Video Marketing Guide: 6 Actionable Steps To Produce Viral Videos

Introduction

We are in the era of videos. People no longer read like they used to. People prefer videos over text to learn about anything today. So, it’s important for marketers to act according to the trend and create what is getting consumed by their users. 

So, in this article, we will learn about how to do keyword research, creating the video, optimizing your video, why adding transcriptions and captions are important, why embed on your website, and finally, how to promote the video to get a better reach.

Step 1: Keyword Research

The keywords you choose for your website is different from the keywords you choose for your video. Because people search in Google and YouTube in a different manner. Keywords with high monthly search volume in Google would not get the same type of response in YouTube and vice versa. 

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Unfortunately, you can’t use Google Keyword Planner to know how many searches your keywords is acquiring. 

So how can you find the potential keywords?

a. YouTube Suggest

Type a keyword in a YouTube search. You can find a list of autocomplete suggestions. You can take a note of a list of relevant keywords you can use. 

b. VidiQ Keyword Search

You can use VidiQ keyword search tool to find out relevant keywords for your content. 

c. YouTube Studio Stats

In YouTube Studio Stats, you can find the list of keywords which you are ranking for. You can use this to find what type of keywords you are ranking, what type of keywords you can rank for. 

It is important to find keywords that have video intent while selecting. 

Step 2: Create Good Videos

To create a good experience for the users, you should be investing in a good mic and camera. Without proper tools, even good content will be having less engagement. 

Avoid unnecessary distractions in the video. Get to the point directly. Don’t make bigger videos that it has to be. People prefer short videos for almost everything. 

Some marketers might prefer bigger videos because Total Watch Time is an important factor but the more people watch your content, the better total watch time will be anyway. 

Instead of making a bigger one, concentrate on improving user retention. First, 30 seconds are very important if you want to hook them for the entire video. Let them know what to expect and set the tone. 

To increase user engagement, ask them to like, share, and subscribe (well, that’s like a normal now)

The more they engage with your content, the better your ranking on searches and relevant videos. 

Read: How to increase YouTube views?

Step 3: Optimizing the video

Optimizing a video is simple as we don’t have many controls on YouTube. 

a. Video Title:

Include your keywords but make sure the title is catchy enough which can get you a better click-through rate.

b. Video Description:

Include your keywords in your description (but, of course, don’t stuff them). Give links to relevant pages, relevant articles, your social media accounts for them to follow. 

You should be giving links to other relevant videos as well. 

c. Tags:

Add your keywords in tags. 

d. Thumbnails:

Eye-catchy thumbnail can increase your click-through rate. A very good thumbnail can make a video viral so create a custom thumbnail that stands out. 

Work on visual appeal but not only for your videos but also for your channel. Profile picture, header, social links, everywhere – the channel should have a clear identity and attractive visual appeal. 

Creating a brand image for your channel lends credibility to your channel and increase the number of subscribers. 

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Step 4: Include Video Transcript & Captions

Video transcripts help search engines understand more about your video. When you embed the video on your website, it also helps you rank for specific keywords. 

A study by Michigan State University concluded that “captions are beneficial because they result in greater depth of processing by focusing attention, reinforce the acquisition of vocabulary through multiple modalities, and allow learners to determine meaning through the unpacking of language chunks.”

Adding captions especially for tutorials help students who are learning English as a second language. 

Read: How to make viral videos?

Step 5: Embed the Video

Don’t just publish the video on YouTube and share it through social media. Embed the video on your website. Select the relevant web page, blog post to get more exposure. 

Google normally indexes only one video per web page so if you need to include more than one video, make sure your important video is placed on top. 

Step 6: Promoting your video

400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube in one hour… sorry, 1 minute. Yes. Really. 

So, unless you shout out about your videos, people might miss out no matter how awesome your video is. 

You can promote your videos by:

Embedding on your top-performing but relevant web page

Sharing it on your social media platforms. Make a story on relevant platforms, stirring their interest. 

Adding the video in your email newsletters

Promote your other videos on your end screen

Conclusion

Hope you have learned about Video SEO in this article. Video SEO is not just about creating multiple videos and uploading them online. You can see tons of videos without even 1 view. You have to follow every step mentioned in the article to create a video that can make you stand out from other publishers. 

Creating a video is one part, but promoting, analyzing and learning from it plays an equally important role. 

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