Videos are a powerful format that allows our clients and employees to hear from us directly.

The video format is fairly flexible, and content may vary greatly based on the intended impact. However, there are a few guidelines that should be followed.

• Videos do not need to have an opening card, but should close on the Smithers logo and copyright information.
• Fonts used in the video should be Calibri or Nunito Sans.
• Transitions and additional graphics must use the Smithers color palette.

Video Hosting
All Smithers videos are the property of Smithers. They should be hosted on an account platform owned by Smithers, NOT an account owned by the production company or video creator.

Not only does hosting videos on designated Smithers accounts give us full control over video permissions, it also allows our marketers to keep track of analytics and enables our viewers to easily find and watch our videos.

Video Best Practices

• Tailor the content to the audience. While viewers are typically more engaged with video content, that engagement has a time limit. Shorter is (almost) always better.
• For advertising, sales, email embeds, or general social media videos, aim between 15-45 seconds.
• For culture videos, aim between 2-4 minutes.
• For webinars, leadership talks, or other in-depth content videos, aim for approximately 20 minutes.

YouTube-Specific Best Practices

YouTube is often used as a search engine, along with the results populating within Google searches. To best utilize the platform, it is vital to implement YouTube-specific SEO. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Insert keywords into video titles while making sure they are engaging and relevant
• Optimize the video description with keywords
• Tag videos with popular keywords
• Ensure the video has been added to a category relevant to the content
• Upload custom, branded thumbnail images
• Utilize closed captions
• Add hashtags
• Add a call-to-action to the video AND the descriptions
• Create playlists on the general topic

For a comprehensive YouTube SEO guide, please review HubSpot's guide by clicking here.