Video marketing can be an extremely powerful way to promote your software as a service (Saas) company & product but it can also be confusing to know where to start. So I’m going to break down the different types of videos you could be using to boost your SaaS  business to the next level and touch on how to implement them in your overall marketing strategy.

https://youtu.be/0v-2_3F9xVs

Video marketing for (Saas) software com companies

Why videos are awesome

Before I go into the different types of videos, let’s look at some of the benefits.
Video allows your users to see and learn things that words and pictures alone can’t show, for example a demo of your software platform in action. When you add people into the mix, videos can humanise your customer experience,
because after all, they will be buying a people-powerd service as well as a digital product. 

Video is trackable – hosting services like Wistia offer analytics so you can see how much of your video your user is engaging in. 

And Video converts – You can add call to actions and lead capture forms into your videos and turn them into conversion tools.

Start with a video marketing strategy

It’s always best to start with an overall video marketing strategy and to let that determine which videos you’re going to make. We love getting involved at this stage, because it can really help to maximise marketing budgets if you have a plan first. Some videos will be designed to move your potential customer further down the sales cycle, with your ultimate aim to end in a sale. For example product demo videos, customer testimonials or case studies.
Some videos are there to keep existing customers happy or educate them of new features, such as training and FAQ videos. Some will position your company as a thought leader, drive traffic to your site or help promote up coming events.
And others can be used as lead magnets to generate and qualify leads for your sales team, which can save them a huge amount of time and of course money.

What should your Call to Action be?

Another important part of your video strategy is what call to action to include in your videos and this should be based on your website’s main call to action. Most  SaaS company’s primary call to action, above the fold on their homepage,
is either “Request a demo” or “Start a free trial”. So you’ll more than likely want your videos to all work towards that goal too.  

What videos could you have on your homepage?

So let’s look at all the different videos your visitors will find when they come to your homepage.  If they come to your website cold and don’t know anything yet about your product, they may skip past your primary call to action so they can find out more before they sign up – that’s when you hit them with a video – so your secondary call to action would be: “Watch this video”.
This first video needs to deliver your value proposition. So explain what issue your product fixes, why do they need your solution and what benefit is it providing them. Then it should explain how the product fixes these issues,
so briefly showing some features and then the all important call to action. Here you can explain how easy it is to get started, (as this is a big objection for people to sign up to a new Saas tool).
Some companies want your credit card details when you sign up to a trial, but if you don’t need this, it’s a good idea to mention this clearly in your call to action as it will increase your conversion.

Animation

Now there are different formats you can use for this top homepage video.
Animation is a great way to explain the concept of a software product in an engaging way, although tends to be on the more expensive side of video production.
A big advantage however of animation is that you can future proof your video against UI updates,
because you’re explaining a concept without actually showing the platform itself.
This also works well if your platform is not fully ready yet!

Online advert

The alternative to animation is to go for what-we-call an online advert style video.
This is normally a voice over lead narrative with live action video, motion tracked elements and animation to bring the technology to life. The idea here is to explain the concept of the product you offer while touching on the benefits to the user and all done in an engaging and easy-to-understand way. We created two videos in this style for Episerver which are featured on their Commerce and CMS product landing pages.

Example of an Online Advert we created for Avalara

Example of an Online Advert we created for Episerver

Screen capture demo

The (usually) lower cost option is a screen capture, demo style video, but of course that can date.
It’s also not the best way to explain complex concepts but this may not be an issue if your software is very simple and you just want to show off the platform. You can go as slick as you like with the screen capture and a lot is done behind the scenes to make it look smooth and flow seamlessly. The top of the range option means recording it in 4K and then animating to add zooms, transitions or to make scrolling elements smooth. Whether you go for animation, an online advert or screen capture really depends on your budget, whether your platform is ready to capture, how simple the “why” of your platform is and for how long you need your video to be relevant. For more information be sure to check out our screen capture demos page.

Hero video

Some Saas companies don’t feature their homepage video above the fold, to keep the focus on the primary call to action. If you want to go down that route, you can always have a Hero background video showing off the product.
This would be on a rolling loop and up to about 25 seconds long – the shorter the better for loading speeds.
It works well to have a mix of lifestyle and over the shoulder product shots in the these videos. Take a look at Episerver’s website for an example of this. Another of our clients, dotmailer, use a background hero video, but also feature an animated gif of the platform just under the fold. Because your homepage is so important, you may want to try these different strategies out with some A/B testing and then see what works best for you.

