Book YouTube and Video Marketing

The YouTube Nation

YouTube broadcast its first online video in 2007 and has grown rapidly ever since. Now more than 300 million people worldwide view its videos each month. Indeed, online videos have become remarkably well accepted. In February 2009, the average U.S. “YouTuber” watched 312 minutes of YouTube videos and Canadian viewers averaged 605 minutes for the month. Half of 18- to 34-year-old American YouTubers regularly share videos with their friends. YouTube, which Google recently purchased, is the “world’s most popular online video community.”

“Over 300 million people worldwide discover, watch and share videos on an estimated six million to nine million YouTube channels each month.”

All kinds of participants, from amateur directors to major corporate content producers (such as CBS), create YouTube videos. TubeMogul research indicates that 51.1% of people surveyed made money from their videos; some earned more than $100,000 annually. Of the 48.9% of people who didn’t make money, many said that they posted their videos just for fun, or that they didn’t monetize their videos by selling ads because the videos actually were ads or promotional pieces. For instance, Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” videos have boosted its sales by 700%.

“Although it’s easier to get your 15 minutes of fame (or more, depending on who you are), it’s also harder for people to find your video in the first place.”

A newcomer must invest a substantial amount of time learning how to use online videos for marketing. The task involves many specific – and potentially baffling – skills, starting with creating the video. The work of writing, filming and editing your video is just the beginning. You may need to enhance your skills as you pursue publicity, execute marketing, find the ideal keywords, optimize your video for search engines, use specialized analytics and metrics, and so on. One way to tackle your first video marketing project is to focus on it for “an hour a day,” building your knowledge and capabilities as you create your product and promotional campaign over time. As the Greek tragedian Sophocles said, “One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.”

Advertising Options

YouTube provides several different kinds of advertising venues, including “Homepage Video Ads” to target those seeking YouTube entertainment, “InVideo Ads” to feature content related to a posted video, “click to buy” links to draw in potential customers, “promoted videos” to reach people searching for specific YouTube clips and “in-stream ads” to connect to those pursuing “longer form” videos and “premium content,” like films or TV shows. When you plan your video marketing, consider these questions:

• “Who watches online video?” – The eMarketer Daily newsletter forecasts that by 2012, some 190 million Americans will watch online videos. Young adults, the most active viewers, participate often in “rating content, posting feedback or uploading video.”
• “What categories of video do they watch?” – Online viewers go for news and current events first. The next most popular category is comedy, followed in order of popularity by film trailers, music videos, television programs or previews, entertainment news, criticism, homemade videos, weather and sports.
• “When do they discover new videos?” – Experts speculate that online video “opinion leaders” watch Web videos daily and share them with friends a couple of times weekly.
• “Where do they watch new videos?” – Research shows that 59% of online viewers watch videos at home, 24% watch at work and 22% watch elsewhere, in some “third place,” often using mobile phones.
• “Why don’t more new videos go viral?” – Not everyone can be number one, and popular videos have to conquer a lot of competition. In January 2009, users uploaded “more than 15 hours of video to YouTube” every minute. The number of YouTube user pages, or “channels,” increases constantly. Even the pope has a channel.

What You Can Learn Online

A great deal of the information you need to produce videos and post them awaits you online. First build up your familiarity with YouTube. Examine each of its video categories. While YouTube is the primary outlet for posting videos on the Internet, it is not the only one. Also pay attention to Yahoo Video, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Veoh and MySpace, among others.

“Individuals are using YouTube and video marketing to make the cash register ring.”

On YouTube, click the Videos tab to see the various genres of clips offered, including the most popular videos, and to browse entries for individual blogs or for subject areas, such as cars or music. Look at the various categories under the Channels tab, including “gurus,” “reporters,” “nonprofit” and others.

“Viral Video Content”

To learn what makes video content compelling, watch some of the terrific videos that have gone viral, such as “Battle at Kruger,” “Star Wars According to a Three-Year-Old,” “Otters Holding Hands,” “Disgusting Dominos People” and “Charlie Bit My Finger – Again!” The best clips convey anecdotes or narratives. To learn to create videos that “inform, educate and entertain,” explore the online instructions offered by YouTube and other providers, like Sony.

“How do you get your new video discovered when most people haven’t heard about it yet?”

To gain an initial understanding of video production, look at the instructional YouTube clip “How Do I Make a Video?” It claims that all you need is a Webcam or a digital camera – or even just a cellphone. YouTube’s Help Center offers a wide range of information on the nuts and bolts of producing videos, from hands-on techniques to production tips for shooting, editing and refining your video. After you capture the raw material for your video, transfer it to your computer so you can edit it. Useful editing programs include Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, Apple’s Final Cut Pro or Adobe’s Premier Pro. When you have edited your video, save it in a format YouTube can use, such as a QuickTime MOV, Windows AVI or MPG file.

“Joining groups allows you to share videos and have discussions on a common theme.”

Upload your video according to the directions from the YouTube Help Center. Submitted videos must adhere to YouTube’s technical specifications. With a normal amount of online traffic and a fast connection, uploading takes less than a half hour. With complications, it could take an hour.

