After all, the whole point of video marketing is to get seen. Videos are one of the surest
ways to increase your visibility, but it won’t happen on its own.
YouTube is hot these days. Everyone seems to love it – from children to teenagers to adults,
and yes, baby boomers. Let’s face it; YouTube is fun. It’s a fun way to be entertained and it’s
a great way to get information. When you combine information with entertainment, you get
a fun way to learn, and that’s one of the main reasons why people would rather watch a
video to learn something than read. Guerrilla marketers are always looking out for creative
ways to engage their target market, and YouTube is certainly one of those tactics.
The creators of YouTube (Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim) are marketing
geniuses, and you have them to thank for how easily you will be able to get your videos
seen. If you have a video, you absolutely should have it on YouTube, and here’s why:
. In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views.
. More than 4 billion videos are watched on YouTube each day.
. YouTube gets 800 million unique visits every month.
. Over 3 million people are connected on YouTube and are auto-sharing videos to at
least one other social network.
Information Sources:
http://www.labnol.org/internet/youtube-statistics-2012/20954/
http://digital-stats.blogspot.com/2012/01/youtube-had-over-1-trillion-video-views.html
http://www.viralblog.com/research-whitepapers/youtube-statistics/
If you don’t want to cash in on some of that, others certainly will, so it’s best to jump right
in and not wait another second.
Given those statistics, one might be led to believe that there is too much competition to get
your video noticed. That couldn’t be further from the truth however. The reason for that is
because the majority of the people who post videos on YouTube do not optimize their
videos; therefore the competition is actually quite low.
By taking a couple extra minutes to optimize your video (and it’s really quite simple), you
will find your videos quickly climbing to the top of the search results, both on YouTube
itself, and on Google.
Google is really starting to give precedence to videos in their search results and that means
that having a video will automatically raise your search ranking above those who don’t
have a video. Plus, they insert a thumbnail of your video right on the search results page
which grabs the viewers’ attention and makes them more interested in clicking on your
link.
So now that you understand the importance of marketing on YouTube, let’s get started with
creating your YouTube channel.
Setting Up Your YouTube Account:
Once you go to www.youtube.com, the first thing you need to do is choose a
username. Be careful here. Your username is what will identify you with the public
whenever one of your videos pops up. Make sure you select a professional name
that identifies you well. Don’t choose something like SillyGirl224, for example.
Instead, choose either your name, business name or a keyword that relates to the
product or service you are promoting.
After choosing your username, YouTube will ask you to select the options that you
want viewers to have available when they watch one of your videos. You should
make sure the following are enabled: Like a Video, Comment on a Video, Subscribe
to a Channel, Favorite a Video.
YouTube is basically a social media site, so each member will have a homepage that
shows their subscribers, who they are subscribed to, their favorites, likes and
history of videos viewed. This is good news because by enabling these options on
your YouTube channel, you will increase your visibility.
These options will show up on your YouTube channel so that when someone views
one of your videos, they can click the Like button, which means people in their social
media networks will see that they liked your video. They can leave a comment
underneath your video, which makes your videos more enticing for people to watch
since the comments act as testimonials. They can subscribe to your channel, which
means that anytime you post a new video, they will see that on their homepage. And
they can select your video as a favorite, which means more people will notice your
video when they check out other people’s channels. This is how videos can easily go
viral, which means that they spread around quickly – and that’s what you want.
Next, you will be able to set up your profile. If you are using your YouTube channel
primarily for business, be careful not to put a bunch of personal information in your
profile that will make you look unprofessional. It is nice to provide a little bit about
you personally, like some of your likes and hobbies because people will want to do
business with you more when you relate to them on a personal level. Just don’t
overdo it.
In the Description box on your profile, be sure to include a link (at the top) to your
website. Even though there is a separate website URL box, you should still include it
in the description box because that is viewed more often and makes links to your
site easily clickable.
Be sure to go into the Sharing section of your Account Settings to link your other
social networks to your YouTube account. This will streamline your video marketing
because whenever you upload a video to YouTube, an update will automatically
show up on your Facebook, Twitter and any other accounts that you link to your
YouTube account. This will save you time and allow you to leverage your marketing
efforts – something guerrillas always do whenever possible.
Editing Your Video:
Before you upload your videos, you want to consider how you will edit your video.
YouTube has a built in video editing feature, which allows you to string clips together, cut
out content and add music and text. This is a great way to make simple edits without
having to purchase complicated software. Additionally, we’ve listed some additional video
editing software below for those who want a more robust option:
Windows Movie Maker (free/Windows only): http://windows.microsoft.com/en-
US/windows/downloads/windows-xp
. Apple iMovie (free or purchase options/Mac only):
http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/
. Wax (free/Windows): http://www.debugmode.com/wax/
. Zwei-Stein (free/Windows or Mac): http://www.thugsatbay.com/tab/?q=zweistein
Optimizing Your Video:
Once you have edited and uploaded your video to YouTube, you will want to optimize it.
Remember, this is the step most people miss, so as a guerrilla marketer, you need to take
action. Guerrillas always take the extra step to do what others don’t – that is what makes
them stand out.
There are four keys to optimizing your YouTube videos:
Optimize your video titles. The title of your video should not only be relevant, but
should also include keywords. This makes your video rank higher on YouTube
searches (and Google searches).
Keep your titles simple. Yes, guerrilla marketers are creative, but not when it comes
to video titles. If you call your video something vague that no one would search for,
then no one will find your video. Keep it simple and to the point and name it
something that people would typically type into the search box.
Optimize your video descriptions. The description will not only sell someone on
wanting to watch your video, but it will also be a factor in the search results.
Therefore, it is important to include keywords in the description as well. Don’t stuff
the description with an overload of keywords. Just make sure to include a couple.
Optimize your tags. Tags are nothing more than keywords. This is yet another set
of commands that Google and YouTube use to decide which videos are ranked
where. Make sure you choose keywords that are the most common keywords used
to search for your topic. A great tool for doing keyword research is Google’s
Keyword Tool: http://www.googlekeywordtool.com/.
Choose the right category. Be sure that the topic of your video is relevant to the
category you choose so that your video is found more often.
While video marketing may seem like a difficult task, you will most likely find it to be a fun
way to market yourself, especially when you see the results you get with it. Don’t let fear
stop you from participating in this lucrative strategy. You can probably hire a teenager to
help you get it rolling, or even find a marketing student willing to help you for free as an
intern. Guerrillas always find a way to participate in the tactics that work, and baby
boomers want cool stuff like this. Don’t be left out in the cold.
