Video can be a great tool in the content marketer’s toolbox. And in the last two tips on Calls To Action we’ve looked at the importance of the Call To Action, where you should place it in your video, and three elements of an effective call to action.
Now in a previous Content Marketing With Video tip I mentioned that although the importance of the call to action is recognized and widely talked about, just about nobody is talking about aligning your call to action with your business goals.
Your Business Goals Will Define The Call To Action
You’ve got goals for your business right? Well those goals are the target for your business, they tell you where you want your business to go.
And how your video content marketing strategy helps lead to those goals dictates what goes into your call to action.
For example, if your goal is to make revenue via the YouTube Partner Program then you would probably want to get as many views and as many subscribers as possible to your YouTube channel. In that scenario, asking people to subscribe to your YouTube Channel should be your call to action.
But if your goal is to generate revenue via selling your own products and/or services, then your YouTube videos should be used for attraction, and the call to action for those videos should be to get people to your website. And as we discussed in content marketing with video tip 11 that means giving viewers a compelling reason to go to your website.
What To Put In Your Call To Action If Your Business Goals Are Not Clear?
If you haven’t set detailed goals for your business yet then the first thing you should do is spend some time doing that! Seriously it acts as a filter for every activity you undertake – if something doesn’t move you forward to the achievement of your goals then you can stop doing it.
But if you are trying a niche out for size and considering using Video content marketing to try and drive some traffic to measure if this niche is going to be responsive or not, then the best action to take is to try and get people on an email list.
That way if you decide to continue with that niche AND you work out how to generate revenues via that niche then you’ve got a list of potential buyers that you can deepen your relationship with via emails.
What To Put In Your Call To Action If You’re Business Model Is Affiliate Marketing
My buddy Steve Scott wrote a post recently on using Youtube videos with the affiliate marketing business model – and detailing 5 ways you can generate revenue via this model directly from YouTube videos. You can read the post here:
How To Make Money On Youtube (With 5 Case Studies)
This obviously works – as Steve demonstrates in his post.
However I’ve got two reservations about putting such direct calls to action on videos that are going on video aggregator sites like YouTube. Both are equally important.
The first is that if you are sending someone straight from YouTube to a product site via an affiliate link, then your video is a one and done deal. Sure you might make a commission – but you’re not getting that person’s email address. That’s short term thinking from a business persepective IMO.
The second reservation is that YouTube is a social media site – and from time to time they purge videos with nakedly commercial intent. (Unless of course you’re paying them to put that nakedly commercial video on YouTube). And if your video gets taken down, then the time and effort you put into creating it just went down the tubes (forgive the pun).
If you’re an affiliate marketer my advice would be to post reviews and the like on YouTube, and direct people back to your website and give them a compelling reason to subscribe to your email list. Then you can embed your review on your website or blog, and put your affiliate link underneath the video. And you email your list when you have a new review that goes live and send them to your website to check it out (not YouTube).
In this way your video does two jobs:
1) It attracts people to you on YouTube 24/7, 365 days a year.
2) Your list get to see your video on your terms. So your affiliate link underneath it. And so on.
Paul’s Note – so we’re clear on this, I don’t do affiliate marketing. So this course of action isn’t something that I’ve tested – but I’m absolutely convinced it will work. As with everything you do online you should be testing and tracking.
What To Do If Your Business Goals Change
If your business goals change, then your call to action may need to change.
Instigating that for new videos is obviously straightforward – but what about for exisitng videos that have the ‘old’ call to action on them.
There are three ways I’ve come up with to deal with this – because I’ve had to deal with it.
The first – and most time intensive – way of doing this is to shoot a new call to action and cut that into the video. And then delete the first video and re-upload the new version.
The second way is to put some annotations on your video as the outdated call to action is being delivered. This is quick and easy to do – however it’s only valid if you only use YouTube. If you use other video aggregators you’re screwed on this one.
The third way – and what I chose to do – is to amend the target page that I was sending people too, explain why the call to action they’ve followed is out of date and send them to a similar page. Oh, and I gave a gentle nudge to join my email list.
Summary
The Call To Action is the most important part of your video. If you’re doing attraction videos, you could view the video as simply a delivery mechanism for the call to action.
Don’t just randomly make your call to action to be to subscribe to your youtube channel because that’s what the ‘goo-roos’ say. Instead think about YOUR goals and make your call to action fit those goals. That will maximise the effectiveness of your video making efforts.
Your Shout
Thoughts? Comments? You know what to do…
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{ 8 comments }
Paul,
Maybe I’m asking you to give away the Kool-Aid… But if I want to create a video series and sell access to it for given period of time… What program do I use to do so?
Right now I’m in the very early stages of planning this whole thing out.
Thanks!
Ryan
It’s common knowledge – and there’s plenty of ways of doing it.
ONe way is to set up a membership site using Wordpress and one of the many membership plugins.
To deliver the videos you use some form of custom video player – like Easy S3 video player – and host the videos somewhere (like Amazon S3).
paul
Hey Paul,
This is a great series! I’ve never done video before, but am thinking about it, and these posts have really helped me. I came over here from Carol Tice’s website and have been reading some of your other stuff as well, and it’s very useful. One question, though – have you started writing fiction again?
Andrew
Great question (about fiction).
The answer is….nearly. In more specific terms I’m working on six new products concurrently at the moment – 5 for my bass guitar website and 1 for One Spoon. At the moment I’m outlining something that I;m going to write….and will really dive into the outlining in a big way when the One Spoon product is finished and launched.
This year I will get fiction back into my life! thanks for stopping by.
Paul
Excellent series Paul, thanks, have really learned a lot
Hey, I am reading these posts for the first time (new member) and really liking! I just did a videopoem yesterday evening and was wondering how I can use it to get people sign up for my services. I have just got the answers I needed. Thanks a million!
Paul, what memberhip plugins are available and which are good?
Hi Paul,
Great tip#13. You clear our vision for what to call to action in our businesses and yes it definitely related to our goals or targets, video content marketing strategy helps lead to those goals & the main thing is to do call to action is right direction.
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