Lead magnet (video training series)

We’ve noticed there’s a trend in some  SaaS companies to use a demo video series as a lead magnet.
Your prospect is offered the chance to “watch a quick demo” on your home page. This then sends them to a landing page with a sign up form where you can collect contact details to pass on to your sales team. The copy on this landing page needs to explain, with a good headline, sub headline and in bullets to follow, what they will learn from the demo and the benefits of the software.

Lead Magnet Formula
To make your lead magnet video series, I would advise you make a 5-10 minute video for the main features of your software, starting with the pain points each feature addresses and the benefits of using each feature.  This intro could be someone from your sales team or one of your training team presenting to camera, which adds a human element and helps build authority, trust and likeability in your brand. These are all mental buying triggers to help move your prospect towards that all import call-to-action.

After this intro, you then show them a screen capture demo, which is the how-to part of the video. This can be recorded live, by the same person who introduced the video, talking the viewer through the actions and edited to make it more fluid. This method is quick and also makes it feel more personal. The videos are arranged in a play list, can be watched in the viewers own time and hopefully by the end of the video series your prospect has been soft-sold the platform and is now a hot lead. It’s important to have your next call to action available under each video.

Lead Magnet Call to action

You have two options here: ‘book a one-to-one demo’ could be a good option if you’re an enterprise level product with a high customer value. Alternatively ‘sign up for a free trial’ could work better for your product or if you’re not able to offer one-to-one demos.

The benefit of this lead magnet video series is it will save your sales team a massive amount of time and in turn save you money, as it effectively automates the first demo process. When people eventually sign up for a one-to-one demo the leads have been pre-qualified and your sales teams conversion rate will be higher. Or if they don’t take action, you’ll have a chance to follow up using the data collected, giving you another chance to convert them to customer.

Intergrations

If your product’s integrations are a big selling point and you feature them briefly on your home page,
then an integrations overview video would be a great to include here as well. If you also have a dedicated integrations page or a landing page for each integration, then you could make a video for each, showing how it works and explaining the features & benefits.

Case Studies & testimonials

Case study videos are very powerful too. One of your challenges as a SaaS company is to explain who your platform can help, whether that’s an industry or job function. You can create a customer case study for each of your main sectors. Having someone explain in these videos how your software benefited them or helped their company grow is marketing gold. Video testimonials have been proven to be some of the best tools to convert viewers into buyers, because they are so authentic.

If you’re clever with your design you can use a thumbnail image that shows the most important information:
the company sector, the company title, a short written quote, the employee name & title and a lifestyle photo.
And not forgetting the video play button. These thumbnails serve as a static version of the video just in case someone chooses not to watch them and just having them there will already instill trust.

Services video

The second s in Saas stands for Service and it’s quite common to have a section on your home page or website dedicated to this. Here you’ll really benefit from a short video summarising the main benefits of the services you offer.
You can get across a lot in a 2 minute video and it works really well to have your staff members delivering the main points in an interview format, because they are ultimately the ones who will be dealing with your prospects when they convert into a customer. Then you can add some b-roll footage, which are supporting video clips that we edit over the interviews to make things flow and look great and show off your offices as well. Because there’s a large human element involved in a successful Saas company, it makes perfect sense to show that off in a video.

What videos can you have through-out your site?

Platform features

So continuing through your website now, you’re also more than likely to have platform features landing pages and these are an obvious place to have videos as well.
These would be different to your lead magnet course as they would be shorter, more high production value videos,
between 2-4 minutes and purely focused on showing the features rather than explaining the concept behind the feature.
These work well as screen capture demos but aren’t really tutorials, they’ll act more as a showcase of the feature.
Under each of these you could have your lead magnet call to action or get them to request a demo.

An example of a screen capture features demo we proudced for dotmailer (dotdigital)

Training hub

Your training hub will be aimed at educating your customers in how to perform certain tasks with your software and learning new features. We found splitting these videos into bit sized sections and presenting them in a play list works really well. For example you could have 10 videos explaining a certain feature. These are in-depth tutorials from 5-30mins long. Recorded live by your training team and edited to make them more fluid. And if you include a filmed intro by the trainer you’ll add that all important human touch.

