you can distribute your videos across many platforms, and in ways that enable more people to find them.
· Engagement. As a medium, video is especially engaging. By combining both visual and audio elements, and avoiding demands for readership, you'll have the opportunity to connect with your audience on a more meaningful level.
· Authority. Producing great videos is an opportunity to showcase your authority. You can demonstrate your expertise on a topic, talk to your audience directly, and showcase your brand prowess by putting forth the highest quality material. If done successfully, it's a gateway to building trust.
· SEO. Video marketing can facilitate better search engine optimization (SEO). If you optimize your videos correctly, those videos can show up immediately in Google search results or relevant keyword terms. Additionally videos can be a powerful way to build links and boost your website’s domain authority, thereby increasing your chances of ranking for relevant search terms.
· Support for omnichannel marketing. Marketers love videos because they offer tremendous support for omnichannel marketing. Good videos can be used in a variety of ways, being featured on your website, being included in your emails, being showcased on social media, and beyond.
So how exactly do you start creating your video marketing strategy?
Keep in mind that your video marketing strategy is a high-level set of objectives and ideals that's going to dictate what types of videos you make, how you make them, how you distribute them, and even how you evaluate them.
Accordingly, you don't need to work out all the ground-level details of your video production at this point. Instead, it's better to focus on the big picture.
· Define your goals. Start by defining your goals. There's nothing wrong with having a general interest in using videos as part of your marketing strategy. But if you want to be successful, you should have some specific, concrete objectives dictating your approach to video marketing. Not only will this help you create more relevant, powerful videos, but it will also give you a way to measure your progress and an objective standard by which you can determine your results.
· Choose and research your target audience. As with most other marketing strategies, video marketing only works if you fully understand and commit to a specific target audience. If you try to make videos that appeal to a general, broad population, they probably aren't going to make much of an impact. Accordingly, one of your earliest objectives should be choosing and researching your target audience fully, so you can understand how they think and feel and make the kinds of videos they want to see. It's perfectly fine to choose multiple target audiences, but if you do, you'll likely want to segment your strategy.
· Figure out your overarching story. If you've already done some work on your core brand and general marketing objectives, you probably have an idea of what your overarching story is. What is your brand? What does it represent? How do you want people to perceive it? How are your videos going to convey these strategic elements to your audience at large?
· Set a timeline (and stick to it). Even if you don't know all the specifics, you should set a general timeline for yourself. When do you want to release your first video? How often are you going to release videos? How often are you going to measure key metrics and calibrate your efforts?
· Keep a reasonable budget. Budgeting for video marketing can be tough. Video isn't a cheap medium, so you'll need to be willing to spend a bit of money to get access to quality work. At the same time, you don't want to overspend, or you'll jeopardize your overall return on investment (ROI). Allocate spending that allows you to get access to excellent video material without exhausting your marketing budget in the process.
· Consider your team. There are many options for creating videos. You can build an internal team. You can work with a video production agency. You can even work with a loosely assembled team of contractors. Each of these approaches comes with strengths and weaknesses, so you'll need to consider them carefully.
Once you nail down these elements, you'll be ready to dig into more details about the types of videos you want to create.
There are many types of videos that can be strategically useful in your marketing strategy. These are some of the most common:
· Explainer videos. Around 62 percent of your website visitors are going to go directly to your videos (if you have them). Explainer videos attempt to capitalize on this traffic, showcasing your brand and its core products and services in a concise, brief piece of content. The goal of this type of video is to explain the basics of your offers to your target audience, while simultaneously compelling them to take some kind of action, such as signing up for a free trial or purchasing one of your products.
· Advertisements. Advertisements are probably the most familiar type of video in a marketing strategy, and they tend to be the most straightforward. Your goal with ads is to persuade your target audience to purchase your products or services in most cases. You can distribute these on a wide variety of platforms, though you'll typically have to pay for that exposure.
· Product showcases. Product showcase videos have some overlap with explainer videos and advertisements, but they can also be treated as a distinct entity. Product showcase videos highlight one or more of your most important products, fully explaining all the benefits and convincing people why they should purchase the product. They can be used on your website, as peripheral materials for prospects, or even as advertisements generally.
· Social content. There are many types of videos that belong on social media, but generally, these videos tend to be shorter, more digestible, and more entertaining in nature. Depending on the goals of your strategy, social content videos might take the form of short, punchy advertisements, informative or entertaining tidbits, or exciting videos meant to stimulate interest and attract more people to your social media platforms overall.
