Getting your supporters to take the next step when your video ends

This is part two of a three-part series on how nonprofits can create engaging multimedia stories that motivate supporters to take a desired action. Part two describes the use of call-to-action video overlays to boost ROI. Also see part one:

• Creating compelling advocacy videos for nonprofits

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, foundations, cause organizations, social enterprises, brands, businesses and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) divisions, video producers, Web publishers.

While the audience for online video continues to grow, the advances in Web video technology are changing at a dizzying pace, making it hard for nonprofits to keep up. There are several good online video platforms and third-party apps available to convert views into actions. YouTube’s call-to-action video overlay, third-party video apps and customized video domains or microsites offer great options for boosting the return on investment of your nonprofit’s video program.

YouTube’s call-to-action video overlay

Most nonprofit Web videos make mention of their organization’s URL either verbally or with graphics edited into the video. But the effectiveness of your message is cut short if you don’t include a clickable call to action that takes visitors to your website, Facebook Page or Twitter page to make a donation or to take another desired action.

YouTube’s nonprofit program offers two such call-to-action video apps that can be easily implemented: overlays and annotations.

If your nonprofit is not already part of the Google for nonprofits program, consider applying. The free program offers many benefits and can become a center for creating effective calls to action and engagement:

• Free or discounted version of Google Apps for your organization
• Premium branding capabilities and increased uploads on YouTube
• The option to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout “Donate” button
• The ability to add a call-to-action overlay on your videos to drive campaigns
• The ability to post volunteering opportunities on the YouTube Video Volunteers platform
• Free Adwords advertising

Examples of video calls to action — in action

Here are a few examples of how nonprofits have incorporated overlays and annotations to drive a specific course of action.

This Angry Kid Greenpeace video is heartfelt and does a great job delivering its message. Unfortunately, the creators stop short by simply offering engaged viewers the opportunity to visit their website at the end with no actionable link:

The Darius Goes West video takes it a step further and adds a call-to-action overlay to visit Darius’ Twitter page as part of the YouTube player:

The use of  annotations to engage the viewer and encourage interactivity can be seen in The Hug The World video (after the initial 15 second ad):

This Greenpeace video celebrating a victory over rainforest destruction also uses annotations in their call to action by encouraging the viewer to “like” the video:

Third-party video player overlays

There are several companies that have emerged recently that market call-to-action video player skins that are designed to be layered on top of players such as YouTube or Vimeo. Viewbix, for example, offers “to put the entire Web experience in the video player.”  Their software allows video creators to add elements of their websites, social networks and more into the video player so that when they share the video on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube they take all their calls-to-action and content with them.

To illustrate, Socialbrite partner Major Multimedia, a nonprofit video training and production company, created a Viewbix overlay for a video created for a client, Chicago Cares, to recognize outstanding volunteers at their awards banquet. This video is housed on Viewbix’s website but can be embedded, copied and shared.

Videos for a customized video domain or microsite

While hosting on YouTube has its advantages for nonprofits, a professional multimedia firm can help you custom-design media-driven websites and microsites that integrate with your nonprofit’s existing organizational website with platforms such as Vmix, Convio, Kaltura or Drupal (compare).

Just a little over two years ago, Pathfinder International had no videos online and little in-house video production. With the help of See3 Communications, Pathfinder launched a microsite that is built entirely around video sharing: Girl2Woman.

Pathfinder shared how they opted not to use YouTube because “we couldn’t control the look and feel as much as we would have liked, we wanted to count the shares of the videos (not the views), and we wanted to focus on integrating features like the call to action share.”  They’ve still posted the videos on YouTube, however, so that others can embed them.

They documented specific objectives for wanting viewers to share their microsite:

1. to raise the visibility of reproductive health needs throughout a woman’s life
2. to raise $1 million (and for each video share, a generous donor is giving $1 to Pathfinder)
3. to leverage the share functionality to increase the number of registrations by constituents

To meet those goals, they needed to be able to count the number of shares and capture the information of people who shared, which they couldn’t do with a YouTube hosted site.

