YouTube MARKETING GUIDE

KISSMETRICS.COM
THE
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How does a company that sells blenders attract more than 220 million
views on YouTube? How does Zappos drive more than 250,000 visits a
year to its website from YouTube?
With 100 hours of footage uploaded to YouTube every minute, how do
you successfully market your business on the world’s largest video site
and #2 search engine?
This guide will provide answers to those questions and much more.
Whether you are a YouTube beginner or a seasoned pro, this guide will
serve as an in-depth guide for marketing on YouTube.
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How to Set up Your
YouTube One Channel
YouTube is evolving from a “video-based site to a channelsbased
site where subscriptions rule.” With the One Channel
layout, your branding will work across all screens, you can turn
non-subscribers into loyal fans, and you can show off more of
your video content.
While I won’t describe all of the ways you can optimize your
YouTube One Channel, I’ll cover a few of the important basics.
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Create Channel Icon and Art
Think of your channel icon as your profile picture.
You can either upload an image or choose a still image from one
of your videos.
If you upload an image (recommended), upload an 800px by
800px image.
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For your channel art, YouTube recommends that you upload a
single 2560px by 1440px image. This provides the best results
on all kinds of screens and devices, including desktops, laptops,
phones, tablets, televisions, or any other place with pixels.
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Upload a Trailer
You now can feature a trailer that displays only when non-subscribers
visit your channel. This video is your chance to show off
your channel and encourage viewers to subscribe.
YouTube lets you select a trailer from one of your uploaded videos,
or you can enter a YouTube URL.
The Annoying Orange channel provides a great example of an
optimized One Channel trailer. They optimized their trailer description
with relevant links to purchase merchandise, download
mobile games, and follow them on Twitter.
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SoulPancake has their “Welcome to SoulPancake” trailer along
with a list of their current shows:
Add Custom and Social Links
YouTube gives you the option to overlay one custom link and up
to five social links on top of your channel art.
For the social media links, you must select from YouTube’s dropdown
menu of social networks. You cannot enter in your own
links, but there is a wide range of social media sites to choose
from, including Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr,
Blogger, etc.
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How to
Produce Effective
YouTube Videos
Gone are the days when YouTube was exclusively a place for
one-hit, user-generated viral videos. If you’re serious about
building a successful marketing campaign on YouTube, you have
to consider your channel’s long-term plan.
Are you there to educate or entertain? Are you looking to increase
subscribers or attract new visitors to your website?
YouTube recently changed its algorithm. Previously they ranked
videos that had a large view count higher than others. Now it
gives videos and channels that retain viewers throughout an
entire video more visibility in its search results and discovery
(suggested videos at the end of each video and related videos on
the right sidebar).
Don’t be discouraged if you have never produced a video. You
don’t need an Oscar to maximize watch-time on your videos. All
you need are simple video production techniques that include
effective editing, quality production, and an engaging video
structure.
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Put Compelling Content First
Studies have shown that viewers decide during the first 15 seconds
of a video whether they are going to keep watching or not.
And, in this modern world, we are accustomed to a constant
flow of information. So, you should aim to build trust or curiosity
within the first 15 seconds of your video.
Here are a few ways you can quickly engage viewers:
• Gain the viewer’s trust with a quick, animated introduction.
• Spark the viewer’s curiosity, or tease the rest of the video,
with hosts/personalities.
• Start with a quick clip that previews what’s to come.
Having an animated introduction is a simple and effective way to
build a viewer’s trust. It instantly shows them that a quality production
is about to follow.
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This is especially important if you’re doing a talking head/webcam
video. A professional introduction captivates your audience
and adds production value to an otherwise static video.
If you are creating a “how-to” type video, think about showing
the final result first and then going into the instructional steps.
Inspiring viewers from the beginning will keep them engaged
throughout your video.
Create Calls to Action
The key to a successful marketing campaign, even on YouTube,
is creating clear and concise calls to action (CTAs). Depending
on the message, you can use the beginning, middle, or end of a
video to direct your viewers’ actions.
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Having too many prompts can cause confusion, so keep your
CTAs minimal and simple. The goal is to make it as easy as possible
for viewers to perform an action.
Here are a few important actions to use on your videos:
• Subscribe: Give your viewer a reason to subscribe (e.g., new
videos every week or never missing an episode).
• Like/Add to Favorites/Share: Ask your viewers to “like,”
“favorite,” and “share” the video so your content appears in
more places across YouTube. You’ll be amazed at the reaction
you get when you simply ask for it.
