The growth of the internet has been great for martial arts and self defence instructors and it is only going to get bigger and better! For those in the UK 4 G mobile data will be out next year. So this means that the speed people can watch and download films and video clips will grow. In other words you need to make sure you leverage the very best techniques that the internet has to offer.
The internet has a range of services and techniques that are mostly only known to a few. Yet these can be learned and leveraged to increase your business, however by far the best tool out there for martial artists to use is good old YouTube.
Now depending on who you ask the figures differ but you tube itself will state:
- Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
- Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
- 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
- 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
- YouTube is localized in 43 countries and across 60 languages
- In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth
1. The very first step is to have a goal. Every video needs a purpose. It is OK to do the technique videos but why are you actually doing this? The answer of course is that it should be both for your students and also for yourself. It will help grow your name among the martial arts circles. However the purpose should dictate your content. If you want to grow your customer base consider a short intro into your club, do a walk in and meet the instructors. This also allows for potential students to see the faces of instructors so they can look out for them when they walk through the doors.Also consider a trailer of your style and system. This approach was used extensively by the Keysi Fighting Method.
2. Link
This is the real gem of a tip that will help your business. When you place a video on You Tube you can write a description.Most people leave this either blank or just place a few words beside it. Now let me say that companies even global ones do this, so you are not alone However it is a waste of a golden opportunity.
Your description should be a large and detailed one and should start off by having the link to your website included in the http format. For example if you go to my personal channel that I share with Georgi Georgiev which is www.youtube.com/Judokafighter you will see its lay out. However if you go into the videos you will see that the better performing ones I have included a large description and in this description I start the text and end the text with a link to whichever website I am promoting. For example my video of the graphics I have made for www.judokafighter.com you will be able to see how I do this at the bottom of this post. However for now lets use the following example.
If is post a description it will look like this:
https://judokafighter.com/ This is the great new video sharing site for Judo that pulls all the best Judo technique videos and puts them in one place for free. Visit https://judokafighter.com/ for to get the best Judo videos for free.
Now you will see that I have exchanged the www. for https:// This is a key element because although you tube will link www. site addresses it prefers it done in the http: format. The http: is actually a shortened code for hypertext transfer protocol and without boring you it is actually the internet address for your sites. The term www. is not actually needed but universally used.
So when you include in your description a link back to your site two objectives are achieved. Firstly your web address gets a link that performs better and this is important to establish your sites presence to google ( it is a long story for another time about why this is important). The second and for me far more important reason is that it gives a viewer a route to finding out more information about yourself or your club.
It is a major gripe of mine when people fail to do this. I see a great video on you tube and I want to know more about the star. I want to know where I can train with them, do they have a DVD I can buy or a free e book. And if it is a club I am looking at I ant to go to their website to book a class. Remember the golden rule:
You Tube is the Worlds Second Largest Search Engine and it is owned by Google!
So remember get you link in the description box and make sure it is in the right code. It is easy to do, just copy the actual web address for your site from your browser. It really is that easy.
3. The final tip I have is to embed. This means that you need to link or embed your post into your site. This creates a two way process that will allow visitors to your site to see your videos and by using the links in the videos you can allow people viewing them to see your site. It is a two way process to catch more attention and get a result form your viewers.
You want your viewers or site visitors to do something and you tube should help with this process. To embed the video into your site you can simply press share, and then copy and paste the embed code. If you struggle with this then speak to your web master.
Check the below video for an example of all I am talking about.
Be sure to click on the actual You tube button on the right side of the video to see all that I am talking about in relation to actual text and linking. By clicking on the you tube button you will go to the video in you tube and not the embedded version.
Conclusion
Although this really is a short guide on only one aspect of you tube it is a major one. Make sure you link your websites into the text and also embed you videos on your site. It will help increase views but more importantly it will help link your efforts together. Facebook, you tube and your sites need to be linked. Now if you examine my work you will see that not all of them are linked. However there are personal reasons why I haven’t linked everything together. Your facebook, your website and your blogs and you tube channels needs to be linked to gain more views and more traffic. It really is that simple. To get more views start linking. By linking your website to your you tube channel and vice versa it gives you twice the a chance of being found and being viewed.
I hope this helps you out.
Andrew Holland