Video Content Marketing
Videos have now become one of the most popular content formats on the Internet. You’re missing out on a valuable traffic source if you are not creating and distributing videos for your website. In fact, according to eMarketer, 52 percent of web traffic is videos. Even the New York Times has reported that 72 percent of online visitors watch videos. YouTube actually serves up over 200 million videos on a daily basis.
Video is a very engaging format. You can get people to watch 20-30 minutes of video when they would never read 20-30 minutes worth of content on your site, so it’s not surprising how well it has caught online.
Engaging a visitor can be extremely powerful, because the longer they interact with your message, the more likely they're going to regard you as an authority, and the more likely they're going to buy your product, and the more likely they're going to come back to your website for more information, and the more likely they’re going to regard you as an authority in your field.
Videos set you apart from your competition. Most people online simply aren't willing to put in the work it takes to create a video. This is why it has the power to put you so much further ahead of your competition.
You can create videos on how to do something. These types of videos are basically tutorials teaching people a specific skill. You can also create review videos where you review different products. You can do a news announcement whenever you want to announce a contest. You can do some personal videos for building relationships with your audience.
For example, you could create a video where you're just like "Hey, today I'm really excited because I just got my new iPhone and so I thought I'd make the video and share it with you. Doesn’t it look fantastic?"
These types of videos help bond with your audience that you just can't develop in any other format. Video creates an entirely different level of engagement, when compared to articles, emails, or even podcasts.
There's a lot more to video marketing then just uploading videos on YouTube. In fact, this is why many people are so disappointed with video marketing. They just upload their video to a few sites and then wonder why they're not getting tons of traffic. They just don’t get how it works.
There are key steps you need to take to make sure that you're video gets maximum exposure. First, you need to make sure you're targeting very specific keywords. YouTube and other video sharing sites rank extremely well on Google. In fact, you've probably seen YouTube and Google Video while searching on Google. They’re all over the first page for thousands of different keyword phrases. These are very authoritative sites that can rank very quickly. For example, try searching “supercars” on Google and you’ll see video results. They rank highly for a very competitive keyword.
Plus, take a look at how the search results are featured on the page. Your eyes are immediately drawn to the images. Videos are one of the few ways you can get your search results to stand out to this degree and include images.
Keep in mind that there are millions of searches that occur within the video sites themselves. By optimizing your video for specific keyword phrases, you will also rank well within the videosharing site itself. This brings us to the first step to creating a popular video, which is to choose a targeted keyword phrase. It is suggested that you target keyword phrases with competition less than 30,000 when you search for the keyword phrases in "quotes" on Google.
To check, type in keywords in quotation marks to check the competition. If the results are under 30,000, then that would be a good indication that it is a keyword phrase that is fairly easy to rank for, especially if you’re using a popular site like YouTube. Now that you have a specific keyword phrase you would like to rank for, you need to optimize your video to rank for that particular keyword phrase, and you can do this by following a simple checklist.
1. Place your keyword phrase at the beginning of the title for your video. This is critical isnce the title is one of the most important ranking factors on Google.
If you can, include your keyword phrase in the title twice, once at the beginning and once at the end. However, make sure you only use this strategy if your keyword phrase is just one to three words long. Tests show that using the keyword twice in the title can significantly increase your rankings.
Use different titles for your video when submitting to different video sharing sites. This allows you to target multiple long tail phrases. So, if you're going to submit your video to YouTube and MetaCafe, you could use two different titles for the same video to target two different keyword variations. So for one you could use “Best Man Speeches” and for the other you could use the phrase “Best Man Wedding Speeches.” This allows you to target multiple variations.
2. Include your keyword phrase in the description of the video. This is an area that many people rarely do. Since search engines do not index the words in your video, the only way they know what the video is about is what you tell them in the title and the description, so be sure to include plenty of information in the description area. In fact, you could include an entire article in the description area. This allows optimization of your page for your targeted keyword phrases along with a number of keyword variations.
Make sure put your targeted keyword phrase at the beginning of your description and at least once at the end of your description. You can sprinkle your keyword, related keywords, and variations throughout the article, but don't overdo it. The key here is to sound natural.
3. Many of the video sites also let you upload keywords or tags. This is where you would want to include the desired keyword phrase you want to rank for along with related keywords. This allows you to rank higher for these keywords within the video search engine as well as on Google.
4. Build backlinks pointing to your video. This is the final step you need to take so you could rank well in Google using YouTube. Inbound links are one of the biggest factors to ranking well in Google.
Use the keywords you would like to rank for to your videos. Use that as your anchor text when submitting your video to social bookmarking sites and all other forms of link building.
You can now submit a press release about your new video to all the top press release websites. This will give you an extra batch of powerful backlinks. Once you’re done, you can build added backlinks through article submissions, forum links and other avenues.
How to Drive Traffic from Your Video to Your Website
Now that you got people to watch your video, your main goal is to get them to go from your video to your website.
Your video must be designed to send as much traffic as possible to your website. You can do this in a number of ways.
1. Include your website URL at the very beginning of your description. This will create a clickable link on sites like YouTube and many other video sites, so anyone watching your video can quickly find your link to find more information.
2. You should also include your link at the beginning and end of your video. You can display your URL at the end of the video for 20 to 30 seconds.
3. Use a watermark URL in the video, so that the URL displays at the bottom of the screen through the duration of the video.
4. Your videos should include a call to action that invites them to visit your site. You can leave a message saying, “For more information about [YOUR NICE], please visit [LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE}.”