• Comments: Encourage your audience to participate by asking
a specific question or requesting a topic they’d like to see
covered in an upcoming video.
• Video Graphics: Create an “end slate” that appears at the
end of the video to direct viewers to your website.
Create Regular Content
Consistently updating your channel with content will keep your
channel feed active, increase your presence on YouTube, and
help you build an audience. You should aim for a minimum of
one video per week, but the right amount of content depends
on your audience, your goals, and your content.
One simple way to create a steady stream of content is to produce
shorter versions of long-form content. Build a theme
around a topic and then post bite-size versions of it on a weekly
basis. This will keep your audience engaged and coming back
for more.
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YouTube Optimization
You’ve spent hours planning, producing, and editing just the
right content for your YouTube audience. Now it’s time to grab
some popcorn and watch the views roll in (Gangnam style),
right? Not quite.
Remember, 100 hours of footage is uploaded every minute on
YouTube. While creating an engaging video is crucial to your
success, it’s only half of the equation.
To give your videos and channel the best possible chance for
success, you’ve got to optimize them.
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Let’s Get Meta(Data)
Metadata is the information that encapsulates your video: the
title, description, and tags. By optimizing these three components
of your video, you will increase the likelihood of it showing
up in YouTube’s search results, homepage, and related videos.
Title (or Headline)
Think of your video’s title as its “headline.” Try to have a nice
balance of SEO and AGO (Attention Grabbing Optimization).
Be sure to keep your branding at the end and relevant keywords
at the beginning.
Avoid titles that trick viewers into watching a video. This will
cause a huge drop-off, which will negatively impact your video’s
watch-time performance, along with its ranking.
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Description
Do NOT make the #1 mistake with your description field.
You want to optimize the first one to two sentences with a link
back to your website or landing page. This is essential because
YouTube truncates your description, and only the first two sentences
are shown when viewers watch your video.
You’ll also want to include relevant keywords here. Again, try
to strike the fine balance of intriguing content that is also SEO
friendly.
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Next, you’ll want to end the description with URLs to other important
sites, such as your social media presence, blog, website,
etc.
Tags
The key to optimizing your tags is to place your important terms
first. Use quotes for keyword phrases, such as “video production,”
and provide a blend of common and long-tail keywords.
You want to create enough tags to thoroughly and accurately
describe your video. Think about what your potential viewer may
be searching for on YouTube.
Thumbnails
Along with your video title, thumbnails act as mini marketing
banners for your videos. If your YouTube account is older than 30
days and in good standing, you may have the ability to upload
custom thumbnails for their video uploads.
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If you have custom thumbnails enabled on your account, you
should always upload one with the video. The right thumbnail can
attract a huge audience on YouTube.
While you’re filming your video, consider what your ideal thumbnail
will be, so you can take certain shots or pictures while you
are on location.
Here are some general guidelines to follow:
• Hi-resolution image (640px by 360px at a minimum)
• Close-ups of faces
• Looks great at both small and large sizes
• Foreground stands out from background
• Accurately represents the content
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Annotations
Annotations are text overlays that you can place over your videos.
With annotations, you can layer text, links, and hotspots
over your video to enrich the video experience with additional
information, interactivity, and engagement.
Be modest with your use of annotations since too many will turn
off viewers and decrease your average watch-time.
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Here are some ways to use them:
• Navigate (i.e., next/previous episode, go to channel)
• Subscribe to YouTube channel
• Link to other YouTube videos, playlists, channels, or full versions
of shorter clips
• Encourage viewers to “like” or comment on the video
You can customize many different aspects of annotations, including
size, color, type, link, and timing. Play around with the different
types of annotations to find one that matches your goals.
Avoid placing annotations in the lower third of your video as the
YouTube ads overlay can obscure them. Also, the embedded
player can obstruct annotations along the very top of the frame.
Finally, be careful that the annotations do not get in the way of
the actual content. This can seem “spammy” and may have an
adverse effect.
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Analytics
You cannot manage what you cannot measure. YouTube’s Analytics
tool provides valuable data and insights about your content
and audience.
While YouTube provides a suite of information, we’ll do a deep
dive on three of the main sections – viewership, watch-time, and
traffic source.
Viewership
YouTube gives you view counts for each video and channel.
