YouTube Video Marketing – Part 1

YouTube is a website that allows people to share videos, including user-created video content, movie clips, music videos and more. In October 2006, YouTube was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion. YouTube was founded February 14, 2005 and has since come a long way. We have the following impressive statistics:

• YouTube now averages over 2 billion video views per day globally
• 35 hours worth of videos are uploaded every minute
• 5% of the time spent on the internet is on YouTube
• Over 13 million hours of footage was uploaded in 2010 alone

How do these figures translate into revenue for business? There are two ways you can use YouTube for business marketing. The first is simple video marketing, which we’ll cover in this blog post. The second is advertising with YouTube, which will be covered in YouTube Video Marketing – Part 2, which will be coming up in a few weeks.

Using YouTube for Business Marketing

One of the hardest statistics about YouTube for business owners to swallow is the second on the statistic list above—35 hours worth of videos are uploaded every minute. While the fact that 2 billion videos are watched every day may inspire you to start thinking about YouTube video marketing, the fact that 35 hours worth of video are uploaded every minute is enough to make a person think twice about using the site. That kind of competition is simply overwhelming.

There is one way to get over that figure, and that is to start working. The number of videos uploaded is only going to rise as time goes on, so now is the best time to get started with your YouTube video marketing.

Your YouTube Video Marketing Plan

One of the most important things to have when starting any online marketing is a YouTube video marketing plan. In creating your plan, you will need to keep in mind what you want to get out of this endeavor. Are you looking for increased sales? Brand recognition? Community building? Choose a specific focus and don’t deviate from it.

The second thing to decide on is who you’re advertising to—your target audience. The age, gender or business you are advertising to should determine the style and tone of each of your videos.With those parameters in place, it’s up to you to start building videos. There are several easy and free tools that can be used for video editing. Start out small and inexpensive, and once you’ve grown your user base, move on to more quality editing programs.

When people start on their YouTube video marketing and can’t get high numbers for their user base, video views and subscriptions, they will often quit before they really had a chance. If there is one thing that we can warn you against, it’s exactly that. The only way to truly gain a following on YouTube is to be consistent.