Some kind of call to action is a very important feature to have in your corporate video production. If you are investing in a Chicago videographer you probably want to convey a certain feeling to your audience, and a succinct or clever call to action is an effective way to manage your audience’s reaction. In the latest YouTube Creator Playbook, ReelSEO offers some ideas on using a YouTube feature to give your branded videos some extra influence.
Annotations are an often overlooked aspect of YouTube Chicago videographer videos. They can lead the viewer to a number of actions, whether it’s directing them towards other videos you’ve created or brings attention to a call-to-action such as liking, favoriting, subscribing, or commenting. However the annotations are used, these messages that pop up in the video are a good way of directing traffic and keeping viewers informed, and good ones can create active responses that lead the YouTube algorithm to take a look at your video production and say, “Hmm…lots of activity here, I kind of like that.”
Strategy: Use annotations on your video to increase viewership, engagement, and subscribers.
Why It Works: Annotations are a unique feature to YouTube and can help you keep viewers watching more content, increase community actions on your videos, and acquire new subscribers.
How To Do It: Add relevant and helpful annotations to all your videos after upload.
Annotations Grab Viewer Attention Where Content May Not
Way back in the first sections of the YouTube Creator Playbook, the idea has always been to have great Chicago videographer content, and create calls-to-action that are compelling that lead the viewer to respond to your video production. Getting a response in any way is a huge deal. You might strike up some controversy, or have people debate a controversial topic. Really, you can do those things with text overlays in post-production, but annotations have an advantage in that they can be used as clickable links. And you want to get people to click those links as much as possible, because there is no doubt that the YouTube algorithm notices when a bevy of activity surrounds your video.
The Philip DeFranco Show uses annotations in a not-so-overbearing way. One usually greets you at the beginning of the video with his special opening, and it encourages you to “like” the video. DeFranco will verbalize that same message later, but saying it and having it written out can have different contexts and it’s good to have both. And with annotations, the message can place emphasis or make the message more clear. For instance, if I never have seen a YouTube video before, and someone asks me to “like” a video, that may not be something I quite understand. But being told to press a “like button” makes me search for that button and makes the message more coherent. Here’s one of his videos (warning – he can be abrasive at times).
DeFranco also puts two annotated links in the top left and top right of every video, leading to either one of his other shows, a future episode (if he’s retroactively added annotations), or to a previous episode, and they stay there throughout. These annotations are out of the way, don’t distract from the content, and are there to whisk you away any time. You might have reached “The Philip DeFranco Show” in error and wanted to see “Stuff Phil Likes,” one of his other shows. The annotated links give you an easy “out” and you don’t have to go back and search for it. Chicago videographer Philip DeFranco certainly won’t be upset if you cut him off in one video to go to another. You increase viewership of another one of his shows, and at the same time, the video you just clicked away from gets more love from the algorithm as being a “video that leads to other videos.” It’s magic.
Reviewing the Playbook: What Are Annotations?
Annotations are text overlays that you can place on YouTube videos. There are numerous uses for annotations and producers are consistently finding new, creative, and strategic ways to apply them to their video production.
Annotations can increase engagement and make your video conversational or interactive. They can supply additional information to the video, be an effective means to gain subscribers, increase community activity or engagement, cross-promote content, and drive traffic from your back-catalogue to your newest videos. Additionally, YouTube’s search algorithm favors videos that drive traffic to other videos, playlists, channels, or subscriptions via linked annotations. Tip: adding links to annotations is a powerful traffic and subscriber driver.
Some Simple Guidelines for Annotations
There are a few things you’d like to avoid when creating Chicago videographer annotations. First off, you should realize that your video could have an ad at the bottom third of the screen that will completely cover an annotation that you think is well-placed when reviewing what your video looks like before uploading. Generally, you’ll try to avoid placing annotations in that bottom block.
Also, you don’t want to stick annotations in a place where it is distracting to what is on screen. So place it in an area that does not block the main subject of the video production. Basically, use common sense. If you watch the video and your eyes are taken away from a crucial aspect of the content, then that annotation needs to be placed elsewhere, and perhaps at a different time.
Like all attention-grabbers, annotations, if abused, can appear to be overbearing and just like junk mail, or since we’re in the internet world, “spam.” Remember you created a video, and the content in that video should be something that people want to watch, and not get distracted by several million calls-to-action that lead them away from the video–or even worse, leaving your video entirely to go watch something else. Be strategic, and use them sparingly.
And this is something that gets overlooked, but be clear. Don’t write something people can’t understand, and make sure the annotation doesn’t clash with anything else on the screen.
Reviewing the Playbook: General Notes on Annotations
- Be aware of the lower-third ad overlay – these can obscure annotations placed in the same region.
- Be careful not to obstruct the actual content.
- Use your best judgment to determine how many annotations you should include in your episodes. Don’t bombard the viewer as it will feel “spammy” and have an adverse effect.
- Make sure to write and place text so it looks nice and reads well on the screen.
For the full story, visit ReelSEO.
If you would like to use the powerful medium of video production to help your business, visit Chicago videographer Video One Productions.
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