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11 Ways To Promote Your Explainer Video Checklist:

This video will provide you with 11 ways to promote your explainer video, or any other video for that matter. By following these steps you’ll get your video in front of more of your target audience. Remember content creation is only 50% of the process, promotion is super important if you want your content to be seen.

Download the checklist I use to track every step I need to take with new videos. This is a simple checklist that acts as a reminder for where you need to post your videos and the actions you should take. Each point has straightforward guidance on thing you should keep in mind.

Click here to download the checklist > >

Video Transcript:

Hey, I’m Matt Byrom and today I’m going to give you 11 ways to promote your new explainer video. These are the steps I recommend our customers take after we create a new brand new video for them.

Add the video to your website

The first thing you need to do is add the video to your website. However there are a few things to consider here.

Firstly, which page is best? You’ll want to put your video on the most relevant page. This could be your homepage but it might be a category or product page. This is likely something you’ve planned out but now your video is complete it’s good to think about this and make sure you’re placing your video on the ideal page.

Then you’ll want to make sure you put your video above the fold. This means that people will see the video as soon as they enter the page. Having your video above the fold means people won’t need to scroll down to watch the video. The lower your video is on the page, the less views you’re likely to get.

Finally, I’d recommend using a business video host. Most people will upload to YouTube and then embed the YouTube version on their site. But in my opinion that’s a bad idea. On your website you want to control the experience. You want to keep people on your site so you can move them towards enquiring, downloading or buying. Using the YouTube embed might show ads at the bottom or at the end. And people can always click that little YouTube logo to browse straight to the YouTube site. YouTube are interested in getting people to YouTube to watch more ads whereas you want to keep people on your site. A business video host will fix this, no ads and you get to control the experience. We use Wistia, they are fantastic but there are other video hosts available.

Upload to YouTube

The next thing you’ll want to do is upload your video to YouTube. Although in option 1 I recommended using a business video host for your video, that only applies when you want people to watch video on your website. YouTube is the main place people find videos online. As such your video might come up in the search results or in the related videos at the side of the video your watching. My main recommendations here are to make sure you have a descriptive, actionable title for your video, a good description and tags.

Post on your social media channels

Ok, so now you’ve got your video on your website and YouTube. It’s time to really start getting your video out there so social media is the perfect next step. The 3 main social channels Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all let you upload video directly. So write a post that introduces your video and relates to the interests of your audience and add your video. Get your team to like the post, share the post and also write their own posts so the video gets in front of their audience as well.

Remember to pin the video to the top of your social feeds as well. This means that people will see your video as soon as they visit your company pages.

Then, if you have budget I’d recommend setting up some paid social adverts. This doesn’t need to cost much. You set the budget you can afford. But this means you can now get your video in front of a large and targeted audience. Social media advertising is a whole other video but I’d recommend selecting your audience carefully, be as targeted as possible. Then test and experiment with different ad copy and track the results.

Email your list

Email still gives most businesses the best engagement rate of any channel. So I’d highly recommend writing a short video introducing your video and sending it to your list. It’s important to remember that relevance is key. Only send your video to people who have asked for this type of information.

The best way to set this up is to use a thumbnail at the top of your email with a play button showing. The reason to do this is that Wistia found that emails that have an image with a play button 21% more clicks than images without a play button. And, more clicks equal more views so this is a great tip.

Video doesn’t work very well in email so when people click on the thumbnail you’ll want the link to take them to a page with the video front and centre. Ideally the video will auto play so they don’t have to click play again.

Write a post on your blog

You’ve got a new video so write about it on your blog. And… I’d recommend linking to that blog from other blog articles. Having a blog article about your video gives people another way to find your video. And regularly mentioning it in other blog posts will direct some of the other blog traffic you’re already getting to your video.

Alternatively, you could embed your video in relevant blog posts. But remember, as the video will live on your website use a business video host instead of YouTube for the embed.

Write a guest post for relevant industry sites

The next thing to do is to include your video in any guest posts you write on nice industry sites. If you don’t currently write for other websites then this is something you should be doing. Find industry news sites where your audience are likely to spend their time. For us this is sites like business.com, Social Media Examiner and the Hubspot blog. You’ll ned to research sites where your audience spend their time. Then, write relevant articles targeted towards the readers, use your vide in the post at the relevant point.

If you don’t have the ability to write you could find a freelancer or use a content marketing agency. Alternatively, a simple hack is to find articles that have been written and contact the writer of those articles. Ask them to embed your video in the article where you feel it’s most relevant.

Post in online forums & groups

There are industry groups, forums and communities for every niche. Think of places like LinkedIn Groups, Facebook Groups or Reddit for example. My advice would be to start conversations or enter conversations relevant to the topic of your video. Where it’s appropriate you should post your video for people to watch. It’s important not to be spammy here. Everyone hates spammers so jumping in, posting your video and leaving is likely to do you more harm than good. You’ll need to spend some time, engage in conversation and post your video if and only if it’s relevant. When you take the time to do this well you’re likely to make some great connections.

Upload to your mobile devices

This is a simple tip but something most people don’t do. How often have you found yourself talking to someone new about your business. How useful would it be to open your phone and show them your video. After all, your explainer video is supposed to be the perfect explanation of your business. Make sure it’s on your phone and the rest of your teams phone so it’s at hand when you need it most.

Put a link in your email signature

Again, this is a very simple tip but one that’s often overlooked. Put a link to your video, or ideally a thumbnail with a play button on it in the signature of your email. That way, you video could be clicked and watched in any of the hundreds of emails you send every day.

Use at events

If you have a screen on your stand then having your explainer video on repeat is ideal. When we do this our video catches the eye of people walking past and we use the video as our sales tool. We have the sound turned down and if people want to hear the video we turn the volume up for them and discuss.

Alternatively you could have your video on laptops or tablets of the people on your stand. This means that they are only a few taps away from playing your explainer video for people then speak to.

You could also use your video in sales pitches and presentations. This can be a highly effective way to introduce your business at the start of a pitch.

Answer questions on Quora and embed your video

This last item will take more work than the others but the results can also be fantastic. Quora is a question and answer site. People ask questions about everything in every niche. Search and find questions you can answer and where appropriate embed your video.

The important thing here is to write strong answers that others would regard as the best answer for that question. If you do this then your answer will be up-voted and it could be seen by thousands or tens of thousands of people.

So there you have it. 11 Ways to promote your new explainer video. If you’d like any help or further marketing advice you can email me at here – See you next time!