Making a piece of video content is an incredible experience. But you can't stop there - your job isn't complete until that video has been watched by your target audience.

That's why the distribution and marketing of your video content is so important. There's no way your video project can meet its objectives until it's been viewed and engaged with by the right people.

The most successful videos projects all have one thing in common: a strong and well-planned marketing strategy. Today we'll take a look at a first-rate example from video marketing heavyweight Dove, and how they succeeded in raising awareness of and warmth towards their brand.

Know Your Target Audience

Dove's 'Real Beauty Sketches' is perhaps the most successful example in a string of video content created by the brand. The strategy behind all of these videos starts the same way: with an in-depth knowledge of the company's target audience.

The primary persona behind the majority of Dove's products are middle class women aged between 18-34 with high incomes. They are aware of their health both physically and emotionally. They are mothers, daughters and sisters. They care deeply about their family and the people they love.

But Dove went even further when considering the target audience for their videos. They didn't just want to appeal to middle class women: they wanted to appeal to every woman. To do this they got under the skin of their audience and built on the idea that many women are very self-conscious about their bodies, or in this case, faces, whether naturally or due to images they see in the media. With this insight into their audience, Dove decided to contrast ordinary women's opinions of their appearance with the opinions of unbiased strangers.

By taking the time to understand the target audience for their video content, and gain insights into the way they think, feel and act, Dove not only creates videos that resonate emotionally with them. They also ensure their video marketing strategy is tailored towards where their audience spends their time online and how they consume video content.

Make it Shareable

Dove's aim for this video project was to gain broad awareness and spread their brand message of inspiring women to recognise their natural beauty and reach their full potential. To do that, they needed to get the video shared.

So Dove tapped into strong emotional values. They focused on the importance of every woman feeling good about herself, a message repeated very often in their marketing. The women featured in the video look visibly moved by the difference between their internal perceptions of themselves and the external reality, which in turn makes female viewers realise how they perceive themselves. In this way Dove succeeded in creating a video that would connect deeply with their audience, so much so that they would want the other women in their lives to see it.

Thanks to an understanding of their target audience, Dove knew how to create an emotionally affecting video reflective of their brand philosophy and so stirring to viewers that they felt compelled to share it. Women around the globe wanted to help bring confidence to their mothers, daughters and friends in the same way the video brought confidence to them.

And it worked. Unruly Media, a social video tracker, reports that the video has been shared 4.64 million times. That makes it the 5th most shared video of all time. 

Build a Plan of Distribution

All that social sharing would never have happened were it not for Dove's video marketing strategy. The company built a comprehensive plan across multiple channels to ensure that the video got enough initial exposure to kickstart sharing from their target audience.

Firstly, the video was launched to begin with in Dove's four key markets in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Brazil. It was then translated into 25 languages to help it spread worldwide.

Dove partnered with big names in video distribution, YouTube and Unruly Media, to help implement their social seeding strategy. A large part of the project's success came from a strong PR strategy that managed to land the video on the likes of Mashable, the Huffington Post and the Today Show, key media important to Dove's target audience.

The video was distributed to important sources globally, and from there was shared widely by other media channels. Dove also promoted the video socially to its over 20 million Facebook followers and 170,000 Twitter followers. It gained 3.17 million shares within its first two weeks alone.

Dove's 'Real Beauty Sketches' tell us the importance of a thorough video marketing and distribution strategy. Getting your videos viewed by your target audience is always the first step towards achieving your video objectives - whether you want to increase lead conversion, boost sales or raise brand awareness. Now get out there and improve your video marketing strategy!