YouTube Helps Builds Your Online Presence

YouTube is not just used to spread funny or bizarre videos throughout the web. Many businesses are utilizing this social media site as a powerful marketing tool by creating their own YouTube channels to promote their brand.  A YouTube channel can greatly advance your online presence, but just like any other online content, it needs to be properly created and maintained.

Why is YouTube so popular? 

Typically, people are much more inclined to view a short video than read through a long article.  It adds more enjoyment and entertainment to the message you are trying to send.  YouTube has also become one of the largest search engines online and a very successful social media outlet.  People can easily share and send videos, creating the same viral results as Facebook or Twitter.

Follow these steps to quickly and easily set up your YouTube channel:

1. Create a YouTube account to set up a channel.  You might already have a personal account, but if you want to use a YouTube channel to promote a business or product, it’s best that you create a new account used for business.  The username you establish on YouTube becomes part of your channel URL. Select something that relates to your business name that is memorable. For example, BioPlasticsCompany has a username of bioplasticscompany and their YouTube URL is www.youtube.com/bioplasticscompany.

2. Sign in to YouTube using your new account and choose the channel link from the drop down menu.  This takes you to the page where you can manage all the different aspects of your channel.

3. Design your YouTube channel with SEO techniques in mind. Use keywords in video titles, descriptions, and tags.

Be sure to use your channel tags in your company description.

4.  Before you upload any videos, brand your channel by creating a look and feel that aligns with the goals you are trying to accomplish.  Use the Themes and Colors tab at the top of the channel page to change the design.  Upload a background image and choose your own color scheme.  Click on “Show Advanced Options” to see more choices.  

5.  Once you’ve finished the design of your channel, you can begin uploading videos.  Be sure to treat these videos as you would any content on a regular website.  Your videos should be the best quality that you’re able to produce.  You aren’t at a disadvantage if you don’t have a professional production team.  With today’s technology, anyone can create a video – just be sure to have a plan for your filming strategy.

6.  When you begin designing your videos, have a consistent format.  Think of your videos as chapters in a book – they should fit together and be relatable.  This can be achieved by structuring your videos in a similar way and adding your logo to each video. Remember, you want to use your YouTube channel to develop your brand.   

7.  When a visitor opens your YouTube channel, one of your videos will be featured prominently on the screen, while the other videos are listed as thumbnails on the right.  Choose which video to feature and whether this video will autoplay. 

8.  Once your YouTube channel is up and running, promote it through other outlets, such as your website, newsletters, or social media pages.  Post links to your channel and embed videos on sites like Facebook.   

9.  You’re work isn’t done after you’ve created a well-developed YouTube channel with a good following.  The channel requires maintenance just like any other site.  Keep things current, upload new videos as needed, and engage your followers!  Just like Facebook or Twitter, the best way to keep people interested is to get them talking.   

The best way to achieve success using a YouTube channel is to treat it like any other website or social media outlet.  Spend time to develop a good marketing strategy that addresses all of your company’s needs.  If you can create an effective YouTube channel, that integrates with your other marketing materials, then you can reach your target audience and enhance your online presence.

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5 "Must-Use" Features of Google Analytics

It seems that everyone these days uses Google Analytics, but we find that many organizations benefit from a better understanding of the relevance of the report data. Looking at website visitors and pageviews is a place to start, however, there is so much more than just how many people came to your site.

Following are 5 must-use features of Google Analytics:

1. Visitors 

The Visitors tab shows how many people visited your site, the type of visitors, and information on how they interacted with the site.  However, the amount of visits your page receives shouldn’t be the only number you use to gauge your website’s success.  Other metrics, such as Average Pageviews and Bounce Rate, can show you how effective your site was at sustaining these visits. 

Average Pageviews indicates how extensively people are interacting with your site.  If this number is low, it could mean people aren’t finding the content they are seeking.

