It’s the marketing craze of the year. In fact it was gaining a lot of popularity last year. Creating videos and posting to YouTube has been something that many popular internet marketers have been promoting very heavily. If you’re on anyone’s list then I am certain you have seen the launch material.
A few weeks ago Andy Jenkins launched an amazing training program called Video Boss. In the launch video’s Andy did an amazing job of showing us simple folk just how powerful video marketing can truly be. The techniques he shared show how much easier it is control what the viewer does, thinks and feels, which enables us as marketers, to send them into the sales funnel without resistance.
Video Is Powerful but…
So yes, clearly I am an advocate of video marketing. The audio-visual aspect of video is just no comparison to the written word. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself why TV news is that much more popular than print media. The answer is simple. It can be answered in a single word.
Engagement.
Video allows you to engage your audience directly, and in a very personal and emotional way that the printed word will never be able to compete with. Simply because the attention span required to watch a video is far less than to read a sales letter.
The Sad Truth About Video
“So if video is so good then why the hell am I saying it’s a waste of time?” If you’ve been trying to make money online for any amount of time then you probably already know the answer.
I’m almost certain, if you’ve ever considered making YouTube videos for your products or offers, that we’re all faced with the same problems. Let me list just a few.
You’re Wasting Your Freakin’ Time
So you can probably see now that, after all your planning, you find a good location, you write a script, you record, edit, and upload the video. The video probably even gets a few hundred views. But you didn’t get any sales. And you already know why.
As soon as they finished watching your video on YouTube, they went and watched another video on someone else’s channel. They disappeared from the face of your video world. You wasted a lot of time making that video and didn’t get a single visitor or sale.
Is that smart marketing?
Conquer Your Video Empire
It’s not all bad news because there is a solution. But before I tell you about it I want you to take a look at your own video strategies and see what opportunities might already exist to take more control of your video marketing on YouTube.
Once you’ve done that, go check out How To Leverage Video Marketing – Become A YouTube Partner second part to this story where I will explain a simple system you need to learn about that will put you back in the driver’s seat and start moving the traffic to exactly where you want it.
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Interesting this, as I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. My problem, apart from the stuff you mention about SEO and so on, is that I don’t actually enjoy watching video posts. I much prefer written posts which I can go with at my own pace, skim and re read as I want.
Talking to other people, I’m surprised how many feel the same way. So what’s the deal? Are we all falling into the trap of believing video is great because everyone keep’s saying it is? Or am I just out of kilter with the rest of the human race? (wouldn’t be the first time!)
@Mike CJ, I think that within the MMO and blogging communities, people would much rather read because they can do it on the “down-low” at work. Vids are loud and their boss will bust them.
However, real humans buying products over the net love vid reviews and such.
JMHO.
AL
.-= Allyn´s last blog ..How To Get Links By Darren Rowse And I Agree! =-.
@Allyn, good point about people at work. In general I’d have to agree with you on all points.
@Allyn, Good point, it’s too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that readers think like me, if that makes sense!
.-= Mike CJ´s last blog ..A great example of an About page =-.
@Allyn, I like videos and I write in those niches, but I don’t like long drawn out videos, I prefer 3-5 minute max. Of course that is just me, like it was already pointed out my readers may think completely differently!
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..How To Leverage Video Marketing – Become a YouTube Partner =-.
@Mike CJ, I hear you. Sometimes it’s nicer to be able to come back to text at your leisure. Yet at the same time we only need to look around our world and see the effect that video has on all markets.
Mike I’d also say that it’s possible you’re talking to people who say the same as you because you are mostly around people like yourself. We all are. I think it’s important to constantly take a step back and look at it from the other persons perspective. Instead how do WE feel about it ask how THEY feel about it.
Who is your target market, and what attracts them?
My advice to bloggers is to decide on either just making videos for the sake of having video posts. Or if your purpose is to monetize, develop your strategy well in advance. Without a strategy for promoting video through networking sites like YouTube its a big hill to climb before you’ll see any reward for your efforts and it’ll suck your time into a black hole.
I wonder how many people have information based websites (and not product websites) actually use videos. I’ve seen a few tutorial sites use videos to show people exactly how to do things.
Has anyone out there used videos on an information based website? If so, how did your viewers react to the video (was it positive or negative)?
.-= Chris Roane – MontanaProgrammer.com´s last blog ..Code Formatting and Coloring in WordPress without a Plugin =-.
@Chris Roane – MontanaProgrammer.com, great question.
I do a lot of testing on different things and I’ve tested that a couple of times here and there. The result – more requests for demo and how-to videos. The reason, easier to learn from.
It’s one thing to have video posts that you provide to your existing readers. It’s a totally different thing to expect to use video to drive new traffic and readers to your blog – informational, or product based I don’t think it really matters.
.-= Andrew´s last blog ..Un-Suspend Your Account =-.
@Andrew, Personally, I love tutorial type videos, have learned plenty about my themes, photoshop, and Illustrator through sites that have how-to videos on them. Not sure how they are monetized, but I totally enjoyed them….
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..How To Leverage Video Marketing – Become a YouTube Partner =-.
Well, can’t wait to hear the good news in part 2.
I definitely agree video creates engagement. After all, what’s the point if you don’t let users interact with you?
I haven’t used video yet, but my guess is some of the SEO issues could be taken care of with accompanying text with the video. What about a strong call to action that directs you back to some area of your blog? Again, just guessing. Seems like I’ve seen videos that take you automatically to a URl when finished playing.
I look forward to more on this topic.
