YouTube Marketing Tips – Using Annotations

Another tips from Reelseo that you might enjoy about video marketing.

YouTube thinks you should use annotations (those little colored note bubbles that pop up while a video is playing) to help your viewers know what their post-viewing options are. You can send them to another of your videos with a simple link—maybe the next part in the series or something—or you can solicit feedback. Annotations are versatile, and the point YouTube is making is that videos using annotations have higher success rates in keeping viewers engaged longer and driving traffic to more of the creator’s clips.

annoying annotations 300×160 YouTube Marketing Tips For Partners: Use Annotations & Playlists To Get More ViewsDon’t overdo it, though. Which is easier to do than you think. Too few annotations, and you’re not offering viewers enough routes to your other content. Too many… and you’re giving them information overload. There’s no magic formula, but YouTube recommends 3-5 annotations per video as a rule of thumb. The image to the right is an example of what is clearly wayyy too many annotations:

Another great tip they offer with regard to annotations is to be transparent. Don’t disguise links so that the viewer ends up somewhere other than where you told them they would go. Misleading the viewer is bad for the customer/creator relationship. And considering YouTube’s parent company, Google, and their long-standing rule against disguising web-content, and you might infer that YouTube is saying your video might even be penalized for spamming users too much.

Lastly – think about being creative with your annotations from a production standpoint. I’ve seen some real interesting videos where the owner clearly considered the annotations when they were actually creating/producing the video. As an example, at the end of your video, you can literally film yourself pointing to annotations and directing users to click on the annotations….. The following is a video that shows another way that this can be done.

Read more: http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-marketing-tips-partners-annotations-playlists/#ixzz12ro1ujc7
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