Success is a nebulous word. One person’s success is another person’s failure. In order to attain it, you first have to define it. That advanced defining should be the first step, but instead it is often the vital missing step.
Before you create that great, engaging video content and then set about distributing and sharing it, start with your goals and target audience. From there you’ll be able to determine what to measure - and how it should be measured.
- What is it, exactly, you want your video content to accomplish and whom are you targeting?
- Will your video truly be of interest to your audience?
- Are you seeking out high view counts or deeper engagement with your identified audience?
- Do you want an immediate response or are you trying to change brand perception over a longer timeline?
Pedigree recently launched a series of videos to promote its new campaign “See What Good Food Can Do.” The campaign is an interesting mix of brand awareness combined with a specific call to action, with distribution across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and live events at the Sundance Film Festival.
The objectives:
- Promote shelter dog adoption
- Share Pedigree’s mission to provide all dogs with access to the professional nutrition that is often found only in premium diet
- Highlight the impact Pedigree has made in the lives of countless shelter dogs
- Connect with shelter dog adopters/advocates and those interested in adopting
Before creating its content and developing its distribution channels, Pedigree decided how it would measure its success.
Related Class: How to Create an Integrated Multi-screen Video Strategy
What would you measure if this was your campaign?
Do you measure by high view counts?
Gaining many views has value in that you know your video is being exposed to a large number of people and those numbers can assist with your SEO ranking, but…a high view count doesn’t necessarily translate to engagement. Did the consumer watch the entire video or just the first few seconds? Did she “like” it without watching it?
Do you measure by deep engagement?
With your specific audience, success may be attained through increased numbers of comments, or time watched, rather than by views or likes or follows. The numbers may be smaller, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t successful – quality over quantity.
Do you measure by shares?
Perhaps you want to connect with “evangelists” – those individuals who will do more than like or click through, but will share, repost and blog about your campaign, too. Again, numbers might be lower in this category, but this one comes with a ripple effect. One share often begets another.
The tools available for measuring are evolving on a daily basis and there are plenty to choose from: YouTube Analytics, Google AdWords, StumbleUpon, Virool, LinkedIn and Vimeo, just to name a few. As with establishing your definition of success in advance, you’ll want to determine the measuring tool in advance. Choose one that measures what you want to evaluate, rather than one that provides what it thinks you should want to evaluate.
At the end of the day, remember that you have to set the standards you want to achieve in advance and then create that amazing content, promotion and distribution. Then measure before, during and after your campaign so you can monitor your progress and adjust course if necessary.
Now you’re talking SUCCESS.