I met Brian, the author of the video below, as a commenter on my post about using YouTube to achieve search rank. He showed me link that is an INCREDIBLE example of how to use video in your online marketing efforts without being spammy, sales-y or totally over-the-top, while still incorporating solid direct sales tactics and principles.
Watch, then review my commentary below:
The most important thing Brian, the fella who made the video (actually his 11 year old taped it!) did, was SHOW and not tell.
By *showing* him getting the package at his doorstep, unpacking it, loading the egg whites into his fridge, putting on the pump and ultimately drinking them, he’s brought the viewer into his world, into his experience. We can see how very easy it is to use the egg white, we can imagine ourselves unpacking the box and putting them in out own fridges, having a glass as our workout/eating schedule dictates.
Brain wrote:
I kinda thought the video was really “home brewed†and not very polished.
And that’s exactly the point! If he’d been on a professional set or greenscreen, it would be obvious to everyone watching that this was a set-up. As it stands, it just looks like a real guy telling folks about a product he uses and believes in. Heck, there were even some dirty dishes in the sink - that’s REAL! And real is what YouTube is all about.
He also wrote:
The video is really rough and was not pre-thought, but I’ve received around 500 views in my first week and even better is that my conversions to sales has gone up and people have made larger purchases.
And here’s where we get into the awesome job he did of selling without being a schmuck. First, if it had been scripted, it would be obvious, would sound painful, and would totally have been a loser with the YouTube crowd. It’s a good idea to know what you’re going to say, but a bad idea to memorize and script your YouTube videos.
So he takes the box in, unpacks it, and his viewer sees exactly what they’ll be getting when they open their own box. Brain encourages people to buy 4 gallons of the egg whites, and explains how it’s no problem to do so because they last so long in the freezer. He explains that he goes through about a gallon a week, and that by ordering 4 gallons one gets a bulk discount. That is precisely why customers coming through his website are making larger purchases then they were previously, as he reported.
He overcame objections - “I’ll never use that much,” and “How long does it last though?” before potential customers even had the chance to ask them in their own minds. Brilliant!
Brian goes on to show us how quickly he’s able to accurately measure out the product with the pump - again, overcoming objections before they even pop up - and shows us him mixing and drinking the product. Tasteless and odorless, he says, and then demonstrated by downing a glass in a few seconds. Looks easy to me!
Finally, he goes as far as to show him returning it to the fridge, rotating out a new jog for the old, really putting the viewer in the position of possibly using the product themselves. It’s all very easy. Throughout, he explains why the egg whites are the best ones to use, why they’re better then powdered and how he personally uses them with his bodybuilding regimen.
I think one of the keys to his video, and any affiliate promotion, is that the affiliate, Brain, knows the product inside and out because he is also a customer. You can’t beat the inside knowledge and enthusiasm a real customer has for a product. I alway purchase and use a product before recommending it, just like Brian doe, and I recommend you do too. You’ll be prive to tricks, information and experience you’d never have otherwise that will give you the edge.
Brian’s video has cultivated an awesome response from the YouTube community in both number of views and a lively discussion in comments. He’s made sure to check in and respond to comments as well, which is really important when one wants to be seen as an expert in your niche.
Tips to implement:
- In the “Description” field of the YouTube page, if you put your URL first, it will be hyperlinked, blue and underlined. I’d recommend doing this for this video so people can just click on it to get to the website after viewing the video.
- At the time of this writing, if you search Google for the term “egg whites international” this video comes up at #5 (#3 if you don’t count same domain listings). Now, check the video title - it’s “Bodybuilding Protein Supplements by Egg Whites International.” He may be able to get a jump in rank if he were to re-arrange the title to read, “Egg Whites International Bodybuilding Protein Supplements” or “Egg Whites International.” Title play a big part in Google’s rank of YouTube videos.
- I’d watermark the video to show the URL throughout it’s play, so people have it burned into their brains.
Homegrown? Maybe. But that’s what YouTube is all about! This is a perfect example of using YouTube as an affiliate and still contributing value to the YouTube community. Not being a marketing schmuck.
Check out Brian’s Egg Whites International website if you’re sold on this stuff - I nearly am, and I haven’t worked out in 9 years!
