How To Create A Multi-Platform Video Marketing Campaign

Video is one of the fastest growing digital media. According to a survey conducted among consumers worldwide, respondents watched an average of 19 hours of online video content per week in 2022. This represented an increase from 2021, when consumers watched 19 hours of online video content weekly. Part of the increase in video popularity is the ease with which it can be consumed on multiple platforms. From social media networks to embedded video emails, marketers should capitalize on this powerful media by creating a multi-platform video marketing campaign

Custom Video Lengths For Multi-Platform Campaigns

In an era where a good video can be shared millions of times, businesses would be remiss to limit their video marketing campaign efforts to a single audience. Instead, multi-platform campaigns should be used to maximize a video’s marketing effectiveness. However, before a multi-platform campaign can begin, the video must first be customized to match the chosen network. The following guidelines will help you to understand what video length is best suited for your chosen publication platform.

• YouTube & Vimeo. — YouTube and Vimeo are two platforms that are specifically built for videos. As the popularity of the networks have grown, so too have users’ publishing capabilities. For example, while the default maximum length for a YouTube video is 15 minutes, this timeframe can be extended to 12 hours if the user’s channel is verified. Conversely, on Vimeo, users are able to upload a certain number of videos (regardless of their length) based on their account membership level. With these guidelines in mind, choosing the right video length for either publishing platform will depend entirely on your goals, the type of video, and the preferences of your audience.
• Facebook. — Ever since introducing the capability for producing videos, Facebook has been known for short videos that can be viewed with the sound on or off. The main goal for Facebook videos is that they capture the short attention span of a user who is interested in absentmindedly scrolling through their feed. This mentality saw an increase in the number of 90 second or less videos. However, with the recent upgrade and push for longer videos that result in a more engaged audience, Facebook now allows up to 241 minute length videos.
• TikTok. — Caters to the era of the micro-video. This media platform focuses on videos that are 60 seconds or less. Even though videos can be up to 60 seconds long, studies show that the average length of the best performing Instagram videos were 15 seconds or less.
• Twitter. — Bite sized content has always performed well on Twitter. It allows up to 280 character limit and videos that are up to 140 seconds in length. As the perfect platform for sharing headlines or one-line updates, Twitter encourages its video posters to keep the viewing preferences of their audience in mind with short length clips.
• Email. — Video can easily be sent via email to an awaiting audience. Video emails operate outside of the typical confines of social media platforms, which means that senders can customize their clips to meet the specific needs or viewing preferences of their audience. By tracking key metrics, such as click through ratings, view length, and number of views, marketers can more easily adjust their video email efforts to achieve enhanced results.

Don’t Forget The SEO For Your Multi-Platform Video Marketing Campaign

Once you have customized your video to match the optimal length for your chosen platforms, you will need to take a moment to take care of a few housekeeping matters (namely SEO) that will help your digital media reach its target audience. First and foremost you will need to create a title that is easily recognizable and searchable. Next, you will want to write a meta-description that uses at least one keyword and succinctly summarizes the content of the video. If your chosen platform allows you to add tags, then you will want to carefully select the category (or tag) that will increase the searchable radius of your video. Finally, you will want to ensure that your title and description work together to form a strong call to action. The call to action should be designed to maximize viewer conversion and can be customized across platforms. For example, you might add a secondary call to action in the form of a Facebook update, an Instagram hashtag campaign, or a witty Twitter one-liner.

Determine When You Want To Post Your Video

The beautiful thing about a multi-platform video campaign is that you can upload the various versions of your video at different times of the day. While there isn’t a one size fits all posting time for publishing videos, there are tools that you can use to determine when your audience is the most engaged. Instagram’s business tools, Buffer (a social media analytical and management tool), and Vuepak (an online content management system for sharing multimedia packages and gaining in-depth tracking and email analytics), are just a few of the tools that you can use to decide the optimal time for hitting publish or send.

The Bottom Line: Multi-Platform Video Marketing Campaigns Deliver Powerful Results

You can more easily share your videos across platforms when you have a clear strategy in place. From understanding the ideal length of video for your chosen publication platform, to maximizing the searchable features of your video, to ensuring that you send it out into the digital world at the optimal viewing time for your audience, there are several steps that you can take to improve your video marketing distribution efforts. Finally, remember that if you want your videos to deliver powerful marketing results, then you need to carefully track their impact, so that you can adjust your efforts to best meet the viewing preferences of your intended audiences.