With video now becoming a key tactic within B2B marketing strategies, we were delighted to receive a guest blog post from Ian Poole, Editor of Electronics Notes, who shares his top 10 tips for getting the most views for your videos.
Video content is becoming an ever more popular method of reaching readers and viewers. It can be a very powerful method of connecting with people on the Internet.
Whilst video is a really powerful and useful means of reaching people, it is also very expensive and time consuming to make good videos.
Accordingly, it is absolutely essential that any video that is made has the best chance of reaching as many people as possible. Here we give you ten top tips for enabling your video to gain as many views as possible. These are aimed at videos on YouTube as this is the largest platform, and as it is normally the “Go To” place for video, it is sensible to use it.
As just putting a video onto YouTube does not mean that you will get lots of views – it is necessary to plan the video and make sure that all the right attributes are in place to give it the best chance of succeeding.
Here are a few tips that have worked for me.
Pick the right topic
One of the first decisions in making a video, or even writing a web page is to decide what it is to be about. It is always best to select a topic that people will be interested in – a topic that people will be searching for. If people are not searching for it, then few people will find it.
When trying to push your company agenda, ask yourself how many people will be searching on that – very few is my guess. Instead, think of a topic they will be interested in and subtly add your message into the video. That way you will get very many more views and increase your authority on the web.
My experience is that companies that just push their message are known for that. Whilst you do need to put your company’s message over, it can be done in a way that helps the audience rather than one in which it is just marketing. Whilst there are times for marketing only material, if you want to reach more people, it is not often the way to achieve it.
Use the right keywords
Keywords are still very important on the Internet. It is important to select the right keywords for the topic you want to make the video on. It is possible to use the Google Ad Planner keyword tool to gauge the popularity of the keyword or keyword strong that you are thinking of. The beauty of the Ad Planner Tool is that it suggests other options as well. It is worth spending a little time selecting the right keyword string – looking at what could get good traffic and whether this is the right topic for the video.
Remember that if you opt for something with a very high level of searches, there is likely to be a lot of competition, and you may not rank well. The trick is to select keywords for which there are reasonably high levels of traffic, but little competition. Not easy, but after a little while, it is possible to get a feel for what will work.
The keyword tool is easy to locate – simply search on Google for “Google Ad Planner Keyword Tool.”
Make an engaging title
Selecting the title is very important. It should include the keyword string, but still be engaging. Remember that of the keywords that are left, most in the string will have the highest weighting. It can sometimes be a balance between making the title engaging and making it more interesting.
For example, a video looking at Phase-Locked Loops could have a variety of titles. “Understanding Phase-Locked Loops” could be good because it is more approachable than just “Phase Locked Loops”, but the word understanding pushes the main keywords slightly away from the left.
A title like “Phase Locked Loop Primer” keeps the main keywords to the left, but makes the title more engaging than just Phase-Locked Loops.
These are very simple examples, but show what can be done.
Have a striking thumbnail
When uploading a video to YouTube, a thumbnail will be created – in fact three are generated and it is possible to select the best. However, it is also possible to upload your own. This is the best option because you can have a “House Style” one. It can be designed to stand out, and also show what the video is about. Although the Electronics Notes video channel is not perfect, we have tried to make the video thumbnails be striking and enticing.
Ensure the video file name includes the keywords
In just the same way that webpages should include the title or at least the keywords, so too should the video filename include the title or keywords.
Some video editing programmes may have their own default filename, but this should be changed to reflect the topic of the video. As the filename is not normally seen, the way it looks is not too important, but placing the keywords in it is important.
Write a good description
Within YouTube there is a space for a written description of the video. This is a great opportunity to give a good description of the video. Although it is difficult to verify exactly, most informed sources recommend a good, well-written description of the video using the main keywords, and having a length of at least 200 to 300 words.
The description is also a good area to include additional links for places where additional information can be found, including, for example, your website homepage and the page where more data can be found on your website.
This will not only drive some traffic to the website, but it also helps by giving inbound links which is good for SEO
Link back to your channel name
In the same way that links to the website and pages on the website are important, the description can similarly be used to promote your video channel. It all helps more people to subscribe to your channel and also look at other videos. Add the link in the description area, possibly after the written description of the video giving a link to the channel name.
Link from your website
It helps to embed the video into a webpage. This will not only get it more views because people viewing the page will want to click on the video, but it will also help raise the ranking of the video. This is quite important when it is first launched. It certainly seems to help the ranking if the video gets a good number of views after it is launched.
Share on social media
Sharing the video immediately it is launched will make a good difference to the ranking of the video and the number of views. Normally it is not possible to spend all day sharing on multiple social media platforms, but select the ones that are most applicable, and share the video URL on them to engage with as many people as possible.
Add end links, etc
One of the capabilities that YouTube has introduced is a capability called “End Links.” Using these it is possible to provide links to other videos and also to subscribe to your YouTube channel. It is always good to be able to use these.
If you are going to use end links, it is worth remembering to leave time and space at the end of the video so that these can be incorporated onto the video. When going back to put these on old videos, I have had to cover up some of the graphics, and there was not always sufficient time at the end to show them. It is worth planning this when you make and edit the video.
It is hoped that some of these tips will help gain you considerably more views for your videos. A little planning always helps anyway, and the steps taken here should not add much if any, additional time to the creation of the video, and they should certainly help to gain more views.