If you’re doing video marketing on YouTube or anywhere I’m the web, writing killer video titles is a crucial skill. Not only is your YouTube title one of the key components that YouTube uses to rank your video in its search engine, it is the first impression that you make on potential viewers. If your title can’t compel YouTube browsers into viewers, your video may as well not exist.
Every element of your YouTube video marketing campaign has one purpose: conversion. And converting Internet browsers into customers. That is only possible if people click play, then stay to watch the first few seconds. And then the next few seconds after that, and so on all the way until the end where you call your viewers to action. Obviously if your video title doesn’t get you found, or even if it does, people stop there and don’t bother clicking, your video is pretty much doomed.
The better optimized your title is for search (and that means optimized for people) the greater your chances are of getting people to watch the video you have uploaded and getting viewed by a larger percentage of people. Let’s begin.
Choose your keywords wisely.
Video SEO is a twist on traditional SEO. If you have not noticed, not all words when Googled produce video results in SERPs. So, while using Google Keyword Planner or other tools like Moz or Market Samurai to choose your keywords is essential, when doing video SEO for YouTube, you need to do an extra step. Take the keywords you chose using your tools and then run those and variations of those through Google’s universal search engine. When a variation shows up that produces a video result in the SERP, use variations of that word in your YouTube video title and description.
Entice viewers with “better, happier and easier.”
Because we live in a busy, fast-paced world, we are always seeking tricks and methods to making our lives easier, better and happier. Classic headline formulas include the “How To” model (i.e. How to Build an Awesome App; How I Got 50,000 YouTube Views in Three Days), list model (i.e. 7 Ways to Promote Your App; 5 Smart Ways to Email Marketing; 12 Secrets Getting More Website Traffic), or the “Why/When/How” model (i.e. Why Some Apps Sell and Some Apps Flop; How YouTube Videos Go Viral).
Keep It Simple
When it comes to marketing online, you have to be three steps in front of your potential customers. Smart Internet surfers are over hype-type marketing and titles like “Who Else Wants to Make 5K in 30 Days?” You will have much more success being straightforward with your YouTube titles than with trying to trick your viewers into clicking. Here are a few ways you can keep your YouTube titles on track.
- Make your video title simple and direct.
- Make your “big benefit” your headline.
- Proclaim exciting news.
- Pose an intriguing question.
- Offer useful information.
Put Some Kick Into Your YouTube Titles
Just because you are being straightforward doesn’t mean you have to be boring. Here are a few ways to put some kick into your straightforward titles:
- Use social proof.
- Share insider knowledge.
- Identify your audience and the benefit your service or product will provide to them.
- Use the power of intrigue.
- Identify a problem and your remedy to it.
- Use “quick and easy” to solve a problem.
- Appeal to viewers’ vanity, shame or dissatisfaction.
- Capitalize on curiosity.
Are you interested in producing an explainer video for your website, trade show or other marketing initiative? How about marketing your explainer video? Contact us for a free quote today.
