• by Bill Drolet , August 25, 2014

It’s often said that content is king and distribution is queen, but platitudes are a “moral without a fable.” That’s because relevance is actually king. Consider that there are now over 188 million unique monthly viewers for online video in the U.S. alone. Not every viewer is appropriate for your brand, and your message isn’t relevant to everyone. It’s important to define your audience, position ads accordingly, and to plan an effective distribution strategy.

Identify and reach your audience. An audience is a specific group of buyers within your target market. It is defined by demographics, personal interests, social media platform preferences, online behavior, or the relevance of your product the hot buttons of the group. Once an audience is identified, the next step is to determine how to reach your audience.

A distribution strategy is a plan to place your video content -- paid, owned or earned – where your audience is online. The market for online video now rivals prime-time television, and at least one Nielsen ISG survey finds that it offers brands greater recall of an ad. So, there’s an opportunity for your strategy to get broader reach than possible through traditional online advertising media or search engines

Practice brand safety. Of course, there’s always the possibility that your content could be displayed someplace that’s undesirable for your corporate reputation or brand. Semantic technologies also minimize that risk by ensuring that your videos appear on quality sites, in relevant places, and at the right time. Keyword searches don’t always prevent the embarrassing “goofs” that have afflicted online advertising. Bad pairings happen so frequently that Pinterest has dedicated a site to ad placement slip-ups.

It’s also a two-way street: the best ad networks and publishers are choosy. Your content and landing page will determine where your brand is featured online and whether it’s featured on your audience’s top tier destinations.

Don’t be “content” with mediocre content. Content must complement your distribution strategy, and be engaging enough to break through the noise. The first question to answer when planning is, “what will be entertaining or useful to my audience?” Don’t assume that one piece of content or one campaign will work for everyone. Instead, create multiple content pieces that are thematically relevant to your audience, and most significantly, what they are already watching. A content strategy isn’t always a hard sell of your brand.

 Be fresh, be funny, be helpful, and consider supporting your videos with additional marketing resources such as written editorial, paid media, PR and social media promotion. A paid media campaign could include banner ads, search marketing, sponsorships, and content syndication. Syndication is growing in significance, and can be an effective strategy if you partner with a “good” player that utilizes the appropriate metrics, relevant content, and SEO approach to succeed. A social media presence builds followers that can engage with your brand and other users in the community.

Also, remember that your video is likely being consumed on multiple devices and places. The consumer may not know exactly which ad triggered them to buy. Purchase decisions are made bi-directionally as users switch among their “screens” as media convergence becomes more commonplace and video continues to increase in popularity. However, you must be found where your audience is looking.

The trick is being seen, and that takes careful planning, a keen understanding of your audience, as well as how and when to reach them.