So – you’re releasing video after video on your business’s website as per the online marketing demands of the 21st century, but you’re not quite satisfied with your view counts. What can you do to ensure that your video reaches the largest possible audience? Certain sources suggest that date of posting, time of posting, video length, and search engine optimization (SEO) play a huge role in attracting viewers to your video. Let’s dive in.

If you’ve traditionally been posting your videos on Fridays or Mondays, you may be hindering the potential of your videos to reach their maximized audience. Vidyard’s 2018 Video in Business Benchmark suggests that video consumption percentages peak in the middle of the week, and Tuesday mornings in particular are when the most video content is consumed (the Tuesday through Thursday time frame collectively makes up 54% of all online video consumption). If your videos are being posted to a feed or somewhere else where timing is paramount, consider posting your videos in the Tuesday-Thursday time frame, keeping in mind that view count percentages drop by 2% on Monday and Friday, and dramatically more on Saturday and Sunday.

As if it wasn’t already a chore to coordinate the days of your video posting, you’ll find that the time of day that you post your videos also has an impact on the amount of viewers that you can reach. According to the source above, video consumption peaks during the hours of 7 AM to 12 PM, so if you recall the information in the paragraph above, posting your videos between 7 AM and 12 PM on Tuesday mornings will take full advantage of these time-sensitive trends and boost your video’s potential view count.

Another important time-sensitive factor that could make or break the efficiency of your videos is their length. Recent trends have observed a decrease in the average attention span of online video consumers, and businesses have been adapting their videos to ensure that their brand can still reach and impact the largest possible audience. Vidyard’s Benchmark reports that 75% of all online B2B videos are under 2 minutes in length, so if your videos are largely product or brand-oriented (rather than something that warrants a longer-form video, like webinars or livestreams), it’s a good idea to keep them 2 minutes or under in length. Visible Measures’ viewer engagement research suggests that 33% of viewers have stopped watching a video by the 30 second mark, and that businesses should capitalize on drawing viewers in during the initial 10 seconds of their video. This means you have about 1 minute and 50 seconds to properly convey your message or market your product. If this seems daunting, keep in mind that time constraints will force you to be as concise as possible, and will likely result in a degree of simplicity that your viewers will appreciate.

But once you’ve accomplished all of the above, one big problem remains – how are prospective viewers supposed to find your video in the first place? The key to making sure that your site’s videos are ranked high in Google’s results (this post focuses on Google, though other search engines follow similar logic) is SEO, short for search engine optimization. Though the minutiae of SEO can be quite complicated to fully grasp, it’s simple in concept – there are certain ways to tweak your web pages that will advance their position within a search engine’s rank order. Videos, unfortunately, involve some slightly different methods to achieve the best SEO, mostly because you need Google to provide links to the indexed web pages that contain your videos.

The first step is giving your video a cohesive title that includes as many keywords as possible, while maintaining the standards of an interesting title. For example, a video about the best camera lenses to use for portrait photography should be titled along the lines of: “5 Essential Camera Lenses for Portrait Photography”, rather than: “Portrait Photography, Camera Lenses, Essential”. The description should follow the same logic: be informative, include lots of keywords, and don’t lose clarity. And if you’re uploading to YouTube, don’t forget to include all relevant tags – these will help guide viewers with related searches to your video.

Youtube’s upload section

   

It’s also generally advisable to customize your video thumbnails so that they’re clear and relevant to the content of the video. Remember that your title and thumbnail are what viewers will use to decide whether or not to watch your video, so making them as coherent as possible is paramount. Another important undertaking in achieving the best SEO is including a site map, which is a page in your website with links to all the pages within the site. This makes it easier for users to navigate your website, and ensures that pages within your website receive views as well.

Let’s review the formula outlined above. You’ll want to curate your videos so that the introduction immediately hooks viewers and the remainder of your 2 minutes (approximately) is spent getting the message across clearly and concisely. Posting in the hours before noon on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday will ensure that you’re reaching your largest possible audience, and the short length of your video will retain as much attention and interest as possible. When it is posted, ensure that you’ve maximized its SEO potential by giving it an effective title, description, thumbnail, and include the page in your website’s site map.

The above guidelines will help ensure that your videos are doing as much for your business as you’d like them to – but don’t forget that these rules are not hard and fast. The 2 minute rule certainly doesn’t apply to products that warrant more explanation or to any videos that will be inhibited by a short form structure, like webinars or livestreams. Similarly, posting in the early hours of the day may not make sense if your primary audience is overseas. Different circumstances demand different practices, but always remember to research these trends and act accordingly to maximize your video marketing potential and stay competitive with your brand.

If you’re interested in enhancing your business’s video marketing using any of the strategies above, feel free to email Davideo Company for assistance.

Sources:

https://www.vidyard.com/business-video-benchmarks
https://www.visiblemeasures.com/insights/charts/charts-archive/

   

   

RELATED BLOG POSTS

5 Things You MUST Do To Prevent Video Disaster

If you’ve decided to take the video plunge you’re certainly in good company. Maybe it’s the first time you’re bringing any sort of video to the table, or maybe you’ve dabbled with it in the past. Maybe the only video content your company has put out is an office Holiday greeting from 2014 that someone shot on their iPhone and uploaded to Facebook. Everybody starts somewhere. Regardless, if you’re not a video expert you probably have a few questions. Read More

   

The Right Questions to Ask Before Recording A Marketing Video

If you’ve decided to take the video plunge you’re certainly in good company. Maybe it’s the first time you’re bringing any sort of video to the table, or maybe you’ve dabbled with it in the past. Maybe the only video content your company has put out is an office Holiday greeting from 2014 that someone shot on their iPhone and uploaded to Facebook. Everybody starts somewhere. Regardless, if you’re not a video expert you probably have a few questions. Read More

   

How to Use Video In Your Marketing Emails to Boost Click Through Rates

Videos are a significant tool for any company’s marketing plans. They grab the attention of viewers and keep them interested in what you have to say. So it follows that using video in your emails is likely to make greater impact on your audience. But how do you get video into your emails? Read More