You probably know that Google is the most-used search engine. However, do you know which is the second? It might surprise you to learn that it is none other than YouTube. It also happens to be the second most visited site as well. Users spend a lot of time searching for videos, and they spend a lot of time watching them. If your brand has a presence there, you can reap huge benefits for your business.
Creating videos does not have to be difficult. Depending on the kind of business you are marketing, you may be able to produce videos using nothing more than your smartphone and your laptop. You can get starting quickly and start seeing the benefits right away. Here’s how you can implement an effective YouTube marketing strategy.
Create a YouTube Channel for Your Brand
This might seem obvious, but the key is to create one specifically for your brand. Many people will use their personal Google accounts to upload their business videos. There are a few issues with this. For one, it means that nobody else can access it unless you want them to be able to access your Google account. Secondly, viewers could have access to your personal information instead of that of your brand, including our email address.
Having a business account means that you can have several users access it and upload videos. They can make changes and manage the settings as well. That way it’s not just left to one person, and it has no connection to any personal accounts.
Post Consistently
Pick a schedule and stick to it. Even when you are just starting out and the only people viewing them are your staff and close family members, you need to show that you can produce content on a regular basis. As more people find your channel, they will look to see how reliable you are. Posting on a schedule will mean that your subscribers will know when to expect content and will help build trust between your brand and your audience. Make sure that you set a schedule that is realistic based on the time that you have available to you. Don’t commit to making 3 videos a week when you can only do 1. You should also take into account the viewing habits of most YouTube consumers. If they work or go to school during the day, your new content should be released so that it’s available to them in the late afternoon and evening.
Decide on Your Type of Video
Your YouTube videos will be a reflection of your brand. You need to take that into account when deciding what kind of content you want to produce. Do you want to be entertaining? Informative? Both? You can have behind-the-scenes videos that will show your operations or a sneak-peak at an upcoming product. You can also produce listicles and content that is similar to what you might write for a blog. You can also produce how-to videos that will position your brand as an authority in the field. These are all popular examples, but there are other types as well. Stick to your strengths. If you are not good at explaining things, then get a guest or avoid how-to videos altogether, for instance.
Optimize Your Videos
Videos are powerful and engaging marketing tools. If you are getting viewers, then you need to actually benefit from them, otherwise, there isn’t much point in producing them. Make sure that you format your videos to help with YouTube search engine optimization (SEO). Optimizing for YouTube videos is similar to doing it for your website content. Make sure that your video descriptions have keywords that are relevant to your topic so that the YouTube search engine algorithm understands what they are about. Using an engaging thumbnail will get people to click on your video as well. The more visitors you get, the more authoritative you will be considered by the algorithm. You can also place a text transcription of your video in the description. This makes it easier for the bots to index your video, which will help with appearing higher in the search engine’s ranking.
Create Subtitles
Along with having a transcription, you can also embed subtitles to your videos to help those who may be hard of hearing or tend to watch videos in places where they have to be muted. On top of that, unless you are a professional broadcaster, viewers may have trouble understanding certain things you say. This is especially true if you have a regional accent. You can easily add subtitles to video and transcribe your audio to text using an online application. That way you can be accessible to a wider audience and get the SEO benefits without having to do much extra work. Or else you can use subtitle text generator.
Make Use of Your Metrics
When it comes to marketing, nothing is more important than data. The more data you have, the better decisions you can make. YouTube offers many metrics to help you be more effective with your video marketing. You need to monitor which types of videos are performing in terms of viewers, which ones are appearing high on search ranks, and which ones are underperforming. That way you can take the necessary steps to create the most effective videos going forward. You can track your audience demographics to make sure that you either continue to appeal to that audience, or pivot to capture additional demographics. It’s a good idea to track your subscriber count as well. If there is a rise or a drop, then you can track when it happened and which video may have caused it.
At this point, if you’ve followed these steps, you should already be seeing some benefits from your YouTube channel. It’s important to market your video content on your website and on your social media channels. Your website must also have a proper landing page for visitors who find it through your videos. Once you’ve got them to visit, you need to make sure you can convert them. Remember, producing video is fun, so be creative and provide great content for your audience.
Also Read: How Does YouTube’s Search Algorithm Work?
