‘YouTube’

 

You may have heard that Google takes videos serious and if you want to attract traffic in future that you will have use videos in combination with solid and fresh content at your website. If you have wondered about how to market on YouTube, it is your lucky day.

Why Marketing On YouTube Works

One of the benefits of marketing with videos is that you have viral marketing work in your favour. When a user sees something at YouTube that they like, they tend to share the link with friends. Most people share their likes and links at Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Once there others like it and share it again. Your only important task when you market on YouTube is to get the video noticed, liked and shared. Once done you can be assured that the grapevine will do a lot of the work for you. Rapid exposure can thus be gained at a fraction of normal web marketing costs.

How To Market Effectively With Videos On YouTube

Certain principles must be followed to ensure maximum exposure and optimal return on any video marketing campaign. Note that content must still be good if you hope to attract a large audience, but instead of focussing on long videos giving away everything, you want them to be bite size, just enough to spark interest and a viral campaign.

Short Is Better

As mentioned, long videos are not the best. Keep the videos short ensuring that the user doesn’t have to wait for buffering. Most users want video clips that are shorter than 60 seconds. Respect their time and you are already one step closer to an effective YouTube marketing campaign. If you can, make the videos 30 seconds or less. Rather break up the video than have one long video.

Break The Video Apart

When the YouTube video is broken up in short pieces, you have more videos and thus more exposure. Chances are that once the viewer enjoyed or appreciated the first part that they will also click on the second and third parts.

Remix Concept

You may not like the idea of someone remixing your video, but if you want it to become truly viral, you should make it as easy as possible for others to remix and use the clips in their own videos. Note that they will do you a favour when remixing and reposting. As such help them to do their part of the job.

Stay Away From Direct Advertising

Few people go to YouTube to watch boring ads. They want something funny, crazy, shocking or useful, but don’t give them a straight advert. Viewers may click on the video if it is a straight ad, but don’t expect them to share such. Only ads like the latest Nando ads get viral status. If you thus want to create a straight advert video, know that it will have to be awesome.

Get Attention

Create a public outcry through the shocking technique or one that is so useful that someone will want to return to it often or will want to share it with others. Here the headline will play an important role. You want the YouTube viewers to become curious.

How To Attract Thousands Of Views

Once you have created the video which will be used in the YouTube marketing campaign, you have to get the views. Fortunately YouTube already has tremendous traffic and all you have to do is to tap into the audience power to market your videos. To get the views, you need to land the video on the Videos page and preferably on the most viewed videos for the day. This will make the video more prominent and one that will get the clicks because it will no longer have to compete with millions, but only a few for that specific day. The ultimate goal is to get it as high on the video page rank as possible for maximum exposure.

How To Market The Video To Get To The Top Viewed Page

The vehicles to use for getting to the most viewed page of YouTube can vary. Don’t use only one. The idea is to create an effective marketing mix. Blogs are excellent vehicles. Allow for embedding of your videos in the blogs of viewers. You can even pay blog sites to embed videos. They will become affiliate marketers. Another place to get the wheel rolling is a relevant forum or two. Be careful though, as you don’t want to spam the forums. Just start a thread and then embed one of your videos.

Although MySpace may seem dead to some, it is still effective enough. Announce the new video and then embed the video at one of the sites which will allow for such. Next stop is that of Facebook. With millions of users and people loving the idea of sharing, linking and conversing about hot topics on the Internet, you will have a whole community marketing your YouTube video in a short period.

Start by sharing the video with everyone in your friend list and do the same with your Google Plus account. Next, give incentives for people to share the videos. Place an advert at Facebook to let people watch the video and like or share it. Use the Facebook setup to link back to the original video at YouTube.

Use newsletter campaigns where the link to the video is shared with the subscribers to your company newsletter. Your video, once it reaches the top viewed list for the day, will feature for two days and then will go to the most viewed list for the week. Make sure it is a hit and you will have an awesome number of people view it over seven days.