.-= Tim Zager´s last blog ..What Exactly Is Marketing? =-.
Video marketing works well for real brick and mortar businesses.
You flash the phone number on the bottom of the vid and people call before they get to the end. done.
Also, Viddler does allow you to post links in their comment bubbles that pop up while people play the vid. This works well, but viddler vids do NOT do well in the SERPS, so that hurts that strategy. (dunno why viddler is not SE friendly, wish I did know)
Vimeo allows you to place a link at the end of the vid and they do hit the SERPS with a little work… so what you do is make a cliff-hanger where the person must click the link to get the ending… this of course, if you website description and sales page of the product… or a direct pass-thru a cloaked link.
Amazon’s S3, a paid service, offers great flexibility with linking out and such, You can also place specific widgets around the vids, but these don’t show up in SERPS at all.
Personally, I always try to drive traffic to my own websites and use the vids there, on my home turf.
AL
.-= Allyn´s last blog ..How To Get Links By Darren Rowse And I Agree! =-.
@Allyn, “Personally, I always try to drive traffic to my own websites and use the vids there, on my home turf.”
You’ve hit it on the head. The current trend is to convince people that making videos to promote your stuff (product or service) is a killer strategy. Reality is that video alone is not going to do it from places like YouTube or Vimeo etc.
You still have the issue of actually getting the visitor to your site and you also have the issue branding yourself/product.
I would have to agree here, if we are talking about using video to make money in the traditional sense tou better have a serious amount of patience. In both of my small business ventures I use video as a different tool, or weapon as I like to call them (I have a post coming up about my weapons) haha. So far, being a little different is working for us in a big way with our video marketing.
.-= Extreme John @Blogging CEOS´s last blog ..A Day in the Life of Extreme John Episode 7 [video] =-.
@Extreme John @Blogging CEOS, A little different John? I would say maybe a little more than that!
Let me know when you have slowed enough for that interview we were talking about.
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..How To Leverage Video Marketing – Become a YouTube Partner =-.
@Extreme John @Blogging CEOS, I think you’re always going to be on a winner with video. Not sure what it about us humans but we seem to be attracted to the unusual like a moth to a light.
.-= Andrew´s last blog ..Un-Suspend Your Account =-.
I am not sure whether you are really wasting your time when you are using videos. The reason here is that you have videos give people the opportunity to present themselves. Especially with blogs you have an opportunity to show who that person is behind the blog. And I think you also get to know people better.
And yes of course it’s hard to drive traffic to your web site through videos but I believe videos can still be very helpful
@Julius Kuhn-Regnier, the key word here is in the title – Marketing.
Video on its own is fantastic and that’s exactly what I’m saying in the post. But used as a marketing tool on its own, with the expectation of driving traffic or making sales from video networks is never going to happen.
At least not without an army of affiliates or friends helping you and promoting your stuff.
Sadly I’m inclined to agree with you. I’ve used video on a few of my other niche blogs and while I believe it is beneficial for the readers that subscribe to the RSS feed and read on a daily basis the end result is that after the post falls off the main page there is very little follow up visitors.
Don’t you think it helps add legitimacy / more personality to a blog though?
.-= Chris Guthrie@Make Money on the Internet´s last blog ..phpZon Pro Plugin Review and Contest Giveaway =-.
@Chris Guthrie@Make Money on the Internet, The big thing about video (for me anyway) is that it can help get better searches creating longer lasting traffic through search. Also, being able to promote videos all over the place can help bring general traffic in as well.
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..How To Leverage Video Marketing – Become a YouTube Partner =-.
Wow,
Pretty effective post. First I was attracted because everybody is talking about videos and I have yet to start. Then you explain why they are a waste of time…bug wait I have a solution for you but you have to come back later. Damn! you got my attention.
@Ralph, fantastic. You just stay tuned, I think you’ll really like what’s coming.
And what a wonderful free demonstration of effective copy writing and marketing strategy.
[...] a sad truth that if you’re not prepared for can suck hours of your life away. Take a look at Why You Are Wasting Your Time With Video Marketing (part one of this series) to get up to speed. It’s not all bad news because there is a way to [...]
Big difference between TV news where you set aside a half hour to watch and hitting vids while blog surfing.
If I’m going from blog to blog reading/absorbing, no I do not want to sit through a 15minute video over a 3 minute read…nothing to do with an “office”.
Great stuff though, as I haven’t started vlogging
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Meet CJ – My Awesome New Designer! =-.
@Dennis Edell, If you are putting up 15min videos, they probably won’t watch them anyway. I would stay to 3-5min max. But there is much more to this program than just video marketing, there can be HUGE seo benefits….
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Post Structure: Podcast =-.
@Keith Bloemendaal,
I was under the impression video didn’t have much SEO benefit.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..48hr Downtime – Lots Done-LOTS More To-Do! =-.
@Dennis Edell, that’s true for the video itself. But what about actually leveraging YouTube for an SEO boost? That’s where the real power is.
.-= Andrew´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.
So why are you using video marketing today in your more recent posts? Have your thoughts and perspective changed on this matter?
Absolutely not, the point of this post has more to do with the actual “marketing” of the videos, and that many are wasting their time because they are not aware of the best methods, as well as the marketing power of becoming a YouTube partner (I am working on a re-launch of a site I own that tells more, hopefully in June or July).
i agree with your blog completely. I have a website i am trying to get traffic too….i spent lots of time with a youtube video and it was just a waste. I actually got 1000 views on the video but not much of that translated to my site