Hi, my name is Dane Golden and I’m a YouTube Marketing and Video SEO Expert. VidAction is home to our video marketing blog and video marketing consulting services. I’m a digital marketing strategist who specializes in helping companies drive conversion via YouTube video using a content marketing approach.
MY MISSION
In a world with billions of online videos, I’m passionate about helping marketers and businesses up their game on YouTube for business and transform their viewers into loyal customers.
I bring brands from assessment through to “funnelization,” and finally to deployment, project execution, conversion and sales. I see social video as part of an ecosystem, and these videos can only reach their full conversion potential when fully integrated into the marketing funnel, using the tools of analytics, social media, email, blogging and attribution tracking to meet targeted KPIs.
MY BACKSTORY
I’m a life-long video aficionado. It all started with my love of movies. Ever since I was a little kid I was obsessed with well-produced, well-written, well-acted motion pictures. I can tell you the underlying stories behind thousands of movies: old black-and-whites from the ’30s and ’40s, foreign films, independent movies and blockbusters. I’m fascinated by the techniques of storytellers across the history of moving pictures, from Eadweard Muybridge to Wes Anderson, and many in between.
At first, I saw online video as a venue where I could pursue my interest in making in-depth stories on film, just on a smaller scale. Unfortunately, in more than one video tech startup, I found out many versions of how to do this the wrong way, and learned some hard lessons about what works with online video and what doesn’t. But fortunately for you, my methodology of continuous trial and error and A/B testing has led me to do intense research and learn from the best, and to want to help others succeed in online video, shortcutting for my customers the time-intensive learning process I have gone through.
Of course, I’ve had many successes as well, such as when I ran the most successful independent podcast network, which also pioneered 24/7 live-streaming video to countless thousands of tech enthusiasts each month. As an employee or consultant, I’ve helped grow online video-focused businesses and marketing efforts in tech, animation, automotive, video games, beauty, non-profit, influencer marketing, and other sectors.
I grew up the son of a science teacher and a basketball coach. My mom and dad have had other jobs as well, but at the core everything they have done professionally is about helping teams and individuals reach their full potential by continuously learning and striving to be better through trial and error. Because of their influences, these values have always been central to my professional and personal approach.
And, as with many in my field, I am obsessed with innovation. I’m always asking how I can help my clients grow their customer base by using a new tip or trick, while holding true to the proven fundamentals of video content marketing.
WHY YOUTUBE MARKETING?
Marketing today has been turned on its head. With banner blindness, skippable pre-rolls and video ad blocking, paid media is growing less effective by the day. So the industry has turned to content marketing, a method by which brands offer free, useful information in their areas of expertise in order to gain trust, access and adjacency to targeted potential customers.
The content marketing approach has demonstrated huge success in blog form, and yet content marketing is, incredibly, still in its infancy with its use of video. On video platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, many companies are still shouting at audiences to “look at me” instead of using video to help their target customers learn skills that will help them do their jobs better (in B2B) or live their lives better (in B2C). Often, even when brands produce videos that follow the content marketing model, they often miss key steps of video optimization, planning and channel management.
For me, each factor I’ve mentioned here: the rise of online video marketing and content marketing, my affinity for video, my early challenges making it happen online, my core values of wanting to help people learn, and my love for innovation, have all combined to forge my professional mission. It’s my goal to help top companies transition from the outmoded “look at me” period to the new age of “here’s how you can do this better” using the medium of social video.
– Dane Golden