How to Increase Audience Engagement on YouTube using Content Marketing Tools

YouTube is an indispensable platform for social media and content marketers, especially now that audience members are consuming YouTube content like never before. People are spending as much as 72 minutes a day watching video content, and marketers are keen to make the most of this trend to increase audience engagement. However, engaging an audience on a highly competitive platform such as YouTube can be tough. But with the help of the right strategies and content marketing tools, you can have the impact your desire on the social media platform. Here’s a 3-step process to increasing audience engagement on YouTube using content marketing tools or content curation apps such as DrumUp.
 

1. Create channel(s) on YouTube for your types of content

Many people do a great job on this first step. They create excellent content that’s on-point, timely and entertaining. Some brands choose to have one central YouTube channel where they publish all of their content, while others split their content based on categories across multiple YouTube channels.
Irrespective of what you choose to do, it’s critical to first have a channel that contains your content. This is your home-base using which you will attract and engage your target audience. Marie Folio’s YouTube channel is a great example. Her brand focuses on start-up advice and inspiration.


 

2. Create visually-enticing design

Apart from having a channel for relevant content, it’s also critical to have great design, so you can attract your target groups’ attention.
Great design is a combination of having great video titles and alluring thumbnails. Clickbait still works, but how much of clickbait you apply depends on the tone of your brand and your personal preferences. It’s also important to consider displaying your most interesting stills as thumbnails on videos. To do so, you can use photo editor and graphic design tools such as Canva, which allow you to alter already-existing templates for your use.


 

3. Promote YouTube videos to your social media followers on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

YouTube by itself is difficult to run, if you’re not already viral or popular. But you can use your existing following on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to increase audience engagement on YouTube.
Here’s an effortless way to do it using DrumUp’s RSS feed reader & content library.

Path 1 – Automatically share YouTube videos to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as soon as they are published.

• Go to your YouTube channel and get the channel ID.

 

• Insert the channel ID to this URL https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<channelIDHERE>.
• Add the complete URL to your DrumUp feed reader.

 

• Choose between custom/1-click/auto scheduling to share content on your attached social media (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) accounts. DrumUp will automatically take you to the screen below once you have added your RSS feed.

 

Path 2 – Share evergreen videos automatically every once a while to your audience to keep them engaged.

• Follow Path 1 from Step 1 to Step 3.
• Once your YouTube posts appear in the feed channel, choose the videos qualify as “evergreen videos” and add them to a content library by clicking on the Star icon.

 

• Once you have filled your library, choose automatic publishing and set a frequency to keep your audience engaged.

 
You can apply Path 1 and Path 2 to your own YouTube channel, and/or any other channels that publish content relevant to your target audience.

Video content can be powerful to engaging your audience and convincing them to eventually convert into paying customers. All you need is the right set of content marketing tools and strategies.


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Take 5…Video Marketing Tips That Is!

We talk a lot on our blog about marketing your business through different mediums (email, blogging, social media,etc.). One medium that often gets left out of the discussion is video marketing. Video marketing has been gaining momentum due in part to the meme/viral phenomenon that has taken effect lately. Many businesses are interested in taking advantage of the rising meme popularity in order to emulate the viral effect. However, your video doesn’t have to go viral to be a powerful marketing medium. Why should you use video to market your business and how should you do it? Read on my friends…

Video marketing, like email marketing, is a great way to succinctly deliver information to customers. We are all used to taking in information from video (TV, movie, meme, YouTube). As a result, many of us have become more comfortable learning visually. Delivering information on a product, service or company through video can help to keep your audience’s attention longer and make what you have to say more easily understood.

You can also build rapport with viewers by introducing your CEO, a satisfied customer or other individuals within your organization and allowing them to deliver useful information. This puts a friendly face to a name and customers are able to meet who they are doing business with, making you and your company appear more accessible and present.

Now you have the why, let’s get to the how. Check out these 5 video marketing tips, then break out the smart phone, digital camera or other recording device and get posting!

1. Make it useful – Whether you address frequently asked questions, deliver a how-to, give tips, make viewers laugh or entertain them in some other way it’s important to add value to your video. There is no point in creating a video without giving customers incentive to watch.
2. Give it a purpose – Much like creating an email with a clear call-to-action, you’ll also want to give your video a purpose. Focus on one theme or purpose such as answering a specific question, delivering an “about us” or offering information on one of your products or services.
3. Keep it brief – We’re all crunched for time and looking for the quickest and easiest way to get the information we need. Video can be a perfect way to quickly and efficiently communicate; a good length is between 30 seconds and one minute. If you have more to say or are finding it difficult to keep your video succinct, break it into two parts or multiple videos.
4. Publicize – Link to your video in email (linking a screen shot of the thumbnail works well) and post it on your blog, website and social pages. And, set up a page on your website, a YouTube channel or any other video hosting account where you can compile all of your business’ videos for easy sharing access.
5. Identify – Title your video with relevant keywords and descriptive words both to make it easier to stumble upon in search engines and to make it easier for customers find and forward. Take advantage of built-in keyword suggestions, category selections and tags by hosting companies like YouTube. And, always include a URL at the end of the video to allow viewers to copy and save or share with others.

