We’ve talked about Google+ Hangouts before, and we’ve talked about YouTube marketing too. But did you know you can integrate these two features to make them both more powerful?
Google+ Hangouts is like Skype. You can host a web conference with up to 10 people (with Skype, it’s 25). However, Google+ Hangouts has some additional features that Skype can’t touch.
For instance, you can share documents with the other webinar participants in real time for free. You can share your computer screen and use Google Drive to share your documents. You can also click the “ON-AIR” button once your Google+ Hangout is underway and record your Hangout live. Let’s see you do that with Skype!
But it doesn’t stop there. You can easily share your Google+ Hangout with all your friends on YouTube. That makes your webinar available to your YouTube channel’s followers and the billions of YouTube users who search for videos on a daily basis.
Once your web conference on Google+ Hangouts is shared on YouTube, you can then share it on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and any other social media site you are a member of.
Google+ Hangouts is a free feature that is a part of Google+. It’s a powerful business tool for video marketing.
Marketing your brand through YouTube is one of the most powerful media for marketing on the Internet, but what is the true value? Is it traffic? Rankings? Brand reputation?
The truth is, most of the benefit you get from marketing your videos through YouTube is with brand management, not traffic or rankings.
The Truth About YouTube Traffic
In the FAQ section of this lengthy blog post, the author gives an example of a YouTube video marketer who showed over 400,000 views on their YouTube videos in December 2012 but received only 19 referrals to their website as a result of those videos.
If that doesn’t shock you, it should.
The amount of traffic you can expect from your YouTube videos is relatively low. Why? Because people don’t go to YouTube to find videos that promote websites. They go there to find a video to watch for entertainment or informational purposes.
YouTube And Search Rankings
If you upload videos to YouTube hoping to increase your website’s search engine rankings, you’ll be disappointed. You could see a rise in your brand’s search rankings, but it will likely be your YouTube channel – especially if you upload a lot of videos and if you share them on your social media accounts or embed them on your website.
Video embeds from YouTube help YouTube’s rankings, not the site on which videos are embedded.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you want more rankings for your brand name, YouTube could be a place for you to make that happen. Just know that you’ll be ranking your YouTube channel, not your website.
YouTube And Branding
Your best bet for using YouTube for marketing purposes is to upload videos that have a strong branding message to them. Try to make your videos informative and entertaining. If you can do both and still get your brand in front of your audience, then you’ll be golden. That’s what YouTube is all about.
YouTube has opened up One Channel to the entire world. So what is it?
In a word, One Channel is YouTube’s new design platform that allows you to make your YouTube channel more accessible to more people. The prime feature of One Channel is that it makes your YouTube channel easier to experience on any digital device. No matter what kind of screen your video viewers are using, they can experience your videos.
That includes desktop machines, laptops, tablets, smartphones, TVs, or any type of device with a digital display.
Check out this example of a YouTube One Channel design.
YouTube Is More Accessible Than Ever Before
YouTube One Channel isn’t just for independent movie makers. It’s for anyone who has a YouTube channel and makes videos for an audience. That includes online marketers.
No matter what niche you serve, if you have your own YouTube channel, then you should switch to the new YouTube One Channel design. If you aren’t producing your own videos on YouTube but you’ve considered it, then you should definitely put your eye on this new product because this is the future of video marketing.
I’m proud to see video marketing improving, especially on YouTube. This is one area where technology just keeps improving. It’s good to see it.
We haven’t heard much from Yahoo! in recent months, but new CEO Marissa Mayer, who had lived at Google for a long time before moving to take over Yahoo!, has high hopes:
Mayer said that the biggest opportunities for Yahoo lie in “search, display, mobile and video,” and, in search, especially, Mayer still sees “a lot of headroom.” On top of that, Yahoo’s focus going forward will be to improve engagement, with the key being personalization.
The interesting thing about this is, I believe Yahoo! could actually pull it off. Acquisitions in these areas in the last few months gives Yahoo! at least a fighting chance. Two of those acquisitions include OnTheAir and Stamped.
Mobile And Video: Will They Save Yahoo!?
OnTheAir is a video app that allows users to set up their own webinar. If Yahoo! can capitalize on this technology, they could give Google a run for their money in competition with Google Hangouts.
Stamped is a mobile app, and I think this is where the real opportunity lies for Yahoo! Nobody dominates mobile search, but if Yahoo! can take Stamped and turn it into a competitive product or service, along with decent revenues, then they can establish a big foot in the door. All they need is a profitable service to give them enough financial clout to carry on with other endeavors – like video.
