Content Marketing Archives

Content Marketing

Twitter Marketing: 7 Tools to Maximize Your Success

March 25, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Twitter marketing is greatly improved with the help of certain tools, but it is important to remember that your strategy is what drives your overall success.

Twitter celebrated their seventh anniversary late last week, and we thought it would be fitting to open this week with a discussion of Twitter marketing tools, and what seven of the best tools are when it comes to your success with regards to Twitter marketing.

Before we delve in to the list, however, it is important to note that Twitter marketing tools are great when you have a strategy in place, but you cannot expect your efforts to succeed with the tools alone. These are complimentary tools to simplify the Twitter marketing process and help you maximize your success on Twitter in the most efficient way possible. What is important to keep in mind is that you need to utilize the information that these tools provide and incorporate that into your strategy in order to reap the most benefits. Now, with that disclaimer in place, here are seven of the best tools to help you optimize your Twitter marketing.

1. Followerwonk

Followerwonk is Twitter lists on steroids. Imagine the ability to delve deep into Twitter profiles, analyze leads and segment those leads based on the information you extrapolate. That is the Followerwonk specialty. Furthermore, you have the ability to track followers and watch ongoing statistics and insights as they are gathered in order to keep your Twitter marketing efforts up to date.

With Followerwonk, you can compare, analyze, track and sort your followers in order to keep your Twitter profile as organized as possible and increase the efficiency of your marketing.

2. Tweriod

We recently posted an article detailing some of the best times to post to social networks. Tweriod is all about your best time to post on Twitter. It takes a sample of your followers, analyzes their activity and provides you with a detailed report on when to post to your Twitter feed to maximize your exposure.

3. SocialBro

SocialBro, in similar fashion to Tweriod, produces reports to help you optimize your Twitter marketing. Where SocialBro differs, however, is in the depth of these reports. The pro version of SocialBro provides detailed insights about your followers, your community, your lists – you name it, SocialBro has reports for it.

The in-depth analysis in the SocialBro reports also tell you about your influencers and whom you are influencing. Using this feature, you can monitor your Twitter clout and see where your efforts to build up your reputation are paying off.

4. Twitonomy

Twitonomy is a Twitter analytics tool to help you analyze and modify your internal Twitter strategy. The tool breaks down your activity on the social network and provides you with insights to help you increase the efficiency and appearance of your profile.

Furthermore, it is a great tool when it comes to cleaning out your profile and keeping your following list as professional and targeted as possible.

5. TwileShare

Ever wanted to share more on Twitter? Sure, you can upload photos and now, with Vine, some short videos, but to get the most out of sharing on Twitter, TwileShare is your go-to.

With TwileShare, you can share plenty of content (e.g. photos, PDFs, ebooks, documents, etc.) and monitor statistics to see how that content is being shared and viewed on the network.

This is a great tool for those looking to look deeper into their viral exposure on Twitter.

6. Twilert

Social listening is crucial for brands looking to manage their reputation using social media. Twilert allows you to monitor mentions of your brand, service, competitors, etc. and receive a digest email letting you know what those mentions are. For those looking for a simple, easy-to-use and free listening tool, Twilert is one of the best ones around.

7. Twitter Counter

Twitter Counter has a free version and a pro version. For all things Twitter profile-related, Twitter Counter is an amazing tool. It shows you the growth of your account, insights into your activity, the average activity on your account and your place on Twitter relative to others.

Of course, the pro version of Twitter Counter has plenty more to offer as far as in-depth insights into your account.

These are just a few of the great tools that exist when it comes to maximizing your internal Twitter marketing efforts. As we noted above, Twitter marketing is all about strategy. These tools are intended to add to your existing efforts, not replace them entirely. Understanding Twitter and how to approach the network from a marketing perspective is worth much more than any tool can give you. But with this knowledge, these tools will make the job that much easier.

