Additional Platforms. Depending on your budget, there may be additional platforms that can provide you with a good bang for your bucks. Twitter, Snapchat and Yahoo’s native advertising platform provide valuable space for your video to earn paid views and impressions. It’s important to pinpoint which digital platforms your targeted audiences live on, and set your budgets accordingly.
Organic and Earned Views, Impressions and Placements
Securing earned media for your video is an essential complement to paid media, and takes dedication, tact and research. Be sure the quality of your video is great and the story is palpable. Now your job is to get it in front of the people who are going to care.
First, identify the publications where your work would be talked about in a relevant way. If you’re selling cars, for example, make a list of the most influential industry websites and their author emails, Twitter users, Instagram accounts, and Facebook profiles. Pitching on social media can be faster and more effective than email, so it’s important not to rely solely on email communication. Social media pitches provide a level of intimacy not felt through email and can help seal the deal quicker and more effectively than emails.
Next, craft your pitch wisely. In no more than a couple of sentences, identify why your video is relevant to the “pitchee,” and include a link to the work or the file. Invariably, the writer or publisher is busy, so you will have only seconds to peak their interest. Your pitch should differ appropriately from author to author, publisher to publisher.
The secret to pitching, Neicy says, is that it’s a numbers game. If your pitch is well crafted and your video is strong, you will secure organic placements as long as you are “pleasantly persistent.” Add to your list daily until you feel like you’ve truly exhausted your industry’s online movers and shakers. Remember that if organic placements were easy, everyone would be achieving them. Your success will take time, dedication and resilience. Bear in mind that the average CPM (Cost Per Million) for paid online video reach is $24.60. Organic appearance in articles and postings, however, is more compelling still, since it is editorial coverage that viewers realize did not appear as an ad. The ability to secure organic placements is a valuable PR skill that increases the strength of your brand and if accomplished well can garner giant returns in subscribers and leads.
In all, the viral nature of video, the inherent SEO value in digital media, and the want-based desire for value-add information makes it imperative that you emphasize these activities within your digital PR. As progressive companies such as PM Capital are demonstrating, while the majority of competitors continue to roil in the marketing activities that worked in years past, digital PR strategies, when accomplished correctly, can be the game changer that accelerates your brand to the stars.
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Author: Cheryl Snapp Conner
Cheryl Snapp Conner is founder and CEO of SnappConner PR and creator of Content University™. She is a popular speaker, author and columnist.