5 Tips for making a great marketing video for You Tube

You Tube can be a powerful marketing tool for your business or products that you are trying to promote. Most of the You Tube videos are shot by amateurs and are low-budget. That doesn't mean that a lot of work didn't go into them, however. Still, the videos are mostly done on a low budget. There are ways to make your video great, nevertheless. The following tips are things that you should keep in mind when you are making your perfect You Tube marketing video.

• Try to do something a little bit different. To make your video stand out, you need to stand out yourself. Don't just film yourself sitting on a couch, talking. That's boring and it's been done before. Instead, try to find an interesting background. Use some interesting music that goes along with your video. Even if you are making an informational or educational video you should be able to find ways to make it entertaining. The last thing that you want to do is to stand in front of the camera and talk as if you are giving a speech.
• Make sure that you dress for success. If you are going to make a professional marketing video, dress like it. Tee shirts are not professional. It's okay to appear casual and relaxed because people can identify with that. However, to look like an expert in your field, you actually need to look like an expert in your field. If you are a mechanic, it's okay to wear your uniform. If you are an executive financial planner, wearing a T-shirt and cutoffs isn't saying a lot about your expertise.
• Don't just advertise. People don't come on to You Tube to watch advertisements. They have regular commercials and late night infomercials for that. For You Tube, you need something entertaining.
• Your video doesn't have to be professional looking, but it shouldn't be shoddy work either. The audience must be able to hear the audio and actually see the people that they are looking at. This means no bad lighting.
• Keep it short. Most successful You Tube videos are less than 5 minutes long. Even if your marketing video is educational or informational, make sure that it isn't needlessly long. For this reason, it might be helpful to write out a script first and then time it.

5 Unique things you can do with your You Tube marketing video

Your You Tube marketing video doesn't just have to contain information about your product or services. In fact, there are scores of different things that you can do with your video to make it the perfect marketing video. As a matter of fact, most advertisements on You Tube, unless they are especially unique, actually turn people off. Why? People go on You Tube to be entertained and to learn information-not to try to be suckered into buying things.

So what else can you do with your You Tube marketing video

• Interview someone who is an expert in the field that you are promoting. For example, let's say that you own a garage and you're trying to get customers interested in taking their cars to you. Go down to the local mechanics school and interview one of the professors. Get him to give you tips on car maintenance in the wintertime. By doing this, your viewers are learning something valuable. At the end, you can still include your contact information. In essence, you are still marketing your business or product, but you are also giving people something to remember as well.
• Give your audience a tour of the facility. This is a good idea if you own a restaurant or a small factory. Take your audience of a tour of it in order to give them a “behind the scenes” feel. A restaurant would be particularly good because people like to see how a restaurant runs. It will also give you a chance to show off your staff.
• Actually show someone using your product or services. This is akin to customer testimonials, which can also be good. One of the reasons that infomercials are so successful is because they are very good at showing seemingly “real” people using the services. They make it appear easy, too. Instead of just showing off your product, try to record someone really using it.
• If you are promoting an event, show clips from past events. Be as creative as possible. Add music. There's nothing like showing people having a good time to get others interested in doing the same.
• Use product placement by working with other people. Use their products in your videos and do the same for them. Make sure that you mention what the other product is, though, or else your audience might just think it is a prop.

Using You Tube to market your product-should you hire a Professional?

By now, you have probably heard that using You Tube can be a great way to market your product or your business. But now you're probably wondering how you should go about making a video. Should you hire a professional or do it yourself? What if you don't know anything about making a video-much less one that will make people visit your site? The following article will look at the advantages and disadvantages of hiring a pro or going at it alone.

Advantages of hiring a professional for your You Tube marketing video

1. They presumably know what they're doing
2. They can get the video completed in a time-sensitive manner
3. You won't have to do much more than give them direction as to what you want.

Disadvantages of hiring a professional

1. The cost-pros can be very costly if they know what they're doing
2. Time frame-they might not be able to get to you right away
3. Sleekness of the video-You Tube is primarily known for its laid back/personal video camera look.

Advantages of doing it yourself

1. It's virtually free so if you're on a budget it can be great
2. You have total control of everything
3. You can change things as you see fit without taking up other people's time

Disadvantages of doing it yourself

1. A video that comes off looking amateurish-even by You Tube's standards
2. Having no idea what you are doing
3. Creating a video that just doesn't keep people entertained.

What you can do is write out a script, come up with a concept, and then hire a professional to shoot it. If you have everything together that you need then you it might save you money since you will hopefully not be taking up too much of their time. Another option, to save money, is to go to a local college or university and talk to a media student about helping you out.

They might do it for less. If you really want to save money and go at it alone then there are hundreds of websites that can give you pointers on how to make a good video, as well as how to market it once it's up on You Tube. Likewise, the You Tube community itself is a good place to learn valuable information and tips on how to proceed with a video that will get people's attention.

Excerpted from the book Creating and Marketing the Perfect You Tube Videos.

This excerpt has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Download this book on Boostlane:

https://boostlane.com/p/boostlane/1077/creating-the-perfect-youtube-marketing-video/