Do you incorporate video in your marketing strategy? If you don’t, it’s time to start now! Video has become one of the most popular forms of marketing, and people not only prefer this method of communication, but they also retain more information through videos. In fact, about 92 percent of marketers agreed that video was an important part of their strategy in Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing 2022 survey:
We get a lot of questions from advisors about how they should go about adding videos to their advisor website, so if you want answers, check them out below! We will highlight 3 tips for embedding video on your advisor site.
1. Should you Host Your Own Videos?
The short answer is no, mostly because it’s just not as efficient as using another hosting platform. Some advisors self-host, meaning that the video is stored directly on their site rather than being pulled from Vimeo or Youtube. But in general, hosting your own videos just isn’t an efficient choice and here’s why:
Can be easily Copied
With self-hosted videos, the source code can easily be copied compared to embedded videos. Due to this, your content may be reproduced without your permission. You definitely don’t want someone else taking credit for your work, so self-hosting is a no-go.
Formats
If you use a video host such as Youtube or Vimeo, it automatically converts the video to a user-friendly format. The video URL can be accessed from any device on any browser. However, when you self-host videos, you have to convert them yourself, which can take a lot of time and effort with a chance of reduced quality.
Loss of visibility
Perhaps one of the biggest downsides of self-hosting videos is reduced visibility. If your video is on Youtube or Vimeo, millions of people have access to it at any time. With over 2 billion users on YouTube alone, you wouldn’t want to miss this potential audience. Your video may only be seen by people who look at your site and actively follow you on social media platforms.
Below, you can see how we embed a video from Youtube on our site:
2. Use Strategic SEO Tactics
It’s one thing to post your videos to your site, but it’s another thing to actually get people to see them. In order to make sure that your videos are being watched, good SEO is key. So how can you optimize your videos to target a higher ranking?
Title
Your video title is the first thing that viewers see, making it one of the most important elements. You want to make sure it is compelling and attention-grabbing! A great SEO tip is keeping your title short (about 40-60 characters) while using keywords that Google will pick up for SEO ranking. If you need help finding the most optimized keywords, try Google Trend. Google Trends lets you see what people are interested in by subregion.
Description
The description section of your video is a great place to give a brief overview of what your video is about. However, you want to make sure that your description is short – YouTube only shows the first 100 characters of the description before users have to click “show more,” and chances are, not many people will do that. Therefore, it is integral that the first 100 words are concise and filled with keywords.
Tags
Adding tags to your video is another great SEO tactic. When you upload your video to YouTube, you can add tags that relate to the video so that people can more easily find it.
Category
YouTube contains an option to add your video to a category. This can be found in advanced settings. As with tags, adding your video to a category is a great way to compartmentalize it and help people access your video.
Thumbnail
Just like your video title, the thumbnail is one of the first things viewers see when they look at your video. YouTube automatically generates thumbnail options, but you have the option to add your own custom thumbnail. You can create this thumbnail through a tool called Canva, and we recommend customizing it because that leads to better performance. YouTube Creator Academy reports that “90% of the best-performing videos on YouTube have custom thumbnails.
Below, you can see a customized thumbnail for one of our digital marketing videos:
Want more information on optimizing your video? Check out our blog on 7 Optimization Tips for Financial Advisors.
3. Customize Your Video Settings
Customizing your video embed code is a great way to boost engagement and offer the best video experience for your viewers. You can set your video for autoplay, HD or standard, enable or disable social features, and even control the videos that are displayed afterward. Some other things you can do are add a call to action at any point in the video, show/hide your title, add different end screens, etc.
You’re probably wondering how you can embed a video on your own site. So, let us show you how.
FMG users: Our Knowledge Base article will be your best resource.
Twenty Over Ten users: Follow the steps below to learn how.
Log into your Twenty Over Ten account.
1. Go to a location on the desired page. Editable content will be labeled with “click to edit.” Just click to edit and you can get to work. 
2. Click on the ‘Insert Video’ icon.
You have a number of options to determine how you’d like to add your video:
EASIEST
Once clicked, a box will appear where the URL for a Youtube or Vimeo video can be linked.
As long as your video is uploaded to either video hosting service, you can simply insert the URL.
Easy
You can also copy and paste the iFrame embed code. Click the “embed” option to add your third-party embed code.
Simply copy and paste the code, then hit “Insert,” and you’re good to go.
3. Click on “Save Changes” to apply your new video.
Now get out there and start creating great video content and embedding it into your site. For a sure-fire way to create killer content for Youtube, read our blog on a Financial Advisor’s Guide to YouTube.
Editing note: This article was originally published on 10/23/19 and was updated on 12/14/22 to ensure consistency.
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Justin Adams Justin is a content marketing specialist who loves to cook and play with his cats. He’s also currently learning how to play guitar and piano. He’s always thinking of ways to solve problems and puzzles. He says one of his best skills is his ability to always come up with ideas and hopes to sharpen that skill as his career progresses.
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