Use YouTube Videos to Turbocharge Your Marketing

Now is the perfect time to make a customized video that plays on your website. Most computer users now have broadband, so using video in your marketing isn’t the issue that it was a year or two ago.

YouTube is currently the world’s second most popular search engine and the number one site to watch video. Over 85% of Internet users view 15 minutes of video per day, and YouTube hosts almost half of those. YouTube is owned by Google, so using YouTube video is a surefire way to boost your Google rankings as well.

Take a look at this video that spotlights the benefits of using YouTube to market your videos.

And here’s the kicker—videos hosted on YouTube use its servers for free, so there are no bandwidth worries for you! YouTube is also continually increasing its presence on mobile devices.

Learn how to start using YouTube to boost your freelance marketing efforts.

Targeting with Professional YouTube Videos

YouTube has made it easy to push potential clients directly to your site, and they have taken pains to make your videos look professional.

When creating video, be sure to use video editing tools that will give your videos a professional polish. Your video should be content rich and relevant to your target customer. Watch out for newbie video mistakes freelancers make.

Create compelling content. For example, a writer could make a video on grammar errors that cost businesses money. Try using humor in your videos, because funny and unusual content has a better chance of going viral. Of course, only take this approach if you really are funny, otherwise shoot for being informative. Teach something insanely useful and you’ll get plenty of views for your video.

Uploading Your Video to YouTube

Uploading video is easy when you use YouTube’s upload page, which allows you to drag and drop, upload more than one file, record from a web camera or select an FLV, MP4 or MOV file from your computer.

Promoting Your Videos on YouTube

As soon as you post your video to YouTube, “it gets a unique URL that you can paste into social network postings as frequently as you wish,” according to Stu Sweetow of Audio Visual Consultants. This one action will boost your social media presence.

Use the Action Bar on your unique URL to easily post video on multiple social networks, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. As if that weren’t enough social networking power, YouTube itself is a social networking site that allows you to add friends, subscribe to channels and comment on others’ videos. This means a closer relationship with your target customers.

Embedding Your YouTube Videos

In four easy steps, you can embed a YouTube video into your blog or site. Why is using ‘embed’ so important? You want to keep potential clients on your website, not take the chance that they will follow a competing freelancer’s link.

After posting a video, click on the Share button displayed at the bottom of your video. Click Embed, and a box will appear with html code in it. Copy it, and paste it into your website’s html code. That’s all there is to it.

Using YouTube’s relatively new Video Manager, you can change your content’s privacy status (private, friends only or public). To enter Video Manager, click on your user name in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. You will then see a series of thumbnails. Click ‘Try It Now.’

Analyzing Your YouTube Video Results

To view demographic information about your viewers, use YouTube Insight, which will also tell you where in the world your viewers are. You can also see how many people watched your video, which will help you to calibrate your marketing efforts.