It is hard work, but if you struggle with doing it even when you know how to market on YouTube, get in the help of experts such as iLeadOnline. Such companies can also assist with the title optimization, commenting on the video and releasing it together with other related videos in your profile. In addition, the team can handle the tagging and tracking part to ensure ongoing success.

Mobile sites and their usage grow by the day. Also known as mobi sites or as some write it mobisites, are fast overtaking normal desktop based websites. According to a DotMobi study the growth of new mobisites is enormous showing that from over 149 000 in 2008 to more than 3 million such sites have been registered in 2010. In addition, the social media networks such as Facebook have large numbers of users which login to the social applications by means of their phones. According to Facebook the figures suggest more than 199 million users which login to their site via their mobile phones.

With every new technology there is resistance and there is embracement. The resistance normally comes from those who have already invested a lot into an existing technology and don’t want to re-invest in the new technology, but a business owner that wants to survive changes must adapt. The pc website market is shrinking and mobile market growing.

One may argue that there is no reason to create a mobile website if the users can login from their phones in any case, but there are several differences between mobi sites and the conventional websites which should be noted. In short, the mobile user doesn’t find the conventional website mobile friendly. With loads of heavy graphics, Java scripts, Flash and other bandwidth intensive design tools, the mobile user gets a slow loading page which isn’t easy to navigate.

More and more mobile users migrates to the mobisites specifically designed to fit well on their mobile screens, load faster, browse easier and take up less bandwidth as well as memory. Of course mobi sites are not as visually stimulating as the conventional websites and don’t show the same versatility, but users on the move want sites which can be used on their mobile phones with ease.

One can continue to design only the conventional website and have the mobile users struggle to use the site, but if they find something more user friendly, they will leave the site immediately, never to return. The younger generation of Internet users are also experts on mobile usage and if you don’t want to see your market dying a slow and agonizing death, you will need to create a mobisite and a conventional website.

Don’t think of the mobi site as portable site only. It is far more than that. It is an innovative and advanced way of interaction with the visitor. Modern consumers carry powerful computers in their hands and pockets; used as phones as well. They want to get value for their money and with more mobility offered rather browse from their phones and tablets than from desktops. Studies have shown that desktop usage is still huge during the day, but mobile usage surpasses that during the evenings. The users browsing during the day do so from their offices at work where desktops are connected via the network, but once they leave office they migrate to mobile usage. As such website owners need to take notice and adapt their interaction with users.

Some important considerations for creation of mobi sites are:

• Create a site that can use the mobile device capabilities.
• Mobisites must be created with loading time in mind. The site should load in two clicks and thus under ten or twelve seconds.
• Browsing should be easy without the need to zoom in.
• The mobile site must provide enough incentive for interaction through means of competitions, discount coupons and prize draws.
• People on the move love sharing and the mobile site must make it possible as well as be so addictive as to ensure return and viral marketing.
• Convenience is another reason for using mobile websites. People want to interact where they are and as such you need to ensure that the mobisite can be used on the spot and in-store for specials.
• Mobile users want to find information rather quickly and as such they don’t want to wait for pages to load or have to go through several menu steps to get the information.
• Don’t just re-design a desktop website to fit on a smaller screen, but run two distinct sites which can ensure that both desktop user and mobile user requirements are met.

Smart Phones are Taking Over

Bandwidth changes to 4G and the lower lag enables mobile users to surf fast. With that then, more users migrate to mobisites in South Africa because of our slow connectivity via desktop. The majority of new handsets can connect to the Internet. With four times more mobile users than desktop users in the world including South Africa, there is thus a big untapped market available for the innovative thinker, willing to create a stunning mobisite. Studies furthermore indicate that about a third of mobile browsing is done for local content. This means that the mobile user is on the lookout for businesses in their immediate environment and thus more geographically targeted.

