Video is the most popular content on the web, which means the best way to advertise your business online is through promotional videos or brand films. Every quality promotional video has the potential to go viral if distributed effectively, giving companies and brands unrivalled exposure online.
YouTube, for example, boasts more than a billion users who generate billions of views every day, and these numbers are only increasing. Last year Google claimed that the total YouTube watch time had increased 60% year on year. But YouTube isn’t the only platform you should be using to distribute your video content online.
Here are some other vital places you should be posting your video, and what to keep in mind when you do.
There are over 1.79 billion monthly active Facebook users worldwide, which represents a huge potential market for your video marketing efforts.
Since the launch of Facebook’s video feature in 2014, there’s been a real shift between the two biggest players in the social media biz: brands who used to publish their videos to YouTube and share on Facebook are now cutting out the middleman and uploading videos directly to Facebook. Media and news publishers are at the forefront of this trend.
Just one of the benefits of uploading directly to Facebook is it’s ‘Autoplay’ feature, which means views are more likely to skyrocket. Furthermore, Facebook is more accessible for mobile users, who make up an ever-increasing majority of internet users. Research has also shown that we are more than three times as likely to interact with a video on Facebook as we are on Youtube or indeed any other social media platform.
Facebook, like YouTube, allow you to target the very demographic you are trying to reach using Facebook video adverts. Campaigns allow you to (re)target real people based on their interests, behaviours, age, gender and location, meaning you can boost the efficiency of your online marketing campaign and reach those who are most likely to convert.
Videos are rendered in 2:3 aspect ratio for mobile and 9:16 for desktop player. Video uploads are limited to 1GB or around 20 minutes. Guidelines recommend 90 characters of text captioning.
It’s estimated that more than 500 million individuals regularly use Instagram to consume visual content. Importantly, engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook and 84 times higher than Twitter. About 70% of the most used hashtags are branded, so it’s certainly the place to be marketing your business.
‘Boomerang’ videos produced using a specialist app have been popular for a while, but the platform has recently announced a number of new video features, including Instagram Stories and flexibility to share up to 60 seconds of video. As with Facebook, videos on Instagram autoplay, with audio on-demand.
Sponsored video ads are becoming more popular on the platform, with solutions available for both large and small businesses to target global and local audiences. According to Instagram Advertiser statistics, 75 percent of Instagram users take action, such as visiting a website, after viewing an Instagram advertising post. Now they’ve begun to roll out video ads inside Instagram Stories.
Nearly three quarters of users follow at least one business, and businesses have posted a third of the most-viewed Instagram Stories since the new feature was launched. The stats suggest video ads will be well received by both users and advertisers.
Twitter has more than 317 million active users, and businesses and brands make significantly more posts to Twitter than any other platform. These days, it’s less about conversations and more about pushing out marketing messages and links, which is one of the platform’s major differentiators from the other networks.
It’s estimated 82% of users watch video content on Twitter. Not only that, but Tweets with video get more engagement: 2.5x more replies, 2.8x more retweets and 1.9x more favourites.
Twitter users are able to upload up to 10 minutes of promoted video content, but typically lose around one-third of viewers after 30 seconds, meaning shorter is usually better. Like Instagram, video thumbnails can be customised and an aspect ratio of 16:9 is recommended. Video content does not count towards the 140 character limit in a tweet.
Twitter also offers promoted video in Twitter Video Cards. Video campaigns can target specific geographical locations, languages and keywords—perfect for reaching users at the moment they show interest in your business. You can also add a Call to Action for your video. Like Facebook and Instagram, in timelines and across Twitter, native videos will autoplay.
Email campaigns
It’s not simply social media platforms where your corporate video can increase engagement with your business or brand. When you are connecting with new or potential clients, it is important to include your latest video in email. According to a study by GetResponse, email campaigns containing a video had a 96% higher click through rate.
The internet is an incredible force when it comes to video and video marketing. While your website is likely your first destination for hosting your video, the true marketing potential of a corporate video can be realised in distributing your video elsewhere on the web.