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Tags: affiliate marketing, smm, smo, Social Media Optimization, social-media-marketing, video-marketing, youtube, youtube-marketing
It’s a great video for the reasons you mentioned but having the screen shot with the website URL goes against the whole “sincere home made video” thing. You know what I mean?
Everything else is perfect
This blog is awesome! I am glad I found it.
The way he did it i thought was good because now everyone can say to themselves I can do that. Which is just the way I like it. Sometimes we can get too clever and out smart oursleves.
Even pulling a decent cell phone out of your pocket and doing some of this stuff will work it keeps it real and doable by almost everyone.
Hi Michelle - nice post, I have forwarded it on to a few friends and clients who should give this a try. The note about the URL in the YouTube description alone was worth the price of admission. I should have done that 20,000 views ago. Cheers, Tyler
Hi Michelle!
Awesome post - and thanks for the tips.
I especially like the idea of putting a link at the front of my description… didn’t know I could do that.
Also, when I titled this video I was trying to think about what searchers would enter at youtube, I didn’t even think about getting the page ranked in google which as you noted it’s on the first page and iI managed that without even trying.
Question, do you feel I should update the video title at this point - or is it better to leave it alone and just do a better job next time?
Thanks a ton on great tips!
-Brian
August 27, 2007
Excellent. It really brought me into his world and made me want to buy it. I may make one of these for my products. (My products are professional and get thousands of plays a week. This’d give them another angle.)
Nice Independent shirt bro.
I have to admit I was concerned about the video part of Social Media Daily. Yep, I thought it was a “big deal”. After reading this article and watching the video I am less intimidated although I still think it is a bit of a deal, but only because it takes me out of my comfort zone. Thanks again Michelle for the great follow up info to the Social Media Daily download.
August 27, 2007
re: adding the URL splash screen - if he didn’t do that, he’d never get traffic. Lots of YouTube videos are “brought to you by” w/ splash screens - it’s not uncommon and therefore not a “flag” for a crap/spam video.
@Campbell Scott - great example! Demonstrate what a cell phone or other cool gadget does.
@Brian - yes, I would update the title/description at this point. If it were me. The sites that are above you are the product’s homepage and bodybuilding.com, which are tough competitors, so I’m not certain that it will cause a jump in your ranking, but I’d certainly try. I’d use “Egg Whites international Bodybuilding Supplements.”
@ Dan M - Your product is a professional video instruction set, and is put together beautifully! If you could do a video or two that’s really raw of people who’ve learned from your videos demonstrating their new tricks and talking about it, like, “I couldn’t get the 360 kickflip down until I watched Skateboarding Explained, there was a tip in there about placement of my toe that made it all fall together for me” would be really cool. But it has to be real - real people who’ve learned from you (and I know there’s plenty of those) just BS’ing at the skate park, you know?
@Get Paid to Fill out Survey (LOL) - There’s always screen capture video too if you’re weirded out about appearing on camera. Or get someone else to be the person in the video.
This post is timely, because I was thinking about doing this for an antioxidant shake that combines protein powder. There is one product that I have been using for about a month now, that has a high amount of not only antioxidants, but three types of omega fatty acids (3,6,9). It’s a powerful combination. Glad to know that this style of video marketing is successful, because the “how to use” model is the way I wanted to present it as well.
Hi, Michelle -
Thanks for the detailed post and your thorough comments. I always get a lot out of your emails and posts (and, of course, your Social Media Daily pdf). Thanks!
As for, “… and I haven’t worked out in 9 years!” - there are ways to take care of that, you know.
- Stephen
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Stephen Holt
2003 ACE Personal Trainer of the Year
BabyBoomerFitnessExpert.com
August 27, 2007
Robert - wow, that is timely! You’ve got a great example in Brian’s video.
@Stephen - I may not have worked out in 9 years, but I’m blessed with a rockin’ metabolism, so I look gooood!
I appreciate your kind comments and am thrilled you’ve found good use of the materials I’ve put out.
Hi Michelle - thanks again,
-Brian
Hi Michelle!