Bounce Rate is the percentage of visits in which someone left the site from the landing page.  A high Bounce Rate means that people are quickly leaving your site after opening the landing page.  

If these numbers aren’t where you would like them to be, your website isn’t delivering what it could.  Develop and tailor your landing page so that it immediately appeals to visitors and gives them a clear indication of what is offered and a reason to look at other areas of the site.  

Once you can track this data, trends and patterns are easily identifiable and you can adjust your site as necessary.  

2. Traffic Sources 

The Traffic Sources tab provides detailed data on how people are arriving at your site.  Use this information to find out how these visitors differ from each other depending on what online medium they use to get to your site. 

All Traffic Sources combines and ranks all the referral mediums in comparison to one another.  This allows you to see how organic search engine traffic compares to your paid advertisements.  For example, a beauty salon in Cleveland might advertise on Cleveland.com.  By clicking on Cleveland.com in the All Traffic Sources list, the salon can see what percent of their traffic is coming from this medium.  What if this percentage is low, but has a high Average Time on Site?  This could mean that Cleveland.com is attracting the right type of visitors, but not in large enough quantities.  The salon could try improving their advertisement for Cleveland.com and continue monitoring it to see if they can generate the right type of visitors in larger amounts.  

Keywords lists the most common keywords and phrases that people are typing into the search engines to ultimately arrive at your site.  These can be segmented by paid, non-paid, or both groups of keywords.  If you are actively optimizing your site for a set of keywords, the keyword report tells you what is working. The list of keywords displayed here are the phrases that people typed into search to find your site today. This helps identify which keywords you are missing.

3.  Content 

The Content tab contains reports on each individual page in your site.  These reports show how visitors interacted with each page including their time on the page, entrance and exit path information, and navigation summaries.  

Top Content offers a look at which pages on your site are most viewed.  You can see the specific page view information and use the Navigation Summary to see how people arrived at each page and where they went after they exited each page.  Keep in mind that if you have a checkout page for when customers have completed a transaction, it may have a higher exit rate than the average.  

In-Page Analytics opens your site within the Google Analytics browser and allows you to easily identify where users are clicking on each page and whether or not these clicks resulted in conversions.  It offers a great visual on site usage as opposed to an overwhelming list of numbers and statistics.

The tools under the Content tab help you focus on the work that needs to be done on individual pages as opposed to the site as a whole.  Look for patterns and trends in the pageview numbers to see if any pages stand out as being viewed far less than others.  It’s possible that these pages are confusing to visitors and are causing them to leave.  

4.  Goals and E-Commerce

At the end of the day, your organization created its site for a reason – to produce results.  Good SEO and good design can end up being irrelevant if your site isn’t generating these desired results.  The Goals and E-Commerce sections of Google Analytics are used to find how well your site fulfills the desired business objectives.  

Funnel Visualization gives you an idea of how successful your site is at directing visitors to your goal.  You can set these goals up from the Overview page and they can be e-commerce related or be something such as getting people to sign up for your newsletter.  If you have four steps in your goal process, the Funnel Visualization allows you to easily identify if any of the steps are over-complicated and causing people to leave before the goal is completed.  

Product Performance not only displays your total revenue for the specified time period, but also splits this revenue up according to product.  If you find that some of your highly advertised products aren’t generating much revenue, check to make sure all of the links are working and that these products are easily found when navigating through your site.  

5. Advanced Segmentation

Advanced Segments filter your data according to the path that visitors used to arrive at your site.  This helps you target your advertising to the areas with the highest chance of success.  They can be created from the drop-down menu in the top right corner of your screen.  You can use the default segments provided by Google Analytics or create your own.  This is especially helpful if you are relying on any e-marketing techniques aside from organic search engine listings.  

When you are paying for advertisements to drive traffic to your site, it’s vital that you know whether the cost is worth the result.  The customized segments uncover the specific metrics on where your leads are being generated.  Discover where your site referrals are coming from and which advertisements are successful in driving these referrals.  Begin by grouping the segment depending on what kind of visits you wish to include.  Then add dimensions and metrics to further qualify your visitors’ activities.  

