So you’ve received your amazing new explainer video and you’re excited to show it to potential customers. Well you’re in luck! We’ve created a handy checklist of places your explainer video should call home in order to get the word out on your product or service.

1) On your website

One of the first places your new explainer video should go is your homepage. Having an explainer video on your web page makes it 53% more likely to show up on the first page of Google search results. But implementing an explainer video on your homepage can do more than just help your company’s SEO. As part of a well-executed landing page, an explainer video can significantly increase web conversions. Our clients have seen as much as a 100% increase in daily signups after implementing their explainer video.

Put it this way: not having your explainer video on your website can be harmful to your business.

2) On YouTube

Explainer videos on YouTube

Even brands using proprietary hosting services like Wistia should seriously consider uploading their explainer videos to YouTube. It’s the world’s second largest search engine by a wide margin, and is being used by millennials as much as Facebook. Over 6 billion hours of video is watched on YouTube every month – some of that time should come from your explainer videos.

Surpassing 100 million users in 2013, Vimeo is much smaller than YouTube, but still a viable host for your explainer videos. The cleaner, more professional design, and lack of pre-roll ads make it an appealing for use as a company portfolio.

3) On social media

Participating in your target customers’ online conversations is a great way to get them talking about you, and explainer videos can be a highly sharable piece of social media content. Here are some recent stats demonstrating the effect of video in social media:

  • A recent article by ReelSEO states that video urls were the second most retweeted and shared links on Twitter after photo urls.
  • Data released by comScore showed that Facebook ranked second behind only Google (primarily YouTube) for number of unique video views in December 2013.
  • Adding a video in your LinkedIn company page update can result in a 75% higher chance of that update being shared by your followers.

It’s important to remember that not all social networks are created equal. Different networks appeal to different customer demographics, each with their own set of expectations and content preferences. Take the time to research the best practices for each social network you target to ensure the maximum impact for your video content.

4) On your blog

It’s probably obvious from reading our blog, but we agree with Hubspot that if your company isn’t already blogging, it needs to start now. Effective blogging can drive both traffic and leads for your business by providing potential customers with actionable value.

But effective blogging requires compelling content! Whether it’s part of an awareness, education, or persuasion campaign, your explainer video contains important information presented in an engaging format, making it an easy addition to your blog content, or perhaps the focus of its very own post.

5) In your email campaigns

As a regular SSV blog reader, you know that just because you’ve built it doesn’t mean they’ll come. Thankfully, the power of video to capture your customer’s attention works just as well in outbound marketing campaigns as it does sitting on your homepage. Wistia has posted about the advantages of using video in its email marketing, claiming a consistent 3-4x increase in click-throughs when mentioning a video in email. Video has consistently proven to be an enticing carrot for customer engagement, so don’t be afraid to leverage your explainer video during your next campaign.

6) In your customer support

Customer Support

Putting the right information in front of your customer can help address problems at scale or nip customer support requests in the bud before they happen. While some types of explainer videos are better suited as support tools than others, the right video can be lifesaver when your customer support team needs… support.

7) Face to face

We’ve covered this in detail before, but explainer videos don’t have to be viewed online to have an impact. In-person presentations of you explainer video are a great way to ensure employees and business partners understand your message or product vision.

Smart marketers are always looking for new ways to leverage their digital content to attract more eyeballs and generate leads. If you use your explainer video in a manner not mentioned above, post a comment and let us know!