Video marketing has been rapidly growing over the years. Still, many companies are still shying away from it fearing large production and marketing budgets.
Fear not, the below tools are both effective and low-cost (some are completely free!) so you can start marketing on Youtube this year!
Video Marketing Research
Here is the obvious place to start. Google isn’t just a connecting point for websites, it is a way to see the most popular people, places, topics, websites, and more. A simple search can give you a lot of information about what interests your audience, what your competitors are doing and who is dominating certain keywords. It will also show you where you are lagging, and what phrases may be worth dropping.
Google Autosuggest
Another way to use Google is to check out its autosuggest. When you begin typing something into the search box, it will give you a collection of popular keyphrases that are often searched for. You will get an instant look into what people want to know, and what keywords are worth researching further. You can also see what keywords are currently associated with your brand.
Do use our this free Bulk Suggest Tool that will give you an instant glimpse into what users are searching in your niche.
Cyfe
Cyfe is multi-purpose digital marketing platform that will help you on lots of levels. I use it as a curation tool connecting many sources and allowing me to see everything in one place. I use it to curate Twitter, niche blogs, keyword research tools, etc.
MyBlogU
MyBlogU is another invaluable research tool which also comes completely for free. Create a new project and its helpful users will send you ideas: What they would like to watch in your industry and which questions they’d want to be answered.
In the same vein as MyBlogU, Twitter can be just as useful in establishing keyword trends across the world. Any social network technically has this ability, but Twitter is unique in that it is widely open platform with a live updating feed and search algorithm.
You will get a lot more information there than anywhere else. I am mostly fond of Twitter as a way of finding new concepts to exploit, and establishing new marketing tactics and campaigns. But you will also see what keywords are making it on the social realm, and often competitors wouldn’t have thought to apply those to search metrics.
BuzzSumo
Content is a major part of most marketing strategies these days. So, what is working best for your competitors? What about the topics you want to cover? Just do a search on BuzzSumo, and you can get a detailed look at all that, and a lot more. This is arguably the best keyword and topic research tool on the web right now. They also provide influencer research for social media marketing, and content alerts.
Create a Video
You can create cool professional videos using this online video editor: It requires no training and no expensive software. And the results are great!
Video Promotion
Viral Content Bee
Viral Content Bee is a great freemium tool that lets you put your content in front of eager social media sharers.
Just submit your video URL, select which networks you want to promote it and you’ll soon see it being shared all over the place. Great for traffic and views too!
YouTube Promoted Videos
YouTube is going to be your major platform, but also the hardest to break out on. You can get a boost using YouTube Promoted Videos. YouTube stars don’t get there over night, they work for years perfecting their videos and gathering followers. But now the site has a simpler way to get seen.
You can become one of their Featured Videos using their promoted content feature. Best of all, you choose your own budget and the advertising costs never go over that amount.
Finteza
It is a smart idea to use your own site to promote your videos. Using Finteza’s advanced web analytics suite you can build conversion funnels involving your videos.
You can also use this online form builder to generate leads from your videos and landing pages.
Publicizing
Youtube is not the only place to publish your video at. Here are more ideas:
Sometimes your best bet is launching yourself on a platform that has less competition. Blip is a good option, as it is both popular as a place to watch different web series (That Guy With The Glasses is hosted there, for example), but not so overcrowded as YouTube. They even have their own app for consoles, so they can be watched in multiple places. They don’t have the best advertising plan, but if you are looking to launch a full series or a number of videos, it is a great option.
A godsend for creative video creators, this website is really for the artists more than casual clips. They also have a number of promotion and profit generating ventures, including a tip jar that allows people to give you donations for your next project. Vimeo is very handy, and one of the biggest video hosting sites on the web.
Target your reach a bit more narrowly than you can with some other video websites using this classic. Metacafe has been around since 2002, and it has become well known for hosting high quality work and videos made by creative film makers. It doesn’t have as many visitors as YouTube, or the same artistic focus as Vimeo. But it is a nice, solid platform or those who are presenting more casual work to the world.
Are there more tools to promote your video? Please let me know by tweeting to @jessytroy