Do you have any videos you’re proud of? Do share. We’d love to see them!

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How to Create a YouTube Channel

If you're reading this article, then I probably don't need to tell you that video content accounts for over 74% of all online traffic, or that over five billion YouTube videos are watched every single day. You're clever.
You already know that YouTube is an important content tool, and you're ready to start leveraging video for your own business.

Download our free guide to learn how to create and utilize video in your marketing to increase engagement and conversion rates. 

This article will cover everything you need to know about creating a YouTube channel, so you can start uploading your own videos and growing your audience today.

How to Create a YouTube Channel

1. Create a Google account (if you don't already have one).
2. Optimize your channel with brand details.
3. Customize your channel with visuals.
4. Add videos and optimize them for search.

1. Create a Google account (if you don't already have one).

To watch, share, create, and comment on YouTube content, you'll need a Google account.

If You Don't Already Have a Google Account

Go to youtube.com and click "sign in" in the upper right-hand corner. From there, you'll be taken to a Google sign-in page. Click "more options":
Then, click "create account":

From there, you'll be asked to follow a few steps to create a Google account. Once you've completed them, proceed with the steps below.

If You Do Already Have a Google Account

Go to youtube.com and click "sign in" in the upper right-hand corner. From there, you'll be taken to the same Google sign-in page above. If you have multiple Google accounts, be sure to select the one you want to be associated with the YouTube channel.

2. Optimize your channel with brand details.

Once you're set up with and signed into your YouTube account, it's time to create a channel. Back at youtube.com, click your user icon in the upper right-hand corner. You'll see a drop-down menu, where you'll want to click "settings."

From there, you'll be taken to your account overview. Under "additional features," click "create a new channel."

The first step is to create a Brand Account. It can be whatever name you want, and doesn't have to be the same name that you used to create your Google account -- but we do recommend that it reflects the brand the YouTube Channel will represent.

After you enter the Brand Account name, you might be asked to verify the account via text message or voice call. If that happens, enter the code you receive from the option you choose.

Once you've verified your Brand Account, you'll be taken to the dashboard for your channel. Now, it's time to start customizing it. 

3. Customize your channel.

There are two elements of customization for a new YouTube channel: descriptive details, and visuals.

Descriptive Details

From your channel dashboard, click "customize channel."

We'll start with the fundamental details about your channel. After you click "customize channel," you'll be taken to your basic channel page, where you'll see a cogwheel on the right.

Click that, then click on the section that says "advanced settings."

Here's where you'll enter some basic information about your channel, like the country where it's based, as well as optimize it for discoverability by adding keywords that describe what it's about and selecting whether or not you want it to appear as a recommended channel on other account pages. It's also within these settings that you can link an AdWords account, add a Google Analytics property tracking ID and make advertising selections.
Next, you'll want to add your channel description and links. Back on your channel customization dashboard, click on the "About" tab.

There, you'll be asked to fill in such details as a channel description, which you can optimize for discoverability -- more on that later -- as well as contact information, and links to your website and social media channels. Up to five links can overlay your channel art, meaning that the banner on your profile page will contain icons for the links you choose to overlay on this list.
For example, if you wanted to overlay your banner with a link to your Facebook Page, it might look like this:

 

Your channel art is part of your channel's customization, which we'll move onto next.

Visuals

When it comes to creating and adding channel art, Google has a plethora of resources for content owners, from a gallery of images to image editing tools.
One of the trickiest parts of channel art is creating a responsive banner that matches dimensions for various user experiences, like desktop, mobile, or TV. Luckily, Google has this handy image that represents the best dimension for each viewing platform ...

Source: Google

... as well as this concise video explainer:

Need a little inspiration? Check out this post with some of the best YouTube banners we've found.
You'll also want to upload your profile photo. If your channel is linked to a Brand Account, as is the example we've used in this step, then you'll need to update this image in the "about me" section of your Google account. Note that this rule also applies to your channel name when using a Brand Account.
When you click "change" under your profile icon, you might see this message:

Click "edit," and you'll be taken to this page, where you can edit your Brand Account information, including your profile photo (which will be displayed on your YouTube channel).