We found a cost effective way to create these for our clients was to specify what audio equipment and screen capture software they needed to buy and then do a training session with the trainers to get them up-to-speed on how to record the tutorials to a high level themselves. We filmed the intros and were then sent the tutorial files once the trainers had created them so we could edit and produce the final videos.

Event Videos

If you put on events, shout about it, make a video to share on social media
and put a highlights video on your website’s events page to attract more people to your next events.
Events are also a great place to catch some short customer testimonials,
without having to take up extra time of your clients or pay for an extra day of filming.
If you are putting on a seminar, you can have the whole thing filmed
to then push out as valuable content to those who couldn’t make it.
All this will also help to place you as an industry leader.

Investor relations videos

We’ve made investor relations videos for Saas companies too.
Peter Simmonds the CEO (at the time) for dotmailer reported that the inspirational milestone video we created for them,
which showed off the passion and people behind the business, totally stood out from other company’s power point presentations. It really helped them to get noticed by stake holders. Visit our Media Brighton Investor Relations page for examples and more information.

Social Media Videos

And finally, anything you make, can be used on social media but cutting it down into snippets.
The more videos you make, the more stuff you’ll have to re-purpose and re-use.
Any blog posts your write for this purpose can be filmed, for example as white board sessions or vlogs and this in turn will help your YouTube channel to grow, because let’s not forget, after Google it is the second largest search engine out there and not to be ignored!

I haven’t mentioned all the options here yet and I could do an entire blog post and video dedicated just to social media videos. As you can see there is loads of scope for video for SaaS companies and we’ve worked closely with several on their video marketing strategy.

What now?

If you’d like to pick our brains on how we can do the same for you, get in touch. You can fill in the form on (the top right of) this page and we’ll get in contact with you. Or alternatively give us call on 07766306310 or 07789712314.

 

Elements of a video series – #2 B-Roll.

In this series we look at the different elements that make up a video, to help you make more informed decisions in your video marketing. If you haven’t watched our video on interviews, go and check that out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GtoRyo8LBc

What is B-roll & how does it make your videos better?

B-roll helps to keep your videos pacey

B-roll is the visual footage edited over your interviews to add interest and context. It’s also used to cover up a jump cut in an interview or cover up mistakes. People say a lot of ‘uhms’ and ‘buts’ in their interviews and b-roll allows us to cut all these out and then smooth over the interview with footage to cover up the cuts. So b-roll allows you to piece together the best parts of a conversation and it’s always best to shoot more b-roll than you think you’ll need.

In addition to this, b-roll can help to shorten your video to keep interest. Instead of someone saying something, you can just show it on screen, thereby shortening the interview. Because in video, often less is more!

When you watch a video you’ll see the b-roll shots while still hearing the person’s voice continue in the background.

It’s important your b-roll shots compliment what’s being said in the interview. 

What can you shoot for b-roll?

We often tend to film b-roll footage of the person in the location of their interview. This usually looks like we have ‘caught them in the action’ but more often than not, they are scenes we have set up. For example a fake phone call, a meeting, or someone working at their desk. What we shoot will differ depending on what your video is about and we’ll usually have a shot list ready on the day with the types of things we want to capture that will be relevant. This can also include your branding or signage, or shots of your wider team and office. In any case, we always make sure we get lots of smiles! 

We shoot these scenarios several times from different angles and then they cut together nicely as a mini sequence which helps to make it look more filmic. 

When we’re shooting testimonial videos we are aware that your client is probably doing you a favour, so we always try to be as quick and efficient as possible in our approach. It’s always a good idea to let them know in advance that we need them for at least 1 hour (half an hour for the interview and half an hour for B-roll). This way they know what to expect and they don’t run off before we have everything we need.

