You’ve finally done it. You are in possession of the hottest video the internet has ever seen. It combines the incomprehensibly viral nature of Rebecca Black’s vocals with the undeniable epicness of the latest Game of Thrones trailer. Phone this one in, people– this video is going to sell itself. While it’s true that some pieces of great content seem able to spread without much, if any marketing behind them, you’re not the type of person who likes to take chances with your premium content. You’ve created some beautiful, HD-quality video content that’s just begging to be shared and you want to give it the christening it deserves!
Brainstorm to Understand Your Audience - A piece of marketing content is only as valuable as the amount of exposure, attention and hopefully links that it ultimately commands. Spend some time brainstorming a list of the people and publications who might be interested in your video so that all of your hard work isn’t for naught! Get a handful of the smartest people you can find (willing or unwilling) into a room and hammer out a list of potential targets. Understanding your audience and what might appeal to key influencers will benefit your entire outreach campaign. (image right)
Put Video Behind an Email or Social Wall - If you’re just starting out with video marketing this may not be the best idea for building a loyal following. But if you’re an established site with thousands of viewers who just can’t wait for your next installment consider asking users for an email address before viewing your content. You could give the user Part 1 in a series and ask for an email address to view Part 2. You can choose to provide a “Skip This” button to avoid frustration. This well can be an effective way to build an email list for future marketing wins. You could also employ something similar where you’d instead ask for a Facebook Like or Twitter Follow before allowing the user to continue on. Whether or not you make this optional will depend on the relationship you’ve built with your community.
Reach Out - Think of video marketing the same way you would any other piece of original content. Many of the same strategies you’ve applied to your infographics and epic blog posts apply here. Grab your rolodex and do what it takes to get your content in front of as many web influencers as possible.
- Blogs whose audience might be interested in your video
- Email Lists
- Your own Social Media Accounts
- Powerful, on-topic Twitter accounts found via services such as FollowerWonk, Klout or MuckRack
- Learn how to Market to Reddit and then post to http://Reddit.com/r/Videos
- Thinking Local? Target local newspapers, radio stations and magazines
- On-Topic Community Forums
- Target blogs who often post video to their homepage
- StumbleUpon
- Got a funny video? Submit to ‘bored’ sites such as Bored At Work, At Work and Bored, or Bored.com
- Leverage current relationships with bloggers, influencers, community leaders and other affiliates
- If you’ve used YouTube and someone’s linked to the YT version, contact them and ask for a link to your domain.
- Depending on the nature of your video; consider utilizing paid video advertising on Facebook, Google, etc.
- Physically meet with contacts who might be willing to promote your content (do what it takes!)
- Submit to a Video Directory (Blip.tv, VideoJug, WonderHowTo, IMBroadcast, Bizuns.com/videos, DailyMotion etc)
- Send personal, genuine emails to publications and influencers that might post your videos
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/hUN91S-3ASc/building-links-with-video-content