We recommend choosing an image with dimensions of 800 x 800 pixels.
Next, it's time to add your channel art, like a banner image. Back on your channel customization dashboard, you'll see
Cover art dimensions on mobile and more, best tips (), etc ...

4. Add videos and optimize them for search.

Optimizing your channel for discoverability is just the beginning. Once you start adding videos, you'll want to optimize them for search, which in turn helps users discover your video.
But this goes beyond giving your videos accurate, clear, and concise titles -- though that is important. Below, we describe some of the most important things to optimize on YouTube. (For a fully comprehensive post on YouTube SEO, visit this post.)

Title

When we search for videos, one of the first things that our eyes are drawn to is the title. That's often what determines whether or not the viewer will click to watch your video, so the title should not only be compelling, but also, clear and concise.

Description

This should be limited to 1,000 characters -- and remember that your viewer came here to watch a video, not to read a lot of text. Plus, YouTube only displays the first two or three lines of text, which comes to about 100 characters, so front-load the description with the most important information.

Tags

Using tags doesn’t just let viewers know what your video is about -- they inform YouTube, too, which uses tags "to understand the content and context of your video," according to Backlinko. That way, YouTube can associate your video with similar videos, which can broaden your content's reach. But approach with caution -- just as with your title, don't use misleading tags because they might get you more views -- in fact, Google might penalize you for that.

Category

Choosing a category is another way to group your video with similar content on YouTube -- but that might not be as simple as it sounds. YouTube's Creator Academy suggests that marketers "think about what is working well for each category" you're considering by answering questions like:

• Who are the top creators within the category? What are they known for, and what do they do well?
• Are there any patterns between the audiences of similar channels within a given category?
• Do the videos within a similar category have share qualities like production value, length, or format?

That's it -- you've officially not only created a YouTube channel, but now also know how to optimize its content for discoverability. For more information on how to best leverage YouTube for marketing, check our entire collection of resources.


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What Video Marketing Metrics Should You Pay Attention To? [Video]

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The Video Marketing Funnel: Proof it Works and 5 Easy Steps to Follow

 Everywhere you look right now you can see the virtual cries that "THIS IS THE YEAR OF VIDEO MARKETING!" In fact, as I browsed the internet, researching this topic, I saw that claim absolutely everywhere.

The video phenomenon is a huge hype all over the internet, and it's intimidating. Many marketers think of video as a quicksand pit designed to swallow time effort and money for little reward — especially as they don't feel qualified to make something that could compete in the world of viral media. 

It's such a shame because it really doesn't take much. You can do it, it won't break you or your bank, and the potential reward is awesome. 

I asked content marketing and social media strategist Brian Honigman whether he thought that video marketing was essential for marketing success, to which he replied:

"Video isn't a requirement for success with marketing, but it's one form of content all businesses should consider experimenting with to best reach their audience.

Small businesses need to realize that you don't need a film crew and a studio to create compelling video, if you invest in the proper equipment, choose the right ideas and develop footage that's of use to your audience you can drive results with video for your organization."

— Brian Honigman, CEO of Honigman Media, regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and others

So if you're dead-set against creating video, you don't have to fear that it'll bring you down. However, it's a really really good idea! So where's the real life proof that newbies can rock the world of video marketing? I've got a great new story for you...

The Proof 

An example of an everyday marketer (not a video guru) getting traffic and leads from YouTube. 

I was talking to a colleague the other day, and she was telling me about her enthusiasm for video marketing. Before I continue, it's important you understand the background here.

• She's not a long-term video expert with oodles of experience with YouTube and video creation.
• She's just running an affiliate site, like many of the people who will read this post.
• She has a newish website (roughly 6 months old) and has only been playing with YouTube as a platform for part of that time (about 4 months).
• Her videos are mostly just PowerPoint words on a screen with a voice-over of her talking, plus a little screen capturing.
• She doesn't have fancy tech, just the microphone on her laptop. 

However - she has managed to get thousands of views already, and it's only very early days. Check out this image of her latest month:

And remember, this is without complicated Hollywood budgets or skill levels. Just a marketer having a crack at YouTube marketing. She even said, "I'm sure these numbers can be improved on. My channel isn't optimized very well. I've been lazy with that."

So how does she make money from this? I asked her, and she told me about her process and why it works (which I'll cover in more detail for you in the steps below).  

"1) I create engaging videos that are of genuine quality. I teach people new things about my niche, things that make them go "WOW" - things they've never heard before. 

2) I put a link to a squeeze page in my video description and encourage people to sign up to it in my video.

3) My squeeze page redirects to a high-converting sales letter once someone opts in. They also receive emails promoting products.

The reason it works well is that people discover me on YouTube, watch my video and view me as an authority in my niche.