Some more examples of b-roll

Here are some more examples of what you can use as b-roll:

• If your business is office based, you could shoot clips of people chatting, the subject working on a computer, making a phone call, meeting a client, walking through the office, your awards cabinet, etc… 
• Head shots of the person, looking into the camera, smiling – these feel very unatural to shoot but look great in the edit!
• For an outdoor adventure or activity related business, you would shoot clips of the adventure or activity
• Existing videos or photos can also be used as b-roll shots and can be cut into animated templates to add more interest, i.e. a slide show
• Using stock video or photos can be more cost effective than filming scenes
• Animation is good b-roll if you’re explaining something complex in your interview
• Timelapses are great to add a touch of production value while also setting a scene establishing shot (showing the outside of your office buidling for example)
• Screen capture can be used to show details of your website or software

We are going to be covering all the above elements in their own dedicated video – so watch this space!

Why we create a b-roll shot list

Before we show up to conduct an interview, we’ll have compiled a list of questions and loosely scripted answers to ensure we get the right key messaging into a video – this means we have a framework for the narrative. And because videos work much better when what you hear is also what you see, we’ll then use that narrative to create a shot list. I.e. if we know someone in a testimonial will be prompted to talk about your amazing telephone helpline, we’ll make sure we get a shot of one of your team on their headset smiling and talking. All this planning makes the editing process easier and the end result better. 

The right b-roll can save you money

It’s worth shooting enough b-roll shots as it will save time in the editing process. Because if a video isn’t working without the correct peice of b-roll, we may need to resort to stock clips instead. However, these take time to source and cost money to buy, so it could cost you more in the long run. That’s why we always leave sufficient time on the shoot to capture the right b-roll. 

How we film amazing-looking b-roll

We have a few tricks up our sleeve to make our b-roll sequences look more professional.

The general rule is, we start with a wide shot of the location or scene (the establishing shot) and then our shots get progressively closer in, until we are looking at specific bits of detail. These shots can be edited in whichever order to create a filmic sequence.

Another way to add production value to the b-roll is to add movement. Rather than taking a static shot of someone typing on a computer, for example, we use things like sliders to add sideways movement, or gimbals to push in to a shot or follow someone walking. If we need to shoot fast (as often the case of testimonials) we can also add movement by shooting handheld with image stabilising lenses and add more stabilisation in the post production process if needed. This way you can still achieve a high end look without taking up too much time of the subject.

If there is time, we may also bring in basic lighting to light up a scene. In any case, because we are only interested in the visuals here, we don’t need to worry about audio, so the process can be fairly fast. 

Now see it for yourself! 

All in all, b-roll clips will help to keep your video pacey and keep the interest of the viewer. That’s important because in a manic digital age, attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and for example a 1-minute boring video can feel longer than a 2 minute pacey video with lots of interesting b-roll.  From swooping sailing shots to cute cow shots – here are some examples of our own talking heads style (interview) videos using b-roll to good effect:

Nisos Yacht Charter

James Duke Case Study

dotmailer – HR Video based in their office

What now?

If you want to chat through your video project with a real life human, fill in the form on this page and we’ll get in contact with you. Or alternatively give us call on 07766306310 or 07789712314

Elements of a video series – #1 Interviews.

When you approach us to produce a video, we’ll usually go over which elements can make up a marketing video, when you would use them and which will be the most cost effective or offer the highest production value for your end goal.

So we made a video series covering each element to help you through this planning process.

Why use interviews in your videos? (Elements of video series)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeOMWxe696s

We start our series off with interviews.

70% of the videos we create for our clients are what we call talking heads videos. These are based around an interview or several interviews, with supporting footage – or what we call B-roll – edited over the top; so you’re not just watching a person talk which could get boring. The interview format can be used for different types of videos; a company overview video, an about you video, a client testimonial, a kick-starter campaign video or even a product video.

2 camera setup of an off-camera interview for dotmailer

What are the benefits of using interviews in your videos?

One of the main benefits of an interview video is that it’s people-based. So the viewer will either get to know you and see your passion for what you do, or hear directly from happy customers how good you are.
Other benefits are that it’s usually cost effective, because you can use your own location and don’t need to hire actors; you can get a lot of information across in a short space of time and it’s a familiar format for your viewers, similar to a TV documentary.

Off-camera vs on-camera interviews

We find you can get the most natural performance when you use the off-camera interview format, where the interviewer is off camera and you only see the person being interviewed – so we mainly use that format.
To achieve this, we make sure the subject gives answers that make sense without hearing the question and we generally coach the subject throughout the interview to make sure they feel comfortable, look like a pro and that we have the right content.

