What Is YouTube Marketing?
YouTube marketing is the process of promoting your content and brand on the popular video-sharing platform. Building a powerful YouTube marketing strategy and implementing smart marketing tips sets you apart from the competition and helps you become an influencer. Typically, businesses enforce a mix of organic and paid promotions, including uploading optimized content and paying for ads. 70% of consumers admit that they bought something after seeing an ad on YouTube. However, similar to Google, YouTube is a search engine as well, meaning that you have to optimize your content so audiences can discover it. No matter how great it is, no one will notice it unless you start adding powerful keywords. But how do you get more subscribers for your YouTube channel? This is the tricky part everyone struggles with. Keep reading to discover invaluable growth tips that will propel your business to new heights.
Why Is YouTube Marketing Important?
Boosts Traffic
YouTube is available in 100+ countries and 80 different languages. This means that building a YouTube marketing strategy brings you closer to international audiences. Whether you publish original content or leverage YouTube advertising, being active on the platform helps you generate new leads. That is if you cater to people's needs and create content that resonates with them. Don't assume that you know what your audience wants and needs, but instead do thorough research. Additionally, collaborating with influential YouTube figures allows you to expand your reach significantly and get their stamp of approval. Remember that most influencers have loyal viewers who trust their word more than anything.
Google Visibility
Creating a YouTube channel is an essential marketing tip, similar to adding your company details on Google. You may have noticed that videos appear on Google searches, meaning that this media form is more popular than ever. So, you can embed your videos in your articles and add links to your blog posts in the description of your YouTube videos. You may also ask other websites to feature your videos, which, if done correctly, will boost your ranking in SERPs and help your website appear higher in organic searches. Ultimately, these practices will not only increase brand visibility but also accelerate business growth.
Increases Conversions
A powerful social media strategy that includes YouTube marketing means that your B2B content marketing reaches large audiences and attracts more leads. In fact, many marketers claim that their sales have increased after implementing their marketing tips on YouTube. This can be attributed to many reasons. Firstly, videos are more engaging than articles and allow you to build further trust and credibility. Also, you can showcase how your product operates and help B2B customers solve their pain points. Lastly, you can increase your lead generation thanks to webinar promos and online course trailers by adding links leading to your landing pages, encouraging the audience to sign up and stay updated.
Build An Email List
How can YouTube marketing strategies help you build your email list? It may not be widely known, but there is software that allows you to embed your signup form within your videos. As viewers watch your video, a signup window pops up. People can add their personal details there and subscribe to your link for upcoming events. Thanks to this smart email marketing solution, potential clients don't need to click on other links and get redirected to your website. To boost your signups on YouTube, you may implement lead generation techniques, including lead magnets, annotations, and paid ads. If you don't want to use special software, you can simply add a lead magnet at the top right side of your videos and let people click it if they want.
Brand Awareness
One of the top priorities and benefits of YouTube marketing strategies is enhanced brand awareness. Statistics show that 90% of people worldwide are introduced to new products and companies on the platform. This means that creating and publishing content is a powerful B2B marketing tactic for gaining loyal customers. For example, creating how-to guides, tutorials, and demos allows people to experience your product and understand how it can help them. Staying consistent with your branding and voice is crucial to retaining your popularity.
10 Steps To Create The Best YouTube Marketing Strategy
1. Brand Your Channel
Your YouTube channel is like your company's showcase room. You need it to be representative of your brand image, character, and uniqueness. So, the channel's name should be consistent with your company name and overall color scheme. Add the same profile picture you have across all online channels, include an accurate description of your services, and share your social media links, including your main website. Additionally, you must brand all your thumbnails, descriptions, and video titles. Even if you optimize your titles for SEO purposes, make sure you are still on-brand. Don't forget to add a banner image, too. If you don't have one ready, you may use free online tools like Canva to create one based on their wide range of templates.
