Video Distribution Tactics You Need to Know to Grow and Engage Your Audience

In today’s digital age, videos are a powerful tool for businesses and individuals to promote their brands and connect with their audiences. Over 80% of people have bought a product after watching a brand video. However, creating a high-quality video is only half the battle. You also need to use the right video distribution tactics to reach the right people.

What is Video Distribution?

Video distribution is a crucial aspect of video marketing. It allows companies to reach a wider audience by sharing video content across platforms and channels to reach their target audience. The goal is to make the video content available to as many people as possible to increase brand awareness, generate leads, and drive conversions.

Video distribution includes publishing videos on your website, sending them through email, or sharing them across video hosting platforms and social networks. This increases engagement and drives traffic to the website. By choosing the right video platform, a company can create a distribution strategy that is tailored to its target audience and goals.

How to Maximize Video Distribution

Before choosing a distribution channel, you need to understand how to use video distribution tactics to maximize your reach and engagement.

SEO Optimization

The best way to ensure your video is found organically is by optimizing your video SEO.

• Optimize video file name, titles, and descriptions: The title and description of the video should include keywords relevant to the content. This helps search engines understand what the video is about and makes it more likely to appear in search results.
• Use video transcripts: Adding a transcript of the video’s audio can help search engines understand the content of the video. It’s also a great way to make your video accessible to more users.
• Use sitemaps and Schema markup: Video sitemaps are files that contain the title, description, and URL of the video. Schema markup is a type of code that can be added to a video. These are important additions to descriptive titles and help search engines understand the content.

Social Media Sharing

Leverage social media platforms to distribute video content by sharing links back to your website. Be intentional with video distribution tactics to get the best results.

• Optimize for the platform: Each social media platform has its own video format, aspect ratio, and length requirements. Optimize for the platform you’re using to ensure videos are seen by the most people.
• Use captions: Many people watch social media videos with the sound off. Captions help with user experience and ensure viewers still understand the message.
• Use engaging titles and descriptions: Use catchy titles and descriptions to grab attention and entice people to watch your video. Use hashtags to make your video easier to find.
• Post at the right time: Post your best videos at times when your target audience is most active on the platform. This information is usually available in each platform’s analytics section.
• Encourage engagement: Ask questions, run polls, and post a call to action in your videos to encourage interaction with your video.
• Use Analytics: Use analytics to track the performance of your videos and make data-driven decisions about how to improve engagement.

Influencer Marketing

Collaborating with social media influencers can be a great way to distribute video content. They can promote your most popular videos to their followers and expose you to a new audience. But before choosing an influencer:

• Identify your target audience.
• Find influencers with a high following in this audience.
• Review their content to ensure it aligns with your marketing strategy.
• Reach out to potential influencers with information about your video and ask if they would be interested in sharing it with their followers.

Live video is another marketing tactic that can help increase interaction and engagement with viewers. Pairing this with an influencer collaboration can help make your video distribution strategy more successful. Viewers spend more time watching live video compared to video on demand.

Paid Video Advertising

Paid video advertising is another content distribution tactic. Many platforms allow you to run video ad campaigns, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Most paid video platforms follow a similar process for setting up video ad campaigns.

• Choose a platform: Select the platform where your target audience is most active.
• Create a campaign: Set up a campaign and select “video” as the ad format.
• Select your audience: Define your target audience by demographics, interests, behaviors, and more.
• Create the ad: Upload your marketing video and add a headline, description, and call-to-action.
• Set a budget: Pricing for your ad will depend on the length of time the ad is shown, how large your audience is, and your desired ad placement.
• Launch the campaign: Once your ad is ready, launch the campaign and monitor its performance.
• Analyze and optimize: Analyze the campaign’s performance and optimize it to improve results. Paid ads are a great way to learn for future campaigns.

Where to Distribute Your Online Video to Drive Traffic and Engagement

Video is a powerful medium for engaging and informing audiences. But it’s not enough to simply create a video and post it on your website. To drive traffic and engagement, it’s important to use the right video distribution platforms and methods.

Grow Your Audience With YouTube

YouTube is the largest video-sharing platform with over one billion users worldwide. It’s a great option for new video marketers who want to grow their audience because it’s free and has a built-in algorithm to help you reach the right audience.

GoPro leverages YouTube videos for its marketing, building a dedicated audience through a mix of user-generated and official videos showcasing camera capabilities. This strategy has helped establish a strong community of outdoor sports enthusiasts.

To grow an audience on YouTube, be sure to maximize the functionality of each video.

• Optimize video titles and descriptions: Use keywords relevant to your business in video titles and descriptions. This helps videos rank higher in search results and attract more leads.
• Include clickable links in video descriptions: Adding clickable links in video descriptions, makes it easy to direct viewers to landing pages to learn more about your products or services. Use these as your CTA to increase conversions.
• Create a YouTube channel trailer: A well-crafted channel trailer will introduce your brand to new viewers and encourage new subscribers.
• Create video playlists: Organize videos into playlists focused on specific topics or products. This makes it easy for viewers to find and watch related videos and keeps them engaged longer.
• Use YouTube Ads: YouTube Ads help increase your visibility and reach a larger audience. Use them to target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors.

Attract Visitors With Vimeo

Vimeo is a similar video platform to YouTube, often used for professional, high-quality video content. It’s ad free and makes capturing leads simple.

Outdoor clothing and gear company, Patagonia, uses Vimeo to host their own videos and promote their products. They use video SEO to show up higher in search results and include links that drive traffic to their website.