What tools do you use when it comes to Twitter marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Marketing Technology Broken Down [INFOGRAPHIC]

March 18, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Marketing is no longer about simply our time; there are hundreds of marketing tools that can help us succeed.

Recently, we loaded an infographic with a detailed breakdown of the social media tools that we can use as marketers to improve and simplify our social media marketing. Well, this is just a small realm of marketing tools that exist to help facilitate the marketing process.

The world of technology has meant quite a bit of change from a marketing perspective. The advent of different tools has resulted in two things: first, on a superficial level, there world of technology may appear somewhat perplexing at an initial glance. After all, these are a set of tools that we have never seen before and, more importantly, there are so many of them that we may not know how to go about using them in a strategic manner. Second, these tools have added an entirely new realm to the world of marketing. And not only from a social media perspective. They have opened up the marketing world to so much more, and it is pretty clear why. The possibilities that these tools offer are virtually endless!

Below is a breakdown of nearly every piece of marketing technology that exists out there today. Take a look through the infographic and look up some of the tools you are unfamiliar with. It’s a great way to build your knowledge.

Do you use any of these tools for your marketing efforts? Which of these do you think is the best? Why? Are there any you haven’t used before that you are going to try? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Pinterest Marketing with Integrated Analytics

March 12, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Pinterest marketing was taken to the next level on Tuesday when Pinterest officially announced its newest feature (and what is undoubtedly every marketers favorite): integrated analytics.

So what does this mean with regards to Pinterest marketing? Slowly, Pinterest has been taking steps to become more business friendly, presumably in an effort to begin generating revenues internally. (After all, a business with no income can only last so long.) A few months ago, Pinterest announced the launch of business pages. Now, Pinterest marketing is taking the next leap forward with the launch of integrated analytics.

The analytics provided in the backend are fairly standard. They do not go into the complexity of some tools, like Pinfluencer, which allows you to delve deep into the insights of your followers and find your most influential pinners. But that is not for everyone, and what Pinterest does provide, completely free, is more than enough for you to gauge the success of your Pinterest marketing efforts.

Below are a few steps to help you get started with Pinterest marketing analytics, and a few tips to consider when using them.

Setting Up Your Pinterest Analytics

While your analytics may be working in the backend, you may not be able to access them right away. Luckily, it is a fairly simple process.

First thing you need to do is have your website verified by Pinterest. If you understand code, or have an easy-to-manage CMS like WordPress, then this is a very simple process of uploading a file to your backend or a line of code to your header. If you do not, then simply grab the line of code or file, send it off to your webmaster, and have them put it in there. Once that is done, and your site is verified, you will need to update to the “New Look” of Pinterest.

In your dropdown menu, the final tab gives you the option to switch to this new theme. Once you do, you will see a new tab in your menu: Analytics.

Let the Insights Begin!

Now you are all set to begin looking into your Pinterest marketing analytics. There are four tabs in your analytics backend: Site Metrics, Most Recent, Most Repinned and Most Clicked.

The latter three tabs are fairly straightforward; these three tabs break down the most recent activity (in picture form, of course) on your account with regards to shares, repins, clicks, etc. and give you some insights into who participated in said activity. Remember the small column on the left-hand side of your front page on Pinterest that showed you some of your most recent activity? Well, these three tabs are essentially far more detailed versions of that column. They allow you to monitor the progress of your Pinterest marketing on your website and see how that activity is converting on the social network.

The real metrics come into play in that first tab: Site Metrics.

This allows you to delve deep into your site’s Pinterest activity to see where you are successful, and just how successful you are. For the first time, you can measure the number of impressions on the pins from your site, and see how that translates into your reach on the social network. You can now also see the click-through rates on your pins, as opposed to relying on Google Analytics to measure the referral success of your Pinterest marketing.

