Tips for Planning Your Video Distribution Strategy

Getting the exposure that you want out of your video is about more than taking an, “If you build it, they will come,” approach. In fact, creating high quality video content, as great as it sounds, will not bring traffic and views without a targeted video distribution strategy behind it to make it successful. 

If you’re considering video content for your business, make sure your planning doesn’t end there. You also need a fully formulated video distribution strategy to help you maximize ROI for your production. Follow these tips to plan your video distribution strategy accordingly.

Consider Social Media Advertising Channels

The first step to preparing your video distribution strategy is to think about the options available on social media to support your video. To make the most out of your video content, consider where the video would be most successful on social media.

For example, corporate videos are often welcomed on LinkedIn whereas a shorter duration clip may be more suitable for Facebook or Twitter. Likewise, product videos do great on Facebook when used as part of a retargeting campaign that is shown to people that have already visited your site or that particular product’s page before.

When considering social media for your video content distribution, consider this:

● Facebook – has over 2B active users. Native Facebook videos outperform YouTube videos by 478% and have a reach that is 86% higher than non-native videos. Just a thought.
● Instagram – sponsored videos on Instagram generate 3 times more comments than sponsored photos.
● YouTube – has over 1.9B monthly active users. Represents a great opportunity for businesses to connect with consumers.
● Snapchat – represents about 77% college users yet 58% of them state they would be more likely to purchase a product or service if they received a coupon via Snapchat.
● Twitter – has 1.2B video views per day, 90% of which are native-Twitter videos.

Press Release Distribution Channels

The next major considering when planning your video distribution strategy is whether you will use PR platforms to generate views. PR platforms represent mainstream media relations and allow video content to be shared in various ways.

In fact, a recent study found that press releases with an associated video were more likely to be picked up by major media outlets and were more likely to be read by a larger audience.

If you consider the use of PR platforms for your video distribution, make sure you do your research.  This is so that you can share your video on platforms that are most relative to your business or brand and that you are fully aware of any upfront requirements for payment or other details relative to the distribution. You certainly don’t want to face any surprises with the distribution strategy late in the game.

Blog & Landing Page Distribution

Another option you have as you continue to plan where to distribute your videos is the distribution on blogs or landing pages. These may be your own core business blogs and landing pages or they may be created specifically for your video.

Promoting video content on your blog helps to boost SEO for your business and can lead to higher rankings and interaction on your website.

In addition to distributing your video on your own blog or landing pages, consider reaching out to influencers and those who share similar insights into your industry or brand to see if they might be willing to distribute your video content as a guest. Sharing your content on multiple blogs and landing pages will allow you to gain maximum exposure for your brand.

Email Distribution

Videos that are shared via email lead to higher email open rates and improved click through rates. In fact, an email that includes video has a 19% stronger chance of being opened. Furthermore, emails that include video have a 26% lower unsubscribe rate than those that do not include video.

So, if you’re struggling to keep subscribers or you’re finding that your emails often go unread, consider distributing your videos via email to increase readership and reduce the unsubscribe rates that you have been facing–it just may work!

Paid Video Distribution Strategies

In addition to all of the above listed free video distribution strategies you also have several options for paid video distribution. Consider distributing your videos in a variety of paid ways.

Ways such as posting the video to a landing page that is then promoted by Pay Per Click in Google. Or maybe you could share your videos on social media but “boost” or “pay” to increase the reach and the overall audience for your content.

Many different forms of paid advertising on each social media platform are available and most include the opportunity to add videos for distribution in the paid verticals.

Sponsored Content

Additional paid options for your video content distribution include the use of paid content promotions such as sponsored content posts. This involves partnering with influencers or other media professionals in an attempt to have them share your video content either on their blog, website, social media channels or elsewhere.

You pay them to share your content and discuss your brand in front of their audience. Generally, they will require your content to be relative to their audience in order for the partnership to work out but, doing so adds a layer of distribution that you couldn’t otherwise achieve on your own.

Planning Your Video Distribution Strategy

As you work to plan your video distribution strategy, consider the following:

● Where you will share your video and what the parameters are for sharing in that area.
● How you will use your video – will it bring awareness, respond to consumers, provide commentary or be used to generate leads?
● What are your long term goals for the video?
● What are your short term goals for the video?
● How will your video deliver a consistent message for your brand?
● What platforms will you distribute your video on?

The next step will be to prepare a budget for your video distribution. The budget should include relevant details as to the total amount of marketing money you have available to spend on the distribution of your video content.

Keep in mind that spending a lot of money on distribution does not always equate to a lot of success for your video! It can, and certainly has a better chance if you plan accordingly, but there are no guarantees or hard-set rules that state you will have XX-Return on XX-Expense when distributing your video and paying for video promotion.

Monitor Your Progress

Once you have started your video distribution you can continue to optimize and gauge your progress. A well-crafted video can make a world of difference for your brand if you distribute it in all of the right places and at the right times.

Depending on the channels that you use to distribute your video content and the steps you take to make the video a success, the sky is literally the limit. If you see content doing well, consider leaving it to do its work.

However, if you notice your video is not doing so great, consider additional optimization steps such as the addition of a transcript, headers, keynotes and other important elements to improve the reach and overall rankings of your content and get more interaction.

Stay Involved in the Process

Planning your video distribution strategy is an ongoing task that will evolve as your video production skills evolve. At the starting gate, you’ll probably be best poised to keep things relatively simple. However, as you learn what works and what propels your business forward, you can continue down a more strategic path that is ideal for your brand.

Ready to get started with video production for your business? Give Beverly Boy Productions a call at 888-462-7808! We’ll help you produce top quality video content for your brand that you can distribute worldwide.