15 YouTube Marketing Tips for Your Small Business
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 | by Guest Author |
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Video Marketing on YouTube is a must for small businesses and startups in 2012. YouTube videos are longtail pieces of marketing content that can drive organic traffic to your website for many years to come. Here are 15 tips to know about marketing on YouTube.
1. Anyone Can Do a Video
The best part of YouTube Marketing is you do not need to hire models, buy fancy equipment, or have a baller studio. Most of the “highest viewed” videos are shot by a simple cell phone or webcam. Another option for those who are camera shy is to use Powerpoint or a similar program to make the presentation. Use Camtasia to record your voice during the presentation.
2. Learn What Works on YouTube
Basically there are three main types of successful videos that can be found on YouTube: funny, weird, and useful. If you design your video to fit into one of these categories, you will have a better chance for success.
3. Customize Your Channel
Customizing your background, colors and fonts is a quick and easy way to make your video channel stand out from the rest. This can be quickly done with Photoshop. If you are not a graphic designer- you can find a bunch of freelancers on www.fiverr.com that can quickly produce a custom channel for the low price of $5.00.
4. Put the URL Into the Description
Putting your website address at the beginning of your channel description, helps market you and your website. Be sure to always include the http:// before the website address. This will form the clickable link automatically on YouTube.
5. Put Your Keywords Everywhere
There are couple ways for searching for content on YouTube. One is through the Categories and the other is through the Advance Search. It is important that you use any keywords that you can think of to make your video easier to find. Use these Keywords in the Title, Description and in the Tags. In the Description it is also a good idea to use a Question and Call to Action format that will entice the viewer into wanting to watch your video. Using the Google Keyword Tool to find these keywords!
6. “Steal” Keywords from Successful Videos
Still can’t think of some good keywords? Try looking at other successful videos in your niche. YouTube will show a list of related videos on the right-hand of the screen. These videos are sorted by YouTube based on the Tag Relevance. Using the same tags from other videos in your market improves your chances of getting found.
7. Choose the Best Thumbnail
As most people know- first impressions are everything. The same goes for your video. The thumbnail image that you chose is like the cover to a book. It is the first thing that will draw the viewer to your channel. Taking time out to make sure you have the right thumbnail will increase your viewing rates.
8. Use Video Responses
Under all videos in YouTube there is a place for viewers to leave their comments. There is also a little known and under utilized option that allows you to respond with a video response aka a video comment. This allows you to search out the most popular videos in your market and allows you to post your video as a response. This should be used sparingly so not to look like a spammer. Also make sure the video is a complement to the video that you are responding to.
PRO TIP: A video response also improves your own YouTube marketing ranking so use your personal account to create video responses for the videos on your channel.
9. Create a Playlist
Creating a new playlist for your video and other relevant videos is a great way to promote your YouTube Video. It is important, again to use a Keyword as the name of your playlist. Once the list is created, then search out other relevant videos that are highly viewed and add them to the playlist.
10. Offer Valuable Content, Not a Sales Pitch
YouTube is NOT the place to Hard Sell your product. The Video should always be about sharing valuable content with your viewers.
11. Use Calls-to-Action
When posting your video, there is a tab called Annotations. Use this for creating your Calls-to-Action. Here is where you can remind the viewer to subscribe, like your Fan Page or whatever other calls-to-action you would like. You can place these calls to action randomly throughout your video.
12. Organize Contests
This is a great way to draw new viewers to your channel and also gather new content from your audience. Be creative with your contest ideas. Think of something fun that your audience will WANT to do. Prizes can be simple and cheap. People just like winning.
13. Promote Your Videos Outside of YouTube
Be sure to take advantage of promoting your videos on your Twitter profile, Facebook pages, blog pages and everywhere you can. The more you promote your videos, the more they will be seen. Do not forget to ask people to SHARE your video- ask them to re-tweet and Like the video etc.
14. Keep it Short
Videos should be under 2 minutes if you can. This seems to be the ideal time to keep a viewer’s attention and get more views.
15. Create Content Regularly
Create content weekly. Try to develop 2 YouTube videos a week.
YouTube is an amazing channel to market to your customer. It is highly under utilized. Stand out and use YouTube to market to your customers.
Guest Author – Matt A. Smitty is the Co-Founder of BusinessPirate.com. Follow @BusinessPirate on Twitter to learn more about their video courses.


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