· Testimonials. Many brands also take advantage of testimonial videos, having previous clients and customers detail their experiences with your brand as a form of social proof to persuade new prospects to take action. Testimonial videos should be as authentic and honest as possible to persuade the greatest number of people.
Obviously, you can use some or all of these types of videos as part of your marketing strategy, or you could choose to go a more novel path.
There's nothing wrong with experimenting with different styles, especially if you're using them in different applications or for different platforms. But many brands benefit from specifically focusing on one signature style so they eventually become more recognizable.
· Natural. Natural videos focus on authenticity and honest portrayal. For example, you might showcase how your product is used in a live environment or show off a day in the life in the office.
· Documentary. Mini documentary videos take a more professional approach, attempting to relay specific facts or illustrate certain concepts with the help of narration and other guiding elements.
· Interview. Interview videos can be very useful, especially for testimonials and demonstration of expertise. You can choose to interview people inside the company, your clients and customers, or external experts, for example.
· Narrative. Narrative videos attempt to tell a story, and they can do so in any number of ways. You can literally show the story unfolding with actors and scenic recreations. You can showcase a narrative through illustrations. You can even tell a more abstract story by connecting different pieces of your products and brand together.
· Animation. Animated videos take some of the burden of video creation away; you won't need a dedicated studio or hired actors if you choose this route. There are also many ways to make your animation style unique to your brand, so all your videos appear consistent and original.
Regardless of what types of videos you want to produce or what styles you want to pursue, the video production process usually goes something like the following:
· Pre-production. The pre-production process is all about establishing the foundation of your video and laying the groundwork for future phases. It includes things like concepting, outlining, scripting, and securing the resources necessary to produce the video.
· Production. The production process is arguably the most important, but it also tends to be the shortest. If you've done all your prep work, you should be able to act out, film, or illustrate the core video with relative ease.
· Post-production. After all the filming and initial animation is done, you'll spend significant time adding graphics, making edits, and generally polishing the video for distribution or syndication. This is a crucial step of the process if you want your video to look as professional as possible.
Be sure to detail the individual steps of your video production process as part of your video marketing strategy. If you choose to work with the video marketing agency or professional contractors, they can help you with this.
Creating the videos is only one part of your video marketing strategy.
You also need to figure out how you're going to distribute and syndicate your videos. In other words, you need to figure out how you're going to make sure that people can see and watch your videos.
You can start by featuring relevant videos on platforms that you already own. For example, you can feature them on your website, and include them in your blog, or host them on a YouTube channel of your own. This is usually the best option for things like explainer videos and testimonials.
You can also pay to have your videos placed on external channels. This is usually the best option for things like advertisements and product showcases.
In some cases, you can also earn placement for your videos. For example, you might work with other collaborators or partners who would be willing to share and highlight your work.
Keep in mind that you'll always have the option to repurpose and reuse your videos. For example, you might have a long explanatory video on your website, but you can break it up into smaller videos and reuse them as advertisements with only minor tweaks. You can also distribute the same video across multiple channels to increase its potential reach.
As part of your general video marketing strategy, you should have a plan for how you're going to measure success. This will help you calculate your overall ROI, determine whether you're meeting objectives, and help you figure out how to improve your video marketing strategy in the future.
There are several objective metrics you can look at to determine the effectiveness of your videos. These are some of the most popular:
· Views. Views are a relatively straightforward measure of how many people are watching your videos. More is better, but keep in mind that audience targeting is also relevant; lots of views from irrelevant viewers may not be beneficial to your overall marketing strategy.
· Retention. Retention figures show you how many people stick around for your full video and how many people leave prematurely. This can tell you whether your video is sufficiently engaging for your target audience.
· Subscribers. Similarly, subscriber counts are good indicators of how many people want to see more content like what you've already produced. A high subscriber count isn't enough to tell you whether your video marketing strategy is succeeding by itself, but it is an excellent indicator to evaluate alongside other factors.
· Comments and ratings. A large number of comments typically indicates that your video material is engaging, but it's also important to look at comments from a subjective standpoint. What do people have to say about your videos? How are they rating your videos? What suggestions do they have about future videos?
· Shares. Shares measure how many people are sharing your video on social media. A share is a great indication that you've made a good impression on someone, and it's also an opportunity to reach new people.
