YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine next to Google, and as a result, it holds massive opportunities for marketers to grow their brands and businesses. If you have an online business it’s extremely important to have video as an active part of your marketing strategy.
In this article, we will explore YouTube marketing strategies that can help grow your brand awareness, bring you more business and develop consistency inside your business.
Table of contents
Why Market on YouTube?
It’s hard to ignore the fact that more and more people are choosing video as their preferred method of entertainment, information, and leisure. People simply love watching videos over any other information format online. It’s easy, engaging, and passive
You can hold people’s attention longer on video than any other information medium.
Check out some of the impressive YouTube traffic statistics below.
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There is simply strength in the overall exposure that YouTube can bring to your brand or business.
Beyond just allowing audiences to watch videos, YouTube offers different ways for marketers to connect with their audience and attract new customers. Business owners often promote their products by uploading demo videos. It’s been noticed that the audience preferred to watch videos rather than read the details. Youtubers also keep looking at the best sites to buy YouTube views to get more exposure to their product.
Interacting with Your Audience
Viewers can leave constructive feedback on videos through the comments section. This gives viewers an ability to interact with other viewers and also the companies and brands themselves. The interactions in the comments section provide tremendous value to both the brand and the viewers and help to establish trust and rapport for a brand or product.
Recommended Reading: How to Determine the Target Market for Your Business
The back and forth communications between viewers and companies is extremely valuable because it shows to the rest of the audience that you are active on YouTube and cares about their criticisms, opinions, and views. It’s a great way to interact and grow an audience.
Establishing Yourself as an Authority
Putting out valuable content allows you to establish your expertise about your industry or niche and allows you to get discovered by people who share an interest in your content.
If you consistently put out videos that are helpful and provide value for your audience, they will continue to come back. It’s all about creating an audience that trusts your expertise and looks for you as an authority figure.
Strong SEO Benefits
If someone is searching for how to do something online, chances are that 9 times out of 10 they will go straight to YouTube for the answer. Ranking your videos on YouTube is a different process which in some cases doesn’t take as long as ranking traditional written content.
The factors to rank your videos are different, but some of the same SEO concepts remain the same. Creating instructional videos is extremely valuable in terms of SEO and can rank much quicker on YouTube than traditional articles and blog posts.
Recommended Reading: How To Do Keyword Research for SEO
How Effective is Youtube Marketing
Marketing on YouTube can be extremely effective for your brand and business, but it has to be done in a way that is engaging to your users. There are many different ways to market on YouTube but the top 2 ways which are utilized today include:
- Paid YouTube ads
- Creating Your Own Channel
Each of the 2 methods above can be effective and each comes with its own set of challenges.
Paid YouTube Ads
Paid ads will generate an immediate impact on your business, whether it be direct visitors to your website, product purchases, or email subscribers. The only caveat here is that you will need to have a bit of a budget in order to test different ads and spend some money optimization to see which combination converts the best.
Video ads tend to cost much less than traditional pay-per click ads and can quickly spread more exposure to your brand at a fraction of the cost of pay-per-click ads. This is recommended if you have the necessary budget and are willing to spend some money.
Click Here to Learn More About YouTube Ads
Creating Your Own Channel
Creating your own YouTube channel is a great way to build an audience and best of all it’s 100% free. Channels such as Linus Test Tips have experienced massive success as a direct result of putting out educational and entertaining video content on YouTube.
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Boasting over 12.2 million subscribers they have built a loyal fan base of customers and fans around the world. Their channel receives approximately 100 million views per month which translates into millions of dollars per year in ad revenue according to Social Blade estimates.
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This is the power of YouTube and how effective it can be for your business if you are willing to take the time and consistently put out valuable and engaging content.
This also brings us to our next point. It can take quite a bit of time for your channel to gain subscribers and consistent views.
It requires significant effort and consistency in order to put out valuable content, rank it and build an audience. This option is for people who want to take things slow and have the patience and time to build a loyal following.
Now let’s dive into some unique YouTube marketing strategies which you can use to grow your business if you decide to start your own channel or do pay YouTube ads.
Youtube Marketing Strategies
Study Your Competition
If you are serious about marketing your business on YouTube it’s important to get an idea to see who you are going up against. Chances are that there are already established channels on the topic or niche you want to cover, so it’s important to get an idea of what has made them successful.