Remember, Google Analytics is more than just numbers. It can help you create the best marketing mix and action steps for your site provided that you monitor the data with an eye toward your site’s optimum performance.

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At OnMark’s recent Social Made Simple seminar, we had an attendee pose a great question: If you sell a service, and not a “widget,” what’s the best way to use social media?

This is often particularly challenging to those in the heavily regulated financial, healthcare or banking industries. But before you give up entirely on integrating tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter into your communications strategy, consider doing a little research and testing out a few simple ways to use social media in the service industry.

Do Your Homework

The service industry is competitive. Check to see what your competitors are doing online and in the social media space. If aspects of their approach align with your business goals, try putting your own twist on it.

Also, if you are in a highly regulated industry, you may have advertising and marketing rules that apply. Make sure you are aware of these before embarking on a social media strategy. Your staff needs to be on board and have clear policies regarding their use of social media under your company’s brand.

Move Your Offline Methods Online

You likely have several marketing assets in print format. Try repurposing these for online use, where it makes sense, but make sure you adjust the message accordingly. For example:

1. Tune-up reminders. Whether you are an accountant, a financial advisor or a body shop, your customers can benefit from regular tune-ups related to the service you provide. This could include a quarterly budget review, or a tax reminder. You can put these messages on Facebook and/or Twitter on a regular basis.
2. Improved customer service. The more open channels of communication you offer, the better your service is perceived. Where are your customers going online when they have questions or feedback? Be there, and be prepared to respond using the same social channel.
3. Lead generation. Develop relationships outside of your service that can lead to referrals. Think about offering personal information about yourself and your hobbies that might open up a dialog with someone new. Once they have a relationship with you, it opens the door to referrals.
4. Education. Instead of selling your services, educate your customers about a “lifestyle”-related topic that indirectly aligns with your service offerings. For example, an insurance company can use social media to talk about safe driving. A hospital might use social media to discuss nutritional information.
5. Consider starting conversations online and finishing them offline. If a customer poses a question that involves sensitive information, have a service representative phone them directly, if possible, and post a response that says you will do so.

This year, a few major firms such as Morgan Stanley and Securities America announced they will allow their employees to use social media.

Another helpful article is “How to Engage in Social Media in Regulated Industries.”

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Many of our clients have asked about blogging recently and how online writing is different from traditional copywriting. While blogging can improve your SEO ranking and infuse your site with fresh content on a regular basis, it’s not without guidelines. Many of these guidelines are similar to print copywriting, such as:

•  Don’t plagiarize. Make your ideas your own and if you’re not the expert on the content, consider linking to someone who is.

• Check your facts. You want to be the source for reliable information. If a reader doesn’t trust your content, they won’t return.

• Use proper grammar. While blogging often uses a more casual tone, it still needs to be written well.

• Make it interesting and relevant to your target audience. Just because it’s a message interesting to your company internally doesn’t mean it will benefit your customers and prospects.

While online and print copywriting share the above rules, there are many aspects that make them different:

• Write the way your readers read. When someone is reading print material, they often have more time to do so. Online, your readers are looking for relevant information and keywords. Make it easy on them by breaking your copy into bulleted lists or short paragraphs they can skim. Use keyword-rich content for Google to index and your readers to more easily identify.

• Use descriptive and catchy titles. Consider this your “online envelope.” If the reader doesn’t like what he/she sees at this step, they are less likely to read more.

• Keep it short. Blogs are typically 200 to 500 words.

• Use calls to action or links to more information. This is your opportunity to further engage a reader who is already interested in what you have to say. Seize the moment to drive traffic to another informational area of your website or to online sales.

OnMark Solutions has helped a number of our clients establish company blogs that are easy to implement and maintain. Call us today if you would like our assistance in launching your own company blog or to discuss how to improve your existing one.

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