What if you threw a party and no one attended? All those paper cups, unopened bottles of Sangria and champagne, mountains of ice cream cake and balloons; what’s to become of them? Sounds like a big waste of time and money, not to mention the hit to your ego.
After all, didn’t you think these invited guests were your friends? But maybe they just don’t like Sangria. Or balloons. Or public parties. Maybe they’re looking for something else.
The secret life of an online video
Maybe the problem is that you’ve been so focused on the party, you’ve forgotten about the after-party. Because that’s where all the real action is.
Welcome to the video marketing party, the after-party of online marketing.
In video, the main party always starts slowly. You post a video to YouTube and wait for the views to come in. Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. That isn’t the point. The point is that your long-tail keywords are out looking for the hard-core partiers, the ones who show up when all the work-a-day souls leave for their jobs and outside responsibilities.
Advantages of the after-party
The after-party crowd is more prone to go deep into your message than the main party crowd. But because of that, there are fewer of them to go around. Most folks are content to sniff the surface of your message to see if anything smells good enough to consume. The after-party crowd? They’ve already begun drinking heavily from that chocolate fountain and are looking for more.
Let’s look at an example. Have you ever Googled your own name? Oh, come on. You know you have. What did you find? 175,000 references, only 6 of which were actually about you? That’s because there is a long-tail effect around that keyword which is your name. There are innumerable combinations you can’t begin to imagine. But Google finds them all and serves them up in under a second, like an over-caffeinated waiter.
The after-party in action
So the other day I was Googling my name and came across 6 instances of the same video with my name in the title. All within the first couple of pages. I decided to check out the party and see who was there. I went to the first site. 1 view. Hm. I went to the second site. 6 views. And another. And another. And another. Never more than 20 views. The party was definitely over before it started.
So why did these videos all show up within the first 2 pages on Google? It’s the after-party effect. Anyone who was interested in finding out more information about me would find these videos, even though these videos weren’t about me at all. Now do you see what I mean by going deep? To learn more about me, all you had to do was type in the name, and a video with basically no views would be thrust onto the first page of Google.
How long will the party last?
Unlike a real-life after-party, the video marketing party can go on indefinitely. And this works for any business, any person and at anytime. That’s why the long-tail keywords are so important. They keep the party going, long after the last slice of cake has been scarfed down.
So the more places you send your video to get a few views, the better off you’ll be when people start looking for you. By the way, this doesn’t work the same way for websites. Yes, you can just type in your name and get a few direct hits from low-rated websites, but it’s different with video. Why? Because people will click on a video thumbnail before they’ll wade through the long weeds of text trying to get to your front door.
So that’s how you can be a star in your market with almost no views. Now imagine what will happen when you put a little work into crafting the invitations. There’s a reason to be happy! So go ahead and pop open the bubbly.
The video marketing after-party has just begun…
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