· Conversions. Of course, the Holy Grail metric for video marketing is the same golden metric as most other marketing strategies: conversions. For most of your videos, you'll want to pay close attention to how much traffic they're generating and how many people they're persuading to make a purchase.
Your video marketing strategy shouldn't be static. Your overall goals and vision might remain the same, but as you start producing videos and measuring their impact, you'll likely find that you need to make some adjustments with your approach. This is natural and to be expected, as the most adaptable brands tend to be the most successful when it comes to video marketing.
Of course, video marketing is very tough, especially if you're new to the game. That's why it pays to work with a video marketing agency who can help you with everything from initial video marketing strategic planning to video production and distribution.
At Vid.co, we have a full team of experts in almost every conceivable aspect of video marketing, and we’re on standby to help you achieve your video marketing goals. If you're ready to get started, contact us today for a free consultation!
You've gone through the hard work of getting someone to land on your video.
They've clicked it. They're ready to watch.
But your job isn't done yet.
That's because if you want your video marketing strategy to be successful, you need to be able to retain your viewers – not just attract them.
Furthermore, you need to be able to retain them in two distinctive ways. Ideally, you'll be able to retain viewers in a single video, compelling them to watch the video in full, rather than bouncing away after a few seconds or a few minutes. You should also be able to retain your viewers in the long term, facilitating their loyalty and encouraging them to watch more of your videos in the future.
Maximizing video viewer retention isn't exactly easy, but there are some straightforward strategies that can help you perfect this art.
Video viewer retention is one of the most important aspects to consider as you optimize your video strategy. There are several reasons for this.
At the video level, a higher video retention rate is associated with wider, more frequent recommendations. In other words, if people watch your video all the way through, that video will be much more likely to be recommended to people who haven't seen it. This greatly increases your reach, your visibility, and ultimately, your video effectiveness.
At the channel level, retaining viewers allows you to snowball your viewer figures, ultimately multiplying the number of people you can reach and the perceived authority of your channel simultaneously. Each new permanent or semi-permanent member of your audience increases the total value of your channel.
Retaining viewers also gives you more opportunities to persuade them. A viewer may not be ready to buy your product or subscribe to your feed after a minute of viewing or even after a few videos, but the longer they watch and the more videos they watch, the more likely they'll be to take action.
On top of that, retention is typically cheaper than acquisition. It's much less expensive and more effective to retain existing viewers than to try and find new ones. If you're trying to make your marketing dollars go as far as possible, retention should be your top priority.
These are some of the best strategies for retaining video viewers in a single video:
1. Know your audience. Before you write the first word of your video script, you should take the time to get intimately acquainted with your audience. If you're running a business, you should already know who your audience is. Otherwise, you may need to do some market research to more thoroughly understand who your target demographics are and how to reach them. Some video producers are tempted to make videos that appeal to the broadest spectrum of people, hoping to pump up their viewer numbers. But it's typically much more effective to focus on a narrow, strategically relevant group of people; this way, you can feed them more “red meat” – giving them exactly what they need and want so they're motivated to keep watching. If you don't know who your target audience is, you won't be able to make content specifically relevant to them.
2. Create a stellar video script (or at least an outline). Unless you're doing something with improv or natural conversation, your video should have a script. At the very least, it should have an outline. The scripting process is important not just to clarify your messaging but also to work through some of the challenges and problems that might preclude your video from retaining viewers in the first place. This is your opportunity to present, hone, and meticulously critique your own ideas, so only the best ideas make it to the final video.
3. Start with an amazing hook. Let's face it. We're all busy, and we all have limited attention spans. Accordingly, it's hard to blame anyone for clicking away from a video after being bored by the first few seconds. If you want to overcome this hump and get your viewers to stay with you, you need to start your video with an amazing hook. That hook could be a tease of things to come, a promise of information to be conveyed in this video, a wildly entertaining joke, or anything else that gives viewers a reason to stick around. Make sure to nail this hook within the first few seconds, or you'll immediately start to lose viewer attention.
4. Give people a good reason to keep watching. Even relatively dedicated viewers will only watch your video for a few minutes before leaving – unless they have a reason to stay. Your hook is merely the first opportunity to convince your viewers to stay; even the most powerful hook won't make people continue watching something boring or uninteresting. Every minute, and potentially every second of your video should have something interesting, informative, and relevant to maintain user attention. If you don't have something interesting, consider cutting that section of video.
