juhanbotha: 11 YouTube Marketing Essentials

Video marketing is still a small market. While the number of marketers that use video is growing, not that many are making good use of it on the Internet.

If there?s one marketing medium that makes more money than the rest, folks, it?s video. That is, IF you create the right video and distribute it via the world?s largest video site, YouTube.

Over the years, even before Google acquired it, YouTube has become an indispensable viral marketing device. Do you know what?s great about YouTube marketing? One, YouTube is FREE to use; two, it?s insanely powerful.?It?s the ideal tool for promoting ideas, brands, products, or services.

With more than four billion daily views on YouTube, it?s not hard to win a couple thousand for your videos, if you go about it the right way.

What?s holding so many small businesses back from using this powerful online marketing medium??Video marketing can be an intimidating strategy for some business owners, who don?t know how to get started.

If that?s the case for you, study the following 11 tips to help you get up to speed with marketing on YouTube.

1. Research your industry
YouTube is now the second-largest search engine in the world. It?s easy to research how marketers in your industry are taking advantage of it.

You can begin by having a look at how competitors are presenting their brands, products, and services on YouTube. Pay attention to the tone they adopt in their videos. Also, keep an eye on how they use keywords in titles and descriptions as well as within the video.?It?s also instructive to note the number of views each video has gained since they were posted.

Try to learn as much as you can by studying videos. Take note of what appears to work and what doesn?t.

2. Learn from the pros
Learning how to market your business effectively on YouTube doesn?t require you to get a college degree or any technical training on video production.

In fact, many of the top viral videos online can?t claim to possess great quality. Not that quality isn?t important ? it is. However, if you?re inclined to increase your knowledge of the technical aspects of video production, from script writing to video editing, you should pay attention to the pros.

I can recommend several online video marketing experts. Focus on learning from industry leaders such as film producer and online entrepreneur Andy Jenkins, creator of the Video Boss, and Gideon Shalwick of GideonShalwick.com.

Both guys offer extremely valuable insights on modern video marketing. They will show you that you don?t need to have high-end technical gear to create kickass video marketing materials.

3. Create a brand on YouTube
As mentioned, YouTube is free to use. And it also doesn?t cost a thing to create a channel of your own.

By creating your own channel, you will create a nice brand for your business on YouTube. You can design a highly personalized page that includes customized background images and your business logo.?Of course, you may need to find a designer to take care of this for you, but that?s easy.

If you create a customized YouTube channel for your brand, your visitors will appreciate you more for the personality and passion of your enterprise.

4. Appeal to a various audiences
One you?ve establish a solid online presence with YouTube, strive to connect with audiences from different cultures, gender, background, and age groups. Apply the shotgun method, wherein you target large and differing groups of people at once.

By appealing to a broad array of people at the outset, you can test the strength and uniqueness of your video campaign. It could be tough at first, but it?s a great way to determine which groups of people will respond best to your marketing messages over time.

5. Provide useful and valuable information
Some of the best business videos are those that offer viewers tips and how-to assistance. People will flock to anything that solves their problems or provides respite from their pains.

That?s why it?s a good idea to create videos that teach people skills or provide solutions. By creating a series of how-to videos, you will broaden your fan base. People just love sharing stuff that is useful; if you can make it funny or controversial as well, you?re likely to have a viral hit.

6. Persist
Success doesn?t happen overnight. A lot of the viral videos on YouTube became incredibly successful in terms of number of viewers quite by accident: the video not only had the right ingredients to go viral, but its timing was perfect.

If at first the number of views you get isn?t what you hoped for, don?t sweat it. Just continue to tweak your videos and keep on learning. Take a second look at what you?ve created and try to grasp what it might be missing.

For more tips on creating viral videos, click on this link.

7. Always engage your audience
Some video marketers grow complacent after achieving a little success on YouTube.

Don?t fall into this trap. Video marketing, like other social media marketing strategies, is supposed to be an ongoing process that keeps your target audience engaged. Your older videos that have seen some success in the past may still attract new customers for you, but they won?t keep them loyal to you.

To keep your audience engaged and continually enlarge your base, endeavor to provide high-quality, engaging videos on a consistent basis. This is the primary way to keep a step ahead of your competition.

8. Provide less information than you should
This may sound a little surprising, but while it?s fine to provide how-to information to your audience, take care not to hand over all the information in just one video.

For one thing, your videos are apt to run longer than the Internet standard. Not only will you bore some viewers who?ll click elsewhere, but you?ll run out of ideas faster.

Limit your videos to a maximum of three minutes. Cut ideas into small episodes so you can run them in a series. That way, you?ll have more videos to present to your audience and you?ll keep them wanting more.

9. Keep videos short
This point bears emphasizing: Keep your videos short. People have naturally brief attention spans.

Four-minute videos can work as long as they manage to stay engaging throughout their entire duration, but videos that are three minutes or less work the best.

10. Prioritize quality over quantity
While one may argue there is success and strength in numbers, when it comes to video marketing, quality definitely trumps quantity.?It?s true that you don?t need to have high-end equipment to churn out great videos, but you do need to produce decent and presentable videos.

If your video presentation looks cheap and tacky, viewers are automatically going to suspect your products and services are the same.

Be sure that the marketing message is clear and useful, the video quality acceptable, and the audio crisp and clear. Avoid background noise!

11. Promote your videos elsewhere
So you?ve uploaded your video on YouTube. Congratulations!

The next step is to get the word out about your work. Broadcast your channel and individual videos on social networking sites and blog about them. Promoting your videos on social media will provide you with quick and substantial bursts of traffic.

Conclusion
As mentioned, video marketing is still a relatively small market. But it?s growing at a fast rate. If you?re not into it yet, get on the program now and beat the competition with video.