YouTube counts two billion monthly users worldwide, being the second social media platform after Facebook and the second most visited website after Google. Still, according to Hubspot, making your voice heard out there won’t be easy with 500 hours of video uploaded every minute on the channel.
Despite any difficulties, the opportunity remains enormous, as video became the most consumed online content type. Only in Romania, 96% of all Internet users aged 16 to 64 watch videos online and scroll about 11 pages each time they visit YouTube, spending an average of 27 min and 22 seconds on the channel, as Hootsuite and WeAreSocial recently reported.
Long story short, if your audience is on the platform and your competitors aren’t, you should definitely start considering integrating video marketing into your digital marketing strategy .
If you are relatively new to video marketing in general and YouTube Marketing in particular, you may want even more than others to ensure that your money is well invested. Therefore it’s worth setting aside some time to learn about your audience and their preferences because, in the end, you will need to create content that answers their questions in formats they are familiar with. Are your competitors also active in this area, or are they losing opportunities? How good are they?
Digging deep into all these aspects allows you to establish realistic goals before running any campaigns. Investing in strategy instead of immediately jumping into filming, as most enthusiasts do, can save you from unnecessary spendings, frustrations, and headaches.
Take the time to put together a video content plan with your Buyer Personas and their customer journey in mind if you want to make your life easier and keep your budgets under control.
Many marketers ask themselves if they should post their videos on Facebook or if it is better to upload them on Youtube. Well, it depends. The amazing thing about YouTube is that people turn to it with a purpose, usually looking for some information the same way they would do on Google but expecting to get an answer in video format. On Facebook, on the other side, people don’t actively look for things. They just see them while scrolling their feeds. Therefore, if your goal is to build awareness or launch a new product, you should probably opt for Facebook, and when you intend to build an audience and improve your SEO, you should go for YouTube.
To be relevant, consider creating HELP content that answers specific queries. Finding out what terms and expressions people use online is crucial because, in 64% of the cases, the search results for the same query are different on Google versus YouTube. Google’s algorithms for the two platforms are not the same. Apparently, they favor YouTube videos in Carousel SERP and place videos posted on other platforms lower down on the page.
Be a guide and show people how to use your products and what amazing things they can do with them. While HELP content will remain the core video type on your channel and the most easily discoverable sort of content on YouTube, if you want to become a recurrent destination for your audience, you will probably need to start focusing on HUB content as well. The episodic series work best. Set up a routine to publish such videos weekly and let your viewers know when to expect your next release.
Do you want to be spectacular and go viral? Once, twice, or maybe three times a year, if you are lucky enough and have relevant budgets, you can create HERO content around social causes or trending topics. If smartly designed, it may provide a massive step change to your audience’s growth.
Now that you are more familiar with the 3 main video categories you may have to produce constantly to become a YouTube success story let’s see what formats are available for you to choose for B2C or B2B projects.
Once your videos are uploaded on your channel, you may want to optimize them and create appealing and strong titles and descriptions that include keywords relevant to your brand. Make a priority out of your first lines as YouTube shows about 300 characters along with the video, but try not to sound spammy and avoid click-baiting. Simply focus on communicating as naturally as possible. Don’t forget to place a link to your website in the description area for those who want to learn more about you.
Create remarkable video thumbnails for each of your videos as they, along with the rest of the descriptions, will make the difference between pushing the play button or simply skipping your content.
Keep your channel organized and create playlists based on themes to improve your audience’s experience with your brand.
Place cards on your video to direct people to your site, and use end screens to promote complementary videos for more value. Watermarks allow you to offer non-subscribers the possibility to join your community.
If about 20% of your video views may result from organic traffic, you will need to invest in promotional activities on different channels for the rest.
Create variations of your videos on YouTube for them to match the expectations on each social media platform in part and post them accordingly to promote your content and attract more people.
Just sharing your YouTube videos in their original format will not help you too much. Each channel is willing to push original stuff specially designed for it and denominates what’s coming from outside sources.
According to Google, 60% of YouTube subscribers are more likely to follow trusted sources when making buying decisions. Whether you choose to opt for getting the traditional media to talk about your video campaign or decide to work together with bloggers and vloggers to boost your visibility, the overall trend is for brands to move towards influencers with fewer but genuine followers.
Give YouTube advertising a chance. It can help you build a community around your videos, which in turn can lead to conversations around your brand. The more subscribers your channel will have, the higher you will rank on both YouTube and Google searches for specific terms and keywords.
Last but not least: measure, analyze, and adapt.
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