In order to compete well with Google Hangouts, Yahoo! will need to integrate its video live streaming with a video sharing component. Most likely, that will be Flickr, who already has a huge base of users in the photo sharing space.
It will be interesting to see if Yahoo! can build a search product that competes with Google. I’m rooting for them.
Google+ Hangouts just keeps getting better. Did you know you can livestream your hangouts over YouTube, and even on your own website?
It’s true. All you need is a computer, a Google+ account, and a webcam. Then you can plan, schedule, and broadcast your very own Hangout. You can use your Hangout for anything you want. Here are a few ways you can use Google+ Hangouts:
Hold a series of classes or workshops
Host a webinar
Answer customer service questions in realtime
Take care of customer service issues with multiple people having the same problem at the same time
Make an important announcement about your business
Introduce a new product or service
Conduct private business meetings
Present awards, promotions or other honors across great distances
I’m sure you can think of other uses for Google+ Hangouts. The cool thing about Hangouts is that they are free. Instead of paying for meeting or webinar meetings, you can have them on Google+ for free. And you can livestream them over YouTube or your own website – again, for free.
Innovative online marketers are always trying something new and always testing the latest technology available to them. Google+ Hangouts is still new enough that you can be on the ground floor.
Video marketing is becoming more and more powerful, and competitive. It’s also one of the best ways to SEO your website. And I mean beyond building inbound links.
Here are 5 SE0 tactics to ensure you employ when conducting your ongoing video marketing:
Submit to more than just YouTube – There are at least 50 video sharing websites online. You should upload every video to YouTube and at least 10 of the more popular video sites in addition to YouTube.
Optimize your video titles – Make sure the title on each video you upload to the various sites mentioned above is unique. If you share one video to ten sites, then you should have ten unique titles. Each of them should use your primary keyword. Also, optimize your description and tags for each video on each site.
Embed your video on your website and/or blog – Google is now indexing embedded videos on websites and sending traffic directly to those sites.
Add a niche-related video section on your website – This will encourage other people in your niche to share their videos on your website. More content equals more SEO.
Create a video sitemap – Sitemaps help search engines find pages to index. If you have a lot of videos on your website, then you should create a video sitemap.
Video optimization is one of the most important activities you can perform if you use videos in your marketing – and you should!
If you’re looking for a new opportunity in video marketing, YouTube has it. But this opportunity requires that you put an educational twist on your videos, not a self-promotional angle.
I hope you don’t see that as a bad thing.
The Internet has always been a place where people have gone to search for information. Therefore, informational-driven content typically does well. In times past, that has existed primarily in text-based content such as articles and blogs. But today, it is just as likely to be in the format of videos, infographics, or multimedia presentations.
Khan Academy is a YouTube channel that is education-focused. If you have a topic that is easily digested and perfect as an educational venue, and you believe you are the right person to deliver educational content on that topic, then here’s your opportunity.
Educational videos are very popular right now – on YouTube and elsewhere. So this opportunity comes at just the right time.
The YouTube opportunity – termed EDU Gurus – will only be open to 10 people, each of whom will receive $1,000 to allow them to purchase educational equipment. But you have to apply for the program. If you’re accepted, then you could be the next YouTube sensation. Here’s your opportunity, all of you who are interested in being video superstars.
It’s getting harder and harder to convert video viewers to customers. It could be because videos are a lot more popular online right now than they’ve ever been, but it’s also because there are so many ways to view videos. People aren’t necessarily watching them on your website. And not necessarily on YouTube either.
People watch videos on social networks and on their mobile phones and tablets too. They may be at home, at work, or standing in line at the movie theater. You have to grab their attention fast and close them.
Here are 4 ways to ensure you get closer to converting video viewers to customers the first time they watch your video:
Keep it short – Few people have time to watch a ten minute video, especially if they feel like they will be sold to. Make it short and hold their interest.
Entertain them – Be entertaining even as you inform. People will sit through two minutes of entertainment more than a 30-second infomercial that is nothing more than a conduit for information.
Add calls to action – If you want people to respond, give them a call to action. Tell them what to do because it may not be obvious.
Close them on the spot – Put your call to action in the video itself rather than having your viewer go to your website and fill out a form. If you can get the click right in the video, then you put your customer one step closer to the conversion. That means you are more likely to get the sale.
