Your Business Guide to YouTube - Part II

Your Business Guide to YouTube - Part II

If you haven't read Part I yet, I suggest reading that first.

The Video - Optimizing for your Audience

My colleagues and I were sitting around talking the other day about many aspects of business advertising.  

As we brainstormed different ideas about what can improve many of our clients advertisements on YouTube, we realized that their biggest flaws were the fact that they were using infomercials.  Infomercials are to teach the audience why they need the product/service and what it will do for them.  Am I saying you shouldn't have those?  Of course not, they have their value, but that is for after you have captivated your audience to your business and logo.  Just like television, not many people watch it for infomercials or commercials, yet we do see them.  So what does that mean for your YouTube Videos?  You need to treat them so people will want to watch them and enjoy it as they watch.  This Part II of Your Business Guide to YouTube will hopefully help you create videos to get them watched.

YouTube Advertising Videos

Perhaps the most important videos to reference in terms of watch-ability are the 15-30 second ads that play when you want to watch a video.  Many of these you can skip within the first 5 seconds of watching.  What you need to notice the next time you watch these, did they grab your attention within those first 5 seconds to merit you watching further?  If so, what made you watch?  The next part of this Blog will look at different aspects that draws viewership to your videos.

The "Big Four" - Aspects to get your video Watched

Captivate your Audience

As stated earlier, it is vital that your video captivates their attention within the first 5 seconds.  How you do this is up to you, but their are several methods.  Probably the hardest to do, but usually the most effective, is great graphics.  Obviously we have limited budgets, so this one is probably out.  However, a good example would be 5 Gum (video below).  It's awesome, it has great graphics which make you watch, and their catchy phrase makes you not forget their name.

 Appeal to the senses.  Whether it is visually stunning, something amazing, something that is funny, or sounds good, people will watch it because it appeals to one of your senses.  This plays on the eyes.  However, you might find yourself watching just because they are pretty cool.

Businesses have a slogan for a reason.  "Stimulate your Senses", 5 Gum's slogan, is short, catchy, and is an adjective followed by a noun (sense).  It literally is a Call to Action in terms of what your body should be feeling when you use their product.  Because of the feelings a slogan can generate, you should have some slogan or saying that represents your business.  Your business should have a Logo/Icon that is appealing, simple, and noticeable.  The slogan should be able to be remembered, and contain some type of Call to Action, leave the person wanting more information, or have them comforted.

And lastly, your business information should be displayed for no more than 5 seconds.  People don't want it to be intrusive.  It needs to be quick, unless it has entertainment value.

Call to Action

The more interactive you make your video, the better.  A call to action would be requesting people to be involved during the video by asking them to click on annotations.  These annotations should allow the user to subscribe to your channel, watch another video by you, take you to someone else's channel, or add important details.

These two videos give you examples of how to do this without ruining or being intrusive to the video.  The first video is a way to make it so the video requests it (seems more interactive). In "Ninja Part 1" (you will need to either move to the end of the clip or watch it) they use comedy with an annotation to their next video in the series.  It is entertaining just to watch the guy stand there trying to convince you to watch the next video.   However, be careful not to let the annotations become intrusive.  They should enhance the video, not diminish its value!

Schedule

Kind of a minor detail, but releasing your videos on a regular schedule does help viewership.  If people or your subscribers know that your videos are released during certain times, they are more likely to watch them.  They expect them.  You can build up expectations by releasing teasers, snippets, or blog about upcoming videos.

Tent Pole Events

Lastly, pay attention to what is trending.  "Tent Pole Events" basically means planning releases around events that are huge, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Saint Patrick's Day, News, Celebrities, etc.  Viewer's interests spike usually a week or two before the actual event (if it is a special day), or immediate days following a news story.  If you are following Tent Pole events, your video are related to them, with tags, title, and Thumbnails that match, than you are more likely to have your video watched. You can try and find other trends that my be on the rise by visiting www.google.com/trends.

Part III

Stay tuned for Part III.  More about YouTube and how to create videos that will enhance your Business!