Is it viral yet? Is it viral yet?

While going viral should never be the objective of your video marketing campaign (never ever!), the term itself has seemed to have taken off this year, exploded even…

Marketers, we’ve been hearing lots of stats like these: 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day, 1200% more shares are generated by social videos than text and images combined, videos on a landing pages increase conversions by 80% and 80% of users recall a video ad they have seen online in the past month.

Eek…Well, if that’s the case then you best get to grips with the best practices for ensuring your video marketing campaigns smash your objectives and propel your social media forward. Below we reveal some of our favorite tips to help you create compelling, inspiring and actionable online videos.

1. Center Your Video Around the Story, Not The Sale

There is a heap of sales clutter on the Internet that is actively annoying and repelling your customers. Don’t let your brand be that guy – instead, your video should be centred around the story and not the sale. Remember: the same rules that apply for written content marketing apply for video marketing – concentrate on the value you’re providing for your customers.

Make the most of the emotive power of video by appealing to your consumers’ needs and hidden desires. Scared you’ll lose leads this way? You can always place a strategic and relevant call to action alongside a tracked URL at the end of your video (just make sure it fits into your overall story).

Take Warby Parker’s ‘How Glasses are Made’ video, a great example of storytelling it focuses on the origins of the brand, their ethos, culture and people to showcase their eyewear.

2. Make your Video Feature the Best 10 Seconds Ever

One fifth of your viewers will click away from a video within 10 seconds or less. Short and to the point – that’s what the video experts are recommending. Our advice? Get right to the grit of the tale and manage expectations from the outset (within the first 5 to 10 seconds).

Try sparking your audience’s curiosity by asking questions and using teasers to hook their attention right away.

Your video should immediately convey its value and answer that “why should I watch it?” question that will be on your audience’s mind. Should they watch it because it will make them laugh, because it will inspire them to act or because it will teach them something new?

3. Use Humour in Your Video. Stop Being So Boring!

According to Tim Washer, Social Media Manager at Cisco "Often in the corporate world, people get nervous about comedy and say it doesn’t belong here. But if it might help you get a point across efficiently and economically, why wouldn’t you try it and see if you can make it work?”

So what do your audience want instead? They want to laugh, they want to feel enlightened, they want to be pulled out of their boring 9 to 5's and forget about their realities.

Done well, a brand can reap the rewards from using humour in their video content. Take Snickers as an example.

"Caption writing develops your ability “to get into what John Cleese calls the open mode, where you’re playful and having fun and relaxed and not worried,” Tim continues. "The more you can get into the open mode, the more often you’ll find yourself coming up with fresh ideas in all areas of your life.

The takeaway here is to not feel constrained by what’s gone before in your industry and don’t try to emulate your competitor’s stiff tone and yawnsome script. Stand out and take a chance on being funny.

4. Optimize Your Video for SEO – Tag it Up

There are plenty of tactics you can use to ensure your videos get found easier in search engines. The first thing you should do to derive the maximum SEO value from your video (before you upload your video to any sharing sites) is to host it on your own domain.

It’s also important to enable embedding on your video as this will help you increase the likelihood of receiving inbound marketing links. Oh and don’t forget to avail of video sitemaps – in this nifty document Google explains how to create a video sitemap with ease.

When it comes to video for SEO, descriptions are everything. Why? Well, descriptions allow Google’s search spiders to make sense of your video and understand what the content entails.

So ensure that your videos are tagged with relevant keywords and fully explained with fleshed out descriptions and unique titles. Keep this rule in mind: if it has a box, it has a purpose – Google needs you to fill it out to help you rank.

5. Educate your Customers with Video & Prove Yourself

Did you know that 65% of your audience are visual learners? One of the most powerful methods you can use for video marketing is to educate your audience. And the great thing is that education comes in many forms. For example, you can teach your customers how to use your product or service and provide useful tips on how to make the most of it. Or you can create a webinar to showcase your industry knowledge, position your brand as a thought leader, add value to your consumers’ lives and collect leads in the process.

Video can also provide social proof for your product or service. When creating video success stories focus on the story of your customer and the success he/she achieved from using your product/service. This nifty question template from Copyblogger will help you create awesome and human-focused video and written testimonials.

Take Upwork’s series of video that showcases their role in providing skilled talent to companies of all sizes on a global scale.

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