One of the frequent complaints I hear about video-based traffic generation via YouTube is that conversion rates can be be in sub decimal range ( significantly less than 1%), but if you look at some of the leading lights on the network and how they’ve parlayed their popularity into opportunities (and new income), you might want to give YouTube a second look.
First the bad news. As interesting as your internet marketing technique or product is, most YouTube visitors will only be too happy to slap it down with a low rating because it’s disrupted their entertainment schedule. It might’ve been because you tagged your SEO video with “Miley Cyrus” or “Lady GaGa”. So tagging your video correctly is a function of getting qualified traffic, not just pure traffic numbers alone.
You’ve probably heard of some of the headliners at events like SxSW and BlogWorld such as Lisa Nova and iJustine, but unless you’re actively researching the tween/teen market, you might not be aware of some of the up-and-coming YouTube posters.
Savannah Outen
Oregon-based 16-year-old Savannah first started posting videos of herself singing in March 2007 and posts under the username Savannah7448.
Parlaying her online popularity of 122,000 channel subscribers and (more…)
Aside from minor content creation/editing costs, the production cost is minimal.
Video is getting hot.
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On the negative side:
Video viewers tend to be click happy and might click on the next “related video” before finishing yours.
They might not be motivated to head to an external link/website to take action.
Even if they do click on the link, they might not be qualified to participate in the CPA or affiliate offer.
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When video marketing is done right, however, it can get you more bang for your buck, compared to any other PPC or SEO/SEM campaign. National coverage, including appearances on shows like Conan, Ellen, Oprah could be in the cards.
Witness the video which made its appearance early last year Sammy Stephen’s minimall rap:
Here is the original version with about 3.8 million plays:
I was hanging out at an internet chatroom listening to the latest buzz on the internet and the name “Magibon” came up.
Like iJustine (aka Justine Ezarik), Magibon is a young American woman whose videos on YouTube have generated quite a bit of interest, especially in Japan.
With 3.3 million views, it’s a little difficult to fathom the appeal where a young girl looks back at you for all of 30 seconds to about 4 minutes.
BUT the fact is that some of her videos have garnered between 1 million to 3 million views, she’s also appeared in a recent issue of Japan’s Playboy magazine (a non-nude pictorial) and been featured on a Japanese internet TV station GYAO.
I think her appeal has to do with the fact that she looks like a Japanese schoolgirl or anime character (maybe both), and appeals to the techie/net-savvy/Japanese manga-anime reading/watching audience.
And she’s a partner of the YouTube partner program too.
What do we learn from this?
The fact that she’s being discussed in internet chatrooms suggests that rich media beyond text is being actively discussed in chatrooms. Subtle content is hammering its way onto YouTube viewers (especially in the tween/teen demographic), more so than overt content-based ads.
Is Magibon being sponsored by a skin whitening or skincare company? If not, it’ll just be a matter of time.
Video literally gives “face time” to everyday spokespersons (think of the Benetton or Dove print ads given the video treatment).
One way innovative marketers have bounced off the successful platform of video broadcasters like Magibon has been to (more…)
My friend Rachel Rofe won a bunch of cool prizes including cash, a MacBook Air, Brian Gardner’s Revolution Theme wordpress templates, shopping cart software and a Flip Ultra camera from Webmaster Talk recently and started posting videos on her blog at RachelRofe.
Video is a powerful branding medium, especially if you personalize the channel, rather than merely to fire out product launches or marketing announcements.
If pictures say a thousand words, I think video easily convey 10,000 words or more.
Some observations I’ve noticed about video:
Brevity is great: people have short attention spans. If you can convery you point in 1-2 minutes, just do it.
Content is still king: you need to include something useful in your entry. There’re too many “seinfeld” videos (about nothing) out there already.
X-Factor: Either you have it or you should go find it…But it has a lot to do with your personality.
Check out one of Rachel’s video’s below. I like the hair flipping and low-grade swearing at the end. Adds color!
Probably have to do with the fact that since “everyone” is doing it.
Or the opposite scenario “no one” is doing it, so you should be the first.
I have been downloading and listening fairly religiously to the Geekcast podcasts (one of the Geeksters Shawn Collins mentioned that the new episodes come out every Tuesday) and watching Gary Vaynerchuk’s video posts.
So the $1m question is if you like this audio and video content, should you also jump on the metaphorical bandwagon and fire up your Flip camera too?
Here’s where I might differ from some of the others – there’s 2 elements to communication – there’s form (whether you write something on a sheet of paper, take a photo, do a blog post, shoot a video) and there’s function (AKA content) – the meaning behind your message.
In the rock-paper-scissors equation of multimedia…
graphics trump text-alone (a picture says a thousand words?)
audio trumps graphics (usually)
and video trumps static images and audio, right?
In most cases, if you’re judging the value of (more…)