Analyze your most viewed days, weeks, and individual videos to
understand why they are successful. You’ll also want to investigate
the causes or catalysts for the high viewership and build
on them. Was it the headline? Was there something in the news
that caused the spike?
Also, take a look at the comments on the video to see if you can
find insightful nuggets of information.
Don’t forget to make sure the successful videos are annotated
to drive subscribers, comments, and traffic to your other videos.
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Watch-time
YouTube Analytics now features data for viewer watch-time on
your channel and on a per-video basis. While getting views is important,
knowing how long your viewers are watching your videos
is a much stronger indication of how well they are performing.
Remember, YouTube is optimizing its search and discovery
algorithm based on watch-time, so it’s a metric to which you’ll
definitely want to pay attention.
Look for videos with the highest view-duration percentages and
longest total watch-times. These are the videos that you should
use annotations on to promote your channel or other videos.
Traffic Source
Traffic source helps you understand how viewers discover your
content on a channel and per-video level. When examining individual
video traffic, you can see which other specific videos
are driving views via suggested or related video placement. Use
these insights to optimize your metadata, thumbnails, and tags.
“YouTube Other Features” allows you to see traffic coming from
annotations.
For your top-performing videos, analyze the first one to two
weeks after they were published to discover what may have
caused the spike.
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Build Your Community
In his TED talk about Why Videos Go Viral, Kevin Allocca, You-
Tube Trends Manager, states that community is one of the elements
of a viral video. Unlike traditional video, online video is
social. It is a two-way dialogue.
Keep in mind that YouTube is a social network. So, as a creator,
it is essential that you interact and engage with your community.
Just as you may thank your readers for comments on your blog,
you should apply the same strategy to your viewers on YouTube.
An engaged community of viewers often leads to a loyal
following. Unlike a blog, with video, your viewer can see and
hear you, and that establishes a much deeper connection.
Cross-Promote with Other Channels
To increase your reach on YouTube, make it a priority to identify
and reach out to other similar channels to cross-promote or collaborate
in a mutually beneficial manner.
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This doesn’t mean you need a huge following on YouTube already.
Gregory Ciotti has a great post on Think Traffic about how he
worked with another YouTube channel to create a video based on
a popular blog post he wrote – Science of Productivity.
That video alone increased his email subscribers by 7,000!
Promote on Social Media
Did you know 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter every
minute?
However, promoting your YouTube content on social media
doesn’t always mean consistently pushing your content on Twitter,
Google+, and Facebook.
Warby Parker cleverly replies to questions on Twitter with video
and has doubled their response rate.
“People have a lot of questions about the color or the size and
the shape of our glasses, and instead of just responding to them
with a tweet, we’ll create a video that shows them the difference
between two frames,” says Jen Rubio, Social Media Manager at
Warby Parker.
To grow your following, think of ways to do the unexpected on the
different social media platforms.
From a Google+ perspective, YouTube now allows you to use a
Google+ identity for your YouTube channels. This means that all of
your public channel activity – uploaded videos, created playlists,
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comments, “likes,” “favorites,” and subscriptions – can be attributed
to your Google+ name.
Remember, the profile aligned with your channel should be created
on the same Google account.
Outreach to Blogs
Don’t limit yourself to just YouTube. A lot of viewers find content
on YouTube through other sites.
Mark Malkoff and his viral videos have been featured on the Today
show, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper 360, The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and many other media outlets.
He has created such hits as the Apple Store Challenge where he
performs crazy stunts at various Apple Stores to see what he can
get away with.
He recommends reaching out to blogs and journalists a week
before the launch of your video. Give them a sneak peek of the
video so they can determine if they are interested in covering it.
Blogs, media outlets, and other websites are always looking for
great content to feature. Leverage their audience and reach to
grow your YouTube presence.
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Conclusion
Congratulations – you made it all the way through this massive
guide. Now you are set to become the next YouTube
star/creator.
Apply the principles outlined here and grow your presence on
YouTube. Remember, it may not work on the first try, but continuing
to produce high-quality content on YouTube can deliver
amazing results.
Zappos receives more than 250,000 visits from YouTube alone,
and a blender company, Blendtec, has more than 235 million
views on YouTube.
Success on YouTube comes with time and practice, so get out
there and shoot.
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About the Author
Steve P. Young is a marketing consultant
and host of the Mobile App Chat podcast
where the top mobile app developers share
their success stories.
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The First 100 days

The First 100 days.

The most important days are the first 100 days you get a new student and the last 100 days just before Black Belt testing