Using a YouTube Channel for Market Research

By Robin A. Brown

One of the advantages of social video sharing sites is the feedback you can get from your niche market. An easy way to get feedback is to first do some keyword research just as you would for your website or ppc campaign. Make some videos based around those keywords, especially the "how-to" sorts, upload them to your dedicated YouTube channel, and post them to your video blog.

Feedback from channel viewers often includes requests for another topic for a new video. Keep note of these in a spreadsheet or notepad, and watch what happens when you upload a video of content that's been requested. Remember, if one person asked specifically, chances are good that there are other visitors that are interested in the same, but more shy about posting comments.
Classic direct marketing tactics include market research. This is accomplished often by a poll, where you ask your niche market what they want, how hard it is to find it, how much they'd pay for it, and how original they perceive it. The feedback you get on a YouTube channel will often give you exactly that information!

For instance, you'll get comments telling you whether your content is interesting, helpful, and whether it's perceived as better than your competition. You should watch videos that rank well for your niche or keyword set. By favoriting those videos, you increase the value of you channel for your channel viewers. Your favorites become a value added part of your channel, and your visitors can even subscribe to your favorites.

When you get a request for new content, do a quick keyword search to look at the best way of incorporating the keywords into your title and tags. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly your views will rise when you provide content that viewers have told you they want. In direct marketing it's called "shooting fish in a barrel".

Be sure to brand your video with your logo, your site URL, and some good stock music or an intro music bite. As you provide content that is in demand, each view will build your brand with your target audience. This is a great way to build a relationship with your target niche audience.
There are so many ways of using video marketing today. The social sharing aspect of YouTube is just one of them. Use it to find out more about what people in your niche want to see!

Robin Brown is a Singer sewing machine fan. She sews regularly for her family and for fun.
Visit http://www.SewSing.com for video tutorials on using a mechanical Singer sewing machine.

Beth has co-authored an ebook on Video Marketing that targets marketers rather than the viral goal. Afterall, it's not the size of your traffic, but what you do with it that counts.

Visit her blog at http://www.creativesolutionspress.com/ for creative solutions, plus plenty of entries on video marketing.

Her Video Marketing ebook is available on http://www.videomarketingsuccessbook.com/

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