Technology Tip
Dave Pelland has extensive experience covering the business use of technology, networking and communications tools by companies of all sizes. Dave's editorial and corporate experience includes more than 10 years editing an electronic technology and communications industry newsletter for a global professional services firm.

Optimizing Small Business Video Marketing

Optimizing Small Business Video Marketing

If you’re including video in your small business marketing efforts, some basic optimization steps can improve your lead-generation and promotional results by making your videos easier to find and increasing their reach.

Just like search engine optimization (SEO) can improve your content’s ranking on search engine result pages, video optimization blends keyword research, titles, image cards and other steps to make your videos easier for prospects to discover as they research products and services.

By using effective titles, video descriptions, tags, and transcripts, you can make it easier for users to find the information they need, which can help increase engagement and drive more traffic to your landing pages or website.

Expanded Reach

Optimizing your video content helps you reach your target audience more effectively by helping them find content that’s relevant to their needs and interests. This is key not only in attracting a broader audience for your videos, but, more importantly, helping you attract more qualified leads.

In addition, reaching a broader audience than your competitors can help your company increase your marketplace visibility and establish you as a trusted source of helpful information. These steps are important in building trust with potential customers, increasing brand awareness, and helping your business drive revenue.

Optimize for Growth

There are several key steps small business owners can take to optimize their marketing videos to increase their search engines visibility and audiences. While each step can be helpful on its own, the combination can help multiply your overall effectiveness.

Keyword research: Explore the relevant keywords and phrases related to your business and target audience. Ask yourself how people are likely to search for your products or services and try to include those keywords in your video’s title, description paragraph and tags.

Tools such as Google Keyword Planner can help you identify not only the most popular keywords, which you’ll include in your title, but also related keywords that should be part of your video description.

Similarly, closed captions and transcripts can expand your content’s reach by making your videos accessible to a wider audience, including people searching on mobile devices with the sound off as well as viewers with hearing challenges. Transcripts can also help search engines index your video content, which can also improve each video’s visibility on YouTube as well as search engine result pages.

You also need to pay attention to tools you can use to increase the visibility of your videos on your YouTube channel. Image cards, thumbnail images that appear alongside YouTube videos, can grab viewers’ attention and encourage them to watch your video.

Similarly, adding content tags to your video descriptions can help search engines understand what your video is about and can increase the likelihood of your video ranking higher in search results.

Promote Your Content

Even with effective optimization techniques, it’s not enough to post a video and hope it does well. It’s important to share the video link on your social media pages, email newsletter, and other channels where you engage with customers and prospects.

It’s also important to monitor your video’s performance through analytics tools such as Google Analytics or YouTube Analytics. Metrics such as the number of views, how long people are viewing your videos, and growth in your channel’s subscriber total can help you understand how well your videos are performing and identify potential improvements.


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