I'd say that for every 50 views, I get 1 sign-up. And for every 10 signups on average, I make a sale (sometimes more, sometimes less, 1 in 10 is a safe number) from my front-end VSL (video sales letter) I redirect them to."

It's a neat little funnel, and there is so much you can do with it! You can get traffic, leads and conversions, and grow your brand reach at the same time. And video isn't like on-site articles; you won't get penalized for duplicate content. You can share your videos across the board on social media. It's the medium that just keeps on giving. 

So now, from my discussion with my colleague and a bit of poking around, I've broken it down so you can take advantage of the process yourself. 

Is Video for You?

You need to assess how competitive the YouTube environment is in your niche to see how difficult it'll be for you to break into. 

While the above example is showing great promise of success, I can't promise that this'll work across the board. You have to think about whether or not your niche will have a lot of competition on YouTube.

An example of this is the ridiculously high number of make-up tutorial videos on YouTube.

Yep, that's right: 32,900,000 results. Almost 33 million video make-up tutorials. And I can tell from the video thumbnails that the video standard is going to be quite high. If you were to make one of those videos, you'd have a lot to compete with.

In saying that, many niches have under-utilized YouTube, and have a lot of room for new videos. Comparing the above example to affiliate marketing tutorials, you can see there are only 84,200 results, and I can tell from these thumbnails that the videos have a much lower production quality level:

You can do your own search on YouTube for the types of videos you're thinking of making, whether it be a tutorial or how-to for your niche audience, or a video blog series. See how many videos there are, and what kind of quality there is.

If there are masses of high-quality videos, that doesn't mean it's impossible or that you should avoid video marketing. It just means that you'll have to put in a little extra effort when it comes to finding a unique angle so that you can stand out among the crowd or cater to more specific searches.

If there are few videos, or they're really generic and you know you have more to say on the topic, then you should definitely give it a go. 

Step 1: Decide Where You'd Like to Send Traffic

This will help you to sculpt the content of your videos to the target audience of that page. 

You don't always need to send traffic to the same place with your videos, you can change it up and link to wherever on your site is most relevant to each video.

But if you really want a solid strategy for conversions, it's probably best to have an idea of the best place to send them before you create the videos. Here are the top couple of options for you to consider:

Option A: If You Have a Mailing List, Send Them to Your Squeeze Page

Sending your viewers to a squeeze page like the one in the image below is the best option for converting your YouTube traffic into a large amount of enthusiastic leads. 

If you don't have a squeeze page, you should at the very least have opt-in's of some kind on your site or you're missing out on a great deal of leads and ongoing conversions! If you don't have a mailing list and newsletter set up but you'd like to, the fastest and easiest way is via AffiloJetpack, so feel free to check that out if you're interested.

If you do have a squeeze page already, just make sure you've optimized it to get the best results. I recently wrote a blog post about this here, so pull any tips or tricks from there as necessary. 

Think about the type of person you'd like to sign up to your mailing list. What are they looking to know? What are they enthusiastic about? Keep this in mind through the next few steps. 

Option B: Send Them to Your Most Relevant High-Converting Content

The other place to send your YouTube traffic is your content, particularly if your on-site content and the YouTube video add value to one other. 

This option is generally for you if:

• You don't have a mailing list set up, or
• Your target is to get more engagement for your on-site content

Choose the content that will be the most useful to your audience, preferably something you know that converts well. Think about the audience for this content. What are they looking to do? What challenges are they facing that your site helps them with? Keep this in mind through the next few steps.

Step 2: Create Some Videos

It doesn't have to be rocket science: There are simple ways!

This is the part that frequently turns people off. I asked Brian Honigman about this, and he replied:

"Video seems overwhelming because everyone's fearful that they'll do it wrong or that it won't be perfect. With creating video, it's important to experiment first to see what works and doesn't work for you. There are endless videos, articles and courses on how to do video, it's just a matter of taking the time to find out what works for your business."

- Brian Honigman, CEO of Honigman Media, regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and others

I could spend all day going over your options as far as video is concerned, but thankfully I have a quirky little blog post from not too long ago that covers the topic already in detail for you called, "Video Content: Super Fun! Super Effective."

You'll find what you need to know there as far as how to film or edit your videos simply and effectively, but I'll cover the main points to keep in mind for this purpose here:

• Look around YouTube for other videos in your niche (how-to's, general discussions etc...) 
  • What do they do well? Anything you could emulate that wouldn't be too difficult to pull off?
  • Is there any way you could do a similar thing but better? 
  • What unique information can you give them?
• You must think about how your video can help your audience with their problems, or enlighten them to options that they might not have thought of.
• Make sure you keep your content relevant to the page you're sending people to (whether that's a squeeze page or on-site content).
  • Your target audience should be the same for both.
  • If you're sending them to content, you could even explain the gist of some of that content to people in a video then send them back to the full lesson.
• Important: Include a call to action in your video!
  • Ask them to click on the link in the description below.
  • Tell them how they'll benefit from going there. Is there a freebie they can sign up to get? Or more useful content there for them? 
  • An example of this might be to say at the end: "Thanks for watching. Remember to click on the link in the description below to get [benefit]."

