In the last couple years, we’ve watched Instagram roll out update after update—some smaller, like the ability to post photos of any orientation and follow hashtags—and some larger, like the introduction of IG stories. Each of these new updates has given you unique ways to promote your contracting business on Instagram.

This month Instagram released a brand new, revolutionary feature…Instagram TV.

What is IGTV?

IGTV is Instagram’s first ever long-form video platform.
Previously, videos posted on IG have been restricted to 60 seconds long; on the IGTV channel you can post videos from 10 minutes to an hour long! The one limiting factor is that videos can only be posted in the vertical format, but that should not be a hindrance, since we’ve all grown accustomed to filming video for IG Stories.

Anyone can start an IGTV channel, and the videos can be viewed either in IGTV’s standalone app, or on the IGTV channel within the IG app.

Why is IGTV Revolutionary For Contractors?

The introduction of IGTV for the contractor’s business account is exciting for several reasons. If you’re wanting to post longer videos for your followers but haven’t yet made the leap to open a YouTube channel, you’ll now be able to do that without even leaving the IG platform. If most of what you post on your IG stories is long videos chopped up into 15 second portions, IGTV gives you a way to post those videos smoothly, leaving your IG stories for daily updates and before and after photos.

I’ve seen quite a few contractors sharing vlog style videos where they start the IGTV video in their pickup and by the end are at a job site explaining something in detail. It’s cut up and edited into a nice vlog style video, but it’s in the vertical format. That’s great use for IGTV—bringing your followers along with you on job sites and explaining your work process. Another great way to use the new channel is instructional videos—film a series of how-to videos in the vertical format and post them (daily, weekly, monthly) on your IGTV channel to provide value to your followers.

How to Start an IGTV Channel

• Download and sign in to the standalone IGTV app.
• Click on Settings > Create Channel
• Click on the + Icon to add your first video!
• Give your video a title and description.

Include relevant keywords in the title and description so that IG users can find you when they’re searching for videos related to your topic! You’ll also need to select a cover photo for the video; it can be either the first frame of the video or any other frame from the video—whatever will make the most compelling cover and draw people to your video.

After your video is posted, you can interact with other IG users in the comments as well as view statistical insights from your post in the “Insights” section.

Summary

If you’re a contractor on IG looking for a new way to provide value to your followers, IGTV gives you a way to do just that. It’s simple, easy, and rewarding to be able to post videos of longer length on Instagram. Enjoy filming insight-rich and informational videos for your followers without even leaving the platform.

The post Introducing IGTV For Contractors appeared first on Martin Holsinger.

Video Marketing is not going away. In fact, it’s only going to become more and more a part of your small business marketing arsenal.

If you would like to become THE Local Celebrity for your industry, then YouTube marketing must be a part of your plan.

In this post, I’ll be showing you the steps needed to upload Youtube Marketing Videos that work.

6 Steps To Optimize Your YouTube Marketing Videos:

1. Upload Your Video To YouTube

• Login to your Youtube account
• Click “Upload”
• Go through all the steps
• Publish video
• Share with the world

2. Write a Captivating Title

• Represent your content accurately
• Place keywords first
• Place episode numbers at the end
• Title and Thumbnail should be cohesive
• Use specific words or numbers

3. Place Cards & Annotations on Your Video

With cards and annotations you can actually place clickable text on your YouTube marketing videos. Cards work really well for mobile, and annotations work really well for desktop. Use cards and annotations to call people to take a specific action from your video.

