When you think of YouTube you probably envision mindless videos of dancing cats, babies that bite their brothers, or epic schoolyard battles. What you probably don’t know is that YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world right now. Yep that’s right; they are behind Google and considered a search engine of sorts. More and more entrepreneurs are realizing that marketing with YouTube is an excellent way to promote their business.
If you’re considering adding marketing with YouTube to your own small business marketing program, here are a few things you’ll need to know:
- Setting up a YouTube Channel
When you sign in to YouTube the first thing you need to do is set up a channel. This will allow visitors to subscribe to your content and get updates whenever a new video is uploaded. It also provides you with your own little place on the web to upload as many videos as you like. It is something you can refer people to who are new to your business.
To the side of your videos you will have a short user profile. This is where you can direct users back to your blog or website. This is a highly effective means of getting traffic to your site. Regardless of what sort of business you are in you are likely going to get a good number of website visitors from YouTube. Creating your own small business marketing YouTube channel is akin to creating your own television channel would have been twenty years ago. The only difference is there are a lot more choices these days so you’ve got to keep it interesting.
- Introductory YouTube Video
After you have signed up, registered, and set up your channel it is time to start making those videos. Silly gimmicky stuff gets people going on YouTube and a little novelty never hurts. Keep in mind, however, that you are making a video for small business marketing purposes; your video is intended to introduce people to your company, so keep the novelty to a moderate level.
Though you want to keep things pretty professional don’t be afraid to talk about personal things and to keep it light. Don’t include any high pressure sales messages, especially in your first video. These days, consumers respect a business person who will talk to them like they are people. They like to know who you are and what you stand for and not just see you as another faceless mega-corporation.
- Recurring YouTube Videos
After you have set up a decent introduction, introducing yourself and your company, you can start uploading videos that are more content based that include a subtle sales message. You want to keep all of your videos short, if you can. Two to three minutes is standards, but for a small business marketing video with an educational message, four to five minutes might be necessary. If you can’t get your content into a four minute video, try separating it into several segments.
Remember, your YouTube video should not be one long commercial. Your prospects have a problem and you want to introduce them to your solution. Try to embed your advertisement into something that is meaningful and informational. You might consider using YouTube as a form of tutorials on how to use your product, safety advice for your product, tips on using your particular solution, etc. I’ve even seen a few businesses create their own reality show. The sky is the limit.
- Add Tags and Annotations
Annotations and tags are an important aspect of distributing your YouTube video, especially if you’re using it for small business marketing purposes. Annotations appear on the screen in textual form throughout the video. This is a good place to insert humorous comments about the video, which viewers love, or remind viewers of you web address.
Tags are basically search phrases. These are the terms that you want to be connected to your site. Though a few general terms are alright, be certain to include as many specific phrases as possible. This will improve your rankings and your chances of having your video found by your prospects who are searching for your solution.
YouTube has become an excellent tactic to add to your small business marketing arsenal. It’s free to get started and relatively easy to set up. The most time consuming aspect will be creating your videos, but it just takes a little time and ingenuity to get the ball rolling. So go ahead and give marketing with YouTube a shot.