If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video certainly has a whole story to tell.
More and more marketers are integrating videos into their content strategy, especially on YouTube.
And it’s no wonder; YouTube has more than 2 billion monthly users and is the second most visited website in the world after Google.
In this post, you’ll find a five-part recipe for YouTube marketing based on what we know about the most successful channels on YouTube.
Who do you reach on YouTube?
You’d think they’re a very specific audience – the type of video game players or beauty gurus, for example.
However, 50% of B2B decision-makers use YouTube to research purchases. So all possible target groups can be reached via YouTube videos, regardless of whether they are Gen Z or Boomers.
Many brands hesitate about YouTube marketing believing that they need the best TV host equipment and training in order to attract loyal viewers.
This is not true at all.
advertising
Read below
In fact, the most popular people on YouTube are vloggers who don’t meet any of these requirements. Most of them started their channels as normal people with shabby cameras.
They didn’t want to get millions of followers – but they did.
I’m not saying your brand will be as successful as Pewdiepie or JoJo Siwa, but brands can learn a lot from the biggest YouTube channels.
Here are five lessons you can learn from this in building your own (or your brand’s) YouTube channel.
1. Create videos based on your goals
Any content you create should have a clear goal, be it brand awareness, conversion, or attracting new customers.
Your content goals determine what type of videos you should create. Don’t try to develop a content strategy based on a clue or what your competitors are doing (we’ll look at that later).
advertising
Read below
Your goals can help determine both the topics you choose and the format in which you talk about them.
Here are some of the most common formats brands choose for their videos:
Instructional videos and instructions.
These aim to give your audience a deeper understanding of your product and your industry. Usually the goal is conversion, which is achieved by showing people how to deal with a particular problem with your product.
Interviews with thought leaders.
These videos will increase your brand awareness and help you build your reputation. By working with industry leaders, you can position yourself as an expert.
Product demonstration videos.
These are usually short and aim to present your product in a fun way. They are perfect for reuse across multiple channels – YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and so on.
Testimonials and case studies.
These are essentially interviews with your satisfied customers. Similar to how-tos, they show how to use your product to solve a problem. Such videos can help indecisive customers and guide them to a purchase decision.
Product reviews.
These are usually posted on external channels, not your own. They can be created by an influencer in your industry to describe your product with all its advantages and disadvantages. Product reviews increase brand awareness and generate new leads for your brand.
It’s important to remember that no matter what format you choose for your videos, they should also offer something to your audience. People don’t come to YouTube to watch ads unless they want to make fun of them.
Your videos should add value to your audience, ideally through education or entertainment – or both. Make sure you are creating content that is as valuable to your audience as it is to your business.
2. Know your target audience
To ensure that you have a loyal audience base, and not just random users that come and go, you need to research your target audience. Highlighting their weaknesses, interests, likes, and dislikes can help you create better content.
advertising
Read below
Take a look at the BonAppetit channel, an extension of BonAppetit magazine that actually has a lot more viewers than readers. It’s a channel about cooking, and they could stop – but they know their audience.
Your viewer is not only looking for recipes, but also appreciates delicious food and wants to learn more about it. This is the messy channel that has videos on mutual help initiatives, green living, food exploration, cooking with celebrities popular with millennials, and more.
How can you research your target audience? Here are a few ideas; otherwise
First of all, you can go through the customer feedback and see what requests and complaints your customers have more often. Contact your customer service and ask them about the most common comments.
Focus groups are another great way to learn about your audience’s interests. You can even do a virtual focus group on your first YouTube video before posting it and solicit feedback from people in exchange for free samples or discounts.
advertising
Read below
Using social media monitoring can help you find demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data about your audience and use that insight to build a buyer personality.
Social listening tools allow you to find online conversations about your product, brand or niche and analyze their authors. They can find out which social media platforms they are attracted to, what content they share, what questions they ask, what topics they discuss and how they feel about it, and so on.
That way, you’ll know what topics to cover, what questions to answer, crack jokes, or create seriously helpful content.
Plus, by monitoring your brand, you can also find out if someone has already made a video with it – maybe a review video that you didn’t know about. You can learn a lot from this too.
3. Create authentic content with the resources you have
The biggest obstacle brands face when marketing YouTube is the belief that everything should be perfect. Do you really need the best equipment, lighting, camera, tripod, and a professional entertainer to host your video?
advertising
Read below
Of course not. YouTube made video production accessible to everyone, and you don’t need a high-tech camera to have a successful channel. Nowadays, a lot of videos are actually filmed with a smartphone.
As for the moderators in your videos, a lot of YouTube videos don’t show any people at all!
One of the most successful video channels on YouTube, The Nerdwriter, publishes video essays in which we only hear the voice-over without actually seeing the creator’s face.
Of course, people connect with others more easily. However, that doesn’t mean you have to hire professional entertainers to host your videos. In fact, the opposite is true.
PewDiePie, who runs the largest channel on YouTube, started making videos when they had an adequate camera and a heavy Swedish accent – and their channel exploded.
The YouTube audience craves authenticity; You want to get in touch with real people, not actors. This is why YouTubers are so popular. They don’t have a huge team of producers telling them what to do, so they are able to be themselves.
advertising
Read below
4. Create a consistent release schedule
A consistent release schedule will benefit your channel from both a viewer and platform perspective.
Your viewers know when to expect a new video and will review your channel accordingly. With YouTube, it’s no secret that YouTube’s algorithm favors channels that upload content regularly and on a schedule.
Your frequency of publication depends on the resources available to you. Most YouTubers stick to uploading once a week; For example, this is Kurtis Conner’s release schedule, which has more than 3 million subscribers.
Larger video production teams like Buzzfeed upload more often. It doesn’t matter how often your content is published, whether it is biweekly or once a month, but it is very important that you have a regular schedule.
This will ensure that you can regularly share content on your social channels to promote the videos as well.
5. Don’t ignore YouTube SEO
YouTube is not only the second most popular website after Google, but also the second largest search engine. Hence, just like your post blogs, your YouTube videos need to be optimized.
advertising
Read below
On YouTube, this means tweaking all of the metadata that comes with your video when it is uploaded: title, description, tags and categories, subtitles and thumbnails.
Video title
Do the same keyword research as you would when planning a new blog post and include the keywords in the title.
Limit the title to a maximum of 60 characters as YouTube will no longer display it on the results page.
description
YouTube allows you to include a long description where you can add links to your website, social media profiles, and a short bio. You can also include hashtags in your description.
However, the first 100 characters should make the description clickable and search engine friendly.
This is shown to the user when he searches for videos on YouTube, and YouTube takes this into account when selecting the videos to be displayed. Therefore, your description should contain the necessary keywords and be interesting and attractive to YouTube users.
A typical description looks like this:
advertising
Read below
- A brief description of the video.
- A call to action.
- An introduction to the channel and links to other platforms.
Keywords
The more tags you have, the better. You can use your keywords as tags in addition to niche-related keywords.
category
Select a category in the “Advanced Settings”.
Thumbnail view
Thumbnails are the biggest element that your video users will see when they search for a YouTube video. Therefore, it is better to create a custom thumbnail with additional text and exciting images than to select one of the frames from the video.
Playlist
If you want to upload multiple videos with the same theme, create a playlist. It increases your chances of getting into search results and has a positive effect on your watch time as viewers stay with your content longer.
Over to you
The best way to master YouTube marketing is to start and see what kind of results and feedback you get. Then you can adjust your strategy for the future.
advertising
Read below
Ready to start your YouTube search?
More resources:
Featured image: Kachka / Shutterstock
Comments are closed.