Thankyou for your information very interesting on youtube Traffic , two weeks ago I have uploaded one video but I get almost no traffic from the video , what do you think the reason.
I appreciate your your kind comment and newsletter.
thankyou.
Jeylan.
Awesome write up on this simple video idea Michelle. I had been thinking about doing some video stuff every since you listed my grillz site on the badder adder testimonials page. After seeing this “homebrew” approach I was inspired to do something similar. Thanks for getting my ass in gear in this direction… so many ideas…
First simple video I came up with today is linked to my name above. No marketing about it, just some silly stuff with my mean killer pit bull. I help bad dogs and figured I would play on the pit bull bigots for a bit. lol
Keep it coming, this stuff is great!
August 31, 2007
@Jeylan - if you’re getting no traffic from your video, it could be that the content isn’t interesting to youtube’s audience, that your URL isn’t displayed in a way that make it easy for people to visit, the video might not be tagged well to bring in YouTube searches, or may not be titled with search keywords. So that’s a start. Tubeinator can help as well bu introducing yourself to other YouTube users.
@Jason - Hey there! Good to see you’re still doing your thing! Good intro… I see you have services both over email and in your local area. If you do a more “sales” video, use your locale as keywords, (i.e. “Atlanta dog training”) and geo-target your video.
Thanks everyone so much!
September 17, 2007
Hi Michelle.
Excellent review. Some bloggers actually charge big bucks for a lot less information than you are giving us for free.
From what you have written in your post, this home brewed type of video is perfect for You Tube type audiences.
Would you suggest a similar video format for other types of marketing? Say, on an index or home page? Other kinds of advertising?
Or maybe a more polished style?
Thanx, Richard.
Hello Michelle,
Thanks for all your help.
Drupal has been really rough to work with…but I hear well worth it.
I finally got my site set up but it is still totally befuddling!
I have asked a few site builders on the Drupal.org site to quote me on a few sites and I’ll let your readers know my progress.
Richard East offers a superb service too but pricey for this lughead.
http://www.GeeksandGods.com have 35 podcasts on their site (many o which are on Drupal) but even listening to those drove me batty!
Off to Joomla and Mambo…
Ohhhh, by the way in the words of Paris Hilton, “you look hot!”
I liked the video from a marketing standpoint. I don’t think I am sold though, I can’t get the thought of thick gooey water out of my mind. If it were liquid meraige though maybe.
[quote post="129"]I’d watermark the video to show the URL throughout it’s play, so people have it burned into their brains. [/quote]
Michelle, How do you do this? In particular, How do you go about putting a watermark url link of your affiliate link on your videos. In this way, My affiliates could make videos on their own topics but have a watermark of their clickable affiliate link for my product run the length of the video. Is this possible? Any advice?
Johnny
[...] Michelle MacPhearson: has written a nice free guide on using social media for traffic, can't wait to dig in to this one! Also there are lots of great traffic strategies on her blog including a great post on how to use YouTube to drive traffic. [...]
Thank you for the video on the of how he managed her little kid,I think one of the keys to his video, and any affiliate promotion, is that the affiliate, Brain, knows the product inside and out because he is also a customer. You can’t beat the inside knowledge and enthusiasm a real customer has for a product.
I think that is one of the smartest way to video market. I actually see the whole video! I usually don’t. I gives the viewers what to expect when buying that product. Very nice indeed!
This is a fantastic analysis of not only using video for marketing, but also of the thought process behind the viewer as he progresses through the video. Well done!
I’m going to refer all my members to this post. cheers
todd alan
Long Tail Treasure
I’m working on my first video for one of my seo sites and it would be ready within 7 - 8 days. I shall use the tips you provided and promote it. Thank you for sharing them. Youtube makes the best free video hosting service that would prevent us from killing our bandwidth when streaming it from our site
What a coincidence, I embed that video on one of my bodybuilding sites to demonstrate the product. I think it helped with conversions too.
I love how “raw” this video is. Very honest, real. I really feel the viewer will connect because of this.
Leslie
great stuff.. I never really looked at Youtube as money making avenue but for this article.!
Personal experiences are always the best sales tactic. If you believe in your product, or at least convince your consumers that you have faith in it, the will to. Confidence is everything.
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