Google Android and South Africa

The Google Android platform is already widely used worldwide and although still not the most popular platform in South Africa, it is making inroads in the mobile operating market. Google Android is growing rapidly with more than 17% of the market already belonging to the platform as evident in the sales figures of more than 190 000 Android mobile handsets sold daily. Android is currently just behind the Symbian and closing in on the gab. The secret to a successful mobisite is adaptability for various platforms. As such it is extremely important to cater to Android, Windows, Symbian and Apple to name, but a few of the big players.
The implications are important for any business owner. Whether you are a publisher of content or a seller of products you need to also cater to the mobisite user. Many website owners still only think of mobile platforms such as iPhone or Blackberry, but with Android mobile handsets becoming more popular the web browsing is fast moving from desktop to on the go mobile browsing via mobile handsets. New entrants to the market will also mean more platforms to cater for and as with any new trend, businesses that want to capture a large share of the market, need to move fast to get a foothold in the new browsing environment.

You can make your current website mobile friendly or you can create a custom mobisite to ensure targeted design for various platforms. Google has indicated that mobile browsing has grown even more than expected. The news headlines have shown that mobisites have grown with more than 2000 percent, not something that can be ignored if you are a serious marketer. The top performing websites also offer mobi sites to their users. Even if your site doesn’t count under the top 10 000 or so, you can easily ensure a user friendly mobisite experience.

Google Androids are so successful because Google has ensured variations. There are various types ensuring more choices for the consumer. Androids are well priced and personalisation is not compromised. Full integration with various Google applications is possible including vital applications such as Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome and Gmail. With Androids running on open source Linux, new developments are possible while the consumer is not expected to pay additional license fees for such.

It has been said that Android products can easily outperform Blackberry products in South Africa. Although South Africans are slow to catch on to Android when compared to the US, the Google Android mobile market is growing steadily. The mobile networks in South Africa need more development to ensure that unlimited data offerings can become a reality. The networks need upgrading to be able carry larger number of mobisite users. With the expectation being that South Africa will also receive more bandwidth over time because of the cable which has been laid under the sea, business owners have a lot to look forward to.

What do you love? The answer is simple and yet so complicated. Google has quietly launched a new search interface bringing together a full twenty of their products at one page. The interface is still in progress and if you are already curious you can type www.wdyl.com in your browser address bar. Don’t leave out the www. as without it, you will get the 404 error message.

WDYL is the latest in a range of products added to the Google product stable. The Google Social Network named Google Plus has also been rolled out recently, but you need an invitation at this stage to join. “What do you love?”  is a question that provokes an answer and hats off to Google for the new service. In short, it is a search interface with simple search bar and the question of “What do you love?” The user can type in a search phrase, press the heart and get numerous Google services and products about the topic or covering the topic on one page.

Must admit, it is at first a bit overwhelming when all the widgets appear at one page. It works best with broad terms and as such is the ideal tool for the person who wants to know everything there is about a topic or wants to start a search, but doesn’t want to have to click on every Google product and then return to the normal search page for additional searches.

WDYL is the search tool for people not familiar with all the Google products and thus the ideal introduction to such. Most people don’t think about the 20 different products every time they type in a search, but with “What do you love?” you can get a quick view of how the topic is covered across Google products. With a message at the bottom of the search page stating “more coming soon” we can expect even more of the product in the near future.

Example Of How It Works

Upon typing in a search for paintball at the “What do you love?” search page, the results page delivered several means of exploring the topic further including:

• Explore paintball in 3D.
• Measure popularity of paintball on the web.
• Watch videos of paintball on the web.
• Find books about the topic.
• Translate paintball in 57 languages.
• Start a discussion group about the topic.
• Call someone about the topic.
• Scour the earth for it.
• Find patents about it.
• Search blogs about the topic.
• Arrange an event.
• See pictures of paintball.
• Email someone about it.
• Get alerts.
• Search for it on the move through mobile search.
• Organise a debate.
• Get news on the topic.
• Find paintball nearby.
• Access stuff on the web faster.