Example of an off-camera interview

Choosing the right interview location

Your interview should look good and have a visual relevance to the subject matter in your video. Whether indoor or outdoor, choosing the right location to shoot your interview can save you a lot of time and really affect how professional your video looks. Here are some tips.
First of all, pick somewhere that is quiet and where you won’t be interrupted. Having lots of people walking around in the background can be problematic so try to stay away from crowded areas. This will avoid constant interruption and save you a lot of time while shooting. Beware of squeaky chairs too!
Whether we’re shooting indoor or outdoor, we look for a large spaces as this creates more depth. We also look for perspective too. Placing our subject by a large table or having a hedge or railing disappear into the background are all pleasing to the eye and make our clients video stand out.
Once we’re in our location, we try moving things around to make it look better. We declutter first and then add some interest into the background if needed, for example a plant or a brightly coloured piece of furniture. Company banners work well too, but think about when they might go out of date, or you may have to re-shoot your video too soon!
Also, think about who your audience is. Do you want to appeal to corporate viewers? If so shoot in an office environment. Do you want to appeal to outdoorsy types? Shoot on a beach or in nature. Are you appealing to the luxury market? Choose a sophisticated background. You get the idea.

Edit to add punch

And we always fine-tune their performance even more in the edit, cutting out any uhms, buts or stumbles – all this results in a really slick interview video that makes you look great.

Editing a talking heads style (interview) video

In the next post and video we will be talking about B-roll.

What now?

If you want to chat through your video project with a real life human, fill in the form on this page and we’ll get in contact with you. Or alternatively give us call on 07766306310 or 07789712314

There are a number of mental triggers you can tap into with your marketing which will make you more influential to your prospects and customers. Authority, trust, likeability, reciprocity, community, social proof & scarcity are a few of the main ones. You can build on these mental triggers and create a powerful desire for your product or service. Let’s look at each one individually.

Authority: It’s widely documented that we tend to do what we are told by a person in authority, without question. Check out the Milgram  Experiment on Wikipedia. It was an experiment where a subject (the teacher) had to ask another subject (the learner), who was out-of-sight in another room, a series of questions. They could talk to one another but not see each other. If the learner got the answer wrong, the teacher was instructed by an examiner (in a white coat), to give the learner an electric shock. In actual fact the learner was an actor and the shocks weren’t real. The teacher didn’t know this and would give the shock as instructed by the authority figure, while hearing the learner scream. The teacher had a board of switches, which he or she would use to administer the shocks. These switches were clearly labelled how large each shock was. As the experiment went on the shocks would supposedly get larger and larger (and the teacher could see this clearly). The teacher had been told that once reaching a certain level, the shocks could be fatal. Shockingly they found that around 63% of people would give an apparently lethal shock to the learner if instructed by the authority figure to do so!

Now I know this sounds very negative but it does prove a point that if you can build yourself to be an authority figure, people are more likely to do what you say.  I’m hoping you will use this for good not evil!

So how do you build yourself as authority figure using video? There are several ways to do this. You could create video content that educates your target market and solves some of their problems. This could be done either on your website’s landing pages or through YouTube, Facebook & Linked In Videos. When it comes to Linked In & Facebook people are comfortable when they are on these platforms, so create your content to add value on the platform within your video before presenting your call to action (to learn more off the platform via a sign up form on a landing page for example).

Trust: If you trust someone they’re opinions are much more influential to you than someone you don’t trust or know very well. Trust is normally built over time. You could do this through tips and tricks videos or a free video course which gives your prospect time to get to know and trust you while getting massive value from what you have to say.

Likeability: People want to do business with people they like and trust. A lot of people worry about being likeable on video. My best advice is to be yourself, be genuine and let people into your world. Tell your story, show your flaws and show you’re human. Think about it…when you watch those talent shows on TV, they always show how they have struggled or how they have had vocal problems that week. We can’t help but buy into these human stories as we relate to them ourselves. So getting people to buy into your story will build your likeability factor and help you connect with your prospects.    