2. Learn Your Audience's Preferences
Your YouTube marketing strategy should focus on identifying your target audience and their interests. Do you know who you're making videos for and what they like watching? Once you conduct customer profiling, you'll be able to answer those two questions. YouTube analytics show you how many loyal and new viewers you have and what types of videos each one watches. Therefore, you can understand their preferences and improve your content accordingly. Moreover, analytics provide you with essential demographics, like age and location. Based on this data, you can arrange publishing times. For example, if your YouTube target audience is largely from the United Kingdom but your company is based in the United States, you may start publishing your videos according to their time zone.
3. Study Your Competition
Our list of YouTube marketing tips wouldn't be enough without this one. Your YouTube content strategy should focus on identifying your competitors, their audience's characteristics, and their most successful content. Check their following and how fast they're growing their subscribers. Analyze their successful videos and how their engaged audience members interact. Do they press the like button and leave comments? And how are these channels engaging with their audience? Maybe they like each comment and reply to a majority of them. Also, keep track of their posting schedule to understand how often and at what times they upload new videos. Another area you may focus on is keyword analysis. If a channel appears at the top of YouTube's search results, chances are their SEO skills are very advanced. Study their approach and try to incorporate the same tactics.
4. Create Valuable Content
How do you use YouTube's algorithm to promote your videos in the congested video pool? Nothing is more important for your YouTube marketing strategy than top-quality content. Based on your competitive analysis, you should curate videos your subscribers watch and engage with. Invest in social listening to identify common pain points your audience encounters and create videos addressing them. Then, create a clear-cut script so you know exactly what you'll talk about. Maintaining a concentrated narrative is crucial in sustaining your viewers' interest. Cut unnecessary parts and keep the narration short without adding too much fluff. You may use storytelling techniques to create intrigue and build climactic narration. Stay consistent with your uploading so potential clients know when they should expect new videos. For webinars and demos, you can create events that count down the time remaining until showtime.
5. Optimize Your Videos
An SEO marketing strategy means that you incorporate relevant and top keywords and phrases in your video titles and descriptions to help YouTube's search engine locate your videos. However, YouTube isn't exactly like Google. It's not only the keywords used or how popular a video is that counts. YouTube also takes into consideration a user's watch history. So, two people searching for the same term won't get the exact same results. A few top SEO tips to help you optimize your videos and channel performance are to conduct keyword research to understand what most people search for. Additionally, you should add timestamps that break your video into chapters so viewers can skip certain parts and watch what interests them. You must also pay close attention to your thumbnail and video description to make sure they're accurate and detailed.
6. Monitor Your Performance
How can you improve your marketing results and boost your channel's engagement? Monitoring your channel means keeping track of each brand mention, reading positive and negative mentions, identifying trending topics, and understanding your competitors. YouTube analytics help you improve your content and overall YouTube marketing strategy. Maybe you don't promote your business using email marketing like your competition does, and your competitor analysis helps you identify that gap. Also, you can pinpoint the videos that attract many viewers compared to those where potential customers churn quickly so you know which subject works best for you.
7. Experiment With YouTube Shorts
Using YouTube for business allows you to enforce not only long-form videos but also shorts. Their rising popularity is attributed to people's need to consume content quickly. Some of the best agencies offering content marketing services would advise you to start cropping your longer videos into shorts to intrigue viewers and make them watch the full version. As a result, you can reach larger audiences since people watch more shorts. Also, shorts can easily be shared on your other social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Keep in mind that 63% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile phones, where shorts are easier to consume.
8. Engage With Your Audience
Marketing your brand and promoting your channel are continuous strategies that require high engagement levels. A crucial YouTube marketing tip is to engage with your viewers and answer their comments. You can press "Like" on every single comment and reply to those making suggestions. For example, when someone suggests an improvement, you can respond respectfully, showing how much you value their feedback and promising to do better. YouTube marketing isn't only about crafting a decent campaign structure but also about maintaining loyal relationships.
9. Schedule Live Streams
YouTube Lives is the future of digital marketing, as it allows you to pique people's interest and boost engagement. You may periodically arrange Q&As, how-to guides, and demos and use the live comments section to engage with your subscribers. You may also promote your upcoming webinars and podcasts and create premiere dates. A great YouTube marketing tip is to arrange your premieres earlier on the platform to offer exclusivity to your followers. Afterward, you may answer top questions from the live comments section and interact with viewers.
10. Collaborate With Influencers
Content marketing experts know how pivotal influencer marketing can prove for established and up-and-coming YouTube channels. Creators with large and loyal audiences can help you increase brand awareness, generate new leads, and increase subscribers. Their authority convinces others that you are a trustworthy brand. It's pretty much like a PPC directory on a trusted website. But how do you utilize YouTube creators? Product placements, sponsored videos, giveaways, and affiliate marketing are all wonderful ideas depending on your needs. For example, you may offer a free subscription as a giveaway or a special discount as part of the affiliate program.
7 Marketing Tips To Attract Viewers And Grow Your Channel
1. Paid Ads
Boosting your organic traffic should be a top priority. However, a good marketing tip is to incorporate paid ads into your YouTube B2B marketing strategy. They allow you to reach larger audiences and promote your content effectively. YouTube supports five ad types, including bumper, in-stream, in-feed, masthead, and outstream. Bumper and in-stream ads are two of the most popular, with the former being unskippable and appearing at the beginning of a video, while the latter appears within the video, and you may or may not be able to skip them. Masthead ads appear at the top of your YouTube feed, and outstream ads are strictly for mobile navigation. So, it's obvious why video banner ads are an essential tool in your marketing arsenal.
2. Email Marketing
Many creators have achieved YouTube success thanks to their successful email marketing campaigns. We have already mentioned the benefits of email marketing in building your list. Once you have a satisfactory number of signups, you can start segmenting your YouTube target audience based on their interests and demographics. Every time you have a new video coming out, you can send reminder emails to your followers along with engaging and intriguing text, throwing them hints about the content. One of the best email marketing practices is to offer early access to your subscribers. People love exclusivity, and you may attract even more signups to your channel. Ensure your emails look amazing on mobile devices, as most people read their messages on their phones.
3. Social Media Marketing
It's a no-brainer that social media should be an integral part of your YouTube marketing strategy, as promoting your content there boosts engagement and widens your target audience. This symbiotic relationship allows you to publish cropped content that piques people's interest so they watch full-length videos. Additionally, you can engage with your followers and reply to their comments. Make sure to have an SEO strategy set up so your videos are easily discovered. Another benefit of Instagram is that it lets you track video analytics, identify successful and ineffective patterns, and improve your content and promotional campaigns. You should take advantage of user-generated content, too, including thought leader interviews and customer testimonials.
4. Collaborate And Cross-Promote
Collaboration and networking can help you tap into new audiences and expand your viewership. For instance, you can make a list of channels that produce similar content and appeal to the same demographics. You may suggest a partnership where you make appearances on each other's channels or create joint videos. Receiving a shoutout from channels bigger than yours is a wonderful opportunity to generate new leads. As mentioned above, social media directs audiences back to your YouTube channel and lets them discover more interesting content. So, cross-promoting your videos on all your social media platforms is a necessary step for expanding your audience and increasing views.
5. Run Contests
YouTube contests and giveaways aren't as simple as their Instagram counterparts. Don't ask viewers to simply like your video, leave a comment, and subscribe to your channel. Make your competitions a bit more creative by asking your audience members to submit their personal videos expressing their opinions on a topic or why they chose or want to choose your business. Alternatively, you may ask your YouTube followers to share one of your videos on their social media using a specific hashtag. In this instance, mentrepreneurs and marketing leaders should track the chosen hashtag to count participants and measure engagement. You may then choose the winner randomly using a generator.
6. Q&As
You've probably seen your favorite influencers or famous people do Q&A videos on YouTube or Instagram. This is a great YouTube marketing tip for your B2B company to interact with its audience, ask them for their questions, and provide detailed answers. You may ask people to submit their questions in the comments or on an Instagram story. After you compile the most commonly asked and interesting questions, you should create a video. You may conduct it in the form of an interview, where an employee asks and a thought leader answers. Alternatively, you can write the questions on the screen and let your expert answer them. You may do the same on your website and publish the same Q&A content in written form. Take a look at this article to get an idea of what a Q&A article looks like.
7. Evergreen Content
At the epicenter of all YouTube marketing tips lies evergreen content. While you create new videos regularly, your past content should always be relevant and attract viewers even years later. Therefore, your content keeps converting without you having to enforce new lead magnet ideas all the time. Make sure to add key terms in your title and description. Surely, you may need to create videos regarding trending matters. However, try to limit these types of videos and find creative ways to turn them into evergreen discussions. If you're working with influencers, make sure the co-branded content you generate stands strong over the course of time.
5 Types Of Videos You Can Create
1. Testimonials And Case Studies
Testimonials and case studies can be produced both in written and audiovisual forms and can both get people to buy your product. To create a video testimonial, simply ask your clients for their genuine thoughts. You can invite them into your studio or ask them to film themselves explaining their experiences with your brand. UGC content is typically perceived as more honest. You may intercut with product tutorials and text explanations. Case studies are quite similar. Choose a customer whose story is highly engaging and triumphant and interview them, focusing on the benefits of your product, not its features. Their perception of your brand should be authentically positive.
2. Explainers And Tutorials
YouTube marketing strategies can't miss adding explainers, tutorials, and how-to guides in their strategic marketing plans. If you use YouTube for business, these types of videos help you explain in depth how your product operates and what results clients can expect. Remember that most people search for videos when they want to learn something. Tutorials offer great freedom to viewers who can pause the video and rewatch something they have trouble understanding. They can leave comments with their questions, while the content is accessible to people with visual and hearing impairments. While YouTube offers automated subtitles, you may add video captions for those unable to listen.
3. Product Demonstrations
Tutorials explain to your YouTube target audience how they can use your product. With demos, you show them how your product operates, and it can be done during a live webinar. The good thing about YouTube is that such videos can be also used like pre-recorded webinars. The only thing you need is a camera or screen-recording software and someone who knows exactly how to operate your product. Adding this video form to your YouTube marketing strategy can increase credibility and trust as clients see for themselves how beneficial your solution is. Focus your YouTube content creation on features and results without sounding too salesy. You may create a premiere for your video and remind audiences to log in 30 minutes before showtime. Turn on the live chat, too, so you can answer questions during the video.
4. Interviews
A YouTube marketing company would tell you that interviews are very popular among audiences, as they build trust. You may invite famous and respected figures in your industry and facilitate interesting and informative conversations. You may not discuss your product and its features, but general burning matters. However, you have the opportunity to express your thoughts and establish thought leadership. To get more customers, your interviews should be personal, genuine, and not overly promotional. You may crop them into smaller videos and repurpose them on various social media platforms to build intrigue. Podcasts and videocasts are one way of conducting interviews when in-person meetings are not possible. Additionally, you can interview your own experts who are well-known in the industry.
5. Video Blogs
You may also add vlogs to your YouTube content strategy, as they are more personal and friendly than other video forms. Let us share a few YouTube marketing tips with you. For starters, you need to pick a team member who knows your business's ins and outs. Decide the topic of each vlog and use simple language. Effective vlogs typically last more than ten minutes, so you may publish them once a week or twice a month and focus on quality. Since YouTube is a search engine, share each vlog's link with your social media followers and encourage them to share the video. As it becomes more popular, the algorithm will promote it, and it will start appearing on people's front pages depending on the keywords you add.
Key Takeaway
YouTube marketing is a top way to promote your valuable content and grow your channel. It allows you to increase brand awareness, boost traffic and conversions, and improve search results. Building an effective channel that represents your values and is consistent with your brand image is pivotal. But you must conduct competitive analysis and iterative testing to understand which content types are popular among your target audience. Improving your SEO, publishing shorts and lives, and collaborating with established and trusted figures are some of the most valuable YouTube marketing tips.
You may start creating testimonials, case studies, Q&As, interviews, tutorials, and vlogs to appeal to viewers. In your descriptions, you should add links leading to gated content, such as informational eBooks, webinars, and consultation offers, helping you build your email list. But how do you even make your channel visible? Paid ads, email marketing, content marketing, contests, and cross-promotion are all effective ways of building your demand generation campaigns. However, you shouldn't be business formal all the time. Create a few business casual videos that focus on your company behind the scenes and give people a glimpse of what your employees look like.
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