Add a promotional video to an event website: publish and visitor checks

Give the clip one clear job

Download the promotional-video page release sheet (English Markdown)

Choose what the clip should help a prospective attendee understand: the setting, a speaker's welcome, a sample activity or the atmosphere. A promotional clip is not the live event feed or a post-event session replay. Write its purpose, final file ID, approval owner and intended page position in the release sheet.

Verify every on-screen date, venue name, speaker name, price and call to action against the current event record. If any detail may change, leave it in editable page text rather than baking it into footage. Keep the written date, location, ticket route and contact path visible even when the video does not load.

Prepare a viewer-ready file and poster

Use a final, approved cut with a descriptive title and a poster frame that makes sense before anyone presses play. Check the opening seconds, audio level and ending on a phone. Avoid a poster that looks like a button but leads nowhere, and make the page's real play action obvious.

Plan captions for speech and meaningful audio; provide a text route to information that the clip alone conveys. W3C's media guidance separates captions, transcripts and descriptions of visual information, so review what this particular clip needs. Record caption language and version alongside the video file, then confirm the published player actually exposes them.[4]

Embed from the approved video host

Publish the clip with the video owner on the approved host. Obtain its actual embed code or share URL from that host; do not paste an editor-only preview address. YouTube's Share menu offers Embed HTML. Vimeo's Share menu offers embed code, with controls for where the video may be embedded; its available options depend on the account and settings.[1][2]

Use the event site's supported video block, URL field or HTML editor according to that site's instructions. Place the player near the specific section it explains, rather than replacing the event description with a large video. Keep a visible heading or short introduction so the visitor knows why to play it.

Test the published visitor path

Open the published page signed out or in a fresh visitor session, not only in the page editor. On a phone and desktop, check the poster, play control, sound, pause, captions, full-screen option if present, and keyboard access. Confirm the written event and ticket details remain easy to reach before and after playback.

Test a slow or blocked embed separately from a host outage. A direct video-page link can help when only the embed fails, but only if that link is approved and works for the intended viewer. Vimeo's Embed only setting has no shareable Vimeo page, while Private is not visible to outside visitors. If the host itself is unavailable, the direct link may fail too; the event page must still communicate the essential facts.[3]

Assign an update and removal owner

Record the public page URL, hosted video URL, embed setting, tester and test date in the sheet. After changing a caption track, privacy setting, file or page layout, repeat the visitor test; an editor preview does not prove public playback. Keep one person responsible for both the page placement and the video source.

Before the event, recheck any claim in the clip against the current programme and ticket status. If the claim becomes stale, replace the clip or remove it and use current page text. At event close, decide whether the clip remains a truthful archive or should be taken down, and update any direct-link fallback at the same time.