You thought your company needed a video. You hired a production company, spent a lot of money on the video, everyone was super enthusiastic and the result was pristine. 3 months later you discover that your video has been watched lousy 124 times on YouTube. What went wrong?

Not much went wrong, just one little tiny detail was omitted: you have missed to market your video. You ran into the trap many of our clients run: they believe a video is a self fullfilling prophecy and that viewers just have waited for it. And that’s the most common and most fundamental mistake: never suppose that your video will be watched without adequate promotion. Actually a large part of every video production is the promotion after the video is finished. And at the same time this is the part most of our clients miserably fail. The result? Disappointment, hard feelings and a lot of money spent in vain.

Promoting a video itself is not necessarily something difficult. It requires a good planning, some good ideas and a seemless execution. Let’s have a look at the various channels you can and should explore.

Many companies maintain a mailing list with addresses from their clients, prospects and other interested people. Including the video in the next mailing, if not even in a dedicated mailing, is a must. But be aware, that the typical open rate of newsletters usually doesn’t exceed 15%-20% in best case.

The sales team should seize the opportunity and share the video with existing and potential clients in personalized emails. But don’t make the mistake to just send the video as it is. It’s nothing your clients will most likely watch without a nice wrapping and a cutting edge update about your activities. It will be part of your business development activities.

Of course you need to share your video on your social media channels. Not only once, but a couple of times following the release of the video. Don’t expect that everyone will enthousiastically share your video so that it goes instantly viral – only a very limited number of videos are in this lucky situation. And to be honest: corporate videos are not necessarily what people are eager to share with their friends unless your video is extremely compelling, funny or features at least half a dozen of cats.

Especially in Europe, Facebook is still considered to be a network for private matters and not for corporate business. That’s the wrong approach because your clients are all in facebook. Your video will have an impact as well if it’s seen by the right people even over the weekend or after work. Anyhow watching videos is much more popular on Facebook than on any other social media. And anyway: who said that just because your competitor is not using Facebook to prospect, you shouldn’t do it?

Facebook ads are highly targeted and rather affordable. But most interesting: you can create video ads that will show your video right away inside your targets timeline. It’s hard to imagine a better way to get your video in front of the right people. Yet you need to keep in mind that the attention span is extremely short and that you should capture the attention within the first 10-15 seconds max. You will inevitably lose your audience if you waste your time with a lengthy intro.

As soon as we at media65 know that the video will be used as an ad as well, we will create either a dedicated ad version or conceive the video in a way that is suitable for social networks.

LinkedIn and Twitter as well as the other social networks (Pinterest, Instagram …) feature paid ads as well and you need to choose carefuly what channel serves best your potential clients and therefore has the potential to nurish your sales funnel.

We know that many companies don’t have the expertise nor the manpower to handle the promotion of their video. We at media65 don’t see our work end with the delivery of your video. The first step to promote your video adequately is to asses your situation and whom you target with the video. Based on these information and on your budget we can create a promotion strategy. And it doesn’t end here. We can as well execute it for you and report back to you on a weekly, bi-monthly or monthly basis.

But no matter what way you choose: don’t let your videos become dust collectors.