YouTube Strategy
PTC Computer Solutions has been involved in planning, developing, and completing YouTube marketing strategies for years. We are YouTube specialists and have created many YouTube channels for businesses through the years.
The importance of video today
PTC believes that because relationships can be formed through digital communication and social media more so these days than any other, the value we place on face-to-face interaction has been minimized. Video brings that face-to-face interaction to everyone, since people can use video to develop a one-way relationship with their viewers.
This type of interaction can take place in many places including but not limited to the videos posted on YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook video, the live-streaming apps (Meerkat, Periscope and Blab), Twitter and Instagram video.
The relationship between Google and YouTube, and why you’re more likely to be found on a search if you’re leveraging a video content strategy in your overall marketing plan. YouTube can help you show up in search queries.
Mistakes marketers make with YouTube
A number of mistakes are made by many marketers when utilizing YouTube as a marketing media. The first thing cautioned against is using YouTube as a compilation channel, a holding ground for every video ever made. For instance, there may be a couple of Q&A videos with the staff, an old commercial and some home video of the company picnic. All of these videos have low views, and there’s no real cohesive strategy. They don’t help the overall marketing effort and, in fact, can be a detriment to it.
The second thing is violations of what is referred to as the “Three Ps” which include Platform, People and Purpose. Marketers often violate the Platform when they repurpose their non-YouTube video content (Google hangouts, Meerkat videos or portrait videos) for YouTube.
Repurposing leads to a violation against People. YouTubers want to engage with the content, comment about it and be a part of the interactive social community. When marketers repurpose, such as putting Meerkat videos on YouTube, they’re telling their audience they don’t care enough to create content specifically for them and the content IS specifically for them. Each individual viewer believes that.
The third violation involves Purpose. Marketers need to have a purpose for their videos. They must figure out what they’re trying to communicate with their video and the business objective of that video, whether it’s to build subscribers, get more shares, grow a list or sell a product. Marketers who don’t consider purpose when developing their content strategy are less likely to succeed on the platform.
The YouTube Strategy
The first thing marketers need to consider is what is going to be done on YouTube: what will be talked about and what is the message of the brand. To figure out the content strategy, we have our clients come up with potential video titles, using “The Five Ws” of who, what, why, where, when and how which is not too dissimilar to the marketing and sales strategies of Parker Associates with their time-tested successful use of WHO, WHAT, and HOW to identify prospects and product placement..
Start with “WHO” and make a list of the big names in your industry. Then, go over to “WHAT.” What is the best way to do something, as it pertains to your business? Work your way down the rest of the list to get a full range of ideas for your videos. Come up with the biggest questions asked by your audience and answer them in videos. PTC works with clients to come up with 100 titles before they even buy a video camera. Planning is an important part of any strategy.
The types of videos you make should be specific to your company. If there’s someone who’s comfortable on camera as your spokesperson, that’s great, since communicating eyeball to eyeball is the best way to build a relationship with your audience. If there’s no one to participate on camera, just use audio and graphics.
PTC does not always recommend the use of individuals or actors at all in every video. There are many cases where videos are completed successfully without a single face in them. Instead we might use screen captures, PowerPoint and typography to answer questions from prospects and clients.
Don’t trade connectiveness for connectivity. Businesses have moved toward utilizing technologies to try to enhance their interactions with their clients, but often there is little to no thought that goes in to utilizing the technologies and sometimes these are not useful technologies instead removing the user or client from the business.
Monetization of YouTube
PTC Computer Solutions along with their sister companies, PTC Communications and Parker Associates, believes that the point of being on YouTube is to carve out a very specific audience that can be served through the video medium.
We believe that rather than trying to build a huge channel with millions of views and subscribers, marketers should create a funnel that takes viewers from their video to a clickable link that leads to an opt-in or product for sale.
This is the general purpose of any social media interaction. Using social media is not to bring customers useful information but to leave them begging the question for more. Bring them to the point of requiring further involvement and not satisfied that they have found all they need. PTC stresses that you should know the purpose of the video from the beginning. Do you want people to subscribe? To share? Focus on one call to action per video. You can’t sell more than one item at a time. You might make 10 videos that are all designed to build a list, and then 20 videos that are designed to get new subscribers.
Is your purpose to drive sales? Many YouTubers sell to their subscribers or a non-subscriber base through both in-display ads and pre-roll ads. Both options are 10-second ads that appear in front of the video that’s queued for viewing. If you use YouTube ads, remember to focus on selling one product. Then target the ad’s delivery through the ad system to push the video out to a prequalified audience.
Are you using YouTube to assist your online presence? If all of this befuddles you, belittles your being, begs your brain to be foddered, belying your intellect…not to worry, PTC Computer Solutions is an expert on this stuff and is here to help. It’s what we do. Contact info@ptccomputersolutions.com or go to our website at www.ptccomputersolutions.com for more information. We are always at the ready.
Online marketing is an incredibly dynamic environment with a tremendous number of moving parts. It is a constantly changing world. You do what you do best. Let us do what we do best. Keeping involved and staying ahead of the latest improvements is what we do at PTC Computer Solutions. If you are looking to get noticed on the Internet but don’t know where to begin, let PTC Computer Solutions help you get started or help improve your current website and website marketing plan and budget.
Among everything else we do, PTC can plan a full marketing strategy and budget for your company and complete any marketing efforts, web or otherwise, you wish to achieve in order to deliver a consistent and effective message to your prospects. Contact David W. B. Parker (when you think of “W. B.” think of WeB) at davidp@ptccomputersolutions.com or go to our web site at www.ptccomputersolutions.com for more information.
By David W. B. Parker
President
PTC Computer Solutions
10/20/2015
PTC Computer Solutions – Internet, Web Sites, SEO, Online Marketing
PTC Computer Solutions
Jacksonville Beach, Florida
904.992.9888
davidp@ptccomputersolutions.com
www.ptccomputersolutions.com
Pingback: How to Have YouTube Marketing Success, People Aren't the Only Things Connected to the Internet, & Millennials Are On YouTube - Parker Associates
Pingback: Parker Associates November 2015 Newsletter - Parker Associates