4. Write Video Descriptions That Work

• Accurately describe your video in a couple of sentences
• Describe & link to your channel
• Drive viewers to subscribe
• Link to related videos
• Include links to your website and social media

5. Tag Your Videos Properly

• Start with the title
• Specific tags first
• Compound tags
• Use generic tags, ie… “how to” and “tutorial”…etc.
• Use misspelled words
• Only 500 characters total

6. Use Captivating Thumbnails

• 640 X 360 px min.
• 16:9 ratio
• 2mb max.
• Clear, focused, hi-res image
• Close up of faces
• Looks great at both small & large sizes
• Accurately represents the content

Thankyou,
Martin

If you liked this post, you’ll also enjoy these related posts:

• How To Plan Your YouTube Marketing Publishing Calendar
• TOP 7 Effective Call To Action Examples
• Setting Your Focus For YouTube Marketing Success

The post 6 Steps To Optimize Youtube Marketing Videos appeared first on Martin Holsinger.

“81% of consumers research online before making a purchase. And those people spend an average of 79 days doing that research before they buy.” (Read full article here.)

Clearly content marketing is changing the way that we buy. You see, we like to feel that we are in charge of our purchasing decision. And internet research provides the perfect opportunity for us to do that.

Therefore, you need to position yourself online in such a way that you provide people a way to do their research online, and then put their trust in you for the purchase.

The way to do that is through content marketing. And by that, I mean, creating content on a regular basis that answers the questions that your prospects are searching for.

This will position you as an expert in their eyes.

Therefore, the more they research, and the more they read, or watch, of your content, the more they will begin to know you. And, the more they know you, the more they will like you, which will lead them to trust you.

When that trust is reached… then they’re ready to buy from you.

How Do You Do Content Marketing Successfully?

If it takes 79 days of doing online research before a prospect is ready to buy, then you need to have a long-term game plan of creating content.

You must be ready to do this on a regular basis for the long haul. Having a long-term content marketing plan, will help them know you, like you, and trust you, which will eventually lead them to purchase from you.

Now here’s two different ways, or two different types of content, that you can use to effectively market your business online.

2 Content Marketing Strategies:

#1. Blogging

The first one is blogging. What I mean by blogging is publishing content that answers your prospects’ questions on a regular basis. You need to think, or “get inside the head” of your prospect, and be thinking of the questions that they are asking. And then create fresh content on a regular basis that answers those questions.

As you publish your blog on a regular basis, like let’s say one blog every week, you will be continually telling Google, “Hey, my blog is an authority on this subject.” You will also be giving fresh information to your followers and to your audience. That fresh information, that content that helps them over time, will lead them to know you, like you, and trust you.

#2. Video Marketing

The second way to create content that effectively leads people to trust you is video marketing. Video marketing is continually on the rise. It’s not going away. It’s only growing in popularity.

Publishing your video on YouTube on a regular basis, like blogging, will also notify Google that your YouTube channel is an authority on the subject, which will give you more traction in the search results. In other words, it will raise you higher on the first page of Google.

That means more people will find your content, and engage with you. Which will lead them to know you, like you, and trust you.

Those two content marketing tactics, are extremely powerful: Blogging and YouTube video marketing.

Now, I have a secret power tip for you. It is a way for you to combine both of those strategies above, into one.

My Secret Content Marketing POWER Tip:

Here’s how you do it.

• First of all, make a list of all of the questions that you can think of, that your prospects are asking. Well, let’s just start with the top 10 questions for starters.
• Then get in front of a camera and start answering those questions in ten different videos. Take one of those videos, and have it transcribed. You can have transcriptions done for around a dollar per minute at REV.com. If you have a five-minute video, it will be transcribed for only $5.
• Then after you have your video transcribed, take that transcription and edit into a blog post. That will take a little formatting, a little shifting around, and weeding out the ums and ahs and so on. But now you have a blog post. Publish your blog post, and…
• Then you can take your YouTube video and embed it right in your blog post. Look at that. You have the power of blogging, AND... the power of video marketing combined into one, with no extra effort.

That is my secret power tip. I’m sharing it with you today because I want you how I do this kind of stuff. And, I want you to go home and practice this. It will set yourself apart from your competitors, and start winning the trust of your prospects, which will lead them to buy from you.

And, that is what I want for you. I want to see your business grow, as a result of reading my blog.

