YouTube & You, Part 2: Promoting Yourself
In last week’s entry, I touched based on the fundamental benefits of YouTube, as well as the types of videos that you, as a REALTOR®, could be creating to help with your marketing campaigns. In this week’s entry, I’ll discuss how you can utilize this virtual powerhouse for free, and to make it work even more to your advantage through inexpensive advertising. So now that we’re clear on the various types of videos you should create and post, let’s look at how you can draw attention to them.
As mentioned in my previous entry, YouTube’s Promote program is a fantastic way of advertising your videos. Any promoted video will appear under the Promoted Videos section on the right-hand side of any search results page. For example, if you search for Toronto Real Estate, you’ll have all the Featured videos available under the organic search result which is on the left side; an ever-changing list of videos related to your search query. However if you look to the right, you’ll notice the Promoted Videos section. This is where you pay to be, and rightfully so, much like the way Google and other search engines work.
You might wonder, “Why would I pay to be here?” One good reason is simple: targeted marketing. Your videos only appear for related search terms. Your video open house tour won’t appear under a search for “Toronto Skateboarding Conference,” unless for some reason you want it to, because there is no crossover between the two topics. Safeguards like this help save your ads and advertising dollars for the eyes of people who share similar interests, and are not wasted on unrelated search terms or viewing demographics.
What are some other benefits? YouTube Insight – a powerful tracking and analytics tool that allows you to monitor your videos’ statistics in detail. Insight can help you build more effective campaigns by providing information that helps you better understand your target audience, such as who’s watching, what they’re watching, when and where they’re watching from.
What else should you remember when posting a video? Add your website address to the video itself and its description tag. This way when someone likes your video, you’ve given them the opportunity to return to your website and begin browsing through its content… maybe even find that dream home! This brings me to my next point…
Think YouTube is just for kids? Think again. According to YouTube’s own demographic breakdown, at least 32% of their users are within the home-buying age range. If you do the math, that equals at least 96,000,000 potential new clients.
"With over 300 million users worldwide, your audience is on YouTube." – YouTube.com – I couldn’t have said it better myself.
How have you been using YouTube? Leave a comment and tell us!
Authored By: Bryan Coughlin, Client Relations