Once you've created a video or even a short series of videos, it's time to upload them to YouTube. I'll quickly show setting up a channel for anyone who doesn't already have one, and then I'll run through the best process for adding your videos. 

Step 3: Set up a Channel for Your Brand (If You Haven't Already) 

This doesn't take long, and it becomes a neat little brand-associated hub for any videos you create. 

You really do want a channel separate from your regular Google account so that you can personalize it to your brand. If you already have a channel set up, skip forward to step 4. If not, it's really super simple; just follow along the instructions in this step.

Start by making sure you're signed into your main Google account, then head to www.youtube.com/channel_switcher. You'll see a button with "Create a new channel" on it. 

Then all you need to do is fill in a channel name (preferably in line with your brand/website name), and then select a category (which will more than likely be product or brand).

Then there's just the Pages Terms, and you can click "Done." Simple as that. Once you get into your channel, there are a few areas you might want to edit to align with the images and information associated with your brand. These include a profile picture, cover photo (called "channel art"), and the "About" information for your channel.

Quick tips for your channel information:

• Use the same brand images that you have on your website.
  • This will make the connection between your channel and your site obvious, and strengthen your brand image overall.
• Have a compelling description.
  • Make sure you state clearly and simply what people will find on your channel.
  • Then add a quirky phrase or some personality; YouTube is for information but also for fun!

Once you've edited these to look like a good channel profile, you're ready to start uploading your videos. 

Step 4: Upload Your Video(s) to YouTube

Think carefully about your title and description. Include all relevant information, and don't forget to link back to your site. 

Whenever you're signed in and navigating around on YouTube, you'll see there's an "Upload" button in the top right corner. 

When you've got your video(s) ready, simply click this button. Then it's really easy to drag and drop a video in, or you can select one by clicking on the big central icon. 

Then, while your video is uploading, you can add a title for your video, a description letting people know what they'll learn by watching, and a few tags describing the main topics in your video. 

Make sure that you don't forget to put that link back to your website in the description here, especially if you've mentioned it in your video. Otherwise, it's like inviting everyone to a party at your place and then not being home: Awkward. 

Then click "Publish" and your video is live and ready to go.

Step 5: Spread the Love! Get Your Videos Some Initial Exposure

You need to take your YouTube videos and promote them in a variety of places where your target audience will be likely to see them.

There are a few ways you can get more views for these videos, especially when you've just launched them and they need a base number of views to show that they're worth watching.

Paid Traffic (Optional, Good for Getting off the Ground)

You can direct paid traffic to your YouTube videos by advertising through AdWords here.

I asked my colleague from the case study earlier in this post if she recommended AdWords and she said this: 

"Definitely, I did that. To get enough traffic, I had to pick a really big, open couple of keywords ('dropshipping' and 'dropship') and advertise for all searches using those keywords.

I found for me, the best place for a content-driven video was in the 'recommended video' on the sidebar and in the search results. I think I spent no more than $50; it was really cheap."

Social Media

Often you'll be trying to figure out what you should be posting on social media to build your brand image. In this instance, you get a win-win when you post your videos to social media. You get something of value to share with your followers, and you can promote your video at the same time.

Try to be active on the social media pages of other authorities in your niche. If you see people asking about the topic of your video or you find a discussion in which your video would genuinely be relevant (don't force it!), share it there.

Forums

Forums are not a thing of the past. Many people still use them to keep up with topics of interest to them or to ask questions. This can be a great place to find topics for your videos, but also for you to link to your YouTube videos when they'd be of use. You help others by answering their questions, and you get to promote your material at the same time.

Don't Forget Your Takeaways!

So the aim of the game is to go away and...

• Assess whether or not video marketing will be worthwhile for you.
  • Is your niche particularly competitive on YouTube?
  • Do you have something unique to bring to the table?
• Create your YouTube channel.
• Create a small series of videos to begin with.
• Include a CTA in your video.
• Upload your videos to YouTube.
• Include a link to your squeeze page or relevant content in the description.
• Promote your YouTube videos wherever you can do it (without forcing it).
• See if you can't get some views, turn some of those views to leads, and some of those leads to conversions.