At the end of it all, your Pinterest marketing analytics should look something like this:

With this new feature, we can be sure to see Pinterest moving into the realm of offering paid advertising shortly. Like promoted tweets or Facebook posts, Pinterest seems to be on the verge of offering a whole new set of business services that will likely make paid Pinterest marketing all the more attractive. Particularly now that these campaigns can be monitored.

What do you think of Pinterest’s new analytics dashboard? How do you plan on integrating it into your Pinterest marketing strategies? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Twitter Marketing: Build Your Brand

March 11, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Twitter marketing has evolved considerably over the course of the last year, and it is important, as marketers, that we understand how to build our brand on Twitter.

Twitter marketing is often one of the cornerstones of a social media marketing strategy. However, if you are not optimizing your Twitter page for your brand, you are missing one of the most beneficial features of the social network.

Below are a few tips to help you maximize your Twitter marketing through brand optimization on your business’s Twitter page.

Design a Cover Photo

If you click on the small widget in the top right-hand corner of your Twitter profile and go to the Profile section of your Settings, you have the ability to add a customized header (Hint: 1252px x 626px in size.) to your Twitter profile.

A cover photo and the header section are great ways to showcase your business basics with a brief description or a Call-to-Action (CTA), your location and some fun, engaging photos that give your brand a personality. One of the more important factors that contribute to Twitter marketing success is the ability for people to relate to your brand and engage with the personality you create for it. The header section and the cover photo therein are a great way to do this on Twitter.

Add a Custom Background

A custom background, once again, is another area where you can be optimizing your Twitter marketing with a CTA. There is no shortage of step-by-step guides detailing how to design a Twitter background, or services like TwitBacks that help you create backgrounds easily, and one should definitely consider taking advantage of these options when designing a branded Twitter page.

When it comes to Twitter marketing, you want to engage with people as quickly as possible. There is a constant conversation taking place on Twitter, and if your Twitter marketing is not grabbing the attention of your audience immediately with features like the background, then you risk losing that attention very quickly.

To get an idea of what we mean, take a look at these 17 captivating Twitter accounts from HubSpot and see what an engaging Twitter marketing strategy looks like.

SEO in Twitter Marketing

The next major step when it comes to optimizing your Twitter marketing relates to optimizing your brand page for search engines. As we have noted in past blog posts, social signals are factoring more heavily in search rankings every time the Google algorithm changes. Therefore, it is important that we optimize our brand pages for search engines.

To do so for Twitter, we need to follow a set of simple but important rules:

DO NOT SPAM!
- We cannot stress this enough. Spamming links to your followers will not only hurt your Twitter credibility, but it will also hurt your SERPs. This also has a lot to do with your handle. Google’s algorithm disregards handles with a long set of numbers in them (e.g. John123456) as these are typically used by spammers. Make your handle short, simple and professional.
Add Keywords to Your Bio
- There should be at least one keyword in your bio on Twitter, as this registers to Google when determining search rankings.
If You Build It, They Will Follow…And Your Rankings Will Improve
- As your network grows, it registers with the algorithm and help your search rankings improve when it comes to your Twitter profile.
Consider the Potential of Retweets
- Retweets register to Google as pseudo-backlinks, particularly when they include a link to your site or blog. So consider the length of your tweets and leave some room for your followers to comment when retweeting (100 characters is your sweet spot!).

These are just a few tips that can help you optimize your Twitter marketing strategy. Each campaign, each profile, each industry and each step is going to be unique, particularly when you factor in what your goals are when it comes to Twitter marketing. But these pointers should help you quite a bit when it comes to putting together a winning Twitter marketing strategy!

How are you optimizing your Twitter marketing strategy? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Mobile Marketing: What is Geo-Targeting?

March 6, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Mobile marketing is an increasingly popular choice when it comes to Internet marketing, and geo-targeting is a major part of it.

With the proliferation of mobile online searches, the concept of mobile marketing is becoming an increasingly popular option for marketers. One of the main facets of mobile marketing is the ability to geo-target potential clients based on their location.