For the best video content on Vimeo, give a clear CTA and include links back to your site. Take advantage of Vimeo’s features to give your traffic a bigger boost.

• Host webinars and live streaming events: Both events can be promoted on your website to drive traffic to your Vimeo account and your site.
• Try Vimeo’s paid promotion options: Vimeo has various paid promotion options like "Video on Demand" and "Live events" to boost your video’s visibility and reach.
• Use Vimeo’s analytics: Vimeo and other video-sharing platforms have built-in functionality for analytics. This helps you understand video performance and make decisions based on data that will improve your video marketing strategy.

Improve SEO With Facebook

If you’re looking to boost SEO, Facebook is a great option. It allows businesses to add video titles, descriptions, and tags, which help videos rank higher in search results and increase visibility.

Hootsuite, a social media management company, uses Facebook to share videos about social media trends and how to use their platform. Their descriptive titles help them show up in search engines for your target audience to find.

• Encourage sharing to create backlinks: When your video is shared, it can generate a link from other websites to yours. Search engines consider these a sign of trust and authority and can help to improve your website’s search engine ranking.
• Submit a video sitemap: Facebook allows users to submit a video sitemap that includes the title, description, and URL. This makes it easier for search engines to understand what the video is about and increases the chances of it appearing in search results.
• Add video metadata: Adding metadata such as titles, descriptions, and tags also helps search engines understand the content. This can be done during upload by editing the video’s details.

Increase Followers With Instagram

Using a variety of video formats to attract viewers is another video distribution tactic that works especially well on Instagram. The platform is known for visually appealing video content and is a popular place to partner with influences to increase brand awareness and followers.

Red Bull leverages Instagram for video distribution by creating high-energy content that aligns with their brand image. They use a variety of action sports and behind-the-scenes clips on IGTV and IG stories. This video content helps like-minded viewers connect and become invested in their brand.

• Share long-form content on IGTV: Sharing in-depth, informative content like tutorials, product demos, and behind-the-scenes footage allows your audience to get to know your brand and gives you more time to convert them into a sale.
• Use Instagram Reels for short-form, creative content: Instagram Reels allows users to share 15-second videos set to music. Reels are perfect for sharing short, creative content like product demos, behind-the-scenes footage, and influencer collaborations.
• Showcase partners on Instagram live: Hosting Instagram live streams with partners is a great way to connect with your audience in real-time. It will increase engagement and introduce your brand to another audience. Collaborators will promote the live video and encourage their followers to follow you as well.

Engage New Audiences With TikTok

TikTok is a popular short-form video app that can be used as a video distribution tactic to engage with a younger audience.

Chipotle uses TikTok to share behind-the-scenes footage of their food preparation process and participate in popular trends and challenges. They show employees having fun to bring awareness to their company culture and focus on their products with slow-motion burrito-making videos.

Around 60% of Tik Tok users are between 16 and 24 years old, so if you’re looking to attract Gen Z, this is where you want to distribute video content.

• Get creative with TikTok features: Add music, filters, and effects to stand out online. If you have a bold staff member, lip-syncing and dancing videos are some of the most popular videos viewed.
• Join hashtag challenges: Users are encouraged to create videos based on a theme or challenge, often with a specific hashtag. These challenges can increase engagement and reach on the platform.
• Take your viewer behind the scenes: Gen Z is known for valuing authenticity, and taking them behind the scenes is a creative way to connect with them and showcase your brand in a fun and relatable way.

Create Conversions With Your Website

One of your most valuable assets is your website. You should either embed or have a link that drives traffic back to your site for any video content you create. Zappos uses videos on their website to showcase products in action which increases the chances of customers making a purchase.

• Embed videos: You can embed videos on your homepage or landing pages by using a video hosting platform like YouTube or Vimeo. Embedding video keeps viewers on your website, which is valuable for SEO and convenient for visitors. 83% of marketers say video has increased the time visitors stay on their site.
• Create a video landing page: A dedicated landing page features videos and a call-to-action that encourages visitors to engage with the brand. This type of distribution is especially helpful for explainer videos if you offer multiple products or services.
• Add videos to blog posts: Embedding or linking to videos in a blog post is the best way to incorporate them. They’re often used to educate or influence your audience in a more engaging way. Blog posts with video thumbnails have a higher click-through rate which helps increase rank on search pages.

Drive Traffic With Email

You can also use their email to distribute online video content by embedding the video in the email or providing a link to watch it on your website. Mattress company, Casper, uses video testimonials in their promotional emails. This helps increase brand trust and drive traffic to their site.

• Create a video email series: Send a series of videos to a segmented list of subscribers to engage them and keep subscribers interested in the company’s products or services.
• Use a thumbnail with a play button: Include a thumbnail image of the video with a play button in the email. This will play the video in the email or redirect the recipient to the company’s website or a video hosting platform.
• Send a video in an email attachment: It is possible to send a video as an email attachment, but it’s not recommended because it can cause the email to be blocked by spam filters.

Choose the Right Video Distribution Tactics to Reach Your Goals

Whenever you create new video content, be sure to promote it across multiple platforms to see which video distribution tactic works best. Adding a new video to your blog won’t generate a lot of traffic unless you tell people it’s there. Sharing across social channels and emailing your content to your list will help drive traffic to your website.

Whichever video distribution tactic you choose, be sure to track your results using video analytics. Understanding what’s working and where you can improve your video marketing and help you grow your audience and increase conversions.

If you’d like a professional production team to help create a high-quality video to use as part of your marketing strategy, contact Levitate Media today!