How to Make YouTube Videos People Will Actually Want to Watch

In his book Entrepreneur Magazine's Ultimate Guide to YouTube for Business, marketing and public relations consultant Jason Rich show you how to master the secrets of successful "YouTubers" and put your brand, product or service in front of millions of potential viewers. In this edited excerpt, the author offers quick tips for connecting with your audience.

Knowing you have the communication capabilities to communicate with your audience and you have a goal in mind for your YouTube videos, the next step is to select the approach you'll take to achieve your objectives.

It's your job as a video producer to research your audience, figure out what types of videos will appeal to them, and then cater specifically to their wants and needs. A video that's designed to introduce pre-teen girls to a new product will need to be produced vastly differently from a video designed to appeal to men between the ages of 18 and 34, for example.

Figure out what types of video your target audience already enjoys watching on YouTube and then incorporate some of these production elements and concepts into your videos. Remember, your approach should be unique to your company and audience. Do not simply steal someone else's idea or try to mimic what your competition is already doing.

Using your own creativity, a YouTube video can adopt one or more approaches to capture your target audience's attention. For example, the video can take on the form of an infomercial, traditional commercial or an advertorial in order to promote and sell a product or service. However, you can often take that same raw material and package it into a video that takes more of an instructional, product or service demonstration, or a how-to approach that uses a much more subtle sales message. You may discover that your audience will have a greater interest and appreciation when you adopt a less sales-focused approach in your videos, which can also include customer testimonials, if applicable.

A YouTube video can also be used to tell a story. For example, using your video, you can take viewers behind the scenes at your company or manufacturing facility to show people how your products are made, introduce them to the people who create them, or have the company's founder share his story about how the company was conceived. Storytelling on YouTube can be a very powerful way to communicate with your audience, especially if the person featured in the video (or who's heard speaking) has a compelling, entertaining, and outgoing personality.

A YouTube video can also be used to showcase a presentation, speech, or special event, serve as a video blog (vlog or video diary), or have the goal of simply entertaining people. Keep in mind, video is a visual medium, so use it. Don't just talk to your audience, for example. Actually show them what you're talking about. Instead of just featuring a "talking head," if your video's goal is to showcase a product, for example, be sure to visually show off every aspect of that product within your video.

If you opt to share news, facts, or information with your audience, choose the most visually interesting and entertaining way to convey the information in order to keep your viewers' attention. Creatively using entertainment and/or humor, for example, is an excellent way to make otherwise complicated or boring information palatable in a YouTube video. You can also create and use colorful and animated charts, graphs, tables, and bulleted lists, when applicable.

Within the first few seconds of every video, and in using your YouTube channel as a whole, one of your core objectives should be to quickly build a rapport with your audience, while at the same time building up your credibility. Your viewers should want to hear what you have to say in your videos and also trust what you're saying.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228429#ixzz2gRk1r4Z8

How to Be a Good Gaming Commentator on YouTube

9 Ways to Reach Customers on YouTube

In his book Entrepreneur Magazine's Ultimate Guide to YouTube for Business, marketing and public relations consultant Jason Rich show you how to master the secrets of successful "YouTubers" and put your brand, product or service in front of millions of potential viewers. In this edited excerpt, the author offers nine ways businesses can use YouTube to attract viewers--and new business.

Everyone who uses YouTube has their own goals. The following are nine popular ways YouTube can be used as part of your overall online strategy to achieve your company's particular goals.

1. Promote yourself as an online personality and entertain your audience. If you're a small-business owner with a big personality, consider starring in your own YouTube videos in an effort to help build your company's brand and promote its message to personalize your business and build its credibility. You can demonstrate products, speak authoritatively and boost your company's brand recognition and reputation. You're able to reach out and build a virtual relationship with your customers or potential customers in a way that's never before been possible.

2. Share knowledge, commentary or how-to information. If you're a business owner, chances are you have expertise that other people could easily benefit from. Using a bit of creativity, chances are, you'll come up with a handful of ideas about how your business could benefit from communicating directly with its customers (or potential customers) using YouTube. For example, you could create a product demonstration or product comparison videos. Other options might be to showcase customer testimonials within a video or to create a how-to video that explains how to operate or use your product/service.

3. Introduce a new product or service and direct people to your online store.
Showcasing products on YouTube is a low-cost, yet highly effective way to demonstrate products to your customers, showcase features and explain how to best use a product, especially if you're operating an online business or there's an online component to your traditional retail business. In addition to showcasing a product's features or functions, you can use YouTube videos to answer commonly asked questions.

4. Teach people how to use a product or service. How-to videos for a product offer a different approach than a product demo in that a how-to video is designed to teach someone how to do something. Instructional videos can help reduce incoming customer service and support calls. For instance, you can produce instructional videos to teach people how to assemble and/or use a product, plus help customers easily discover the true potential of a product, while eliminating their potential frustration.

5. Share video footage of business presentations you've given. If you've presented a lecture, workshop or some other type of presentation, consider uploading the video footage of it to YouTube for your customers, clients and the general public. This will help establish you as an expert or authority, allow you to convey valuable information to potential customers and clients, plus help build awareness of you and your company.

6. Provide background information about your company and tell its story. Every company has a story to tell, as do the founders or current leaders of that business. By telling your story, chances are, you'll be able to enhance your customer loyalty and brand awareness, while also educating the public about what your company does and its core philosophies. Include "behind the scenes" videos that show how your product(s) are actually made, provide a tour of your company and introduce some of the people who work at your company within the videos.

7. Showcase customer testimonials. If you've been in business for a while and have earned the respect of many loyal customers or clients, using a YouTube video to showcase some of these people or companies providing real testimonials for your products/service can be a highly effective and low-cost promotional and sales tool.

8. Present a call to action. Because YouTube allows you to speak directly to your audience, you can use your videos to encourage viewers to take a specific action after watching your video, such as visit your website, "like" the video, subscribe to your YouTube channel, call a toll-free phone number, send someone an email, share the video's link with their friends, make a donation, make a purchase, etc. One other way companies use the call-to-action approach is to host a contest that encourages people to reply to the video or take a specific action in order to participate, with hope of winning some type of prize.

9. Promote or share highlights from an event. By default, any type of event in the real world that you or your organization participates in is held at some geographic location and will draw crowds from the surrounding area. However, by sharing videos of an up-and-coming or recently held event, you have the opportunity to share it with the world. Showcasing footage from a previous event can also generate interest in and help boost attendance for future events.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228531#ixzz2gRitZBEn