5. Remind them why they’re here. There are many ways to provide value to viewers in your video, such as giving them information, entertainment, or even a free giveaway. Whatever this value is, remind your viewers of it throughout your video. Remind them about the big climax that you've been teasing since the beginning. Remind them to stick around and subscribe to your channel so they can be entered in the giveaway. Give them a variety of jokes or pieces of useful information to convince them that it's good for them to stick around.
6. Institute interrupts. One useful trick is to institute interrupts throughout your video, using quick cuts to reset viewer attention and maintain engagement. You can find examples of this almost anywhere, in any successful video channel online, as it has become quite widespread as a technique. There are several reasons why this works. For starters, it helps to cut out some of the dead space in your video. It also helps viewers focus, as it gives them a subtle point of stimulation periodically throughout the video. It's also a great opportunity to incorporate different takes and make sure your best foot is always forward.
7. Incorporate more stills and graphics. You can make your video more engaging by incorporating more stills and graphics as well. There's nothing wrong with having a video with a talking head giving a monologue about a given topic. But after a while, this gets boring. You can maximize viewer retention by grabbing their attention with photos, graphics, data visuals, and similar pieces of visual media. Use them to illustrate or supplement your biggest points.
8. Use B-roll footage. Similarly, consider grabbing B-roll footage and using it sparingly throughout your video. Even relatively uninteresting footage, like a stream flowing over rocks or people walking through a mall, can help give more substance to your video and make it seem more active and professional.
9. Inject more humor and personality. Even if people are watching your video for informational purposes, they're going to want it to be interesting. You can make your video more interesting instantly by injecting more humor and personality into your work. Depending on your brand and the context of your video, humor may not be appropriate – but even if it isn't, you can use your natural personality and charisma to make a much more compelling, authentic presentation.
10. Learn from your metrics. Finally, pay close attention to your video metrics. How often do people leave your video before it's finished? At what point in the video do they leave? What could be causing them to leave and how can you prevent their departure? Which of your videos seem to be the best at retaining viewers, and what makes them so effective?
If you're more interested in retaining viewers on your video channel overall, these are the best strategies to do it:
11. Be consistent. If each of your videos seems to have a different tone or vibe, it's only a matter of time before your hard-won subscribers leave. There's nothing wrong with tinkering with your formula or experimenting with novel ideas, but the foundational aspects of your brand need to be consistent over time if you want to retain your channel subscribers. They subscribed to you for a specific reason; if that reason is no longer relevant, they're going to leave.
12. Keep delivering what people love. Figure out what your subscribers like best about your channel and keep giving it to them. Is it your humorous approach to the subject matter? Is it your unrelenting deep dive into topics no one else is covering? Is it your unique blend of avant-garde music and creepy visuals? Discover what made people fall in love with your brand via comments, surveys, and other forms of audience engagement, then incorporate those elements into all your future videos.
13. Include opportunities for interaction/engagement. Speaking of engagement, always include opportunities for your audience to interact and engage with you directly. For example, you can ask people what they think about a topic and encourage them to share their responses in the comments section. You can also give them practical instructions to use in their daily life or challenge them to achieve specific goals. Subscribers will be much more loyal to your brand if they're taking action as a result of watching your videos.
14. Get involved in the comments section. The comments section is one of your best opportunities for directly engaging with your audience, so take advantage of it. Answer some of the questions you get. Respond to some of the counterpoints that viewers are making. Say “thank you” when people compliment you. Even a single minor interaction could be sufficient to keep a viewer subscribing to your channel – and when new viewers see you actively engaging with your commenters, they'll be more likely to comment.
15. Bring people to different channels. You can also encourage more loyalty from your viewers by introducing them to different channels associated with your brand. For example, you can encourage them to follow you on different social media platforms or get involved in your website. Even better, get them to sign up to an email newsletter list so you can notify them about new developments on your channel and in your business.
16. Promote your new stuff. When you make a new video, make sure your subscribers all know about it. Not everyone pays attention to notifications or new video announcements, so try to reach them in alternative ways. Send out an email, post on social media, and use other channels to get the word out that you have new stuff for your viewers to watch.
17. Nurture a community. Eventually, you may be in a position to nurture a full community around your brand. Forums, social media groups, and other platforms can bring your people together, allow them to form bonds with each other, and ultimately make them more loyal to your channel.
