Making a Video QR Code? YouTube isn’t the Best Option
Posted on by Jason SummerfieldOne of the great things about QR codes is that they can add a new dimension to printed materials by sending users directly to video that complements the printed piece.
For those who want to point their QR code at a video, YouTube has become a popular option, and with good reason – YouTube offers a mobile-friendly video display, and it’s very easy to simply point your QR code to a URL for a YouTube video. If you just want to share a video, sending users to a YouTube page is a practical option. Unfortunately, this approach also leaves a number of important things to be desired.
For one thing, a YouTube page does not provide a branded experience – your visitors will see YouTube’s brand first and foremost, not yours. More importantly, once a user is done watching a video on YouTube there isn’t much they can do to actually interact with your business or organization after they are done watching the video.
The purpose of sharing a video usually goes beyond simply getting users to view it – ultimately the goal is to get users to take some sort of meaningful action, such as:
- Request information with a lead capture form
- Sign up or register for something
- Buy something
- Click-to-call
- Send an email, SMS message, etc.
The problem is that you can’t do these things with on a YouTube page. If you’re really serious about using QR codes and mobile media as effectively as possible, pointing a QR code at a YouTube page is a missed opportunity to really engage your target audiences and convert their visits into meaningful action.
A Better Approach – Mobile Landing Pages with Embedded Video
In order more effectively share video through a QR code and also engage viewers, you need to create a custom landing page. With this approach, is approach you embed the video into the page and also offer whatever additional information or call-to-action will be most helpful to engage viewers once they are done watching the video.
This landing page approach holds a number of inherent benefits over a YouTube page, including:
- Customize with your brand
- Embed video from the source of your choice (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu, etc)
- Provide additional information, photos, links and other resources
- Engage with social media
- Integrate actionable lead capture tools with contact forms, email , SMS or phone
The next time you’re considering how to promote your business or organization with QR codes and video, make sure you think beyond the video and consider the actions you want viewers to take once you’ve engaged them, and what else you can offer them while you have their attention. This approach is sure to amplify the results of your next video QR code campaign.
Using YouTube as a landing page is great exposure for YouTube, but doesn’t provide much in terms of actionable conversions or brand awareness for your business or organization.
A custom landing page not only provides the visitor with a video, but also a number of other options for engagement and direct interaction with your brand.
