Video marketing is a great way to get your audience’s attention and not just tell them, but show them, what your company is all about. So how do you do it effectively? How can you use the power of video to generate buzz for your brand and turn viewers into leads and ultimately sales? We have 10 tips to help you do just that, with five presented here, and five more to come in a future blog post.

1. Front-Load Important Information. In the early days of YouTube, the video description was used to tell people what the video was about and what they could expect from it. However, with most videos nowadays, you can tell what you need to know from the title. Therefore, people don’t usually read the description until after they’ve finished watching it. So instead of telling what the video is about, the first thing in your description should be what the viewer will need to take the next step after watching. In most cases, this will be your website’s URL. If your video is about a specific event, include a link to more information about it, where to register for it, etc. Piquing people’s interest with your videos can be a great way to drive them to your landing pages.
2. Include Onscreen Links. Even more effective than putting important links in the video description is to put them in the video itself. YouTube, Vimeo, and most other prominent video hosting platforms, allow you to overlay links onto the screen at predetermined places in the video. So when you say, “Be sure to check out our website for more information,” you can have a button pop up at that exact moment, with a clickable link to more information.
3. Do a Brief Outro. A lot of prominent video makers take just a few seconds after the main part of each of their videos to make announcements and provide other pertinent information related to what the audience has just seen. You might even consider inserting an End Screen—a screen that runs for a few seconds at the end of each of your videos, showcasing all that important information with graphics. You can also use it to promote other videos you’ve made, remind viewers to Like and Subscribe, and more. And of course, overlay the appropriate links onto each graphic, video, or other piece of information, to make it easy for viewers to take the next steps.
4. Customize Your Thumbnail. The thumbnail image is the first thing people see of your video when they come across it in search results, on social media, or anywhere else. It needs to grab their attention. YouTube used to grab a few random frames from the video and give you your choice of them for a thumbnail image. Now, however, you can create and upload your own custom thumbnail for each video. You can do the same when sending the video link out to your e-mail subscribers. Make good use of this ability. Create an image that will grab people’s attention and make them want to click. Of course, also make sure that it’s directly related to what the video is about. A lot of people try to boost their views with a clickbait image that has nothing to do with the video itself. This may work to get your numbers up, but it will turn people off once they realize they’ve been duped and ultimately lead to fewer clickthroughs and fewer sales.
5. Use SEO Titles. SEO keywords are important for making sure your target audience can find your videos when they search for that topic. In deciding which videos rank highest, Google’s algorithms put very little weight on tags or descriptions these days. Therefore your main SEO needs to be in your title. Find out what people are searching for with regards to your brand, and what specific search terms they’re using, and include one or two of those in the title of each video. If there’s a specific question people are asking, you might consider making that a video title. Though again, make sure the title matches up with the video’s actual content, otherwise both Google and your viewers will end up mad at you.

Be sure to check the remainder of our top 10 tips for video marketing.