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July 30, 2014 by

Local B2B SEO And Other Marketing Using YouTube

I want to give thanks to Greg over at Search Simplicity for inviting me to contribute to his blog on search engine optimization (SEO) and other search engine marketing (SEM) topics.  The topic of this article is about using YouTube videos to rank in the organic results for local business-to-business (B2B) keyword phrases.  It also touches on other methods of getting traffic to the YouTube videos which may have a longer-term benefit besides just organic rankings:

 

In the article I reference a Dallas-area client who runs a digital marketing agency.  They use technology, art, video and other media to create unique experiences for their clients.  This is the sub-niche of marketing called “experiential marketing” or “disruptive marketing”.  They wanted some help with both local B2B and national B2B keyword phrases.  Here is the video they gave me which first showed up on Vimeo but now is also on the company’s official YouTube channel:

This is a more advanced version of local B2B, as I was able to include it on an optimized press release here.  This video is now ranking for one the company’s desired “Dallas” phrases.

For more traditional local B2B keywords, such as the “Fort Worth parking lot repair” example mentioned in the Search Simplicity article, the video currently ranks well in the search engines for the phrase.  It is not a terrific quality video, but it shows a typical walk-through of what a repair job might look like in Tarrant County.  Here is the URL:

 

If you are interested in more about using online video (YouTube, Vimeo or other) for local B2B marketing then you are welcome to contact me with your questions.  Thank you for your interest and you are welcome to share this article with those whom you think may find it to be relevant and of interest.

Filed Under: b2b, local marketing, video marketing, video optimization, video syndication, videos
August 12, 2013 by

Benefits Of A Dallas Fort Worth PPC AdWords Consultant

If you are looking to grow your business in the Dallas Fort Worth region, whether you are seeking new local or regional customers, there are several ways to get traffic to your website and other web properties.  Of course, you would like to have all of the traffic you can handle coming to you from no-cost sources.  These sources include:

  • ranking well in the search engines for high-traffic broad terms people enter (keywords) relevant to what you are selling
  • ranking well in the search engines for terms (keywords) which are indicative of someone wanting to do business with you right away
  • free press release sites
  • people promoting your services on local online forums which have high degrees of trust
  • people promoting (endorsing) you to their colleagues and friends on sites like LinkedIn
  • having your video “go viral” on YouTube
  • getting free media coverage from the websites of local TV, radio and newspapers across DFW
  • etc.

Unfortunately, you may not have the initial budget, luck or skill to consistently get that type of traffic to your website or other web properties (e.g. your Twitter and Facebook pages) where people can do business with your Dallas Fort Worth-based business.  You also may have a new website where you want to test how well the website’s aesthetics help to convert first-time visitors to call you, e-mail you, download a free e-book, or take some other “call to action”.

In these types of situations you may want to consider using some form paid advertising.  These can include paid press release online distribution services, demographic target ads on Facebook, and the more traditional pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.  The benefits to this last type of advertising can include the following (and more):

  • You can control how much you want to spend on a per-click, per-day or per campaign amount
  • You can choose whether you want to advertise on the search engine results pages and/or on relevant websites which either focus on Dallas Fort Worth topics or are being looked at by people with DFW I.P. addresses
  • You can determine if you want your ads to appear on mobile devices, laptop/desktop devices or all devices
  • You can control (to some degree) what time of day, and what days of the week, your ads will run
  • There are call tracking capabilities (in some regards) which can help you determine the effectiveness
  • You can run ads which have a maps “marker” indicating your place of business in the DFW region

Google has its pay-per-click (PPC) or cost-per-1000-impressions (CPM) ad network which every Dallas Fort Worth business owner can use.  This is called Google AdWords.  The AdWords system permits a business owner to:

  • include goal tracking and other conversion tracking
  • integration with Google Analytics
  • keyword-level tracking
  • targeting specific sites which have placed an “open billboard” for Google to place relevant ads
  • etc.

From the same login and password you even can promote your specific YouTube videos and do pay-per-view (PPV) marketing, which is the YouTube video equivalent of traditional pay per click advertising.  In that instance you can promote your video to rank in YouTube for when people make specific searches inside of YouTube; or you can pay to get placement on a specific video which you believe would attract a certain percentage of that video’s viewers to your business’ video.

As you can see, this type of advertising can be more extensive than you may have first considered.  One note to consider is that many DFW business owners are overpaying for clicks during their initial attempts at Google AdWords or other pay per click marketing.  There are several ways to either:

  • get the same number of targeted clicks for a lower per-click price
  • get more targeted clicks for the same monthly advertising spend

Hopefully you can understand the possible need for a pay per click (PPC) and AdWords consultant in Dallas Fort Worth to help local businesses make intelligent decisions.  Click the link to learn more about that type of service and what to ask when you seek assistance to help you get more from your advertising budget.

Filed Under: AdWords, pay per click, video marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,
May 28, 2011 by

YouTube Marketing and Optimization In Dallas

One of the most overlooked areas I see when helping local businesses in the Dallas, Plano, Fort Worth, McKinney, Frisco, and Arlington Texas areas is marketing their businesses through a video-sharing site such as YouTube.  While many businesses like focusing on pure SEO, e-mail marketing, and social media marketing on sites like Facebook and Twitter they neglect the one medium which can be used to enhance their efforts on all of those area:  video marketing, optimization, and syndication.