Reciprocity: If you give something to someone, they feel it’s their duty to reciprocate. Have you ever received a gift from someone at Christmas and not had one for them. You feel awful don’t you? We can use this in our marketing. Give people lots of value up front and they will be more likely to buy from you when the time comes. You could do this by creating useful actionable video content and offering advice within your chosen field. This also builds trust and authority.

Community: People follow others and generally want to ‘fit in’ and be part of a community. I kitesurf and surf in my spare time. There’s a trend in kitesurfing, especially amongst the freestylers, to wear board shorts on the outside of your wetsuit. If I’m kitesurfing in a place where it’s good for freestyle, everyone is doing this and I feel obliged to fit in and follow suit. Now, If I go surfing or wave kitesurfing no-one, I mean no-one would be seen dead wearing board shorts on the outside of their wetsuits. So of course neither do I! This is because we have an inherent urge to fit in with the community…So what?

Using social media sites like YouTube and Facebook it’s easy to build a community of like-minded people. And when people see others in the community taking an action it could be liking or sharing a post or video, or making a decision to buy and then expressing their gratitude for a great product, this is a powerful buying trigger for others in that community to follow suit. Have you ever seen a Facebook comments section under a free video and in the video they prompt people to leave a comment or question? Well this is to build community within their marketing. When others see hundreds of others interacting, expressing interest or buying then we are more likely to take action ourselves.

 

Social Proof :  When we hear rave reviews from others about a product or service we are interested in, that can be very influential when it comes to making a buying decision. Whether it’s a testimonial or a client case study, social proof can be a very powerful mental trigger which you can leverage in your marketing. Video is a fantastic way of presenting these testimonials in an authentic and trustworthy way.
You can add a few customer testimonials throughout your company video or they can make up the main part of your video. And this will help to create the feeling of social proof. Check out the example video below we made for Nisos Yacht Charter, where we used this powerful mental trigger.

Scarcity: We are all procrastinators at heart. Building scarcity into your marketing will give people the nudge they need to take action. You can add scarcity into your marketing by making time sensitive offers, for example 25% off your product if you buy in the next 2 days! This will increase your sales massively by getting people off the fence and clicking that buy button!

So there’s seven powerful mental sales triggers you can build into your marketing and super charge your videos! If you would like help with your video marketing, contact us and we’ll be happy to chat over your requirements.

Finding relevant keywords

Firstly let’s just talk about keywords. If you haven’t spent the last 5 years in prison or stuck under a rock, you’ve probably heard of these before! After Google, YouTube is the second biggest search engine and keywords are as relevant here as they are on Google. So for your videos, play lists and your channel to appear in the search results, you need to get your keywords right in your video submissions. That means you need to work out which keywords your target market is searching for when they are looking for content and then either create relevant content for those keywords and/or optimise your relevant videos with those keywords. For example, if you know your prospects are looking for ‘video marketing strategy tips’, they might type those words into YouTube. If you’ve created a video that’s focused on telling people all about ‘video marketing strategy tips’ and you use those keywords when optimising your videos, you have a fair chance of them finding your content, right?

So how do you go about choosing your keywords? First of all, it’s best to go for long tail keywords which are 3 words or more. And here are a few ways in which you can find out what people are searching for:

YouTube & Google search suggestions

First think of your subject, let’s say they were losing weight. Type your keywords into the YouTube search bar but leave off the last letter. This means YouTube will offer search suggestions in a drop down.

Using Search Suggestion in YouTubeLosing weight fast

In the image above you can see the weight-loss related topics that are currently popular on YouTube and that people are searching for.

Now, write down the relevant and best ones. Next, check out the competition.

To do this enter one of these keyword phrases into the YouTube search and see what comes up. Look in the top right hand side of the listing box and see how many results are being served. The higher the number, the more competitive the term. This doesn’t mean anything at first but if you do this on 5 or 6 keywords you’ll get a feel for what is high and what is low in relation to each keyword. What you’re looking for is one that is significantly lower than the rest.

Now, check that the first 3 or 4 videos in the results have a decent amount of views. If they don’t, then it’s possible not that many people are searching for that phrase. But if they have a good amount of views then you know the phrase is popular.