I'd like to leave you with one final tip from Brian Honigman. I asked him, "If you could give someone just one ultimate video marketing tip or piece of advice, what would it be?" He answered:

"The main thing to think about when developing video content on behalf of your business is to ensure it's related to the interests of your audience and not overly promotional of your company's offerings. Think about what would drive value to your customer base, while still relating to what you sell.

For example, Moz, the marketing software company, has become known in the SEO and overall marketing industry for their video series Whiteboard Friday. In this video series, members of the Moz team explain how to approach certain marketing topics like link building or content marketing myths and more.

This series is done in house and is extremely simple, but has driven widespread results for the organization since it's of value to their customer base without having to regularly call out their marketing software through the videos.

Strike this balance with your video marketing efforts in order to ensure success."

- Brian Honigman, CEO of Honigman Media, regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and others

Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions whatsoever about video marketing, or any comments about it if you've already given it a go. I'd love to hear from you. 

Best of luck with your video marketing!

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How to Create a Video Marketing Strategy with 5 Easy Steps

Whether you’re a small business or nonprofit, you need to consider a solid video marketing strategy to grow your business.
Recent research found that 33 percent of online activity is spent watching video, and marketers using video grew their revenue 49 percent faster than non-video users because people simply love video.
Statistics are great, but how do you make them work for you? Let’s take a look at how to create a video marketing strategy with five easy steps.

Step 1: Figure out your content

Whenever I’m on stage at a business event, I always ask the audience to close their eyes and envision their ideal buyer: gender, age, race/ethnicity, location, lifestyle, and more. This mental exercise is the beginning of building a buyer persona, and it’s critical to developing the right content for your audience.
Your buyer persona is your “true north” when navigating your video marketing content strategy. Everything you script, film, and upload should speak to your buyer persona. The content needs to answer his or her questions, resolve pain points, and provide targeted calls to action.
The buyer persona will also determine your brand’s tone, which is very important when recording your videos. Will you be fun and entertaining, or does your ideal buyer prefer a serious, more professional approach? Ultimately, nothing is set in stone, and you’ll be able to adapt the message and tone in your video marketing strategy as you start publishing.

Step 2: Outline your video content plan

They key to outlining the content in your video marketing strategy is to look at a calendar and determine your content schedule. How many videos do you plan to publish and at what frequency? Can you cover one video a week, or does two videos a month make more sense?
Once you figure out your content schedule, you’ll want to diversify the types of videos you offer. In fact, there are many types of content from which you can choose:

• Educational videos
• Entertaining or humorous videos
• Practical or how-to videos
• Behind-the-scenes videos
• Tips and tricks videos
• Interview videos
• Recorded webinar videos
• Product explainer videos
• Customer testimonial videos
• Case study videos and more

When starting, choose two or three types of videos and create a bullet list or spreadsheet with proposed topics, a brief outline, and estimated length of the video. Keep in mind that videos up to 2 minutes long tend to get the most engagement. You also want to make sure that each video has a specific call to action for your viewers like subscribing to your email marketing contact list, calling your office, or purchasing a product on your ecommerce storefront.
After planning out your video content, you need to figure out how you’ll publish your videos. Will you increase the authenticity by filming live video on a platform like Facebook or YouTube, or would you prefer to record, edit, and upload your final product to ensure perfection? Of course, there are benefits to both, but it all depends on your audience and message.

Step 3: Divide and conquer

Once you finalize your content strategy and publishing platform, you’ll need to delegate tasks to get the videos recorded. Assuming you have a team to help you, critical tasks will include:

• Writing scripts or talking points
• Setting up lighting and/or green screen
• Recording the videos
• Editing the videos
• Uploading the videos

If you are a one-person crew, you can still make your video marketing strategy a reality, but you’ll need to plan and schedule these different tasks. From experience, I recommend blocking out a considerable amount of time (or using your invaluable weekend time) to prep and record in batches.

Step 4: Upload your video content

Once you’ve recorded and edited, you are ready to upload your video content. It’s important to note that you won’t need to edit or upload your videos if you are filming live. During a livestream, the video simply plays for your audience, and on certain platforms, you have the ability to upload your live video for others to watch later.
If you are recording, editing, and uploading your video content, then you’ll want to choose an appropriate platform: YouTube, Facebook, or Vimeo.

YouTube
YouTube is the second-highest trafficked website in the world with over a billion users and more than 500 million hours of video content watched daily. YouTube is also owned by Google, so you are feeding content directly into the world’s most popular search engine, which provides an SEO benefit.
Here’s an example of a “how-to” video we uploaded to YouTube to show viewers how to create a great real estate email marketing template.

