video optimization

Optimizing written content for people and search engines is relatively simple when compared to video content optimization. After all, you usually only have a limited amount of space or words to use in conjunction with the video. And, let’s be honest, if you open the “About” section on a YouTube video and see more than a few hundred words it quickly dives into “tl;dr” area and you might find yourself thinking “I came here to watch a three minute video, not read War and Peace That’s the bad news. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to optimize your video to get the results you want whether it’s encouraging your customers to purchase something, getting shares, getting noticed by search engines, or simply getting views.   13: Know The Goals   This is just good advice for any time in life, but it also applies to marketing your video content. Knowing goals doesn’t just mean knowing your goals. You obviously know your goals. It’s important to know the goals of your customers. Keep them in mind and you’ll be able to make great video content that truly connects with them. This means that you should know how your customers feel at the moment, know what you want your customers to feel, and evoke those feelings. If you are evoking a negative emotion (like fear) then your video content should lead your customer to a remedy for that feeling. If you are going for a positive emotion (like joy) then you should let your customers know how you can help them continue that feeling. Let’s be clear: evoking a negative emotion doesn’t always mean making them paranoid or generally unhappy. Allstate’s Mayhem commercials do a great job striking the balance between raising their awareness of certain concerns while having a sense of humor about it.   12: Create a Call to Action   Making sure that you have actionable content is absolutely necessary for any type of success with your video content. There are several different ways to do this. One of them is obvious: put a call to action somewhere in the video. Another, less obvious tactic, is to put a call to action in the description of the video (for example “Buy the album here” with a link following). The call to action that falls in the description is frequently used by musicians, although this particular video features both types of call to action:   11: Know Where to Host Your Video Content   Now, when most people think of optimized video hosting they think of sites like Metacafe, YouTube, or Veoh. They’re quick, easy, and cheap. What’s more is that they have a built in audience that might accidentally stumble onto your videos while looking for something else, allowing you to passively build a crowd. It’s like being the opening act for The Rolling Stones (if there were 3 million other bands playing at the same time). While that sort of video hosting does have a lot of merits and is very tempting, it won’t necessarily keep people coming back to your site. If you want to do that then it might be better to host it yourself on your own site (or host it through a major hosting site but only have it viewable on your website). But what if you don’t have any frequent visitors but you want them? Then it might be nice to give them a taste of what you have on YouTube and then direct them to your site for more frequently updated video content. One example is how the Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen uses this strategy to bring people to additional content on the Food Network website as well as tuning in for the shows (although Alton Brown does the call to action in a very… Alton Brown-y sort of way):     10: Analytics, Analytics, Analytics   This is a ridiculously obvious tip but it likely has a place in every blog post on this site. Use your analytics to their full potential. They’re not there for no reason. If you’re an American from Nevada and you find out that a strange amount of your views are coming from Iceland, it’s probably important to find out why. Maybe your views are peaking in mid-October. Knowing why a lot of your viewers are coming from a certain region or at a certain time can help you ask specific questions that you need to know to expand your market and keep the viewers you have.   9: Use Better Meta   According to Kissmetrics.com, metadata is an interesting little background figure because it has such an impact on our content but kind of blends into the background. It’s like a really good bassist in a band. You may not notice that they are there, plucking away during your favorite songs, but you’d notice if the instrument were gone from the mix. Basically, metadata is the data that describes the data. It’s the text portion of the dating profile that is your content. “I am your YouTube video on how to properly iron your socks. My keywords are: How to, laundry, ironing, housekeeping. I enjoy walks at dusk on a sandy beach but am paradoxically annoyed by sand between my toes.” You’re only fighting half the battle if you just know what it is. Using metadata properly is another beast entirely. For an example of high-quality metadata, check out the title and description of this TED talk about tying your shoes. It mentions the name of the speaker and a concise, accurate description in the title (that doesn’t have unintentional ellipsis at the end) and describes the talk and the speaker, including the date, in the description. It will also tell you how you’ve been doing a basic skill slightly wrong for your whole life, which is always humbling.   8: Amusing or How To Videos   People love funny videos and how to videos is usually one of the … Read more