YouTube Marketing Tips from Expert Lou Bortone

My friend Lou Bortone (another Book Yourself Solid coach) has SO much experience with video and marketing through YouTube. He recently wrote the below article for his own e-zine and I liked it so much I asked if I could post it on my own blog here for you. Lou graciously agreed. You can find Lou at his website here: http://www.loubortone.com/.

How to Ride the Coattails of the Biggest Website on the Internet

Leverage the power of this site for more visibility, traffic and sales…

 YouTube recently passed Facebook as the largest social media site on the web.  And it’s been the second biggest search engine online for years. The traffic and exposure that YouTube generates is astronomical.  The numbers are almost too big to fathom.  (And yet all this marketing power doesn’t cost you a penny!) 

If you’re still not taking advantage of this incredible resource, you risk your business being irrelevant, out of touch or event obsolete.  Having little or no presence on YouTube means your prospects won’t take you seriously as a legitimate business.  Even worse, if your videos are languishing on YouTube and not getting views, then you’ve got nothing more than a desolate video graveyard. 

Are you getting the most out of your video efforts?  Are you maximizing YouTube and coming along for the (free) ride?  Are you leveraging the site that, if it were a country, would be the third largest in the world behind China and India?  (That’s a LOT of eyeballs!)

The upside here is that with a little effort and a few adjustments, you can optimize your YouTube videos to get more views, more engagement and much better results. 

 Here are the five key elements to making a compelling and powerful YouTube video that gets attention, gets views, and gets all that traffic back to your site:

1. Content – Everyone loves to talk about “optimization,” but most gurus fail to mention the single most important strategy of all: Good content!  Content is king, queen and jack of all trades.  Your video’s content and message must be relevant and interesting to your target market, or there’s no point doing all the other optimization strategies.  It’s been my battle cry to all video creators: If you want more video views, make better videos!
2. Keywords – This is how people will find your video among the millions of videos on YouTube.  You need to use appropriate keywords consistently and you need to include those keywords in your video’s title, description and tags.  Be sure to spend some time on your video’s title – it’s the headline and the hook that’s going to attract viewers.
3. Thumbnails – Don’t overlook the importance of the thumbnail image – And never settle for one of the three (usually bad) thumbnails that YouTube provides.  Take the time to create and upload a custom thumbnail for each video you upload.   Your thumbnail is your only visual representation of your video and is often the deciding factor for whether or not a viewer will click through to your video. Choose wisely.
4. Links and Annotations – Annotations are another often overlooked goldmine of opportunity for getting more views, interaction and engagement.  By adding annotations (text, overlays, notes, labels, etc.), you help guide and direct your viewer through the video.  This encourages your viewer to watch longer and take the action you want them to take.  Annotations can also be linked to an “associated” website, which means you’ve got a built-in way to drive traffic back to your website – where you control the environment and experience.
5. Call to Action – It’s amazing (and unfortunate) that so many people miss this crucial ingredient to a successful video.  You’ve got to tell your viewer exactly what you want them to do when the video ends.  Your call to action (CTA) provides direction and a next step for your viewer.  Should they visit your website?  Subscribe to your channel?  Buy your product? Tell them that!

These 5 simple steps can make the difference between a “blah” video and a great video – one that moves your viewers to action and actually accomplishes your business goals. 

Thanks, Lou, for teaching us your YouTube marketing tips.