12 Tips for Using YouTube to Promote Your Business
Most people are afraid to use YouTube to promote their business. But you shouldn’t be and here’s why: the most popular videos aren’t professional productions. They’re just a girl or guy, that gets in front of a camera and talks about what he/she knows best. No expensive equipment required.
Here are 12 of my favorite tips for using YouTube to promote your business.
Copy What Works
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Generally, the videos that do well are funny, weird, or useful. Spend an afternoon watching YouTube videos and learn what works. Find out what videos in your market have the most views, high ratings, most comments or most subscribers. What are they doing right?
Put Keywords Everywhere
The best way to help people find your videos is by including your keywords in the title, description, and tags. Use the Google Keyword Tool to find variations of the keyword for additional tags.
Example Keyword: “Plant Tomatoes”
TITLE- How to Plant Tomatoes
DESCRIPTION- http://www.YourSite.com/blog - Do you want to know how to plant tomatoes?
Watch this tutorial NOW!!
TAGS- plant tomatoes, how to plant tomatoes, planting tomatoes, grow your own tomatoes
Steal Keywords from Popular Videos
Search for the most popular videos in your market and then copy the tags they have listed. This will increase the likelihood your video will be listed under “suggestions” when someone views that video.
Choose the Best Thumbnail Image
1. Go to My Account > My Videos > Edit
2. Select the thumbnail that will get you the most attention
Customize Your Channel
Before uploading your videos, customize your channel (profile) and make it look nice. Include some info about you and a link to your site.
Add Your URL to the Description
Add the “http://” version of your URL to the beginning of your video description so people can click on your link and visit your site.
Use Multiple Calls to Action
These are my favorite calls to action to use on YouTube:
- Please rate this video.
- Follow me on Twitter.
- Find me on Facebook.
- Subscribe to my videos.
- Visit my blog for more great videos.
- Embed this on your site.
- Please post your comments.
- Send this video to your friends.
- Check out my channel.
YouTube allows you to add overlay text in your videos. Use them for your calls to action.
Soft-Sell
You shouldn’t ask people to buy your stuff after watching your videos. Most people aren’t ready for this. Plan your marketing funnel and you’ll see a much better response. This is a example:
Watch YouTube Video > Go to My Blog to Watch More Videos > Sign Up to Get My Exclusive Videos (You Capture Email Addresses Here) > Try to Sell Them a Low-Ticket Item > Try to Sell a High-Ticket Item to Those Who Bought from You Before
Video Responses
Look for videos related to yours and whenever it’s appropriate post your videos as video responses to them (don’t spam). This will allow you to piggyback a lot of the traffic that these videos get.
Create Playlists
Playlists are a great way to get your videos watched by a lot of people.
Here’s how:
1. Add your video to a new playlist
2. Add great videos on the same topic (from other people)
3. Choose a smart name for the playlist (think about your keywords. i.e. “Dog Training Tips”)
It’s a Social Network!
YouTube isn’t just a video sharing site; it’s a social network. You can add friends, message them, join groups, create your own group and use the bulletin board to interact with the YouTube community.
Promote Your Videos
Uploading videos to YouTube isn’t enough. You need to promote them. These are some ideas:
- Embed your videos in your blog.
- Email your YouTube link to your friends and contacts.
- Ask people you know to tell their lists and contacts.
- Write an article about your video and post it to article directories and forums.
- Post your video to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and your other social networks.
- ASK PEOPLE TO SHARE – When posting on social networks including “Please Retweet” or “Share this with your friends” really helps.
January 14th, 2011 at 10:52 am
Great tips! The call to action overlay option is great. You can put two lines of text and add a hyperlink, similar to an AdWords ad. The company I work for has had some great success using it in our Lady Gaga parody video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWzD1cCmipw
For the video responses, does the user who posted the original video have to approve of your video response before it is put up?
January 14th, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Zeke, I like the article. When my Electronic Business Card is up and running I will use your advice to market it on You Tube, etc.!
Bryan Long
January 18th, 2011 at 10:03 am
Im woking on my channel and this was very helpfl. Thanks
Adnan
January 18th, 2011 at 10:36 am
This is great summary. I have been using U-tube and can confirm the guideline given here.