Here, we aim to explain what exactly geo-targeting is and how you can leverage this powerful feature in your mobile marketing efforts.

Geo-Targeting Defined

In order to understand how we can use geo-targeting in our mobile marketing campaigns, we must first understand what it is. As the name might suggest, geo-targeting has to do with marketing to a client base in a given location. This can be as broad as a country, or as specific as an IP address. How you decide to use the feature depends largely on what you are trying to accomplish.

In the most basic sense, geo-targeting is the automated process of determining the location of a visitor to your website (be it on a desktop or mobile device) and showing different content to that visitor based on certain geographic criteria (e.g. country, region, city, IP address, etc.). This is a powerful tool when it comes to online advertising, as it allows businesses to promote different campaigns to targeted demographics based on where their searches are taking place.

With regards to mobile marketing, there are many more versatile capabilities when it comes to geo-targeting.

Geo-Targeting in Mobile Marketing

The ability to target individuals on their mobile device using geo-targeting services opens up a world of potential clients that businesses may not have even known about. Granted, geo-targeting leads on a desktop is a viable technique, but these users may not be near your area, or may not be willing to venture out and find you. On a mobile device, however, individuals can be targeted in a location as narrowly defined as a one block radius.

Take Foursquare, for example. Using the business application for Foursquare, businesses can claim their location, create a promotion or special, and the app automatically geo-targets users in the vicinity of the store, restaurant or business. There are also new and upcoming mobile marketing PPC abilities that are more geared towards marketing to users using banners. This trend is on the rise with the increased access to the mobile web by smartphone users.

Geo-targeting can be as simple as creating a special on Foursquare and letting the application take care of the rest, or as in-depth as developing a PPC campaign and custom banner ads and mobile landing pages that drive traffic from a mobile clientele. Either way, mobile marketing is made all the more intriguing by the ability to geo-target users.

Have you done any geo-targeting in your mobile marketing campaigns? How how is worked for you? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Email Marketing: Tips to Your Success

March 5, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Email marketing is still one of the most popular forms of online engagement with potential clients, so how can you maximize the success of your email marketing campaigns?

We all know about the power of email marketing. E-blasts continue to be one of the top choices for online marketing when it comes to engaging with an audience of either existing or potential clients. The only problem with email marketing is that returns are low, and it takes at least six blasts before you start to see some engagement.

Below, we have featured a few great tips to help you boost your email marketing to increase opens, decrease conversion time and optimize your time spent on A-B testing in order to turn your email marketing into a winning strategy.

When Should You Send Your Email?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to email marketing. When is the best day or time to be sending an email? Now, of course, every experience is going to be different. Statistics may suggest one thing, but it would be irresponsible to say, point blank, that, “Tuesdays at noon are the best time of the week to send an email.” However, that is not to say that with the use of some of these statistics we can determine a formula that is very close.

Let’s start with the best time of day. Statistics collected in a study conducted by GetResponse show that there are two time periods throughout the day that have higher open rates than any other: early in the day between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and later in the afternoon between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Average open rates and click through rates (CTRs) can increase by 6% at these times during the day.

With regards to the best day of the week to send an e-blast, you should be looking towards the middle. Contrary to what some may think, the weekends are notoriously quiet for email activity, and thus weekend campaigns are largely ignored and unsuccessful. The beginning of the week (i.e. Monday) has people feeling down and catching up on what was missed over the weekend. Therefore, your promotional e-blast will likely be tossed in the virtual trash. So. the middle of the week is your best bet, particularly Tuesday and Wednesday.

Now as for that blanket statement as to when you should be scheduling your email marketing, the numbers suggest that late afternoon in the middle of the week would be your optimal point of success.

When Are Emails Read?

It may be nice to think that weeks after you send out your email campaign someone may click through to your page, but realistically, the likelihood of that falls somewhere in the realm of rare to never. The truth of the matter is your email has a shorter lifespan than you might think.