At the upper right corner of the search engine page you still have a search bar which can be used for more searches. Don’t even think of being too specific as the results will be disappointing, but if you plan to create awareness of a product searched for, it is the search engine to use. You can in an instant add an event to your Google Calendar as reminder about the topic, email people from your Google mail account, create a discussion group, organise a debate, and get more alerts about the topic.

No Facebook

The Google +1 button is neatly tucked on the left side of the search screen just below the scrollbar. You can utilize the scroll bar for easy navigation through the long list of product pages. From Picasa to YouTube, Google Maps, and Books are represented on the search page. You can view posts about the topic searched for at Blogger or quickly create your own about the topic. If you wanted to know how popular the term is one the Net use the trend finder.

Although tech savvy SEOs may be well aware of all the Google widgets, the average user is not and for such it is a great service. With WYDL, Google gets the chance to market these widgets to the general search population. With the Voice, Gmail and Moderator widgets Google tempts users to make use of the services. In a sense, “What do you love?” is almost just another version of iGoogle, just more user-friendly and visual.

It is amazingly easy to use. The first fear of being taken away from the page upon selecting one of the widgets was ill found. Google has thought of everything and upon clicking the Gmail option, another tab opened with a little message about “paintball” already in the message box. All that needs to be done is to add recipients before clicking the send button. The recommendation words “Hey this is awesomely awesome” are already placed in the subject field of the Gmail message. Google obviously ensures that should you want to recommend WDYL that you will not have a hard time in doing so.

You will find Google Buzz, SketchUp, and Chrome, but you will not find Facebook like options. Facebook and Twitter once again fall to the side. The Chrome feature is just as useful for further web searches and for anyone who has to do a school project on a broad topic, WDYL will work great.

Will WDYL Replace Normal Search?

Not likely, as the organic search results can hardly be displayed effectively on a page full of widgets, but for Google Chrome users it may become their new homepage and a good starting point to search. Since each widget opens in its own tab while the “What do you love?” page remains open, it is simply the new search interface. For a broad search you will use the search at WDYL, but for more advanced searches you will make use of Google Chrome.

Will “What do you love?” Take Off?

Well let’s hope so. Launching a product without even discussing it on your blog is secretive and with such the average user who isn’t following the latest Google trends will hardly become aware of such, unless someone notifies them. Looking at the Gmail message composition, mentioned earlier, it may just be a case of Google leaving it a secret because people struggle to keep secrets and love to share their new discoveries with other. WDYL, if marketed by means of a secret viral marketing campaign, can thus become the next hot topic at campuses and discussion forums.

Marie Grey & Associates is South Africa’s top Professional Speakers Bureau. With more than twenty years’ experience in the industry they have a proven track record of successful bookings and organisation of speaker engagements ranging from conference to inspirational, comedian, sport, and futuristic speaking events.

The company is a formidable player in the public speaking industry. With a professional image and a reputation for excellence, Marie Grey & Associates select their marketing vehicles and partners with care. Since the company has teamed up with iLead Online to manage their online marketing campaigns they have moved from offline media advertising to web marketing only.

Their online success can be contributed to a number of factors including, but not limited to:

• Well designed and professional website.
• Ongoing search engine optimization.
• Flexibility in marketing approach.
• Usage of web statistics and reports for the purpose of identifying keywords, customer preferences, search behaviour, as well as strong and weak points in the marketing strategy.
• Informative and sticky content.
• Client feedback options.
• Several means to contact them.
• News and events section for freshness.
• Careful selection of content.
• Comprehensive information about services.
• Sitemap for additional navigation and for search bots.
• Facebook presence.
• YouTube presence.
• Pay Per Click advertising.
• Affiliate marketing.
• Effective online marketing mix.

iLead Online regularly provides Marie Grey & Associates with progress reports. As such the client stays updated and any changes that need to be made to ensure even better rankings can be discussed. With the iLead Online pro-active approach to search engine marketing, Pay Per Click advertising, and usage of the social media to promote client sites, we can thus identify potential opportunities and pitfalls rather than having to react to changes in search engine algorithms and Internet usage behaviour.