Take notes on the following channel statistics below:
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These are just some of the things you should look at while checking out your competitors. It will help give you an idea of how frequently to upload, what kind of content is popular and the kind effort you need to put in to experience similar results.
Research the following YouTube channel below and take notes on all the statistics that we mentioned.
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Taking a look at different channels will help give you an idea of what kind of content people like to see and what type of content has the potential to perform well.
Write Strong Titles
Having a strong title for your video is extremely important because it’s a factor that induces people to click and view your videos.
Strong titles achieve some of the following below:
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Strong YouTube titles should include:
- Relevant keywords the video pertains to
- Limited characters, recommended less than 70
- Enticing keyword such as (Amazing, Incredible, Shocking, Must See)
- Use “How To” in your titles
- Feature the year for relevancy
It’s also recommended that you periodically test different titles and see which one performs better. You would be surprised at what kind of impact you can have on the exposure of your video by making a small adjustment to the title.
Recommended Reading: The Inverted Pyramid Style of Content Writing
Examples of Strong YouTube Titles
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The search query generates video titles which are relevant for the year, the PC and for who it’s for. It’s very targeted, specific and has the perfect length.
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The titles return back some very specific information along with the year and that the video is a compilation.
Create Detailed Video Descriptions
Having informative video descriptions is not only helpful for your audience, it has some serious impact on your videos ability to rank high in YouTube’s search engine. Rich video descriptions accomplish some of the following below:
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Another important detail to consider adding inside your YouTube video description is timecards. They allow your audience to skip to specific pieces of your content and allow them to see all the topics you cover. It essentially serves as a table of contents for them if you happen to have a long instructional video.
Timecard Example
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They provide great structure for your video description and tend to be located towards the bottom of the description.
Develop Your Own Thumbnail Style
Developing your own thumbnail style is important in helping your audience remember your channel and it also functions as an extremely important element in driving traffic to your YouTube content. Apart from your YouTube title, your thumbnail will serve as the initial marketing piece for your brand.
Elements of a great YouTube thumbnail include:
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Below are some examples of great thumbnails.
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This YouTube thumbnail by Ahrefs is creative, captures your attention, evokes curiosity and makes you want to click the video and see what they are going to cover.
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The thumbnail clearly identifies the title inside the thumbnail, features a clean and engaging background style and also features the picture of the individual who will be presenting the information.
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This thumbnail features a shocking picture and action-packed photo, the names of the two fighters, and some cool graphics on the side.
Edit your video’s
Want to create content love to watch, make sure you edit your videos to create incredible videos. Using a video editing tool also allows you to optimize the videos for every social channel, in a matter of clicks.
A great solution (paid) is to use a tool like Adobe Premiere Pro, you can easily edit video’s, add captions and create that wow factor. Looking for free editing tools? Check out Piktochart or Canva.
Create a Publishing Schedule
Creating a publishing schedule for your YouTube channel is a great way to stay consistent and develop expectations from your audience. By consistently publishing great pieces of content you will be able to build a steady stream of views and subscribers.
The schedule will also provide you with a good structure and allow you to stay on pace with growth.
Different publishing schedules can include:
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Your schedule will depend on how aggressive you want to get with your Youtube marketing and how long you want your videos to be. Whatever you choose it’s important to remain consistent.
Ask for Channel Shout-outs
Partnering up with other channels that are in your niche, but aren’t a direct competitor is a great way to gain some exposure to your YouTube channel.
This will take some manual work on your end in order to reach out to channels and ask them to be featured on their channel or partner up and do a duel video on a topic which aligns with both of your niches.
Channel Shout-outs accomplish some of the following:
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A lot of smaller channels use this strategy to gain more subscribers and recognitions. This is very effective because other channels already have an established audience that trusts them. Chances are that you will gain a decent amount of subscribers by getting featured from another channel.
Conclusion
As you can see, making YouTube an active market of your marketing strategy can help your brand or business gain some serious exposure. It goes without saying that you will need to put some serious effort behind your YouTube marketing efforts in order to see tangible results. If you decide to make YouTube an active part of your marketing strategy the long-term effects can be invaluable.