Another very effective technique is to use two part videos. You post part one to all of the video sharing sites like YouTube, MetaCafe, Veoh, and Google Video. Then, at the end of the video, you can say, "To see part two of the video go to [LINK TO SECOND VIDEO]."
This can funnel visitors from your video to your website. However, you need to make sure you include valuable content in part one, but leave them hanging so that they would want to see part two. Once they come to your website to watch part two, you can get those visitors to sign up for your mailing list by including an opt-in box on the page.
How to Promote Your Video and Attract Thousands of Views
There are lots of ways to promote your video. Here are some of the most effective methods:
1. Send out a message on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all other social networks you're involved in. This can be extremely effective, especially when you have hundreds of followers. You'll notice that lots of people within your social networking circle will click on the link and check out your video.
But it doesn't stop there. If your video is really good, many of these people will spread the word for you. They will retweet it, send out a message to their own social network or even post it on their blog. This is why it's so important to create exceptional content. Truly great content gets passed around quickly, especially with today's social media platforms. It's easier to spread your message now then it has ever been before.
2. Submit your video to all the different social bookmarking sites. This one simple step can quickly increase your number of views and help you get into the most viewed section for your category.
For a large list of bookmarking sites, go to: http://searchenginejournal.com/125-socialbookmarking-sites-importance-of-user-generated-tags-votes-and-links/6066/
To automate your social bookmarking submissions, use this tool: http://submitbookmark.com/
3. Post your videos on different forums. Many forums will allow you to post YouTube videos, just make sure you’re following the forum rules. Look for related forums and post your video. This is one of the easiest and fastest ways to get more views on your video.
4. Post video responses. This is a very simple technique you can use to increase your video views. To do this, check the "Video Responses" section underneath a video. On the right side of this section, you will see a link that says, "Post a Video Response." Click on that link. You will then be taken to a page where you can post a video response. Click on the link in the middle that say, "Choose a Video.”
From here you will choose one of the videos you have already uploaded on YouTube. You can then click on the button that says, "Respond with This Video". You need to choose a related video to post a video response to. Once you have posted a video response, you can go back to the video and you will now see that your video is listed in the Video Responses section.
Now that you have posted a video response to a very popular video, you can get thousands of views on your video from the video response you've posted to a related video. This is one of the easiest ways to divert traffic to your videos and an extremely effective technique to get views.
5. Submit your video RSS feeds to the top RSS aggregators and directories. Many people miss out on this technique. By submitting your video RSS feed to all of the different RSS directories, you can get extra traffic to your videos. More importantly, this will create one-way backlinks to your videos, which will boost your search engine rankings and ultimately drive more traffic to your video.
For example, in YouTube, you can access the RSS feed of your videos using the following URL: http://www.youtube.com/rss/user/[insert username here]/videos.rss Simply replace [insert username here] with your own username.
6. If you're looking to get more views on your video, find existing videos on YouTube that are related to yours that have a lot of views. Copy their tags to the video you're uploading. This gives you're video a very good chance of appearing in the related videos in the sidebar, which can send you a lot of extra views.
7. Keep in mind that YouTube is a community of people. It's a place to make friends and interact with others. So if you want to get the most out of YouTube, you need to interact with the other people that are hanging out and making videos on YouTube. Comment on other people's videos, build up your friend list and join video groups. This will surely increase the number of people who subscribe to your videos. This is a very important factor because when you have lots of people who subscribe to your videos, those people comment on your videos. This is critical in helping you get to the most discussed and most viewed pages, which can dramatically increase your traffic. Always remember that the key is to interact and add value to the community.
8. Create and customize your own YouTube Channel. Your YouTube channel is your home base for all of your videos and the information about you. On your channel page, you get to tell people about yourself. Plus, it allows people to quickly and easily subscribe to your videos, add you as a friend, send you a message, add comments, and share your channel with others. People who subscribe to your videos will immediately be notified whenever you post a new video.
9. Leverage on your existing assets. After establishing a high-traffic blog or a large mailing list, you can leverage on this to get more views, ratings and comments on your videos. Simply post to your blog or send out an email about your new uploaded video with a call to action requesting for feedback.
When you have a popular blog or a large mailing list, you can easily generate the views, comments, and ratings needed to earn YouTube honors and get on the Most Popular page within your category.
10. Embed your video for hundreds of extra views. There are lots of sites that allow you to embed your videos for further promotion. One of the popular sites is WonderHowTo.com. If you have a "How To" video on YouTube, MetaCafe, or any video site that gives you embed code, then you can post it to WonderHowTo.com and get hundreds of extra visitors.
Some other sites where you can embed your video are:
www.magnify.net/sites/categories
www.myvidster.com (Social Bookmarking for Videos)
This is one of the easiest ways to get thousands of extra visitors for your video. Very few people taking advantage of this strategy, so it would be best to start using it in your own online business.
How to Mass Distribute Your Videos for Free
You can distribute your video to 20+ video sharing sites for free with a service called TubeMogul.com.
If you’re looking for a more robust video submission service it is recommended to go for Traffic Geyser and Video Post Robot. These tools allow you to automate your video submissions, which are highly recommended since it takes hours to submit to the top video sharing sites. For a list of the Top 50 Video Sharing Sites, go to:
http://www.jackhumphrey.com/fridaytrafficreport/website-promotion/list-of-29-free-videosharing-sites/
For a more comprehensive list of video sharing sites, go to: