Before my B2B days at Ryan Solutions, I was very much a B2C guy just like you. And, so being, one of my key strategies was almost always video and video distribution.

Specifically, YouTube.

I recorded with whatever I had – usually an old Canon point-and-shoot – and edited in free software I got at a conference. Yet if those videos were ranked on my dashboards, they’d be #30 for views and #24 for subscribers above the likes of Beaver Creek, Sugarloaf, or Stowe.

How I Did It
The secret to my success was NOT found in creating new videos, it was found in making the most of what I’d already uploaded.

It was a straightforward, four-step process.

#1) Go Through Old Videos
The goal here is find videos that satisfy a few, simple criteria:

• High quality content or footage
• A specific theme or themes to the footage
• Very low daily view count

In other words, you’re looking for something that isn’t currently optimized for specific keywords but can be.

#2) Research Keywords
Next, start doing some basic keyword analysis of your videos. While there are a few ways to approach this, I was usually looking for a keyword that not only fit the theme of the video but was right in the middle of high interest and low competition.

So, something either broad enough that matching videos didn’t explicitly use any of the keywords in their titles or descriptions:

But something that also had at least some sign of high views for some of the top videos:

Once I’d found a few keywords for each video, I’d move on to the next step.

#3) Basic Optimization
Next I’d do some very basic optimization just to test the waters and see which one might have the most potential. This would include basic keyword placement in spots like:

• Titles
• Descriptions
• Video tags

I’d also try to write out the descriptions a bit though, to be honest, I’m not really sure if it helped.

But the great thing about YouTube is that changes in rankings happen extremely quickly, so before too long you should see your videos start to show up in results for those queries.

#4) Track and Attack
Next, I’d make a little spreadsheet where I could record before/after weekly view counts for each keyword on each video. I’d give each one a week or two before trying a new keyword and compare pre-optimization view counts to those during that stretch.

Once I had the winners for each keyword I’d then ramp up the optimization efforts with more advanced things that targeted embeds, ratings, and links. What’s crazy is that even with basic optimization, I could usually increase weekly views for these old videos by 5-10x.

Do that for a dozen videos and let a year pass and you could have hundreds of thousands of extra views.

YouTube vs Facebook
I haven’t done this for a couple years now (or uploaded a video in even longer) but even still I get thousands of new views a month from these old videos.

There’s a lot of talk about Facebook vs YoUTube, but Facebook will never have something that YouTube does: massive amounts of FREE organic search and discovery views for those who put in a little effort.

It’s why the easiest way to get more views is rarely by creating new videos.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.