Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Jim Ackerman, Founder of Ackermania Creative (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Based on what you’ve studied of YouTube marketing, aside from PPC advertising, which is a very expensive form of advertising, what other types of marketing mechanisms are working when it comes to seeding the YouTube channel?

Jim Ackerman: There are a couple things I would say to that. First of all, before I leave the PPC concept, it is expensive by comparison to many things. But it’s so targetable that you can drive geographically, demographically and psychographically. So, you can select very specifically, making sure you get your ads in front of exactly the right people. The PPC model has been the single biggest contributor to Orabrush’s success. Expensive is a relative term, especially when you consider that as a result of the entire YouTube proposition, they’ve been able to get into 3,000 Walmarts and 7,000 CVS pharmacies and dramatically grow the business in a shockingly short time. However, you’re exactly right. It isn’t the only thing they do. The pushing of subscriptions is vital to the process because once you get a subscriber, you no longer have to re-get that viewer through pay-per-click. Now, he’s being notified by YouTube that a new video has been released. Because he is a subscriber, the likelihood that he goes there and watches it increases. You don’t have to get that second view via pay-per-click. So, pushing the subscription process is vital.

SM: How do you push the subscription process?

JA: Embedded in each video is the request for people to subscribe. You’re right, the subscription button is always above the video, but also, we annotate within the video itself a request for subscribers. Generally speaking, we ask specifically for it in the audio. Morgan the Tongue will say, “Hey, don’t forget to prescribe to my channel,” not subscribe, prescribe. That’s part of the humor, his misuse of words and things like that. So, he’s make a direct and specific request to subscribers. If you want people to do something, ask for what you want and need. This is a basic direct-response marketing premise. If you want people to do something, you have to tell them specifically what you want them to do. Don’t just leave it to them to figure it out. We build a subscriber base by asking for and making it easy to subscribe. That’s vitally important.

Another important mechanism we use is capitalizing on other YouTubers. So, you’ve got other YouTubers are out there. Many of them are not commercial channels per se, but they’re vloggers. They post once a week or more often various videos that they come up with. Sometimes they endorse products. Sometimes they endorse other videos. We’ve worked with some of these vloggers – YouTubers, as they’re called – to promote the Orabrush product, everything from little teen vloggers to some of the larger vloggers on the Internet, people like Rhett Link and many others.

SM: What are the terms of those relationships? What incentive does a vlogger have to promote your product?

JA: There are a variety of incentives. One incentive is their reason for existing is to provide, in many cases, vital information to their subscribers. In other words, they’re trying to grow their channels as well. They have a desire to provide useful content that will keep people coming back to watch their channels. So, if you’re a teen vlogger, for example, a YouTuber who’s commenting on fashion and makeup and all those kinds of things, one of the concerns that teens have is bad breath. So, we can put an Orabrush in your hands, or we can put you on an Orabrush video, that gives you content for your YouTube channel and renders additional value to your subscribers. And that’s the first and most important incentive.

SM: In the case of Orabrush, what you’ve done is you’ve got a bunch of vloggers who have related vlogs in related areas and you’ve put them in your channel. Basically, they’ve become part of your content.

JA: Yes. That’s been one of the things we’ve done, but it also works the other way, where we’ve simply reached out to them and made them aware of our product. And they have been happy to say, “Hey, this is a great product,” and in some cases talk about our channel on their channels. If a prominent YouTuber likes one of your videos, your subscriptions are likely to go up. If he’s got 100,000 subscribers out there and he likes one of your videos, you may pick up two, three, or four thousand subscribers just because a very popular YouTuber liked one of your videos. So, one of the things you want to do is be aware of who the other YouTubers are out there in your space, and can you establish relationships with them. Those relationships can take both forms: simply letting them know about your product and getting them to subscribe to your channel and also, as you suggested, we have gone in and said, “Hey, come be a part of our videos, actually participate in our videos.” When that happens, they push those videos out to their subscriber bases, which then like the videos. Members wind up coming in and seeing more of our stuff and subscribing. That’s part of the process.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Jim Ackerman, Founder of Ackermania Creative
1 2 3 4 5 6 7