To your success,
Martin Holsinger

Watch my video about this here:

The post Content Marketing Drives Sales – Here’s How appeared first on Martin Holsinger.

8 Important Strategies To Win With YouTube Marketing

YouTube is so big that it could be an entire continent on this earth. In fact, 1/7 of the entire world population uses YouTube every month. That’s over 1 billion unique users. Wow! This huge platform creates an astronomical opportunity to market and grow your business. But how do you do that?

In this post I’ll give you the TOP 8 things you need to know, to develop your YouTube Marketing Strategy.

Here we go…

1. Lay The Foundation by Setting Your Focus

• Make your content unique and valuable
• Make it compelling
• Keep it informative

2. Determine The Intention of Your Video

What is the intention of your video? Here are 7 things to think about:

1. Brand awareness
2. Grow your email list
3. Get more phone calls
4. Subscribe to your Youtube channel
5. Start a conversation
6. Develop trust in you
7. Customer support

3. Do Your Keyword Research

• Use the Google or Youtube search engine
• Use the Google keyword planner tool
• Search Amazon and read customer questions
• Use the Ubersuggest tool
• Install the Vidiq extension for your Chrome browser

4. Build The 3 Stages of Your Video

Think of your perfect video as a well written speech. Which typically has an opening, body, and conclusion. For video use these 3 parts:

• The hook
• The content
• The call-to-action

5. Include Specific Calls-To-Action

Call people to a very specific call to action. Here are 7 different actions you can use:

1. Subscribe now
2. Set an appointment
3. Call today
4. Learn more
5. Download now
6. Join my list
7. Comment below

6. Captivate Your Viewer and Keep Them Watching

• Hook them from the start
• Keep them watching
• Keep them coming back

7. Plan Your Publishing Calendar

• Set the day of the week
• Communicate this to your audience
• Stay flexible

8. Analyze Your Analytics

Youtube provides incredible analytics for you to analyze. One of the keys to your youtube marketing success will be knowing your audience well. Youtube analytics is how you do this.

This is part of my Ultimate YouTube Marketing Checklist. If you want to learn how to use YouTube Video Marketing to grow your business. Then you should get this FREE checklist right now.

Thankyou,
Martin

If you liked this post, you’ll also enjoy these related posts:

• How To Plan Your YouTube Marketing Publishing Calendar
• TOP 7 Effective Call To Action Examples
• Setting Your Focus For YouTube Marketing Success

The post YouTube Marketing Strategy Playbook appeared first on Martin Holsinger.

On my WordPress blog I have another blog post called “Planning Your YouTube Marketing Publishing Schedule.” I’ll be using that post as an example.

First of all, make sure you have all the blog content inserted just like you want it. Include all your images and everything.

Then find the place in your blog post where you want to embed your video. For instance,

Down at the bottom of my post, I have some text that says, “watch my video on planning your schedule here.”

Underneath this text, I want to have my YouTube video embedded so that it actually plays. I don’t want it to redirect people to YouTube… But I want it to actually play on my website. That way my visitors can just click and play the video from the blog post.

Let me show you how to do this – in 10 Easy Steps.

#1. Login to your YouTube channel

#2. Find the video you want to embed

#3. Click on “share.”

#4. Find the embed code.

#5. Click “show more.”

#6. Then scroll down and adjust your settings.

You can see that there are a few different options.

I’m going to go through these sharing options real quick:

• Privacy enhanced mode. Let me explain what that is. YouTube says that “Enabling this option means that YouTube won’t store information about visitors on your webpage unless they play the video.” So, I usually leave that turned off.
• I usually don’t want to show suggested videos when the video finishes, so I click that off too.
• However, the YouTube player controls are nice. If you’re video is on your website, you want to have the video player bar, so that people can rewind or watch the video as they choose to.
• I also leave the video title and player actions checked.

#7. Set the size of your video player.

You can then choose which size of video player you will embed. Of course you could change it manually to any custom size you want by changing the numbers in the code up here.

