How Should Organizations Approach Rolling Out Video?

It’s exciting when our clients are rolling out video. We love to watch the traffic grow. Making a number of videos at once realizes a number of advantages–you’ll save money in your video production costs, be able to realize a coherent plan for your video strategy, and make your own internal processes more efficient. But when an organization has created 5, or 10, or 20 videos in a short period, many wonder how to approach rolling out the videos on their website, YouTube channel, and any other distribution channels.

Rolling out video a bit gradually—on a schedule–may build viewership

YouTube recommends establishing a regular schedule—if you follow their recommendations, you’d release a video every single week (well, with fewer than five breaks a year), and always on the same day. We believe that most YouTube channels will be publishing with this kind of frequency within a few years. But if you don’t have 47-50 videos a year to release at this time, how do you translate this advice to the number you do have? Here are some plans for rolling out video when you have 3-30 videos to share:

• Post one per week, on the same day of the week, for as long as your supplies last. A consistent, reliable schedule helps you build viewership. The same principle that applies to appointment television and newspaper deliveries applies here.
• Post one per day, at the same hour, for a week leading up to a significant event. Asking your viewers to watch a video every day that exceeds three minutes is probably pushing it. But if you have a big conference coming up and you have five videos promoting it, maybe rolling out video can look like this: release 30-second videos Monday and Tuesday, one-minute videos Wednesday and Thursday, and a three-minute video on Friday.
• Post one video per month at the same time each month. A year may be a long time to realize SEO  (search engine optimization) benefits from having 12 more videos on your channel and website. But rolling out video at the rate of one video a month may make a very reasonable request of viewer’s time, and if you make the schedule very regular (say, the first or last day of the month, or the first Monday of the month) you will obtain a year-round video presence without making the investment that a weekly or even twice-monthly plan requires.
• Post them all at once. If your videos comprise a series and people might want to watch several in a sitting, that’s something to encourage. After all, binge watching on Netflix also has many proponents. Let your fans immerse themselves in your content by rolling out videos several at a time. One of our clients did that recently and it was definitely the right thing to do for their audience and goals.

Rolling out video all at once can be ideal

Recently our client the Foundation for Community Association Research (FCAR), a 501(c)(3) Foundation affiliated with the Community Associations Institute (CAI), released a series of 10 short videos on ethics in community associations. FCAR’s long been known for outstanding print research publications about their industry, and their new direction to make video a cornerstone offers an effective way to bring expert content to large numbers of members and partners. Because the content was part of a series meant to be watched together, they decided rolling out these videos all at once was the obvious choice. Viewers can still choose to watch one video at a time, but annotations at the end of each video will entice them to watch the next. Likewise, by using the YouTube playlist feature FCAR made it easy to go automatically to the next video in the series.

Rolling out video in the right way affects your channel traffic

FCAR’s decision to break up a longer video into smaller segments will not only help to retain viewer attention and get them to engage more actively with the material. Having more videos has SEO benefits; FCAR will have more videos on their channel that contribute to the channel’s standing, and each video can be titled and tagged to its particular subtopic, resulting in more views via search. Focusing on the basics is likely more crucial to your YouTube Channel traffic than whether you publish a group of videos at once or spread them out. Growing great content builds SEO. Releasing them on a schedule that builds viewership—whatever that schedule is—builds it, too.  With an approach to rolling out several videos that fits your audience and your brand–and with these key principles in mind—you’ll be able to build momentum and reach your video marketing strategy’s goals. If MiniMatters can help you with business video, fundraising video, association video, or other video production needs, we’d love to provide an estimate through our online form, talk with you at 301-339-0339, or communicate via email at [email protected]. We serve associations, foundations, nonprofits, and businesses primarily in Washington, DC, Maryland, and northern Virginia.