Video marketing is becoming more sophisticated every day. Leave nothing to chance.
I like this post at Constant Contact that shares ways you can make a video without it costing you money. One common misconception about video marketing is that it must cost a fortune. It doesn’t have to.
What typically costs the most in video marketing is the production. It’s especially expensive if you use paid actors in your videos. But you don’t have to do that. You can often make great videos using your staff.
Constant Contact shared 6 ways to make no-cost or low-cost videos. I’m going to talk about 3 ways that are no-cost and super-powerful:
Showcase your work – If you run a business where the product is some sort of creativity, or even if there is a final visible outcome such as fixing a car, then you can videotape that process. All you need is someone to control the video while you do your work.
Interview an expert – One way to get the word out about yourself is to conduct an interview on video. Either have someone ask you questions as if you are the expert (because you are), or you can interview an expert on camera. Since you are the producer of the video, you get the credit and it’s powerful marketing.
Make an announcement – Another way to make a great low-cost video is to announce a fundraiser or an event. If you pick a great charity to support and you hold a fundraiser for that event, you can announce it through video and drive traffic to your event. Plus, it’s great marketing.
In each of these cases, your staff can be the on-camera talent. That will save you a bundle in video production.
If you are doing any amount of video marketing, then you’ve got to pay attention to YouTube. It is THE place to upload and share your videos online. But you have to optimize your videos for search and that takes a little thinking ahead.
Title – YouTube videos, like web pages, have titles. And they are just as important. It’s not clear just how much titles affect the rank of videos, but the title is sure to affect video rankings. Make sure your video titles tell viewers what your video is about and use your primary keyword (the one you want the video to rank for).
Description – Just like meta descriptions, video descriptions are important on YouTube. Take the time to write a description using one or two keywords. Tell viewers what your video is about. How is it different than other videos on YouTube?
Tags – YouTube allows you to write tags for each of your videos. This is where you will use keywords that are relevant to your video. List as many as you can think of, but make sure they are relevant. Don’t engage in keyword spam.
Transcription – This is one that many YouTube video marketers don’t think about. YouTube actually uses your transcription to rank videos. What you want to do is type out a word-for-word video transcription of your video and upload it to YouTube.
Authority – You should create a channel, and post videos often. As you post videos and they are liked by other YouTube users you will develop a channel authority. That’s very important. Manage your channel authority and you’ll do well.
It’s no secret that video marketing is picking up speed. More and more companies are figuring out that online videos drive traffic and increase engagement. Surprisingly, the Fortune 100 companies have figured it out too.
Remember, just a couple of years ago marketers were asking, “Where are the global corporations? Why aren’t they making inroads into Internet marketing?” It turns out, now they are, and they’re doing it with video.
In 2010, only 50% of the Fortune 100 companies had YouTube channels. Last year, that number was 57%. This year, it’s 79%. What changed?
I think they’ve figured out that people will actually watch their videos. They’ve been told that no one wants to watch a boring commercial if they don’t have to. After all, when the commercials come on TV, we go to the fridge. Evidently, that isn’t necessarily true. Some people DO like the commercials.
In fact, 2 million viewers subscribe to the Fortune 100 channels, and these companies are keeping their viewers engaged.
That’s good news for the small business. If the global companies can do it, then you can too. The key to effective video marketing is to entertain first. Keep your audience engaged by giving them some reason to return to your channel over and over gain. Feature real people doing spectacular feats, or entertain them with your skills. Tell them a story. Do something that will get their attention. Don’t be a salesman.
We all know how expensive video production can be. Especially if you have to find and pay for talent to be in your videos. And if you want professional grade videos – not those home made throw togethers that are popular in certain circles – then you should expect a somewhat big production budget.
But I think YouTube is about to change all of that, and for the better.
AdAge is reporting that YouTube will soon launch a marketplace where video producers can hook up with talent for their videos. This is a great idea and I’m surprised it’s taken so long to get there. But I like what Baljeet Singh, group project manager at YouTube, had to say about the talent on the world’s largest video sharing site.
“The creativity coming out of YouTube rivals that coming out of creative agencies any day of the week,” he added. “And we already know that their content performs really well on YouTube.”
In other words, if you are a small business making a video to promote your brand, why pay thousands of dollars to an ad agency to get you a celebrity spokesperson when you can be just as effective with a fraction of that cost by hiring direct from the marketplace a YouTube celebrity? There are thousands of people on YouTube now making six figures by producing their own video channels. One of them could be your short video on-screen talent saving you a bundle while you get a professional quality video that promotes your brand.