However, 640px width is about the maximum I really want on my blog anyway, so there’s no reason to embed a larger video. I like to change that to 640 X 360.

#8. Copy the code to your clipboard.

Note! Make sure the embed code is highlighted.

#9. Paste the code into your blog post.

Now go back to your blog post. If you just paste the code in to the WordPress visual editor, it’s not going to work.

So, go up and click on the text editor, and then paste it in to the exact spot on your post that you want it.

#10. Check your post. 

Then check to see if it works. Click “preview changes,” scroll down, and sure enough… there it is. The video is now embedded in your blog post, and ready to go.

There you have it. That is how you embed a YouTube video into your website in 10 easy steps.

If you liked this post, you’ll also enjoy these related posts:

• How To Plan Your YouTube Marketing Publishing Calendar
• TOP 7 Effective Call To Action Examples
• Setting Your Focus For YouTube Marketing Success

The post How To Embed YouTube Video In WordPress Blog Post appeared first on Martin Holsinger.

Basically, to lay them out for you, the 3 stages of a good video are: the hook, the content, and the call-to-action.

Let’s Go Over Them Here:

#1. The Hook

The hook is the first part of the video. It’s short and sweet, and it captures the attention of the viewer.

Example Script (Hook)

Here is a sample script for you.  

  Do you want to grow your business without money? Then you ought to learn how to use YouTube video marketing to grow your business. In this video, I’m going to show you 7 steps to grow your business without money using YouTube. Watch to the end for a very special surprise.” The hook is arresting the attention, of a very specific audience: people who are searching and looking for ways to grow their business without money. I’m going to ask that question from the beginning. I’m going to ask them… to agree with me that I’m talking to the right person. I’m asking them to agree that they have that question. If so, then keep watching.

#2. The Content (or Body)

After the hook, you roll into the next phase of the video, which is called the content, or the body. This is where you’re going to continue to build up the problem as well as provide the answer. During the content section of your video, you need to reiterate the question. Maybe agitate it a little further, but then over-deliver on providing the answer that solves the issue of whatever it is they’re facing. Example Script (Body) “Trying to grow a business without money can be difficult. However, with the power of video and the science of YouTube search engine, it can be done.” Again, I reiterated the problem and said it’s difficult, but it can be done, and here are 7 steps that I’ve found. That’s exactly what it takes to grow your business without money. I say… “Let’s jump right it.” Then I go through 7 steps. “Point number 1, point number 2, point number 3, 4, 5…and so on”. Be sure to over deliver during this section. This is where you give them the total answer to their question or problem.

#3. The Call To Action ( the Close)

Then, when you get done with that body of content, bring it to a close.  This we call the call-to-action. This is where you’re going to restate the answer to the problem, and then tell your viewer what you want them to do next. Hence, the call-to-action. Example Script (CTA) “That is exactly how to grow your business without money using YouTube videos. Now, here’s the surprise I promised.” Then of course, you would show them exactly how to get your special surprise, and what it is that you want them to do. Be specific.

If you liked this post, you’ll also enjoy these related posts:

• How To Plan Your YouTube Marketing Publishing Calendar
• TOP 7 Effective Call To Action Examples
• Setting Your Focus For YouTube Marketing Success

The post The 3 Stages of a Great Video appeared first on Martin Holsinger.

Let’s have a look…

#1. Establish Your Schedule.

Determine a schedule for your videos and then stick to it. It may take a while at the first to decide exactly how often you can create and publish content. But the sooner you can create a schedule, the better.

People will follow you if you consistently follow a schedule. For YouTube Marketing Success, you must keep to a publishing schedule.

#2. Communicate this to your audience.

These are various ways you can do to communicate to your audience such as:

• In Description below Video – A great to let your audience know your schedule is the description under its video.
• Directly to Camera – While you are on your Video talking, you can tell folks what your schedule is. You can say something like… “Hey! Subscribe to my channel. Because every Friday at 2pm, I put out my new video. You want to be sure you don’t miss one of them.”

