So, You Created a Video Case Study—Now What?

The road to great branded content is paved with good intentions, but let’s be honest. In the scramble to keep up with the competition, prove ROI to leadership, and increase content output speed, it’s easy for marketers to get ahead of themselves by creating content without a clue as to how they’re going to actually promote it.

This is especially true when it comes to creating and distributing video content.

In our last post, we covered video case studies specifically, including what makes a good one, how to make one, and why you should bother in the first place. If you haven’t picked up on it yet (or didn’t read the post—shame!), they’re super effective.

Here’s the thing. Putting all of that time and effort into creating a great video case study is pointless if nobody sees the damn thing.

Where a lot of people flub is when they create a video case study (or any kind of video, for that matter), upload it to YouTube, and call it a day. In reality, in the realm of content marketing, the distribution stage is just as critical as the content creation stage.

You could increase the reach of your brand significantly by strategically planning the distribution of your video case studies. According to HubSpot, 83% of consumers would consider sharing brand videos with their friends, so it’s a myth that people only share entertainment videos (e.g. cute cats, dads dancing, celebrities falling, etc.).

So, okay. You’ve gone through the process of finding the right customer to feature, you’ve shot and edited something engaging and inspirational, and it’s been uploaded to your video hosting service of choice.

Now what?

Here’s where you should be sharing it.

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Your Website / Landing Pages

Your website and any corresponding landing pages are an obvious place to share your video case studies, as the whole point is to encourage sales and raise brand awareness. And they work well in this way, considering the fact that people spend 88% more time on websites that contain video.

TouchBistro, an POS app for restaurants, uses their video case study to set the tone of their entire landing page and draw customers in:

TouchBistro landing page

(Image Source)

It’s pretty damn enticing. The video is authentic and includes a compelling call to action at the end, just like the PayPal video case study we examined in the last post.

Be sure to place your video above the fold on high-traffic pages, especially your homepage. Imagine if it’s the only thing people view on your website—is it good enough and easily accessible enough to keep them on the site a little longer?

If you share the video on your blog, you can also add lots of written content to complement it and drive organic search traffic. Make sure your blog and whatever pages that include these videos have prominent share buttons to encourage users to share them.

Remember: Easy to find, easy to share, easy to watch. The less friction between your video and its viewers, the more successful it will ultimately be.

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Email Marketing

People who sign up for your email newsletter want to see content from your brand. Nowadays, people don’t just hand over their email addresses willy-nilly, so they must be interested in what you have to offer. That’s why you should always share your best content with them, whether it’s within your newsletter or as a one-off announcement.

In other words, share the heck out of your fabulous new video case study via email.

You can make subscribers excited to watch your video with your copy. See how in the following example, Wistia says, “You’ve got mail. Video mail. Brendan dressed up as a mailman, so you know it’s a big deal.”

Wistia email

(Image Source)

BTW: Aside from the fact that their content marketing game is insanely on-point, Wistia is actually a very useful tool that can help you embed videos in your email marketing campaigns. This way, you don’t have to worry about running into any technical issues.

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Social Media

Social media channels are some of the best places to share your video content, including case studies. People love watching videos on social media, especially since it’s where a lot of us spend the majority of our screen time.

In fact, people watch 500 million hours worth of videos on YouTube every day. And the great thing is, 64% of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos. So naturally, you should share your video case study as part of your social calendar.

You can also run paid video ads on Facebook. You don’t necessarily need a huge budget, and it’s a pretty straightforward process: Specify your budget and the times at which you want your video shared. Then set your goal as video views. You can even laser-target specific audiences who would benefit from the specific product/service being featured, or create lookalike audiences based on your existing customers.

B2B companies might be more interested in sharing and boosting their videos on LinkedIn, since that is where their audience will likely spend the most time (duh). But keep this important nugget of wisdom from LinkedIn themselves in mind regarding video ads:

“Be specific with ad targeting, but not so specific that you narrow your audience. Choose location and two other targeting criteria to start, and follow ad targeting best practices.”

In other words, approach social video ads strategically—just as you did when you first started planning your video case study.

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While case studies are just one type of branded video that you can produce to raise awareness and drive sales for your product or service, their effectiveness lies in how they make people feel. Therefore, strategic distribution is just as important as the actual creation.

Your video should feature prominently on your website and/or landing pages. Then you can share it on social channels and to your email subscribes to increase reach.

Basically, where ever your customers are, that’s where your videos should be shared. Now get out there and start promoting!



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Topics:B2BVideoStrategy

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