In fact, embedding video on a nonprofit’s own website can be better for your SEO — when a video is published on a third-party site, links to those videos just increase the page rank of the third-party site, not the nonprofit’s own site. If the video is published on the nonprofit’s site they have full control over the links on that site and the corresponding SEO.

Regardless of which of these call-to-action options your nonprofit chooses, remember to:

• first build your social network & encourage conversation before inserting a call to action
• use a clear and distinct call to action that tells the viewer exactly what you want them to do
• connect viewers to URLs that elaborate on your story.

Consider placing the “call” on the skin or at the end of the video to encourage the viewer to watch until the end and follow through on the call to action. Also, because each video hosted is different, the call to action might be different depending upon the content and desired outcome.

The most important part of your call to action is ensuring that it fits with what your audience needs. When it matches the exact needs of your audience, taking the recommended next step will be a natural course of action for viewers.

Please share your own experience with call-to-action video apps and online video platforms.

Related

• Creating compelling advocacy videos for nonprofits (Socialbrite)
• Techniques to add dazzle to your advocacy video (Socialbrite)
• How to find amazing, powerful stories for your nonprofit video (Socialbrite)
• How to use microsites to better tell your nonprofit’s story (Socialbrite)
• 6 ways YouTube is helping out nonprofits, including call-to-action-overlays (Socialbrite)
• Five Nonprofits Maximizing YouTube’s Nonprofit Program (Nonprofitorgs)

The post How to effectively use calls to action in nonprofit videos appeared first on Socialbrite.

One of the most important elements on your nonprofit’s website is your call to action.

You might have a great design, compelling content and lots of visitors to your site. But what’s it worth if no one does anything on the page?

What is a ‘call to action’?

A call to action is just that – a direction or request for your visitor to take action. You want them to do something.

That something can range from sharing content via social media, joining an email list, signing a petition, or making an online donation.

10 steps to create a killer call to action on your site

1Know the time and place – If most of your traffic is coming from search, it means that the majority of people visiting your site are being introduced to you for the first time. They probably won’t make a donation, but they might “like” your Facebook Page or join an email list. You might not get kissed on a first date, but you might get a “yes” to a second date. Take the “yes”.

2Tell them what you want – Don’t be afraid to tell people what you want them to do. They’re busy. They want to be told.

3Make it about them – Instead of saying “Join our email list,” say “Don’t miss out!” Email lists are boring, but “missing out” is  painful. Think about what value they gain from taking action.

4Be specific – Giving people three donation amounts to choose from will get more results than making them come up with an amount. Guesswork takes time – remove it.

5Keep it simple – If they have to spend a minute or two to understand what you’re asking, you’ll lose them. Make sure your call to action is easy to understand.

6Make it personal – Tell personal stories about real people. People will take action to feed a little girl in Haiti before 500,000 homeless children.

7Create a short line-of-sight – Tell them how their specific donation will make an impact. “Your $10 will pay for a child’s lunch at school for an entire month.”

8Reduce the number of clicks – Remove CAPTCHAS, use Facebook Connect (the log-in protocol), keep the transaction all on one Page (as Razoo does).

9Say thank you – Tell them sincerely how much their donation means. A thank you goes a lot farther than you may think.

10Ask them to share – They just donated. That means you have a live one! Right now is the best time to ask them to share their actions on Facebook and Twitter. Use donation tools like Giving Impact to embed sharing into the donation process.

Finally, if you’re planning on using social media to promote the call to action, you need to be able to cut through the noise by presenting your call to action in a way that gets people talking. Like  Manny Hernandez did with this video.

What else works for you?

The post 10 steps to create a great call to action appeared first on Socialbrite.

I wrote about the “Call To Action” layover feature back in July, but it now appears that YouTube has amped up the feature. It now includes:

1. Prettier links

2. Whenever and wherever you want them to appear

3. Linked images within the video

So what does this mean for your non-profit? It means more clicks, as long as you use them creatively and with a sense of adventure. Funny how it always comes back to you, huh?

Kudos go to Michael Hoffman, who has been working with Steve Grove and Ramya Ragahvan — who runs the YouTube Nonprofit Program — on improving their features for non-profits.

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