Sounds simple? Alas, it is not quite that cut-and-dried. Producing quality videos is an art, like producing any other media. Fortunately, information abounds. One option is YouTube’s Handbook. Pay close attention to its section entitled “Nine Classic Camera Moves.” Check out Videomaker, a magazine for videographers, and visit its Web site for solid tips and techniques.

Video Optimization

When you submit a video to YouTube, you must “optimize” your submission by editing its “metadata and content in order to improve its search engine rankings.” This means wording your title, description and tags precisely and carefully, so that users will find your videos when they search for material in your field. Whether you are posting a video of a cat playing a piccolo or a demo of an invention you want to sell, you have to use the right keywords to draw viewers.

“YouTube contests are a core way of driving user interaction and deep engagement with your content.”

To determine which search terms to use, you must tap into viewers’ thinking. Ask yourself which keywords will bring the right audience to your video. Your keywords should respond to the usual reporting questions: “who, what, when, where, why” and “how.” For example, your title might be “How to Wash a Dog” or “How to Brew Good Coffee.” YouTube’s “auto-fill suggestion drop-down menu” is very helpful in determining the right keywords, as are Google AdWords, Google Trends and KeywordDiscovery. Wordtracker helps you “find the specific questions that people type into search engines.”

“The #1 most viewed video of all time is ‘Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend’ from RCA Records. It was added to YouTube on February 27, 2007, and had more than 118 million views as of April 2009.”

Determining the right keywords for your videos involves more than creating search term lists and using online tools. Indeed, savvy, experienced video producers already have made ample use of the most likely keywords, so you may find that your video is a small fish in a very big pond. Add distinct terms that will draw the specific viewers you are targeting, but do not “stuff” your tags with keywords. Once you have analyzed the words that searchers are most likely to use in locating your video, include these terms in your title, description and tags. Your title must be truthful, precise and evocative. When you are ready to broadcast, don’t limit yourself to YouTube; post your video on the most suitable Web sites to reach your targeted viewers.

How to Build Your Audience

To boost your video’s audience substantially, become a “fully vested member of the YouTube community.” This requires following YouTube’s rules that forbid showing sexually explicit material, “gratuitous violence” or “animal abuse,” and that ban hate speech. Don’t upload “gross-out videos” that are meant to be shocking. To learn about the marketing process, visit YouTube’s blog and view “The Birds and the Biz,” a video that explains how to get your videos featured.

“YouTube’s first official live community celebration took place on November 22, 2008, at the Herbst Pavillion at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.”

Click on YouTube’s Community tab to access useful “Help Forums.” To increase your video’s viewership, join related YouTube community groups. The best way to get involved in a relevant group (or in several) is to comment on the videos you like. Visiting YouTube’s blog gives you the opportunity to get to know its team members. That’s a good idea because some of them help select the “spotlight videos” that YouTube showcases. Another way to build your YouTube traffic is to stage a “competition where users submit videos and other users vote on them.”

“YouTube has the audience for virtually every product.”

Becoming an active member of the YouTube community will help you connect with a few relevant individuals among its millions of recognized “opinion leaders.” Look for them “in the sites linking to a video,” in comments and in filmed responses. When you make contact with the right people, they can help you plan your video marketing campaign tactics.

YouTube Channels

You need a YouTube channel, or profile page, to upload your videos to the Web site. This is the place where viewers can see your videos and can post comments. Establishing a channel requires opening a YouTube account by filling out an online form. You can customize your channel with the Channel Design link and Channel Settings.

“Someday you may be called upon to prevent a video from going viral. That’s virtually impossible.”

If you meet the criteria – in terms of audience size (“thousands of YouTube users”), the quality of your video and more – to join YouTube’s Partner Program, you can open a brand channel. This enables you to display a banner image across your page, to set up a feature video to play when someone visits your page and to receive a portion of the advertising revenue that your videos generate. Obviously, to become a YouTube partner, you must already be producing popular videos. You also can distribute the videos you monetize on YouTube to other video sites. Independent programs that enable video distribution include TubeMogul, which will post your videos to MySpace, Google Video, Dailymotion, Crackle, Yahoo Video, Metacafe and Break, as well as to YouTube if you are not already online there.

Marketing Online

Online video marketing hinges on audience size, so you need a way to measure how many people see your videos, who they are, where they come from and how they found your content. Obtaining this valuable marketing data requires using an “analytics and reporting tool,” such as YouTube Insight. The YouTube Insight Discovery tab lets you see which keywords are bringing traffic to your video, so you can generate another batch of aligned keywords. Other useful online metric tools include Google Analytics and TubeMogul, which supply viewership statistics for the videos they distribute to YouTube and similar sites.

“If YouTube were a nation with a population of over 422 million, it would rank #3 – behind China and India, but ahead of the United States and Indonesia.”

Online video marketing and Internet promotion change rapidly. To learn the latest techniques and best practices, attend Search Engine Strategies, an online global conference on search engine marketing (SEM). The topics covered include search engine optimization (SEO). For more information on online video marketing, see the e-newsletters Videomaker eNews and ReelSEO.