Video marketing has been hot for at least three years now. YouTube is still less than a decade old, but the opportunities for small and medium businesses to take advantage of the video marketing benefits are growing more and more every day.
In fact, a recent article at Marketing Pilgrim illustrates this truth very well. Here’s a little snippet from the article.
Whether your business is large or small people want to know what you do in the quickest and easiest format for them. So what if you feel that video is too expensive? So is losing business to lesser competitors because you are counting the wrong things as important in your business.
I couldn’t agree more.
YouTube’s video channels are becoming more and more popular all the time. I’m not saying you necessarily need a video channel, but if it is feasible for your industry, why not start a channel that depicts an entertaining and informative news format for your niche?
Online marketing in general is becoming more and more competitive. Video marketing is just one piece of the pie. But it’s a piece that does not deserve to be ignored. It’s becoming more important every day.
Have you thought about how you can incorporate video marketing into your marketing plan? What have you come up with?
A few days ago we discussed tablets and how they’ve grown into one huge market on their own. Well, a new study confirms that finding and enhances it.
Tablet users now make up 31% of the market. That’s huge penetration and phenomenal growth since last year. What’s more, they are huge content consumers.
In fact, tablet users will pay for content and they will respond favorably to ads within that content. That might be a first.
How The Tablet Could Revolutionize Video Content
As previously mentioned, tablet owners can do all sorts of things on their devices including:
Read blogs, magazines, and newspapers,
Browse the web
Read e-books
Watch videos
Listen to the radio
Download apps
Play games
But what are they doing the most? Accessing content and watching videos.
94% of tablet users access content through their tablet weekly while 54% watch videos. When it comes to watching videos, the most popular types of videos accessed are short-form news and entertainment (92%). After that, it’s user generated content such as what you’d find on YouTube (64%).
So does this spell opportunity for video content producers? You bet it does. In fact, it spells sterling opportunity.
With tablet usage expected to grow beyond the current numbers, you could consider this moment in history an awesome opportunity for content creators of all kinds. If you are a content producer and you want to know where to capitalize next, consider the tablet. It’s got open arms.
Video production is a worthwhile endeavor if you have a purpose. And video marketing certainly can deliver traffic if handled with the right amount of patience, a good plan, and a good video.
Before you start your video production you should ask yourself a handful of questions. Start with these:
Who is your audience? – I don’t just mean your business target. I mean the target audience for your video. Narrow it down to a specific subset of your total audience. Not all marketing messages will appeal to every segment of your audience, so define the audience for that specific video.
What is your budget? – Budget matters. If you want to include a particular element in your video but budget constraints won’t allow it, you need to know that before you start production.
What is the goal for this video? – Without a well-written objective you likely will not meet it. Know exactly what you want your video to accomplish for you before you start producing it.
Does it tie in to another promotion? – If so, which one? Some videos are standalone. They are their own promotion. That’s fine, but if your video is being produced to tie into another promotion, then you need the input of the team that is putting that other promotion together.
What is your deadline? – Define your deadline before you begin. Then work hard to stay on schedule.
Every aspect of your video production and timeline need to be defined before you begin production. Don’t leave anything to chance.
Have you ever wished you could broadcast a video online in real time to an audience of thousands of eager watchers? It won’t be long before you can.
I like this idea. It’s about as sublime an idea as I can think of. But what does it take?
First, it takes a Google+ account. If you haven’t signed up for a Google+ account, then I’d suggest you do so. This is only going to get better.
Secondly, you need a YouTube account. If you don’t have one, sign up for one now. Remember to sync your YouTube account and your Google+ account by using the same login address.
Start a Google+ hangout. Invite people. Enjoy the hangout.
The Google+ Hangouts on Air hasn’t been rolled out publicly yet, but when it does go public, you’ll then be able to have a recording of your hangout post automatically to your Google+ stream and your YouTube account. Then, you and the other participants, as well as people watching the recording after the event, can discuss it. That’s powerful video marketing.
In fact, it’s the most powerful video marketing ever. After all of that, you’ll be able to share the video on Facebook, Twitter, LinkIn, and wherever else you have a social media presence.
Google+ Hangouts is already a powerful feature of the new social network owned by Google. When you add the ability to record your hangout and have it post automatically to YouTube – well, you can’t beat it. It isn’t exactly realtime (thought the event itself is), but it’s just one step away.
