The key to success on the Internet is creating high-quality content that people want to view and share with their network. YouTube offers small businesses a home for their videos, presentations, demonstrations and client testimonials. You upload your video to YouTube and people see the video, comment or potentially share it with their other social media networks. Successful YouTube marketing requires multiple videos. Don't just upload one video and expect huge results.

The Viral Video

YouTube marketing is important to small businesses because of the potential for your video to go "viral" or get tons of views from a lot of potential customers. A viral video is one that is funny, useful or controversial. It is repeatedly shared on social media sites or by email with thousands of viewers generating a large amount to traffic to your video and your website.

Types of Videos

Many small-business owners don't know what type of videos to put on YouTube, so they neglect this social media network. YouTube videos don't have to be complicated or huge productions. Use a video camera and create testimonials from your customers, product demonstrations, training videos or commercials for your company. You may also use screencasting software to create how-to tutorials on your computer. Screencasting software records your computer screen so you can record step-by-step through a computer-related process.

Interact With Comments

Be a part of the YouTube community by commenting on other videos and responding to comments about your own video. After you upload your video, YouTube users may comment on the video by asking questions, giving advice or offering constructive criticism. You may get a multitude of YouTube comments that are not useful, or insulting in nature. Make sure to respond to the intelligent comments and provide answers to your YouTube customers.

YouTube Subscribers

YouTube provides channels for you to organize your videos by subject. As you create several useful videos, you want to get YouTube subscribers. YouTube subscribers are your fans. They are alerted every time you upload a new video so they can come view it. At the end of your video, tell your viewers to click the subscribe button for notification when new videos are uploaded to your channel.

Connect Your Website

At the beginning and end of your video, use annotations to place your website URL on the video. Annotations are small notes on your video that alert the viewer to important information. By placing your website URL in the video, you direct traffic to your website and increase your website traffic. YouTube also offers widgets and buttons to place on your website directing your website traffic to your YouTube videos.