Making Sure Your Videos are Seen and Watched

We did a test and the results are in…

First here is the video. It was featured on Streaming Media Producer (where I am a contributor — click here)

(If you want to view the video on the Streaming Media Producer site click here)

We used a new tool that allows us to track the viewing pattern of the video (see results below).

What it showed was an extremely high level of engagement. Great… so it shows the video is working. But check this out, what it could have shown is perhaps even more interesting.

Let’s say there was a spike in the middle of the video… now why would that happen?

There are several reasons but most likely it means people are rewinding at that spot. That is either good because people are interested in that spot (e.g. a very cool part of the story or some important information like a website) or bad (i.e. people are potentially confused or maybe someone’s tie is on crooked). Either way this is very interesting because now we have even more information about the way people are viewing the video and what is important to them. The video could be adjusted to maximize the potency of this information or the information could be applied to another part of the larger marketing campaign for our client.

That is all well and good but how do you make sure the people/companies you targeted actually see the videos?

Here are two leading strategies that have proven to show results:

-Google AdWords For Video: this is also known as YouTube Marketing. Google provides some incredibly powerful tools to zero in on targets (i.e. by region, keyword, demographic, etc). We have done simple tests that resulted in 10-20 times the lift on a video from the start of a campaign. This can be used to drive a viral video project or just increase a brand’s awareness.

-Thought Leadership Distribution: find people (i.e. blogs, authors, media outlets, etc) who are discussing subjects that are connected to the purpose of the video. Target them, join in their conversations and share the videos. Often they will latch on to your content and then share your video with their following. This can be accomplished through detailed keyword research as well as a targeted social media strategy.

Of course, if you have any questions on any of the above… please let me know!