After talking with many business owners they appear to be scared to go on video, and they personally do not like the “Talking Head” videos they see all the time.  They also feel that video is costly and will produce a ROI for their efforts.  This is the furthest thing from the truth!

Remember that the job of a video on a site outside of your own website (such as YouTube) has one goal:  to “warm up” (“pre-frame”) the viewer to take the desired call-to-action you want.  If you want people to show up at your store then you must build trust in the video in order to entice people to show up at your store.  If you want someone to join a mailing list after clicking a link in the description field then you must build enough trust and incentive for the viewer to click that link.  Again, it is about making sure that the video always is adding value and building trust in your brand, expertise, and whatever else you want to promote!

This means that your videos, in order to build trust, do not have to feature you at all!  They can be:

  • Screen capture (walk-through) videos
  • Testimonial videos
  • Feature a spokesperson
  • Feature customers or employees showing the benefits of your products or services
  • Animation-type videos
  • Narrated slide show videos
  • Music slide show videos
  • Any other type of video which adds value and gives the viewer incentive to take the desired call-to-action

One of the biggest problems I have faced when dealing with business owners in the Dallas area is that they get entirely wrapped up in the “content” of their videos… and they forget the “structure” of why the video is being made in the first place!  That is to get the viewer to take the intended call-to-action.  Instead, many owners get excited about the “cool graphics” and production quality of the videos they have created.  When I ask them about how excited they are regarding the “structure” (system) to give those videos exposure then I usually get a blank stare.

If you are a business owner reading this then please remember that the “structure” you need to give your videos exposure is the TOP priority.  While great video content is terrific, and good quality videos will be shared (hopefully) with others who may be qualified prospects, you need to have a method in place to give your videos exposure.  The following four topics will give any business owner an edge in marketing your videos which are hosted on YouTube or anywhere else on the internet:

  • Video Optimization — Do your keyword research here!  Determine what people are seeking in Google and the other search engines as well as within YouTube itself.  There are 4 ways to optimize ANY video in YouTube; and there are additional features within the uploading process which can give you the ability to “leap frog” your competition, especially for a local keyword such as “Dallas Texas pizza”.  Also, determine if your YouTube channel is properly optimized.  If not, it could hurt your chances of gaining more exposure
  • Video marketing — Do you have a plan of driving quality links and traffic to both your videos AND your channel?  Remember that a television station’s goal is to gain as many viewers as possible, and they do this by promoting both their shows as well as their station’s identity.  You should follow this same process by driving quality traffic to your channel and your videos from sites outside of the video-sharing website.  For example, create a helpful article which gets syndicated through article directories AND also has the link in the resource (bio) box sending traffic to your video or channel.  In the worst case scenario, do you have a plan to buy cheap traffic which is at least somewhat qualified through Google’s Display Network Pay-Per-Click system?  This can boost your view count and help you leap frog your competition if you know what you are doing
  • Video Syndidcation — Do you, as the business owner or executive, have a plan to take full advantage of “syndication” tools?  For example, what are you doing with the RSS feed for your video site’s channel?  Are you embedding the video inside upcoming press releases, assuming that the video is relevant?  Do you have a social bookmark network created or outsourced so that very quickly you can have links being shared to the new content?  Do you have a blog created, with its own syndication capabilities, and a video sitemap so that you can get possible search engine exposure for your video?  Do you have a large e-mailing list to whom you can send the video, assuming that it provides value for the majority of your list?  If you do not have any of these then you are missing on a tremendous opportunity to syndicate your quality videos for little to no cost
  • Internal Viral Video Marketing Tools — The preceding three topics assumed that you never used the video-sharing site like a social network.  You, however, can gain tremendous traffic if you make the time investment to use YouTube as a social network for your video marketing efforts.  You can comment on people’s videos, gain subscribers and friends, leave video responses, create Playlists, and much more.  All of these are designed to give value the YouTube community, and you can generate a loyal following if you offer value in your videos AND in your interaction with your fans and subscribers

Finally, remember that good videos can be shared in several places.  You can share them on Facebook, Twitter, and niche-specific forums and social networks.  You also can e-mail the video link to your lists; and you can embed the video on blogs and Web 2.0 pages you control.

To reiterate, please consider investing time, money, and resources in video marketing.  The flexibility, ability to quickly gain a following, and ability to gain first page exposure in sites such as YouTube and Google are so powerful that it now must be a part of your marketing planning.  The flexibility allows you to reach multiple goals (social proof of your expertise, enhancing leads, new product awareness, etc.) very quickly and in a cost-effective manner.  These fundamentals apply for any video marketing efforts whether you are trying to reach a national audience or just a local one such as marketing your videos to those just in the Dallas Fort Worth area.

If you need any help with any of the areas of video marketing, optimization, syndication, or viral marketing then you are welcome to contact me.  Thank you for your attention and you are welcome to share this with any friends or colleagues you believe could benefit from the information.

Filed Under: video marketing, video optimization, video syndication