If you do a fair amount of TV advertising and your target market is Web savvy or a tech savvy audience that spends time on YouTube, then you can improve your TV advertising performance by adding a YouTube channel to your campaign. How do I know? It’s been done before.
Watch this video and you’ll see what I mean.
Using YouTube for audience engagement is nothing new, and I’m sure other television advertisers have added a YouTube channel to their TV advertising campaigns. But I haven’t seen anyone talking about the results from doing so – until now.
Reciprocal Consulting has said all along that a YouTube-TV advertising combination would be effective. Just think about it. You can produce one video for your YouTube channel and use it for your TV advertising as well. That will save you on the cost of production of your videos.
Another way to make it pay is to produce two versions of the same video – one for TV and one for YouTube. If your video tells the same story with two different endings, then you can drive traffic from the TV ad to the YouTube channel where you can get a little deeper engagement with your audience, not to mention track them a little more closely. Then, your engaged audience can interact with you in the comments of your YouTube channel.
If you have thought about adding an online video marketing element to your TV advertising campaigns, there is no better time than now.
Do you have a good idea for a YouTube channel? Think you could become the Jon Stewart of online video entertainment or the Brian Williams of online video news content? What about your own niche programming serving up videos to your website’s audience. Maybe you could be the Tim “The Toolman” Taylor of hardware, or you could deliver video car reviews.
Whatever your passion is, you can now enjoy the same monetization opportunities on YouTube that were previously only open to producers of popular content.
In other words, if you have only 500 subscribers to your YouTube channel and regularly receive just 20 likes on your videos, that’s OK. You can still join the YouTube partnership program and start monetizing your videos. This is an incredible opportunity. Not only can it provide incentive and encouragement for you to continue with those videos – if you’ve considered giving up due to lack of attention – but you might be able to leverage it into an additional revenue stream for your business.
The first step, of course, is to sign up for a YouTube account. If you haven’t considered your own YouTube channel until now, it might be a good time to do so.
The second step is to start producing videos. The good news is they don’t have to be long videos. You can post 1 ten minute video per week and with the proper social network campaign you could drive your viewership up and up and up. That will increase your revenues and your exposure.
If you’ve had an eye on YouTube, start your video marketing right now. You have one more motivation.
A new study in video ad marketing suggests that you should start your video with a surprise to engage your audience, then quickly shift to something uplifting that inspires joy. That is, if you want to keep your audience engaged.
Bunk.
The key is engagement. I grant you that. But how you engage your audience depends on a number of factors including your product and brand and your audience. Duh.
I don’t discount that surprise engages an audience. I also don’t discount that elements of joy within your video will keep your audience engaged. I do discount any notion that the key to effective video marketing is to use these two elements back to back. I’m pretty sure that’s not what Marketing Pilgrim intended to say, and almost equally sure the study wasn’t conducted to suggest that. But it doesn’t hurt to dispel the myth anyway.
To be effective in marketing through videos, you do have to have audience engagement. That means, don’t throw a TV-like commercial together and hope people will watch it.
Your video marketing will be more effective if you tell a story. People love stories.
Engage your audience using storytelling techniques while placing your product or brand into the story. That’s the most effective video marketing you can get. But your story has to be engaging. It can be funny or it can sad. It can even be scary or dramatic. But it should engage your audience and it should be appropriate for your brand, your product, and your company’s personality.
Social video marketing is a new term that is beginning to catch some momentum. But what does it mean? Is it just about slapping a video up on YouTube and going about your business?
In a word, no. There’s much more to it than that.
The keyword here is “social.” Video marketing involves high quality video production and then uploading your videos to the right video sharing websites and/or posting it to your website or blog. But social video marketing takes that a step further.
Google gets it. Its new social media service, Google+, makes video sharing very easy. There are two ways to share on Google+. You can click the YouTube slider on the top right of your screen and search for a video by keyword, then click to share that video. Or, you can click the video icon in your post box and record a video live to post it in your stream for your followers to see.
Of course, you can also share videos on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. But social video marketing is as much about the social marketing as it is about the video marketing.
You should be commenting on other people’s videos. And you should be sharing other people’s videos. Don’t forget that YouTube is as much a social network as it is a video sharing site. So use it for networking. That means befriending people with like interests, liking their videos, embedding their videos, sharing their videos with your friends and followers, etc.
Take video marketing to the next level. Make it social video marketing.
