YouTube is the world’s second-biggest search engine and has almost 2 billion monthly active users. 400 hours of videos are uploaded on it every minute and get more watch time in a day than Netflix and Facebook combined. In just 15 years YouTube has become the most popular video platform on the planet and is also a fantastic marketing opportunity to promote the product or services your business has to offer. It is also considered the number one purchase driver on social media. No doubt, marketing on this platform can help you establish a stronger connection with your audience and potential customers.
What is YouTube Marketing?
YouTube is an excellent way to introduce your brand to new people, show up when customers need you the most, build an engaged audience and send traffic to your website. Simply put, promoting businesses, products and services on YouTube. And this is termed YouTube Marketing. There are two ways in which you could market on this platform.
- Create a YouTube Channel and upload information-packed valuable videos on your channel or;
- Advertising your products or services using YouTube Ads.
With YouTube Marketing, marketers can uniquely showcase their content which is mainly in the form of videos that is easy for viewers to understand and share.
How to get started with YouTube Marketing?
Youtube Keyword Research
First things first, before you start creating content and publishing it on the platform; you need to carry out comprehensive keyword research which involves selecting keywords related to your products or services you offer with high search volume and low competition as this will enable your video content to be more relevant to the audience’s search terms and be more recognized by search engines. The best place to get the keywords is to simply enter a word or a phrase relevant to your business and then YouTube search suggests will show the list of keywords that are related and are most likely to be searched by the audience.
Research your audience
It could be really difficult to create content without knowing your audience. First of all, you will never be able to make content that appeals to everyone. Your focus should be on learning what kind of content would be appealing to your potential customers. Always try to create content that will resonate with your audience’s needs and wants and that could serve as a solution to their problems. That’s why researching your potential audience is very crucial. Start your research by looking at your website analytics i.e., Google Analytics. Look at who is engaging with your business and how they are engaging, where they are coming from and how much time they’re spending on your website and their demographics. Next, you should take a look at the analytics on all your social media accounts, for example, your Facebook Page. You can learn a lot about who is interacting with you from the Facebook Page Insights where you’ll be able to see your current audience demographics including age, gender, and location.
Research your Competition
All good marketers do serious YouTube competitor research before creating any content on the platform. Now that you have looked at your own website and social media analytics, created a customer persona, your next step should be analyzing your competitors. Note down direct competitors that you’re already aware of. Read their video’s comment section to understand what their followers are talking about and who else they are watching. This will help you understand what problems they have that need to be solved.
Creating a YouTube Channel
The next on the list is to create a YouTube channel for your business and fill out your profile. Go to YouTube and sign in with your Gmail and head over to YouTube settings. In the top right corner of the screen, click on your profile icon and then click “Create a channel” and fill out business details.
YouTube Features to improve your viewer's user experience
When you have all the data with you, it’s time to create content for promoting your business on the platform. There are some of the features you need to practice in order to improve and enhance video content visibility.
Add title, description and tags
The ‘title’ is the very first thing that is noticed by the viewer or the audience when they come across your video. It is the determining factor, whether someone will click on your video or not. Hence, it’s important to include the right catchy keywords in your title making it clear and compelling to the viewer or the audience.
The second is the description of the video which must be written keeping in mind the target audience and the description should briefly narrate to the audience what your video is all about within the character limit. The right keywords must also be included in the description of your video.
Lastly, you must add tags to the videos which will help improve the video’s context. Tags act as descriptive words that help viewers discover your content easily. Therefore, it’s a must to include the right keywords aiding SEO strategy.
Add YouTube Cards and End Screens
YouTube cards are small call-to-action icons that expand when clicked. It’s important to add YouTube cards to the video as it encourages viewers to take specific actions such as engaging in more of your content, clicking on the website’s link, etc. It should always be present at the end of the video and you could add up to 5 YouTube cards.
YouTube End Screens are also added at the end screens of the video to direct the viewer to subscribe, to visit the website, or watch a suggested video. It’s important to add end screens as it keeps the viewers active on your channel, thereby increasing watch time and engagement on your channel.
Upload Custom Thumbnail
This feature refers to the main image of the video which viewers can see before clicking on the video and even while scrolling through search results. A thumbnail of the video is as important as the title of the video. It serves as a deciding factor as to whether the audience will click on the video or not. Your video thumbnail will give the audience a brief idea as to what’s inside the video. In case, you don’t set a thumbnail for your video, YouTube by default will set it for you but it’s always better to create and customize it yourself for better results.
Create Playlists for your videos on your channel
A playlist is a very powerful feature on YouTube that curates your video content into different categories. There are two types of playlists i.e., Series playlists and ordinary playlists. A series playlist allows you to mark your playlist as a set of videos that should be watched sequentially. The ordinary playlist allows you to organize and manage your videos depending on the specific nature of the genre and you could also add additional keywords to your playlist. Creating a playlist helps you keep the viewer or the audience engaged with your channel longer.