18. Conduct surveys (and act on them!) Finally, make sure you conduct surveys with your audience and pay close attention to your results. Figure out what people like best and least about your channel and use that information to make your channel better. Not only will this improve your quality and appeal, but it will also show people how dedicated you are to your fans.
Creating videos and marketing those videos in ways that compel viewers to stay can be inordinately challenging.
This is especially true if you don't already have video script writers, video producers, editors, marketing pros, and other professionals on standby to help you succeed.
Thankfully, there are organizations like ours – Vid.co. We have all the resources and expertise you need to craft the best possible videos and retain the greatest percentage of your target viewers. From brainstorming to execution to distribution, we can help you achieve your video marketing goals.
Contact us today if you’re ready to get started!
Producing high-quality videos is a lot of work – but it's often worth it.
When people see your awesome videos, they'll think more highly of your brand, they'll be more likely to buy from you, and they'll be more likely to be loyal to your brand well into the future.
But what if nobody sees your awesome work?
If you're just starting out with video marketing, or if you're just interested in growing your existing audience, generating more visibility for your videos is likely your biggest obstacle to success.
You have the great videos necessary to accomplish your goals, but you can only accomplish those goals if people can find, discover, and watch them.
Amusingly, video ads are one of the best ways to promote your brand videos. But why is this the case? And how do you properly harness video ads to promote longer videos on your website or social media channel?
Video ads to promote videos sound like an Inception-themed gimmick, but there are several reasons why video ads are so powerful when used this way:
· Audience targeting. Market research and audience targeting are perhaps your best tools for sculpting an ideal video ad. By using the right platform and the right strategy, you can make sure your video ads reach the perfect demographics to watch your longer videos. You can find people in a specific geographic region, of a specific age, with certain specific interests, and you can make sure those people see the most persuasive sneak previews of your core video content.
· The perfect medium. Perhaps unsurprisingly, video ads are the perfect way to advertise videos because they utilize the same medium. This is the same principle behind movie trailers being played in a movie theater before movies; in addition to targeting the same demographics, the environment and presentation style is perfectly aligned with the core product. If you want to appeal to people potentially interested in your best videos, the best way to reach them is with a bite-sized video.
· Ample available channels. Video ads are also powerful because there are many available channels through which you can syndicate them. You can pay to have your video ads featured on dedicated video channels like YouTube. You can organically promote video ads on social media. You can even pay to have your video ads placed on TV or other more traditional video channels.
· Multiple means of persuasion. Video ads give you lots of messaging wiggle room, and plenty of different ways to persuade your audiences. You can use visuals, audio, on screen messaging, and secondary calls to action (CTAs), or any combination of these to motivate your viewers to watch your videos, buy your products, or visit your website.
However, there are a few key challenges in promoting your videos with video ads. You'll need to overcome them if you want to maximize the effectiveness of your advertising.
· Placing effectively. Placement matters. If you put your video ad on the wrong channel or appeal to the wrong demographics, the ad isn't going to be effective in any way. Conversely, if you choose the right channel and the right target audience, you can instantly multiply your effectiveness. So, what constitutes the right channel or platform? And how do you choose the right target audience? Hopefully, as a business, you already know who your ideal video consumers are. If you don't, you can figure this out with a thorough round of market research. After that, you'll need to review all the options available to your business and choose the channel or platform that seems to be the best fit, both in terms of demographics and in terms of tools and resources available to advertisers. When in doubt, go with the channel or platform with the broadest reach and the most robust controls for audience targeting.
· Capturing initial attention. Most people tune out ads after a few seconds of disinterest or apathy. Once you recognize that something is an ad and that it's not relevant to you, you're not going to engage with it any further. Video ads are often very short, so you only have a few seconds to capture initial attention. Doing this can be quite challenging, even if you have something interesting or compelling for your target audience. Figure out a way to pique interest immediately, such as by revealing something surprising, teasing a big reveal in the future, or promising some kind of valuable offer that your demographics are going to love.
· Appealing to chronic skippers. Most people skip most video ads, if able. The moment they get the opportunity, they'll click a button to stop watching your ad. How do you prevent this? The simple answer is that, in many cases, you can't. If a person is so annoyed by ads that they can't stand watching one, there isn't much you can do to persuade them to act differently. However, you can be cognizant of the skipping options available on a certain platform and tailor your video ad around them. For example, if you know that users will be able to skip your ad after 5 seconds of it playing, you need to make sure those first 5 seconds are so interesting and powerful that users will be compelled to keep watching. You can even bring attention to the fact that the ad is skippable, directly appealing to viewers and giving them a reason to stay.