#3. Stay Flexible.

Things can change. Things can come up. instead of publishing at 2pm you might be doing it at 3pm, or whatever. But the point is to have a consistent, steady stream of new videos coming out regularly.

This is going to do the most good for your channel, I guarantee it. It will do the most good for the growth of your audience, and your business.

Recap- Creating a Youtube Marketing Publishing Schedule:
Stick to a regular and consistent schedule, communicate that to your audience, and stay flexible.

3 FAST & EASY Ways To Respond:

• Share this post. I publish an article like this every Monday. Let others know about them.
• Confused about this? Ask a question in the comments below.
• If you’re not on my list you should be! I publish how-to articles and videos like this on a regular basis. Get signed up in the box below…(I’ll send you a free cheatsheet on video marketing)

Thanks,
Martin

Watch my video on Planning Your YouTube Marketing Publishing Schedule Here:

The post Planning Your Youtube Marketing Publishing Schedule appeared first on Martin Holsinger.

Usually there is a button or link the people are supposed to click on in order to take that specified action.

But the problem is… most marketers just label that button or link like this, “Click Here”

Don’t do that.

Instead make your call-to-action very specific, and tell people exactly what it is that you want them to do.

Here are 7 Effective Call to Action Examples:

#1. Subscribe Now

If you know the intention of your video and the intention is to get more subscribers then tell people to subscribe now. Give them a good reason to subscribe, and then call them to it.

#2. Set Appointment.

If you are trying to get people to make appointments with you or your office or whoever, whatever, then just tell them to set the appointment, or you could say “make appointment.”

#3. Call Today.

Just say, “Call today!” Or you could say, “Call Now!”

It’s fine to ask people to call today if that is what you want them to do. But remember, people may not feel like they know you or trust you well enough to pick up the phone and call you. So, be sure you have won their trust before you ask them to call you.

#4. Share This.

If your goal is to get people to share your content with others, then ask them to.

#5. Download Now.

“Download now!” or “Download today!”

If you have a freebie that you are offering, then ask your viewers to download it. You need to tell them exactly how to download it, and then ask them to do it right now.

#6. Join My List.

“Join my list “or “get on my list.”

Growing your list is one of the most important things you can do when growing your business online. When you have a list, then you can continue to nurture your relationship with that list over time.

#7. Comment Below.

If your intention to get the people to start a conversation, then tell them to comment below, or you could say… “Join the conversation.”

There you have it. 7 Effective call to action examples.

Please share this post with others, if you have found it helpful. And Join the Conversation at anytime. I would love to hear from you.

Thankyou,
Martin

Here are some related posts you may enjoy:

• Setting Your Focus For YouTube Marketing Success
• Determine The Right Intention For Your Videos
• 3 Easy Ways To Use Video To Market Your Business

The post 7 Effective Call to Action Examples appeared first on Martin Holsinger.

This post is about Setting Your Focus for YouTube Marketing Success. It’s all about setting the proper mindset from the start.

I don’t mean the mindset of “I am great,” or,  “I can do it,” or… “I have what it takes.” But rather I mean the mindset that goes like this… “This is about others”, “this is for them” and “I am creating this content for others”.

It reminds me of an old song written by Charles D. Meigs with the chorus that goes like this,

”Others, Lord, Yes others,

Let this my motto be,

Help me to live for others,

That I may live like Thee”

To me that’s the perfect foundation for a good YouTube marketing channel. Something like this… “Hey guys! This is my YouTube channel. These are all my videos, and every single thing I do here is for you.”

Establishing that focus from the very beginning before you get started is going to be the key to your success.

3 Focus Points For Your YouTube Marketing Videos:

# 1. Be Unique and Valuable.

Nobody likes a copy cat, whether it’s copying somebody else’s personality, style or content.

Be yourself.

