YouTubing for dollars, Part 2
This is Part 2 of a two-part article on using YouTube videos to boost your boating business. Click here to read Part 1.
PRODUCTION TIPS…
Audio is key. Seems funny, but audio is almost more important than video when it comes to producing good YouTube content. If you’re doing something funny, the video may speak for itself, but it may not. People don’t get the joke if they can’t hear the punch line. Same with emotional videos. And don’t you agree that dream fulfillment or escape reality videos are enhanced tremendously with a nice music background?
Of course, demonstrations are highly dependent on the explanation of what is taking place in the demo. As you watch the maintenance videos, you’ll see that far too many of them
have bad audio; wind, engine noise, or just being too far away from the mic can make the dialogue very difficult to hear. Don’t make this mistake. It’ll kill interest in your channel.
To insure good audio from a person’s speech use an external microphone, instead of the one built into your camera. Yes, you can shoot on your smart phone, but you’ll need an external mic attached to the person, unless you’re in a quiet environment and are no more than 3 to 6 feet away from the subject. (For most smart phones, you’ll need a special adapter in which to plug the external mic. See your manufacturer or a local audio shop for details.)
Close-ups are better than wide shots. You may use a single, wide shot to establish the setting for your video, but after that, stay as tight as you can on the subject you’re shooting. When people are being interviewed or a spokesman is talking, keep it from a bust-shot to a super close-up, right on the face. If you’re demonstrating a process, get as close as you can on the specific thing you’re demonstrating, without losing context.
Use a tripod to avoid the “shaky cam” effect – deadly to demo videos – and let the action speak for itself. Don’t do much with zooms, pans and tilts, unless the action demands a camera move.
Once you’ve shot your piece, you may need to edit it. YouTube provides some limited editing capabilities. You can upload your video directly to YouTube and use their tools to edit. Just go to the enhancements page and experiment. You can combine clips, trim them, add slow motion; even fix color problems and shakiness.
Then go to the audio page and add their royalty-free music.
Finally, you can annotate your video, adding subscribe buttons, links to other videos, etc.
Ultimately, you may want to raise the bar on your production. To do this you’ll need to edit your video off-line. This will require a program like iMovie on the Mac, or Windows Movie Maker for the PC. These programs allow you to do more professional, polished productions, complete with titles, voice over, and all kinds of special effects. Each has tutorials available, but naturally will require a little time to learn and become proficient.
(You can go beyond these programs to Apple’s Final Cut or Adobe’s Premier editing software if you really want to get fancy, but these programs are not necessary to turn out acceptable, professional-looking YouTube videos.
GETTING VIEWS…
The best production in the world is useless if nobody sees it. Here are the basics of getting people to view your channel and your individual videos…
- Tell people you already know. Send them a link via email and invite them to watch your video. Be sure to ask them to subscribe to your channel and share your videos with their friends.
- Announce your channel and each new video on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and any other social media channels in which you participate.
- Promote your video. This cannot be overstated. If you want to build an audience, you will be wise to promote your video using pay per click (PPC) ads on Google and Facebook. You can target these ads to just people who are interested in boating in your geographic region, to make sure you’re only going paying for people who could ultimately become customers.
Do NOT make the mistake of thinking you’re creating a “viral video.” Odds against that are astronomical! You’re likely to get some virality, but you’re NOT going to get millions of views for free. That’s why you must promote your videos. You don’t have to spend a lot, but you will need to spend some to do this.
With these things in mind, you’ll be able to launch your channel and set sail for capturing an engaged audience, loyal to you, and conditioned to buy from you.
Jim Ackerman and Paul Furse are Salt Lake City-based Marketing Consultants and Coaches, Jim is a nationally renowned Marketing Speaker, and is President of Ascend Marketing, Inc. Subscribe to both of his YouTube channels at www.youtube.com/GoodBadandUglyAds and www.youtube.com/marketingspeakerjima, where you’ll get his 30-Second Marketer Tip of the Day videos. Send for their FREE report on YOUTUBING FOR DOLLARS at mail@ascendmarketing.com, subject line VIDEO.
