While you should never choose 'going viral' as the main goal of your video marketing campaign, this term has become the latest craze in the digital world. Most of you, digital marketers, may already be familiar with facts like these: billions of YouTube videos are watched every single day; social videos generate heaps more shares than text and images; adding videos to a landing page boosts conversions; and 80% of internet users recall a video commercial they've watched online within the past 30 days. Well, if you also strive to see such impressive results, it's about time that you become familiar with the best practices to help your video get noticed and propelled forward by millions of social media users. Here are a few of our favourite tips to create powerful, inspiring and potentially viral online videos. 1. Make Your Video About the Story Rather than the Sale Hard selling makes people shy away and even reject your communication. Don't allow your brand to become the annoying stuff that makes people hit the 'back' browser button. Rather than trying to sell your stuff, focus on telling a story. As a matter of fact, the rules of written content marketing apply to video marketing as well - the main point is to provide value to your followers and potential customers. By addressing the most stringent needs and the deepest wishes of these viewers, you'll manage to grab their attention and to stir some emotions. If you fear losing leads by using this method, consider adding a strategic call to action by the end of the video. Make sure, though, that it fits naturally into the story. 2. Start Your Video with the Best 10 Seconds Ever About 20% of your followers will stop watching your video within the first 10 seconds. According to video marketing experts, your materials should always be short and to the point. Our advice is to start with the most interesting things, in order to have your viewers hooked on watching your videos to the end. They should perceive its value right off the bat (you only have 5 to 10 seconds to persuade them). Teasers and smart questions can contribute to igniting the curiosity of your audience and to grabbing their attention. Your video should instantly answer the question "what's in this for me?" to keep people hooked. Your video can make them laugh, it can teach them something new, or it can answer one of their biggest questions. 3. Optimise Your Video for Search Engines If you want your video to be successful, you need to make sure it enjoys a good visibility in search. For SEO purposes, you may want to publish your videos to your own domain before uploading them on video sharing websites and social media networks. In addition, remember to enable embedding on your video. This will help others share your video content and spread the word about your business. This is a good method to attract a nice share of inbound links. When you, or your digital marketing agency, optimise a video for search, keep in mind that the description is by far the most important thing that can help it climb to the top positions in the SERPs. SEO can be a tricky thing to understand and stay up to date with, so it's best to appoint experts like Leapfrog Internet Marketing. Google's crawlers rely on descriptions to understand what video materials are about and to rank them accordingly. Make sure you provide Google with exact instructions on what to do with your video after indexing it. 4. Don't Be Dull! Use Humour! Many people in the corporate world believe there's no room for comedy in such environments. However, if you used humour to make your point in an economical and effective manner, why wouldn't you give it a try? Your followers want to laugh. They want to step outside their usual world and let you entertain them. Well-written captions can take you a long way. The more you can relax, the more you'll help your viewers feel at ease and forget about their worries.