Be who you are. Be the person that you were created to be, and do it on purpose. Create your own content and make sure that it is valuable. Don’t steal other people’s YouTube marketing content and call it yours, hoping that it will turn out alright—because it won’t.

#2. Have a Compelling Message.

Your videos need to be compelling. Your message needs to be so compelling that when you finish each video you can expect people to be excited to look for their mouse— ready to click, follow up, subscribe, comment, or do whatever you call them to. Why? Because your message is so compelling.

Compelling comes with confidence, and confidence comes by experience.

So gain experience in your industry, get some knowledge that other people don’t have. Then present that knowledge with confidence.

#3. Make Sure It’s Informative.

Your YouTube marketing videos need to be informative and must truly answer the questions that your users are coming to have resolved.

You need to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. People will treat you as the expert on that subject. Then when they need help in that area, they will come to you. Simply because you have given away informative information as the expert in the past. Does that makes sense?

Your videos and all information that you provide should be valuable and informative.

Join The Conversation…

Please share this post with others, if you have found it valuable. And leave me a comment at any time and let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,
Martin Holsinger

PS. This post has been about YouTube Marketing Foundations – Setting Your Focus Right From The Start.

Here are some related topics you might enjoy:

• Determine The Right Intention For Your Videos
• These 3 Video Marketing Tips Will Get You Exciting Results
• Top 3 Ways To Use Video To Market and Grow Your Business

My Video

If you would rather watch this content, rather than read it. Then you can watch this video right here. Be sure and subscribe to my YouTube Channel so that you don’t miss my next training video coming out this week.

The post Setting Your Focus for YouTube Marketing Success appeared first on Martin Holsinger.

If you want to grow your business with Video Marketing, then you  need to learn to determine the intention for your YouTube videos up front.

Merriam-Webster defines intention like this: “the thing that you plan to do or achieve, an aim or purpose.”

I think that is perfect for this lesson because you need to determine exactly what it is that you want to accomplish with each video you are creating.

Here are 7 Types of Intention you may choose for your marketing videos:

#1.  Increasing Brand Awareness.

Maybe you just want more people to know about your brand. That’s great.

Video is an awesome way to do that, but you need to know from the beginning that that is your intent for this video.

#2.  Grow Your Email List.

Maybe you just want to get more people on your list so that you can nurture that list and grow your audience and gain more business that way. Great.

#3. Get More Phone Calls.

That’s a good intention to have. That one probably is going to require that people know you, or trust you already, in order to pick up their phone. You need to think about that when you’re creating a video that you want them to call you. How am I going to win their trust through the use of video to the point to where they’re willing to pick up their phone and call me?

#4. Grow Your Audience on YouTube.

You want to have them subscribe to your channel so that you can continue to help them with your videos. It’s a great intention.

That’s actually the intention I had for the video above. (watch it to the end and you’ll see.)

#5. Increase Engagement With Your Audience.

You want to increase engagement to get the communication going, more likes, more shares, more comments, and so on.

It’s a good intention. Just know from the beginning what it is that you’re wanting to do with that video.

#6. Be A Trusted Advisor.

Maybe you want to become known as the trusted advisor or expert in your industry. I encourage you to use video to become the expert in your industry that people will look to, or go to, when they’re looking for guidance. They will put their trust in you.

#7. Offer Stellar Customer Support

Imagine what it would be like to have a whole stream of frequently asked questions on video.

Whenever you get that email, or that phone call, where people are wondering one of those “frequently asked questions,” all you have to do is just send them to your frequently asked question page.

Send them to a specific video on your page, or to your YouTube channel where those videos are listed. and give them that answer they are looking for. Take care of your customers that way.

Thanks,
Martin

PS, please Subscribe to my Youtube Channel and leave me a like and comment under the video above. This will help more people be able to find the video and receive help.

The post Determine the Right Intention for Your Videos – Video Marketing Help appeared first on Martin Holsinger.