In the digital age, transforming your ideas into visuals is no longer a mammoth task. Every second person has access to tools that allow creators to produce in a shoestring budget and almost every single person has access to every drop of content that has been shared by any creator. This has attracted brands of all sizes to move onto online platforms to promote their videos to larger markets with minimal expenditure.

But the ease comes at the cost of getting lost in the crowd, thanks to the flood of video content on the internet. So now, the agenda is to make sure that the content you create is shared with the maximum number of people of the a relevant audience to ensure that your idea is communicated successfully.

Promote your video in the right way as it is one of the most important steps in getting the reach that you want to achieve and it is a lot easier than distributing pamphlets and painting signboards.

1. Content Quality

Before promoting your video, it’s important to make sure that content of your video is the best expression of the idea that you wish to communicate. This doesn’t necessarily mean that all your videos must be shot in HD, but a little bit of planned cinematography, relevant dialogue, and interesting audio-visual queues have a better impact, which make the viewer remember and talk about your video after having watched it.

Clever titles, or as they are called ‘click bait’ play a huge role in compelling people to go watch your video. Your title must be short, dramatic and intriguing enough to grab a browser’s attention and make them click play.

It also helps to make sure that the length of your video is optimum. It shouldn’t be short enough that your idea is lost, neither should it be long enough to bore your audience.

According to Columbia College’s YouTube Study in 2013, the average YouTube Video is only 4 minutes and 19 seconds long, while another study showed that 55% of webpage views get only 15 seconds of attention. Which is why it is important to get your point across as fast and as effectively as possible.

2. Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a method of optimizing your video to be found easily. This can be done by adding words, or phrases to your title, descriptions, etc, that make your video easily accessible by any search engine, i.e. it shows up on the first page of results. Since people do not have the patients to go through seven pages of the same content, the placement of your video in earlier pages ensures that people do click on it.

SEO tools are easily available on different browsers like Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc.

3. Managing Social Media

Social media rules the world and it is the most unexpected things that go viral on these networks. The viral nature of content today can be credited to this literal web created by mutual connections that exponentially increase the number of views per post.

Facebook has a whopping 1.71 billion monthly active users. Instagram follows up at a 500 million monthlies. Not tapping into a network with this kind of reach, at almost no cost at all, would be a waste of an opportunity. It is therefore important to maintain multiple social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

This form of connectivity allows users to find, almost specifically, the kind of content they desire. All you need to do is use relevant tags on your post and share it publicly for the whole world to see.

4. Paid Advertising

A few blind spots exist online because of which many viewers may not be exposed to your video. So instead of waiting for an audience to come find your video, you may have to bring it right to them. This can be done by paying a reasonable amount to your publishing site. For example, YouTube offers TrueView Ads that either show up before a video plays, at the top of your search result list, or above your suggested videos. These ads are broadcasted to a variety of viewers without a specific target.

Acoording to a 2016 study by Google, 65% of YouTube TrueView campaigns showed a considerable lift in reach, with an average increase of 13%. This is a considerably good statistic when compared to other media at the same cost.

5. Existing Outside Your Video

It is important for a creator to talk about their work and elaborate on their aims and methods to allow the audience to empathize with them. A lot of brands and creators write blogs of their own or get featured on online magazines and creative groups where they share information in addition to the content that they have created.

Collaborations with other channels and blogs are also a great way of promoting your work as it is beneficial to both the talents by increasing your ‘fanbases’.

6. Viewer Intraction

Once you have a big enough following, the next task is to keep them interested in your concept. This trust between you, a creator, and a viewer to continue watching your videos is best built by establishing a relationship. This can be done by using clever call to action phrases, by attempting ‘challenges’ posed by your viewer, encouraging them to like your video to increase your popularity, requesting them to leave comments at the end, etc.

It’s important to allow your viewers to make them feel like they have run the show, and that they come to the conclusion of your video themselves.

The best and most effective method would be to talk to people about your project. Physical social interaction is still a very effective and timeless method of promotion. The more you talk about your work, the more interest is garnered and the better is it’s reception.