Facebook
Uploading videos to Facebook is advantageous if you have a substantial following on the social media giant. In fact, when compared to YouTube links, native videos on Facebook have 10 times higher reach. In essence, Facebook wants to reward you for uploading your videos to its platform.
Here’s an example of an educational video we added to the BJC Branding Facebook page all about why you should use email marketing.

Vimeo
Vimeo is not as popular as YouTube or Facebook, but its affordable paid subscriptions allow you to upload and customize your videos for placement on your website, landing pages, or email campaigns. A paid subscription removes ads and suggested videos after your clip ends. At BJC Branding, we opted for a paid Vimeo plan, so we could upload video content to our website and share via email marketing.
Here’s an example of a “tips & tricks” video we added to the BJC Branding website about creating Facebook Ads.
Notice how we spotlighted this same video in our recent email newsletter:

Step 5: Keep an eye on your metrics

So, you’ve envisioned your audience, fine-tuned your messaging, planned your content, recorded your videos, edited to perfection, and uploaded to the appropriate channels. As they say, “If you’re not measuring, you’re not marketing,” so it’s important to keep an eye on your metrics.
To help further develop your video marketing strategy, you want to look at metrics like:

• Total views
• Clickthrough rate (on email or social)
• Conversion (on landing pages or website)
• Social media engagement
  • Likes
  • Shares
  • Comments
  • Retweets

Once you collect the data, you want to analyze it to make informed decisions on your future videos.
If videos have a high number of views but no engagement, then you touched on the right topic, but maybe your tone or messaging was off.
If videos have a high level of social media engagement, then your audience is telling you they want more of the same. If you see high levels of engagement, but your conversion rate is low, then maybe you need to bolster your call to action.
If videos don’t have many views nor engagement, then you want to find new ways to promote the video like social media posts or dedicated email campaigns. If, after a second round of promotion, your video metrics remain stagnant, then revisit your buyer persona and reconsider your video topics.
Again, pay attention to those numbers before you spend the time and resources to record your next set of videos. Measuring and analyzing will help you make a greater impact on your audience.

Get started

If you have a smartphone, you can get started on your video marketing strategy. You don’t need an expensive camera or a Hollywood crew behind the lens. You simply need to follow the five steps above and know that as awkward as it feels at first, it will help you grow your business in the end. Break a leg!

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3 Simple Tips to Get More Website Traffic

Your website is great, but you’re having trouble getting people to actually stop by. Without online visitors, it’s going to be nearly impossible for a web-based business to do well.

Millions of people use search engines each day to find the products, services, and information they need. The only way to make sure your website comes up when they do a search is to be ranked higher in the search engine results.

The higher your website ranks, the more traffic it will see. Since traffic generation and search engine rankings go hand-in-hand, it’s easy to see why the most critical part of any successful marketing plan is going to be traffic generation.

So, how do you increase website traffic?

By following the basics.

Keep reading for some must-follow tips on the basics of traffic generation, designed to help boost your search engine rankings.

SEO

What it is

Generally referred to as SEO, search engine optimization involves affecting how a website is seen within unpaid search engine results. This is called “organic” or “natural” traffic, and is the type your website has earned on its own, as opposed to gaining it from ads or other paid methods.

How it works

Search engines turn to complex algorithms to collect, filter, and analyze the vast amounts of data they constantly receive regarding the millions upon millions of websites they find.

The data is analyzed to find the websites that should be on the first results page when someone does a search for a relevant keyword phrase. The more the website ranks for a particular keyword or phrase, or phrases, the higher in the results the website will appear.

When you’re working on giving your website traffic a boost, it’s important to take a close look at both your target audience and your competition. Take the information you find, and then “reverse engineer” what the search engines are looking for.

From there, you can be sure your website has everything the search engine is looking for, including both Onsite and Offsite SEO. These are the two main building blocks of ranking for the first page on a search engine.

Onsite SEO consists of your content and the infrastructure of the website itself. To really make the most of this type of optimization, you want to focus on targeting the best keyword clusters for your niche and audience. You want to match the content you already have with target keywords you want to rank for. Add these target keywords into your new content, and within the tags, tabs, and headers of your website.

Offsite is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. This is how other websites refer to yours. To really optimize in this way, you need to develop a profile of quality links coming in from other sources relevant to your niche and target audience. Links can also come from your social media profiles, so having an active presence is essential for ensuring your content circulates and links back to you. If your content is shared, including in terms of guest posts, you want a citation or byline that links back to your website. You should focus on roughly half of your optimization coming from outside sources.

How to use it

Target keywords should be used throughout the website content, headers, alt tags, and footers. The main keyword should be present in the title of your website, the sub-headings, and throughout the entire content of the site.

It’s recommended that you publish at least fifteen articles on your website’s blog, all of which should be related to the main topic. These articles should incorporate the target keywords used within your website, as this will help you rank for them in search engines.