January 19th, 2011 at 7:06 am
Very Informative, and right on target!
January 20th, 2011 at 11:30 am
[...] offers 12 good tips on how to leverage YouTube using your own videos – from keyword use to choosing the right thumbnail image to represent [...]
January 20th, 2011 at 11:57 am
Great article, Zeke. Thanks for sharing! ihave blogged about it on our company site. Smart, commonsense ideas abounding.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Great tips for small businesses who want to get found on Google and the other search engines. Video and social media signals are becoming more prominent in the TrustRank and algorithms, so I encourage all my clients to get started. Just use a FlipCam or inexpensive digital camera with video capabilities and make your first amateurish attempt. Show your humanity and personality! You can add some text as a summary or even a transcript along with the embedded video on your own blog, too, for extra SEO juice.
January 22nd, 2011 at 3:43 am
[...] View the original article here Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tweet about it Subscribe to the comments on this post [...]
January 24th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Great points! Thanks for sharing these. I know we have had success with out Dydacomp YouTube Channel and i think this is a great resource to share with our clients who are small businesses. Youtube is a great way to help improve a sites SEO.
January 27th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Great post. Very useful. Thaks!
February 2nd, 2011 at 2:06 am
Using YouTube to promote your product is good. YouTube isn’t just a video sharing site; it’s a social network.Whether you run a small business from your home or work for a large corporation, you can use YouTube to promote your company. As you probably know, YouTube is a video-sharing site where anyone—including you and your business—can upload videos for others to view. The trick is determining the right kind of video to upload, and then finding a way to profit from YouTube viewership.
February 3rd, 2011 at 1:08 am
Online video advertising and marketing is experiencing rapid growth with the popularity of YouTube. Take your small business marketing to the next level with online video ads. YouTube has been a revolutionary invention in promoting your message through videos. It has been a one of its kind of digital communication tool to facilitate your message reach to your audience in a more absolute manner.
February 11th, 2011 at 6:24 pm
[...] 12 Tips for Using YouTube to Promote Your Business [...]
May 26th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
[...] Utilize these fantastic tips on ensuring your YouTube videos are maximizing their reach. It’s a decent amount of work to video blog so make sure you’re taking the time to ensure they are found easily. [...]
June 6th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
You can promote your youtube video’s at this forum: http://www.tube-post.com
No registration required.
July 6th, 2011 at 8:15 am
[...] 12 Tips for Using YouTube to Promote Your Business [...]
November 14th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
We are considering using youtube and I just sat through a 1hr webinar…. after doing so I just spent 20min on your site and learned so much more here!!
Would you consider using slideshare and youtube or is one broadcast channel enough?
March 20th, 2012 at 10:13 am
[...] Another important social networking site is YouTube, which is the second largest search engine. The only reason I don’t have it listed in the normal list is that I think of this site as more of a content site than a social networking site, though maybe I just don’t use it the right way. Regardless, here are 12 tips for using YouTube to promote your freelance business. [...]
April 6th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
this was very informative i just started useing the site heres my first video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJSRAtYR8h0
April 26th, 2012 at 10:50 am
[...] offers 12 good tips on how to leverage YouTube using your own videos – from keyword use to choosing the right thumbnail image to represent [...]
May 16th, 2012 at 7:17 am
I have a feeling this post will get more than 50 comments! The fact you ended it with a question will surely help. Blogging isn’t just about writing posts, it’s a conversation.
July 17th, 2012 at 10:44 am
Good information to build the business with youtube.
August 11th, 2012 at 3:48 pm
Usefull Info
Thanks
September 16th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Thank you so much for sharing these tips. We have a family restaurant and my friend told me to have the benefit of using the internet to advertise our business. I have always wanted to do it through YouTube but I was just not sure how. So, thank you for these very helpful tips.
December 31st, 2012 at 8:14 pm
[...] for Using Youtube to Promote Your Business.” Startup Nation; 13 Jan [...]
May 5th, 2013 at 2:40 pm
[...] So now that we have that question answered lets talk about how to promote your business using YouTube. This article breaks down the most important parts of how to promote your business with things such as how important choosing the right thumbnail or how and why to use multiple calls to actions.12 ways to use YouTube to promote your business [...]