Now, when compared to the shelf life of a Facebook post (experts argue that it is relevant for up to three hours) or a tweet (anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour at most) an email can live for an eternity. But with each passing minute, the likelihood of an open or a click shrinks considerably. According to the GetResponse study, 23.63% of all email opens will occur in the first hour. 9.52% in the second, 6.33% in the third and downward from there. This is why the timing of your message is important. Scheduling an email campaign for midnight so that it is the “first thing they’ll see in the morning!” will get you nowhere.

Pay Attention to Time Zones

Where is your audience? Are they primarily on the East Coast? Are they living on Pacific Time? Maybe they all work out of Hong Kong. Regardless of where they are, if they are not in the same time zone as you, they are not going to be getting the email at the same time. So while you might think that an email marketing campaign going out on a Tuesday at 3 p.m. will generate the best results, if half of your audience is based on Hong Kong and you haven’t factored that in, you’re dead wrong.

Luckily, many mailing services (such as MailChimp) offer the option of setting time zone fluctuation so that your emails are sent at the same time in every city in the world. Some of these features are for premium members, but that’s a small price to pay for increased conversions.

TEST!

While these might be some helpful tips backed by some strong numbers, that still does not mean that you are guaranteed success. Make sure you test your campaigns from a variety of angles before making a decision as to the best avenue for your future success in email marketing. At the end of the day, this is the only way to truly see what your best options are!

Where have you found success when it comes to email marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Facebook Marketing How-To: Optimize for Graph Search

February 26, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Facebook marketing is experiencing some changes as Graph Search rolls out across the social network, so how can you optimize your Facebook fan page for the new feature?

At first glance, Facebook Graph Search does not look like it will have much of an impact on your Facebook marketing efforts. We noted in a post a little while back a few small changes your Facebook marketing strategy might experience as a result of Graph Search. Frankly, as it stands, Graph Search does not appear to be the monumental change in search the social network seemed to hope for. That notwithstanding, Graph Search still has an impact on your business, and we have a few tips listed below that you should be paying attention to when putting together your Facebook marketing strategy in an effort to incorporate the impact of Graph Search.

Focus on Being Local

One of the biggest benefits of Graph Search is the impact it has on your listings when it comes to local searches on Facebook. Thus, your Facebook marketing should now have a focus on check-ins and encouraging locals to engage with your brand on the social network. This can be done with promotions for check-ins, or other Facebook marketing campaigns that engage with a local audience and get them to engage with your brand both online and on site.

The local element is the real bread and butter of Graph Search for businesses. One of the hottest aspects of the Facebook search feature is the ability to search for terms such as “restaurants in Boston my friends like” and see results that fit that category. That, however, is only one of the areas in which you can be optimizing your Facebook marketing for Graph Search.

Pay Attention to Your Business Details

As we have noted in the past, there are a few hidden gems when it comes to SEO for Facebook. Well, now that Facebook has integrated its own search capabilities with Graph Search, SEO becomes all the more important.

Perhaps the two most important sections when it comes to optimizing your Facebook marketing for Graph Search are the categories and About section. Businesses can be searched in Graph Search by “Type,” so it is important that your business is categorized in those areas where you wish to be found. This is also important for your subcategories, as these factor into Graph Search as well. Furthermore, your About section must be optimized, as it is for SEO keywords, for Graph Search capabilities.

Say Cheese!

Photo sharing, as we all know, is one of the most prominent features of social media. Thus, it is safe to assume that somehow, in some way, Graph Search is going to emphasize photo sharing in some way or another. Well, no surprise then that it is. Encourage visitors to tag themselves and your location. These tags and images rank quite highly in Facebook Graph Search, and will impact your business rankings as well.

As we have seen with all of the changes to social signals factoring into SEO, shares with your business and links influence your overall rankings, so encourage your visitors to tag themselves and your business in their pictures.