· Nailing the hook. Good video ads have a hook, or some compelling reason for a viewer to keep watching or be persuaded. The hook can be the promise of a compelling offer, some uniquely appealing piece of content, or almost anything else that your target demographics would find valuable. If you're not sure what your viewers might find valuable, consider asking them in the form of surveys. Once you figure it out, present it concisely and directly for best effect.
· Breaking from the norm. People are forced to watch video ads on a nearly constant basis. We've all been bombarded with video ads throughout our lives, and we've seen many of the persuasive ploys that brands use to appeal to us. It's all old news. If you want to stand out and persuade your target audience effectively, you need to find ways to break from the norm. Conduct competitive research, figure out what your rival brands are doing, and come up with a way to do things differently.
· Incentivizing action. Finally, make sure your video ads have some way to incentivize action. Is there a specific video you want them to watch? Is there a specific website or landing page you want them to visit? Do you want them to subscribe to your YouTube channel? Whatever it is, you need to convert it to a compelling call to action (CTA) and give people a legitimate reason for taking that action. What are they going to learn? What are they going to get for free? How is this going to benefit them? If you can directly call your viewers to action and give them a concrete, believable value statement, your ad is going to be much more effective.
These tips can help you make better video ads for your video content.
· Start with the goal. Before you write a script for your video ad, come up with a specific goal. What do you want people to do after viewing this ad? What are the main messages you want to convey in the ad? How do you define success for this video ad and what is the path to get there? The more specific you are with this concept, the more focused and complete your video ad is going to be.
· Pin down a specific niche. You also need to cater to a specific niche. Hopefully, you already have target demographics in mind and you already know them well because of your previous market research. If you don't have that nailed down already, now is the time to do it. This is going to help you determine the best platforms and audience controls to use in your advertising efforts.
· Review your placement options. Don't assume that one channel is better than another just because it's more popular or more accessible. Thoroughly review your video ad placement options and consider multiple channels as part of your comprehensive video marketing strategy. Consider conducting a cost-benefit analysis for each of your options – and compare them apples to apples so you can make a smarter determination.
· Pull your best clips. Remember, one of the strengths of using video ads to promote your videos is the similarity in medium. Accordingly, you'll likely benefit from pulling some of the best clips from your best videos and integrating them into your video ads. Giving people a sneak preview, even if it's only a few seconds, may give them a powerful reason to watch your video in full.
· Tease your audience. That said, you don't want to give everything away. If you give your viewers the final punch line or the most important piece of information in your video ad, they won't have any reason to watch your video. You need to tease your audience, making them aware of information and benefits that they'll receive by watching your videos, without actually giving them the substance of them. Hint and allude to the value without giving it all away upfront.
· Perfect the first few seconds. The average human attention span is a mere eight seconds. For some people, it's even shorter. And even if you have a longer than average attention span, you might have little patience for ads, skipping them every chance you get. Accordingly, you need to make sure your video ad is attention grabbing, compelling, and persuasive in the first few seconds. This can be challenging, but it's necessary if you want your video ad to land. Give people an immediate hook that they can't say no to.
· Keep it short. Even if you have the opportunity to make a longer video ad, you should strive for conciseness. Attention spans are limited, even for a convenient, highly engaging medium like video, so you shouldn't include more information than necessary and you definitely shouldn't spend more time than necessary articulating your most important points. You'll win more respect from your viewers and be much more likely to persuade them if you keep things relatively short.
· Experiment. Finally, be willing to experiment. Even if you have a nearly perfect understanding of your target demographics and a prodigious ability to create high-quality videos, there are hidden, complex variables that can influence your results. It’s hard to know exactly which types of video ads are going to be most effective until you put them into practice. Try a wide variety of different messages and approaches to see what resonates most with your target audience – and use the resulting data to shape your subsequent efforts. You can't force a video to viral, but you can certainly coax it toward something close!
Making good videos is hard. Making those videos visible and popular is potentially even harder.
We can help you with both.
Our team of video production and marketing experts have the knowledge, experience, and resources you need to launch the best video marketing strategy possible. If you’re ready to get started, contact us today!
.svg)
.png)
.png)
.png)