Company Experience With iLead Online

Marie Grey & Associates originally decided to use iLead Online when they conducted an organic search for web marketing companies. Upon reviewing the iLead Online website they found the site to be professional and decided, based on the information provided by iLead Online, to make use of our services. We have since then built a strong working relationship with the company and regard them as one of our top clients.

Marie Grey, founder of the company, has commented that they have experienced a solid increase in speaker bookings since making use of iLead Online as their SEO and web marketing company, and that the ROI rate for web marketing investment is excellent. She furthermore feels that Pay Per Click also provides a good return on investment regarding web marketing spending and will certainly recommend such as an additional channel for online promotion. On the question of whether she will recommend iLead Online as SEO company Marie answered “Absolutely, and I have done so already”.

Marie Grey & Associates has two websites for which monitoring is in place:

www.mariegreyspeakers.com

www.motivational-speakers-sa.co.za

Solid Return On Investment

Both websites perform excellent with an average of 2.85 pages visited per visitor, indicating that the average visitor lands at the website, and clicks on two more pages before making a booking, using the contact details or leaving. With the new Google Panda Algorithm in place, the time spent and pages visited before exiting a website becomes all important. As such the Marie Grey & Associates websites perform well. The average time spent at the .com website is almost three minutes which is superb ensuring no quick exists. With Google’s Panda it becomes essential to have sticky content ensuring that the visitor doesn’t leave within the first minute as such will lead to a drop in rankings at the end of the day if not addressed.

The website marketing techniques work as proven by the average total of new visitors to the site being almost 75%. As such the site traffic is growing month-by-month and brand awareness and new customers are on the increase. More than 82% of all traffic generated to the site comes from organic searches where users type in a keyword phrase and conducts a search relevant to the content of the particular website.

The low bounce rate of the site, the increase in bookings experienced by Marie Grey & Associates, and the time that users spend at the site indicate that the keywords selected and the content generated have been well aligned, and are effective as well as relevant to the user requirements. Just fewer than 8% traffic comes from referring sites which include links, directories and affiliate sites while direct hits account for 11.78% indicating the users already familiar with the web address and returning.

Traffic is sent via search engines through an average of 405 keywords which indicates that the Marie Grey & Associates website is well optimized and rank well for several keywords. Another important consideration when analysing the performance of a website with search engines is the target audience response. Most of the users of the website come from South Africa, which is rather important since the company’s target market is mainly South Africans.  The South African users visit more than three pages on average per visit to the website and with a low bounce rate; it becomes apparent that they find what they are looking for.

Complete Online Marketing Mix

iLead Online follows a complete online marketing mix to ensure maximum exposure, relevant and targeted traffic and an increase in business generation for Marie Grey & Associates. Some of the techniques used include that of:

• Monthly addition of new informative articles to the website written by professional copywriters;
• Strategic link building and additional Google exposure by way of the iLead network of sites;
• Regular sitemap updating and submission to Google; and more.

Marie Grey & Associates is a top performing company and iLead Online takes pride in the development of their online presence. From the information provided it is clear that the SEO and online marketing techniques used by iLead Online provide the desired ROI for client companies. Contact us today to help your company gain a competitive edge in the online world.

Online advertising when compared to offline advertising holds several benefits, some of which are briefly discussed below.

Before the Internet became the main vehicle of advertising, only the larger companies could reach target audiences nationally and internationally through television, radio, and magazine advertisements. Magazine advertisements were simply too expensive for the small business owners and as such only the larger companies could afford to place full page adverts. Fortunately the Internet changed the scene dramatically, making it possible for everyone to advertise and sell to a wider audience beyond national borders. Yet, many business owners fail to realize the full potential of online advertising.