Have you been using Facebook Graph Search for your Facebook marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Marketing Statistics: Where Is Your Audience?

February 20, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media marketing success means knowing where you audience is, and a recent study shows those statistics.

The Pew Research Center published a study recently entitled “The Demographics of Social Media Users – 2012”. The study looked at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr in order to determine where audiences were. As marketers, we need to know where we can find our audiences in order to find success when it comes to social media marketing.

Some of the figures in this study are surprising, considering all we hear about social networking statistics. Below are a few of the key takeaways from the study, and some tips as to how these statistics can be incorporated into your social media marketing strategies.

Facebook Is Still in Charge

Of the population surveyed, 67% say they are on some sort of social media. As expected, Facebook reigned supreme with that entire population stating that they were registered with the largest social network. Coming in second was Twitter, with 16% of the surveyed population claiming to use the micro blogging social network. And in a very close third was Pinterest, with 15% of the population. The growth of Pinterest has been no secret, and these numbers prove it.

With regards to social media marketing, the demographics were rather impressive as well. Have a look at the table below to see a breakdown of the most popular networks and which demographics use them the most.

An In-Depth Look at the Users

When it comes to social media marketing, we need to make sure we are targeting the right audience. In order to do that, we need to know where our target audience is talking. Moreover, we need to know if our target audience would even respond to our efforts when it comes to social media marketing. Below is a breakdown of the surveyed population based on demographics and the proportion using social networking sites in some way.

Perhaps the two most interesting figures arise when looking at minority statistics. When it comes to Race and Ethnicity, the Black, Non-Hispanic and Hispanic population have a higher proportion of social media users than the White, Non-Hispanic population. Furthermore, a surprising 32% of the 65+ population claims to be using social media in some way. Have a look at the table below.

Highlights by Network

The study breaks down similar demographics to those above for each one of the five networks observed. When it came to Twitter, there was a slight edge of male users (17%) over female users (15%) and the most popular Race/Ethnic demographic using the network was Black, Non-Hispanics.

On Pinterest, female users (25%) far outweighed male users (5%), which is to be expected considering the overwhelming data that has been produced showing that Pinterest is a network dominated heavily by the female population. But perhaps what is most interesting to note is that the two income brackets that were the most popular when it came to Pinterest were $50,000-74,999 (23%) and $75,000+ (18%).

On Instagram, women once again out edged men 16% to 10%, respectively. What was interesting about the statistics from Instagram was the fact that there was a fairly consistent makeup of users from nearly all demographics. The same can be said about Tumblr, the least popular of the networks reported.

Finally, Facebook showed yet another favor for the female population (72%) over the male population (62%). Though when it came to the rest of the data, there was little prejudice for one demographic over another in most categories. Based on the study, it would seem that regardless of your socioeconomic status, Facebook is where you want to be. Thus, we can conclude that when it comes to social media marketing to any demographic, Facebook is always a viable place to start.

Click here to read the full report. What have you found to be most surprising? Will any of these statistics influence your social media marketing strategies? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Facebook Marketing: Increase Your Shares [INFOGRAPHIC]

February 19, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Facebook marketing is all about exposing your brand on social media, so how can you increase your number of shares?

We all know that great content is what drives a successful Facebook marketing campaign. People want to engage with brands that are active on social media and posting content that intrigues and excites their fans. But, while we might know that the backbone of great Facebook marketing is great content, it might not be so easy to get your share count up. Luckily, there are a few tips and tricks in this infographic that will help you get the most out of your Facebook marketing efforts to increase your shares and showcase your brand on Facebook.

There is a lot to remember when putting together your Facebook marketing campaign, but if you adhere to the suggestions in the infographic below, you can expect to see those numbers jump pretty quickly.

How are you increasing your shares when it comes to Facebook marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

YouTube Marketing Optimization

February 18, 2013/by Corey Padveen

YouTube marketing is one of the best resources we have as marketers, but how can we measure if our efforts are paying off?

