5 Steps to Create the Perfect YouTube Tutorial to Promote Your Business

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YouTube is one of those diamond in the rough marketing opportunities that is often overlooked by small businesses. With more than 4 billion daily video views and around a billion users, YouTube is the world’s largest video site. According to KISSmetrics, Zappos attracts about 250,000 visits a year to its website from YouTube videos alone. Of course, not every single visitor YouTube is going to be a match for your business, but if you market your channel in a smart way, some of them will be. It’s definitely a marketing platform to take a look at.

Steps to Create a YouTube Tutorial
Even if you see the advantage of marketing to online leads in a new way, you may be unsure where to begin to create a video for YouTube. Fortunately, it is much easier than you might think.

Set a Goal
Before you even set up the channel for your business, take the time to set some goals for your YouTube tutorials.

• What is the ultimate goal? Do you just want to drive targeted traffic to your site? Do you want subscribers you can reach at a later time? Do you want new leads?
• Set a schedule for videos. Viewers who can consistently rely on you to add material will be more likely to subscribe to your channel.
• What tone will your tutorials take? Do you want to be humorous or serious? One isn’t better than the other, but you’ll want some consistency.

If you have a mission for your videos heading into the adventure of YouTube, then you’ll avoid some of the pitfalls of not knowing where you’re going.

Know Your Target Customer
As with any type of online marketing, it is vital to understand who your target customer is. You want to look for the customer who you can add value to his or her life with your videos. Once you figure out whom your typical customer is (you’re looking for generalities here, so perhaps homeowners in the Atlanta area), you should dig deeper and learn as much as you can about that particular type of customer. Look at age, income, hobbies, and statistics.

Once you fully understand your target customers, you can then customize your videos to meet the needs of that person and even to customize the types of services you offer.

Finally, factor in details you know about your current customers. If you often get the same question over and over about annual maintenance, answer that need with a video tutorial.

Set Up a Channel
Setting up a brand channel is fairly simple.

• Create a free YouTube account.
• Go to “All My Channels” and choose “Create a New Channel”, or link the new channel to your Google+ business page.
• Fill in as many details as possible. You’ll want to add an introductory video to explain what you’re about and what the videos will cover. You can make this fairly short.

Now, you’re ready to fill your channel with excellent content.

Don’t Spam Viewers
People go to YouTube for a variety of reasons. Some go to watch funny cat videos, others to catch commentary on the latest presidential debate, and others for instruction. For the purposes of a service business audience, they are probably coming to you for instruction.

Don’t just use every video as an opportunity to sell your business. Instead, let a short intro and a link at the end speak for itself. Example:
“Hi, this is Dan from ABC Heating and Cooling. Today, I’m going to teach you how to change the filter in your furnace.”

If you try to self-promote constantly, your viewers will be turned off and may decide the last thing they want to do is call you when they need heating and cooling services.

Recording Quality Material
Take the time and invest in the equipment so that you can record a quality video. Social Media Today recommends recording in 1080p high definition resolution. You can also use free online tools to add special effects and do edits. FreeMake.com is an easy to use platform.

You’ll also want to use a tripod so the video is steady. There’s nothing worse than trying to watch a shaky video and figure out how to complete a task.

Finally, watch the video back and make sure you didn’t skip any steps that the viewer needs to know. If there are errors in the video, you are stumbling on your words, or you forgot an important point, you should re-record.

YouTube Tutorials are a great way to show off your knowledge of the industry. However, if you don’t put your best foot forward, you may do more damage than good. If you take the time to produce good videos, however, the potential payoffs are worth the extra work.

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Posted In: Technology