Boost Sales with Instructional Videos
by Hostway With over 16 million visitors a day, no business, big or small,
can afford to ignore YouTube. Behind only Google and Facebook, YouTube is third
most popular site in the world. And, it’s a goldmine for the marketing savvy.
Creating a quality instructional video is a simple and effective way to generate
traffic and increase your brand awareness.
Getting Started
The first step in building a brand presence on
YouTube is signing up for an
account. Make sure you use your company name as your username. Your YouTube
username will become your “channel” name (forever) and the anchor for your
brand. Signing up is simple and once you’ve completed the process you’re ready
to start marketing.
Creating Content
The soft-sell is by far the best technique for YouTube videos. People don’t
want to watch just another commercial, they want to be entertained or educated.
A quality how-to instructional video is a great way to attract attention and
market your brand without hitting people over the head with an advertising
frying pan.
A good instructional video doesn’t have to be a James Cameron production to
be effective. It just has to be informative, clear, short and, a little
entertaining doesn’t hurt either.
Look at your brand and product line. What are some things (even very basic
things) that people do with your items?
If you sell clothing, consider a brief instructional video about how to
organize a closet or how to know your “real” size. If you sell biking equipment,
create a video explaining how to clean and lubricate a chain or how to true a
wheel. If you sell collectibles, create a video explaining how to spot fakes or
how to identify makers.
Make your video short and clean. It shouldn’t be more than two-three minutes
long. Use title cards. They’re a simple way to work your company/brand into the
presentation.
Uploading a Video
When you upload your video, be sure you pay attention to your keyword choices
and SEO. You might have shot the most informative video ever, but without good
SEO no one will find it.
- Title: Write a clear descriptive title that
uses quality keywords
- Description: You can go into more depth
here about the video, but be sure to incorporate your Web site
address into the first sentence so that it will display even if
the user doesn’t click on “view more.” Make good and generous
use of keywords here too.
- Tags: Put your most relevant keywords here.
Creating a great instructional video can be a great marketing tool. Keep
adding more content to your channel, and you can even slip in a few special
promotions from time to time. Get involved in the community and comment and
engage with other users.
You can also use YouTube Insight (their version of analytics) to see how
people found your videos. Keep refining your keywords and adding content.
Like any social media it takes a while to get some traction, but once you do,
the benefits can be enormous.
Hostway Corporation helps small- and medium-sized businesses increase sales with innovative
Web hosting packages that include an easy-to-use Web site builder, a built-in mechanism for driving traffic and an
email marketing platform. Founded in 1998, the company currently serves more than 600,000 customers across the globe and operates over 250,000 square feet of state-of-the-art data centers with a direct presence in 13 countries, 17 worldwide operation centers and more than 700 employees.
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