YouTube is a search engine, and like any search engine, a marketer’s goal is to rank highly for specified keywords and drive traffic and business from our YouTube marketing efforts. But, like any social media program, we need to be able to measure our campaigns and the success of our YouTube marketing efforts. Behind the channel there is an entire set of statistics and measurable data that we can use to see exactly where our YouTube marketing efforts are paying off, and where we need to improve them.

Below is a set of tips that you can use when it comes to YouTube marketing to measure exactly how effective your strategies are. You might be surprised to find just how much information you can pull directly from the backend of your YouTube channel.

Look Into Your Analytics

First of all, where can we find all of this stored information about our videos? In the top search bar of a YouTube account, there is a small dropdown menu where you can select your analytics.

It is in this analytics section where you can begin evaluating the success of your YouTube marketing. The YouTube analytics dashboard allows users to both measure basic information, such as viewer demographics and traffic sources, as well as engagement statistics, which allow you to measure how your videos are performing with your audience. These data are very helpful when it comes to modifying your YouTube marketing campaigns, as they indicate where your work needs improvement and where you are finding the most success with your video marketing. Paying attention to these figures will help you optimize your YouTube marketing to ensure that you are not losing anything (from time to audience engagement) with each of your videos.

Your Most Important Data

There is plenty of information to look through in the backend of your YouTube channel. It can become almost overwhelming. What is important? What should you focus on? These are not the easiest questions to answer when you have so much to sift through.

Perhaps the two most important areas of focus in your Reports section are your Traffic Sources and your Audience Retention. (In the menu on the right.) Let’s have a look at those a little more closely.

Your Traffic Sources are going to be one of the most important elements to look at when evaluating your YouTube marketing efforts. These tell you exactly where your viewers are coming from. This will help you structure future campaigns outside of YouTube to drive the most traffic from your most popular sources. Are your email campaigns driving the most viewers to your videos? Maybe it is your social media efforts on other networks, like Facebook or Twitter, that are bringing in the most views. This is where you can find out.

Knowing where your traffic is coming from will allow you to cut out the time you spend marketing on networks that are not driving any traffic to your YouTube channel and focus entirely on areas where you are seeing success. This increases the efficiency of your YouTube marketing and helps maximize your return on investment (time, in this case).

Audience Retention is another crucial focal point of these statistics. Say, for example, you put together a video campaign with a call to action at the end of a video. Then you put together another one with a call to action at the beginning. Which one is driving conversions? You can see this with your Audience Retention tool. Note in the image below that there is a drop off at a certain point in your videos. People have an inherently short attention span when it comes to YouTube, and the longer your video, the less likely it is that people will stay to the very end. We have found that the optimal length of a YouTube video is somewhere in the ballpark of two minutes. After that, audiences tend to move on to something else. So, when it comes to YouTube, a video search engine with billions of options to choose from, the shorter the better. And all of this is available in the Audience Retention report of your YouTube analytics dashboard.

How Are You Engaging?

Engagement is a cornerstone of any successful social media marketing campaign. And contrary to what a conventional understanding of the term ‘engagement’ might suggest, engagement on social media is more about your brand and your audience. It is not solely about how you are engaging with your audience, but also about how your audience is engaging with you. The engagement reports in YouTube focus on your audience’s engagement with your brand on YouTube.

This section is wonderful for tailoring your YouTube marketing to the preferences of your audience. You can find out what videos people like best, where they are commenting most and when your engagement is taking place. Again, this is an area that will help you maximize the efficiency of a campaign and your return on investment.

These are just a few of the great analytics tools available in the backend of YouTube. Of course, like anything, the best way to learn is by doing. So have a look at the analytics dashboard of your YouTube channel and find out where your efforts are paying off. Then tell us how you use the YouTube analytics dashboard in the comments below or on Twitter!