Share these articles across various social media platforms, in addition to article and website directories. Include a link back to your website within all of these article submissions, as this will increase both your website traffic and SEO.

While there are thousands of article directories available out there, not all of them are worth it in terms of getting backlinks. Some are ranked higher than others, and have more authority and a larger audience reach.

When you find a quality directory to submit to, you will be able to include a link to your site in the bio box of your article. This gives you a backlink, which is great.

Just remember – not all backlinks were created equal. The more authority a site has, the more that backlink is going to be worth. That’s why it’s best to submit to the bigger directories first, and then go for smaller directories.

Pay-Per-Click

What it is

Pay-per-click, generally referred to as PPC, is a marketing method that involves advertising on search engine results pages. It’s all about using search engines to generate clicks to your website, as opposed to organically “earning” those clicks. You’ve undoubtedly seen those sponsored ads at the top of a Google search results page. Those are examples of pay-per-click advertising.

How it works

Basically, you bid to have your ad appear as part of the sponsored results when someone searches using your keywords. Each time your ad is clicked, and a visitor is sent to your website, you owe the search engine a small fee – thus the name “pay per click.”

If your advertising campaign is designed effectively, and runs smoothly, the fee you are expected to pay will seem trivial in the long-run. The visit you get to your website will outweigh the small amount of money required to pay for the ad. For example, if you pay $20 for a click, but that one click leads to a $450 sale, then using pay-per-click advertising definitely paid off.

Expert tip: Grab Click Perfect and start tracking your own clicks. You can keep close tabs on all of your link stats including traffic and conversions. You should be tracking and analyzing your marketing efforts as much as possible especially when it comes to paid traffic.

Ultimately, PPC is one of the best ways to generate more website traffic. In fact, several studies show internet users click on paid search ads more often they do any other form of online advertising. This means people aren’t opposed to being sold to, as long as the products or services being offered are relevant to their needs and interests. Because the search engines use keywords and only show relevant ads, this isn’t a problem. The ads are highly relevant to what the user is looking for, which increases the chances of your ad being clicked on.

Why use it

The reason pay-per-click advertising stands above other methods is Google doesn’t just simply give the ad space to the highest bidder. Instead, they reward the ads that are of the highest quality (most popular). This is because Google rewards performance, rather than just being all about money.

The better your ads are put together, the better they will perform. The better they perform, the higher your click-through rates will be and the lower your advertising costs will be.

Video Marketing

What it is

Video marketing involves adding videos to your marketing campaign, whether it’s in promotion of your company as a whole or just your products and services. Video marketing is growing in popularity, especially live streams, and the video content is shared across various social media platforms.

How to use it

Creating compelling video content means truly understanding your target audience. Take a bit of time to get to know the people in your audience, including their interests and type of content they would be most interested in.

Consider different types of video content like full production promos, live videos, whiteboard explainer videos or even GIFs!

If you aren’t sure what to try first, take some time and learn more about ways to enhance your content with videos. Plus, we offer an easy-to-use video tool like Doodly which really simplifies the process if you are just starting out.

Whatever way you decide on, be sure to let your brand personality shine through. Showing your customers you’re relatable and authentic will make it easier for customers to trust you. The more they trust you, the more likely they are to trust your brand and buy your products or services.

Finally, don’t forget to use the SEO strategies we talked about above. One of the biggest reasons for adding video content to your marketing plan is to boost your search engine ranking. Add target keywords to your video title, tags, and description. Upload a transcript (if it’s relevant to your video type) that includes those same keywords. This will make it easier for consumers to find your video content and your website.

Why it works

Digital marketers can stand to gain a lot more website traffic with just a single video, all by adding that video to their various marketing channels – from email marketing to blog posts to landing pages. Video content also increases Google ranking, conversions, open rates, and click-through rates.

Additionally, research shows it helps increases sales by a significant amount. In a recent survey of 2,000 consumers, 44% of them watched an online video while they were doing a search for local products and services they needed. Out of that percentage, 53% of the viewers contacted the company after watching the video, 51% visited the company’s website, and 33% even visited the store.
Overall, 71% of the viewers ended up buying something.

Get More Website Traffic

The key to generating more website traffic is to have the basics down. Whether you’re an experienced digital marketer, new business owner, or just getting into this whole marketing thing, following these tips is a great step in the right direction.

By taking the time to implement foundational components like SEO optimization, PPC tracking and grabbing a tool like Doodly for video content, you’ll see an increase in website traffic before you know it.

How do YOU generate traffic for your own website? Do you use these strategies, or do you have traffic tips of your own?

Share with us in the comments below!


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