Social Media Marketing Part 5: Using YouTube and Other Video Sites for Lead Generation in America

A lot of people have been asking us lately... "How can we utilize YouTube and other video sites to generate more leads from America?"
This questions is relevant, timely and sometimes difficult to understand in the US and internationally.  The interesting thing is that there is a great deal of information scattered throughout the Internet about how to get more American leads from YouTube.
I have a long and diverse background in video and film production.  It's my passion and hobby as well as part of my overall belief in marketing.  Therefore, this is a subject I love to research, speak about and produce. 
First, lets take a look at some of the basics....

WHAT VIDEO SITES ARE OUT THERE FOR AMERICAN AUDIENCES?
Many companies are starting to use video sites like YouTube for business purposes since it offers a free medium to house videos.  Here are some of the top video sites that you may or may not know with a few comments on my personal views of them.

• YouTube - of course.  Far and away the most visited video sharing website.  Millions upon millions of videos housed on this site ranging from the most ridiculous, to high quality short segments.  YouTube has some drawbacks like a 10 minute maximum length (unless you're a partner) and the compression they use before posting your video degrades the quality a bit.
   
• Brightcove - this is a B2B only video site and monetization platform (having recently removed its consumer offering). Primarily, this is a professional sharing site.  Not much of the consumer hoakiness gets published.  There are several compelling reasons that businesses should look to brightcove for b2b marketing efforts.
   
• blip.TV.  I love tblip.TV personally.  They are a YouTube like site with better quality video compression and longer lengths.  They also have the beginning of a revenue share model.  They also have a great customer support team if you should run into problems.  Unfortunately, their traffic just doesn't compare to YouTube and they keep claiming to be in "beta" for like a year now.  Time to launch full scale blip...
   
• Revver.  Like blip.TV, this site has far better quality of video and my understanding is that they offer a 50/50 split on revenues if you are looking for some monetization.  I don't have a lot of hands on experience with these guys, but I read good things.

These are just some of my personal experiences with video sharing sites and in no way is this meant as a comprehensive list.  Also, if you are in business selling a product or a service to Americans, the monetization side means little if anything to you.  Your best bet if you want to get into a marketplace that captures the attention of American audiences is definitely YouTube, but it never hurts to hit these and other video sharing sites as well. 
*Help me out here.  If you know of a website that ranks video sharing sites by visitors and keeps it up to date (within the past 60 days or so), please post a comment back here to help us all out.
HOW ARE COMPANIES USING THEE VIDEO SITES?
Companies across the globe are beginning to capitalize on video sites in several common ways.

• Re purposing of Existing Content.  If you have videos produced already that demonstrate products or services, consider uploading these videos to YouTube and other sites.  Make sure you translate into English if they aren't already.
   
• Presentations.  Presentations that are made like Webinars, seminars and other events are often put onto video sharing sites to offer them to the American public.
   
• Training.  If you want to expose American's to your products or services, publish your training videos on sharing sites. 
   
• Events.  Does your company ever organize or participate in events (for profit, industry or charitable)?  If so, put the footage up.
   
• Pitch.  Pitch your products and services.  This really isn't different than having a web site or marketing with search engines.  It's another outlet to get American eyes exposed to your business.

CONSIDERATIONS
The biggest thing you may want to consider when you are ready to release your videos to YouTube and others is that you need to keep them short.  By short, I mean that there is a limit on the length of video you can put into your YouTube (file size and time based).  For many of us the length is 10 minutes, but YouTube released a new policy in June 2008 stating that select partners can post videos up to 2 hours.  We'll see if it changes over time.  Perhaps YouTube knows something that you should too.  American's have short attention spans and are constantly distracted by outside forces.  Make your point quick!
When you upload a video, you are asked to choose key words that help the sites categorize your videos.  Like search engines, the choice of key words can influence the views of your videos exponentially.  Be careful to choose ones that are relevant to your message, yet will drive you the traffic.
As with any marketing, be sure you have a good call to action within the content of the video.  If you want American's to visit your Web site or Landing page, then post it.
Your content will be monitored.  No nudity, profanity or direct attacks on people or competitors.  Make sure you can substantiate any claims you make because American's won't tolerate lies.
WHAT IS THE "SECRET FORMULA" FOR DRIVING MORE VIEWS OF MY VIDEOS?
I wish I could say that its easy to get American viewers to watch your videos, but its not.  If it sounds like just a "pitch," it won't be as "viral."  Viral is the key to success.  Sales pitchs, commercials and more rarely get forwarded unless there is a specific need.  It needs to go beyond just a sales pitch to attract more visitors, views and conversions.  Remember, you are competing with millions of other videos for hundreds of millions of people's attention.

• Funny, Funny, Funny.  Comedy works great on YouTube.  Comedy gets American's attention.  If it's funny, American's will spread the word.  A small Taco shop in America used this video to generate almost 90,000 views.  It probably cost them $5.00 to make the video and my guess is its their number one marketing piece for 2008 and its not even that funny.  Comedy can be challenging to develop correctly, so look to professionals for help.
   
• Sex Sells.  In America (as is with most of the world), sex sells.  it's that simple.  To illustrate, here are two comparisons.  In America right now, we are in the beginning of our official presidential election season.  So, why is it that this Obama endorsement video has 5 million views and this other Obama endorsement has 422.  The point is clear.  Just be careful with the sexy videos so as to not offend other people.
   
• Help them, teach them, give them advice.  If you give away some great piece of information (very similar to information marketing), American's will appreciate it and pass it along to their friends and colleagues.  The team at DV Creators have developed many hands on tutorials like this one for video production that help promote awareness of their business.  Product sales are up!

HOW DO I KNOW IF IT'S WORKING?
The easiest way to know if your videos are working is to look at the statistics that you are getting in terms of views.  In addition, if you've put in a proper call to action, you may find your web site or landing page conversions going up.  There are also some software companies that offer free and paid statistical software like TubeMogul.  Check them out.
BOTTOM LINE
Video marketing in America is very important and can be a critical part of your business mix.  You need to make very tactical decisions to effectively launch a video marketing program when you want to do more business in America.