Next, check out how many subscribers each of the top 3-4 videos have by rolling over their channel name. A box appears and next to the subscribe-button there is a number. If each of the top videos are by channels with thousands of subscribers then it’s going to be difficult to compete because they will have a lot of channel authority compared to you. This is something you have to do for a bit with a number of keywords before you start to see the trends appear. You can visit each of those channels to see how many videos they have and how often they post videos. The more videos and the more consistency they have, the harder it will be for you to compete.

The other thing to keep an eye out for, is if there isn’t a video using the exact keyword phrase in the search results. This is a golden opportunity for you to create one and optimise it correctly!

Checking the competition in YouTube

The Google Keyword Planner

Next you can enter you ideas into Google’s Keyword Planner to get some suggestions and stats on what people are actually searching for. This will help you narrow down some good keywords that are relevant to your videos. To do this in the Google keyword planner, click on “search for new keyword using a phrase, website or category”. Enter your relevant video keyword ideas and press ‘Get Ideas’. Next select the ‘keyword ideas’ tab and set your search setting to “Broad”. Look through the keyword ideas that have high search volume, that are relevant (the optimum is around 5,000-25,000 searches per month). You can make a short list of these and then check the competition using the method above.

Google Keyword Planner

Using these methods you can make up a hit list of 10 to 20 keyword phrases. This list of keywords becomes a list of YouTube videos you’re going to make. You know that people are searching for these topics and if you make a value packed video and optimise it correctly you should get plenty of views.

So to recap:

– Look for keyword phrases with around 5,000-25,000 searches per month

– Find keywords with relatively low amounts of competition in the search results

– Check the top videos that have a decent amount of views

– Check the channels of the top 3-4 videos and look for the ones with less subscribers, less videos and less consistency

– Check if there isn’t an exact match of the keyword phrase with the titles of the top videos

If all of the above works out, then you have a good keyword phrase to make a video from

Optimising your videos

Once you have your keywords, you still need to optimise your video submissions correctly and here’s how:

Transcription

First off all, YouTube allows you to upload a transcription of your video. This helps YouTube know what your video is about as well as allowing sub titles to appear on your video. So it’s a good tip to make sure your keyword phrase is used in your video at the beginning, middle and end. So when you’re writing your script, be sure to include the keywords. After you’ve uploaded your video to YouTube upload your transcription.

Title

Next, use your keywords in the title of the video (on YouTube). Put the most important words first. Google and YouTube put more emphasis on the first words in a title. So if you want to put your company name or your own name in the title, put that last. You should assume that no one will be searching for your name at this moment, unless you are a global superstar of course.

Description

It’s important to write a proper description for your video. This should start with your website address in full including the http:// part. If you do this for every video that you upload you will be getting backlinks to your site, which will help push it up the Google search results. The more views your videos get, the more power the backlinks will have.

Then write a meaningful description, describing exactly what your video is about and include your keywords. These keywords should make up around 3% of the entire text. There are keyword density tools online to help you figure this out, just search Google to find them. I now just have a feel for what’s right rather than using a tool every time. You can write up to 1000 characters in your description and the more the better.

YouTube title & description keywords

Include your contact details in the description. This is where you can have your company Facebook, Twitter, blog and website urls (asking people to like, follow, check out and visit, you know the drill). If you write a standard section which works across all videos you can reuse this to save time. Another thing you can do is to copy and paste your video script into the description as a transcription of the video. If you don’t have a script, you can transcribe the content or even outsource this to a transcription service provider to save you time. You can find people on Fiverr.com that offer these services cheaply.

Tags

Add your keywords into your tags section of the video. Only use between 6 to 8 relevant keywords. Any more will be seen as keyword stuffing and can count against you.

 

Custom thumbnail

To make your videos stand out in the listing, create a custom thumbnail. Make this bright, include a picture of you in action presenting (if you appear in the video that is) and design it with big clear text saying the name of the video. Make sure your keywords are in the file name of the thumbnail.

 

Channel Authority

There are many other factors that help your videos rank and these are all linked to channel authority. Some of these metricks are how many views your videos get, how often and regulaly you post your videos, how long people watch your videos, how many comments your videos are getting and how many likes and shares your videos are receiving. And finally how many subscribers you have. There’s way too much to cover on this in one blog post so I’ll cover this in a follow up post.