YouTube Marketing Tips Part 1/3

If you’re like the rest of us, you’ve probably watched about a million hilarious cat videos on YouTube. You may have even created a YouTube channel with a foggy notion that it may one day become very important to your business...

...Well today is that day!

According to Compete.com, YouTube is currently ranked 4th in the world in terms of traffic. It’s also the second largest search site on the web -- ahead of both Yahoo and Bing. But you know what’s even more important? YouTube enjoys a very special relationship with the world’s undisputed search leader. Actually, Google has owned YouTube since 2006... so it’s pretty safe to assume that they’re pals. As you can imagine, this very special relationship has benefited both parties tremendously. In this report, I’ll show you how it’s going to benefit you.

What is YouTube Marketing?

Video is where the web is headed. The numbers say it all. There are currently 60 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute of every day -- one hour of video content every second. In fact, Cisco is scrambling to re-engineer its routers to deal with what they call the “video onslaught;” e.g. they’re predicting that by 2015 at least 90% of all internet traffic will be video. More than half of all web traffic after 5PM is ALREADY video traffic -- YouTube, Netflix, and other companies serving prime video. All of these facts illustrate one thing: Video is where the web is going.

Why You Absolutely Need YouTube Marketing

This isn’t some incredible prediction or anything, it’s been happening for years now. It’s just that now, the move toward video has reached critical mass, a tipping point where the momentum will swing and things will all start to speed up. That’s why it’s so important to learn and test these strategies right now. It will give you a huge leg up on the competition moving forward.

If you think about it, as others struggle to establish their company on YouTube, you’ll have an established presence with a top ranked video. Believe me, it’s very hard to knock a popular YouTube video out of the number one spot. As a bonus, you’ll also benefit from a massive and almost instantaneous rise in your Google ranking. And it goes without saying that a front page Google rank is as good as gold.

"Did you know that the top listing in Google’s organic search results gets an average of 46% of the clicks? The second gets around 25%. The third gets 13%..."

That means all the rest of the results on page one (paid and organic) fight over the remaining 16%. The paid results only get about 5% of the traffic -- it’s a horrible affliction referred to as “ad blindness.” Imagine for a moment that the first listing has a YouTube thumbnail. What percentage of clicks do you think it may get then?

Channels vs. Pages

As you begin to think about YouTube strategically, it’s important that you reset the way you look at YouTube channels versus YouTube pages. Simply put, you need to think of YouTube as a kind of second website. Your channel is the homepage that anchors your YouTube website. Your videos are the webpages. 

Every video you have on your channel strengthens the website, because every video points back to your channel page. The more authoritative your channel/homepage becomes, the easier it becomes for your site to rank. 

Here’s a key thing to remember, the rules of good web design apply in YouTube the same way they apply elsewhere. To build authority, you need to keep your videos relevant to the theme of your channel. Whether your niche is model trains or growing azaleas, you should create a specific channel for each major topic.

"In other words, there’s no benefit to throwing a ton of unrelated videos on one channel. That would simply dilute your channel’s authority. Follow this rule and your ranking and quality score will skyrocket."

Video Creation

This is usually the first big challenge that comes up when a first-timer wants to launch a YouTube Channel. Most people are a bit camera-shy and don’t feel comfortable having their face plastered all over YouTube. Well, here’s the good news -- you don’t have to become a YouTube celebrity.

Before you even begin the creation process, you have a very important decision to make: What purpose should your video serve?

Your Youtube Marketing Video’s Purpose 

Here’s a list of goals you might want your video to achieve: To build your website’s readership - Your video is a great opportunity to encourage viewers to check out your “real” website. This move can often lead to an opt-in or even a sale down the road.In fact, it might actually be better if you don’t appear in your YouTube videos. But I’ll get into that later in part 2. To capture a lead - You can also ask for an opt-in directly in the video. Simply draw attention to a link listed below your video, and explain what visitors will get once they’ve opted in.

"In addition, it’s really important that you track all of the leads you get from YouTube because they’re educated about your product. And an informed lead is worth roughly 10 times the value of an uneducated lead."

To build your website’s brand - This one’s really my least favorite. While most brands do this almost exclusive, it’s really hard to tell if you’re accomplishing anything, because it’s not noticeable in any way. To make a direct sale - There’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t present a CALL-TO-ACTION in your video and provide a link that goes directly to an order form. I'm actually shocked to see how few people actually do this! To sell an affiliate product - Here are the three best affiliate marketing strategies I’ve seen on YouTube.

1. Open box buy - In these videos, affiliates will simply open a product in a YouTube video, showing viewers exactly what’s inside the packaging. Then, they’ll provide their affiliate link to that product on Amazon or elsewhere.

2. Reviews - YouTube reviews are another great way to relieve buying anxiety and provide an affiliate link.

3. Training videos - Lastly, many affiliates make money by simply training viewers how to use a complicated product, and then sending those educated leads to their affiliate link.

YouTube Marketing Secrets.