How You Think Youtube Works
Many assume that once they publish a video to Youtube that is rich in content, traffic will organically be driven to their videos. It’s nice, albeit rather idealistic, to believe that quality content will get a high number of views, organically. There is some truth to this. If you’re churning out amazing content on Youtube it’s bound to gain a decent following.
How Youtube Actually Works
Unfortunately, the process is not quite so straightforward. YouTube makes it difficult to have easy access to viewers which, in turn, makes it difficult to get these viewers to convert. YouTube has full control over what viewers are exposed to, even if they’ve subscribed to your channel. That means, based on their algorithms, viewers may be only seeing a mere fraction of what you publish.
“YouTube dictates when your customers will see your videos.”
On top of that, YouTube wants users to stay on YouTube. This means that YouTube isn’t going to support you taking your viewers off the site and over to your website or landing page. Meaning, quite simply, no sales for you. Most detrimental to your video marketing plan is that YouTube does not allow you to add a CTA to your videos to capture emails, effectively making it impossible to capture leads.
While viewers may enjoy the video and be entertained, they will not necessarily be driven to follow on with the opt-in button. There also isn’t much flexibility in customizing videos to render them better produced because of restrictions that limit the capacity of video to be used as a promotional business video.
“YouTube doesn’t allow you to add a CTA to a video to capture emails which means you lose control of your audience.”
Let’s not be too hasty to vilify YouTube. After all, the video mogul is offering a free platform for anyone to post videos, so long as they are without offensive content. No matter how much you admire or detest the video hosting giant, it all comes down to a simple truth: YouTube, as a business, cares about themselves, not your own business.
How You Can Combat the Youtube Paradox
To make your embedded Youtube videos marketable, you need to look outside of Youtube. That’s where ConvertPlayer comes into play.
The first step to take after producing a video is embedding it onto your site. If your video is hosted on Youtube or Vimeo, this step is quite simple. In either platform you can retrieve the embed code under the “share” section. Once you attain the embed code, you can begin optimizing your video with a CTA, and other marketing tools that bring exponential value to your content.
Using Convert Player, you can equip your videos with perhaps the most powerful marketing asset of all: a CTA.
First, you’ll want to determine the intent of the Call to Action. Do you want to capture an email lead? Do you want to prompt a direct purchase? Keep in mind that you need to establish a relationship with your user first. Gaining credibility is the most lucrative asset to your business. You don’t want to overdo it and ask for too much information unless you’re providing a LOT of value, upfront.
Next, you need to think about the length and content of the CTA. To create strong copy keep it short; people don’t want to be overwhelmed with too much text. You need to be as specific as possible. For example:
Download the eBook Now
Access the Worksheet Now
Subscribe Now
By doing so, your client knows exactly what he or she is signing up for. There is a thin line between being too vague, and too assertive. Clearly stating what the offer is avoids both extremes.
You should also ensure that your call to action is directly related to your video content. People are highly unlikely to click through on your CTA if it’s unrelated to your video.
Other factors that often get overlooked when creating a CTA: physical size, market location, colour and font all have an impact on whether your viewer clicks.
Despite all of the above, some CTA’s may not be as successful as you projected them to be. The only way to find the right combination of words and stylistic approach is to TEST, TEST, TEST, and TEST again.
Convert Player also allows you to equip your videos with Pause/Play buttons, thus making them more interactive for your viewers. Video optimization tools like ConvertPlayer will also strip embedded videos on your website of Youtube promotions. Other optimization features include: the ability to skip ahead, mobile compatibility, unlimited video use, and ultra-fast streaming. Convert Player is also incredibly easy and straightforward to use, making it friendly to any user.
Youtube stipulations don’t have to stymie your video marketing campaign. Exploring external optimization tools that allow you to capitalize on videos listed on your website is the only way to seriously leverage your video campaign.