A smart distribution method, SEO, and strategy can increase video views and help get you a big ROI. I’m talking about the nitty-gritty DIY methods. The kind where you have to roll up your sleeves and do some tedious typing and filling out forms. Pro-tip: get an intern to help you out.

A comprehensive guide to increasing video views

1. Host video on multiple platforms

The video on your homepage should not be a YouTube video. YouTube is a good source of getting views for your videos as it is the second largest search engine, but it isn’t always the best place to host your videos. If your main goal is to drive more traffic to your website, you should host the video on your own site. At a minimum, you should use Youtube and one pro-hosting option.

Pro-hosting options:

• Wistia
• Vimeo Pro
• Vzaar
• Viddler
• Brightcove

To increase syndication & cross-promote also use free video hosting sites like Dailymotion, Metacafe, Instagram, Break, Veoh & Live Leak.

3 places that your video should go immediately upon release: homepage of your website (above the fold preferred), your blog, and the About Us page.

2. Optimize your video for search using long-tail keywords to increase video views

Long-tail keywords are those three and four keyword phrases that are very, very specific to whatever you are selling. You see, whenever a customer uses a highly specific search phrase, they tend to be looking for exactly what they are actually going to buy.”

Use Google Keywords Planner or Word Stream Free Keyword Tool to help generate long-tail keywords.

3. Embed a video thumbnail into the newsletter

Most companies and websites with a basic marketing program have some sort of newsletter they send out to potential clients. Your video should go into your newsletter as soon as possible.

4. Start a video campaign on Twitter

Use a link helper tool like Buffer to help find peak engagement times and send out a tweet linking to the video on your website. Make sure you have room to type out the exact phrase “Please retweet”. The first day you should tweet it out twice, usually once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

Tweet it out once the next day. Then two days after that, then 4 days after that, then one week after that. Then every month after that for 3 months. During this time, you should pin the video tweet to the top of your twitter feed.

5. E-mail Signatures increase video views

Put a link to the video landing page in all company email signatures.

6. High Traffic Pages increase video views

Besides your homepage, blog, and About Us page put the video above the fold on any high traffic pages that you have.

7. Share

Share on Google +, FB, Twitter (as previously mentioned), Pinterest, Instagram, Slide Share.

8. Bookmarking

Start bookmarking your video landing page on Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Inbound.

You can kind of stack your shares by using a plug-in like Sumo Me on your blog and implement sharing to those sites. By putting Reddit at the top of my Sumo Me share buttons, I've increased the upvote to my Reddit posts tenfold!

9. Press Release to increase video views

Send a press release with your video to relevant industry sites, blogs, new sites. There’s a decent chance a clip of your video or the whole thing will be embedded on a website. It’s an easy article for the writer. Just embed the video with a 50-100 word stub and they are done. You can also shoot for the stars and try for local news and cable tv stations as well.

10. Call to Action or QR Code

Use a call to action (plus URL) or a QR code to direct people to your video landing page.

There are also several alternated to QR codes if you hate the way they look like I do. Snap Tag, Clickable paper, NFC, iBeacons (which is Apple-branded NFC), and if you have a big budget augmented reality.

Personally, I think Snap Tag looks the coolest, it’s just your logo and a coded ring around it. Consumers simply snap a photo of the SnapTag mobile barcode and text it to a designated code or scan the SnapTag mobile barcode using the Snap Reader App.

11. Post video to citation websites

Post your video to citation websites that allow video. Yelp, yellow pages, yahoo directory, hot frog, Angie's List, Foursquare, City Search, Super Pages, and anything that might apply to the industry you are in. Click for a list of 200 citation websites

12. Comment on blogs and other videos with a link to the video

This is where you put your intern to good use. Have them scour the net posting positive and relative specific comments to blogs and other videos. I would start at 5 a day until you hit 25. If it feels like there is more opportunity out there, go another 25. Have them keep going until it feels like there are no more legit positive and relative ways to post it on to blogs and comments.

Make sure to have them reply to any positive feedback, and have them ignore anything that is negative. It’s not customer service, it’s outreach and promotion.

13. Attend Vidcon

Vidcon is like comic-con for people that love online video. It happens June 23-25th at Anaheim Convention Center. This approach is not for everybody but if you have enough video content this is probably one of the most receptive audiences you can get in a 3-day span.

All the early bird tickets are gone, but the industry standard price is $750, the creator standard price is $200, and the community standard price is $150. For more information check out Vidcon

14. Win the First 8-Seconds

As the human attention span is getting shorter each day, marketers need to get their brand recognized quickly. Eight seconds. That’s all the time you have to get their attention.

You can implement some methods to get eyeballs faster and improve your video marketing performance, such as:

• Use an eye-opening title and thumbnails.
• Include a thought-provoking question in the beginning.
• Create a relevant questionnaire for the viewers.

More people will be convinced to linger until the video ends when you succeed in bringing up the tail-baiting elements for your video content. That’s why it’s vital to make your first 8-seconds impressive enough for the audience to spend their time watching your content.

Read part 2: Increase Video Views – YouTube & Facebook – Client Guide