Online Advertising is More Affordable

As mentioned earlier, Internet based advertising is more affordable than printed advertising. When one for instance, prints 10 000 flyers which are then distributed by means of mail or hand-outs, the costs, time and limited return on investment simply outweigh the coverage benefits. With only about 1-2% of the receivers responding to flyers, it becomes a burden rather than a marketing tool. When one places a full page ad in a newspaper, the costs can vary between R5000 and R30 000. The limited coverage together with the rather hefty price tag in addition to a short lifespan, make it less desirable than online advertising. With Internet based advertising you thus pay far less for a wider coverage, more targeted audience, and an ad with a longer lifespan.

Tracking of Success

With online advertising the success of each ad or promotion can be tracked. With highly sophisticated analytical programs available, visitor statistics can be used to adapt the marketing strategy. It isn’t necessary to wait for reports as hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly reports can be generated with the click of a button. Online stats make it possible to immediately identify ads or pages which don’t perform as should. Unfortunately with offline advertising, such reports may only become available after a few days, weeks or months.

Immediate Advertising

With Internet advertising you have the benefit of being able to create an ad and have it published almost immediately. Changes to the ad can be made and the ad updated on a regular basis without having to invest a lot of time or money to do so. With offline or printed advertising the publishing of the ad is often delayed and with a magazine ad you may have to book space two or three months ahead of time. The ad may not even be relevant anymore by the time it is displayed. Making changes to an ad can be rather expensive and may not be reflected immediately. If you want to attract attention to a special there is no better means than the Internet.

Wider Choice

When making use of the Internet as marketing vehicle you are not limited by choice. You can select a banner ad, sponsored or pay per click advertising, article marketing, email newsletters, online press releases or a graphical display at a website. In addition you can make a video and have it run at YouTube or simply utilize the power of Social Media by creating a Facebook marketing campaign. As such you have multiple advertising vehicles which can run at the same time at a fraction of the cost associated with printed media advertising.

Quick Response Time

Add quick customer responses to the already long list of online marketing and promotion benefits. Instead of the customer having to wait until the magazine or newspaper ad is published, then having to mail or call for assistance, you can now have the customer complete a simple online form and have a consultant contact the customer within 24 hours. In many instances, you can even have online ordering forms, payment and feedback forms which allow for immediate responses ensuring optimal return on your online advertising spending.

More Accessible

With Internet advertising the customer has 24 hours access to the adverts or sales messages. This means that whether the customer responds at two o’clock in the morning or three in the afternoon that processing can take place by means of automated systems. This ensures longer operation hours, more exposure, and also more convenience for the customer.

Increases Creativity

With online marketing methods available, the scope of creativity is broadened. Whether you want to place a classified ad, static graphical ad or want to create marketing videos to run in conjunction with articles or animated presentations, you will not be limited because of the lack of tools. It is now possible to incorporate avatars for improved interactivity and a more personal touch. Interactive polls, forums, blogs, and tweeting can be used to spread the message to your target audience.

Longer Lifespan

When you place an ad in a newspaper it has a lifespan of 24 hours. With a magazine the lifespan can be a week to a year, but with online advertising, the lifespan can be from one day to several years depending on the type of vehicle used. An article placed at an article directory can run for several years and thus bring incoming links for an extended period. The same holds true for an article posted at your website. The traffic is not generated once off. The return on investment is thus better than with offline or printed media advertising.

Easily Adapt To Changing Habits

A few years ago, people hardly read online. Nowadays, people purchase e-books and spend hours reading online. As such more time is spent retrieving information, socialising, and reading online than before. The present trends suggest that more and more people will in future make use of the Internet as their main source of information and shopping vehicle. Not addressing the growing market through online advertising will thus mean limiting your scope and the growth potential of your business.

Now is the time to act. There will always be a place for printed advertising, but the main vehicle for marketing and promotion will be the Internet. Contact us to help you make the most of online advertising.