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YouTube can be an effective tool for businesses to engage with existing customers and attract new ones. The video content-sharing platform is a great way to boost your business profile. That said, the competition on YouTube is fierce. Savvy YouTube marketing is a must if you want to stand out from the crowd and leverage the platform for your competitive advantage.
Are you not an expert YouTube marketer yourself? Don’t stress. YouTube marketing professionals on Upwork can help you create, manage, and monitor the success of your YouTube marketing campaign.
This article will explore the advantages of YouTube marketing and how to create a YouTube marketing strategy for your business.
Why YouTube is a great marketing tool
YouTube can be a useful marketing tool for a variety of businesses and brands. It isn’t just for fashion influencers or people who create makeup tutorials. Companies in many industries now use YouTube to harness the power of video marketing.
Here are some benefits of YouTube content marketing:
- YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine (after Google) and one of the most visited sites globally. YouTube gives you a significant opportunity to reach a large number of people to raise brand awareness.
- YouTube allows for massive reach. It’s not just Americans accessing the site. People log in from all over the world, with those from India (9.5% of global visitors) and Japan (4.9%) visiting most frequently after users from the U.S. (15.9%).
- YouTube marketing can be precisely targeted. It’s possible to tailor campaigns based on details like keywords, topics, and demographics, such as audience language, location, and more.
- YouTube is versatile. Brands and businesses can establish their channels on YouTube and upload content to organically nurture a following of subscribers. Or they can leverage the platform in other ways, such as via influencer marketing or paid advertising placement.
- YouTube marketing is measurable. Depending on how campaigns are set up, you can gauge the success of your video strategy using key performance indicators (KPIs) like click-through rate (CTR). They can then tweak campaigns according to those content metrics.
4 YouTube marketing best practices
While YouTube’s massive size is one of its benefits, this can also be a drawback. If you don’t take care, your channel can quickly get lost among the noise. Follow these tips to ensure your YouTube channel makes a mark.
1. Know your target audience
To reach your target audience, you first have to define them. What type of individual do you hope to reach in terms of demographic details like age, gender, language, education, and location? Pinpointing these traits will help you determine what type of content is most likely to resonate with that group.
2. Create high-converting YouTube videos
Every video you post on YouTube should include a call to action (CTA) to help increase conversions. Think about what steps you want viewers to take when they view your video. For example, you may want them to visit a landing page, subscribe to your channel, or like your video.
Your video’s text description can serve as an effective CTA because viewers can access a link here at any point without waiting until the video has played through. Since YouTube only shows the first few lines of the video description to the viewer, include your CTA within the first 100 characters of the description.
Of course, you’ll want viewers to watch your videos until the end. This requires making high-quality, compelling content.
What is considered compelling depends on your business and audience. For example, while prank videos are often big hits on YouTube, these aren’t appropriate for most businesses and brands. A good starting point is to research competitors in your niche and see what they’re doing on YouTube.
3. Know YouTube SEO basics
Your description should also include an accurate and useful summary of the content a viewer can expect from the video.
The description is invaluable for YouTube search engine optimization (SEO). Accurate descriptions with targeted keywords informed by thorough keyword research can help YouTube’s search engine algorithms understand what your video is about and improve your search engine results rankings.
Your title is another tool that can tell viewers (and YouTube’s algorithm) what your video is about. It should encourage people to click while incorporating relevant keywords you want to rank for in the search engine’s results. Learn how to write an effective title along with other YouTube best practices to rank and maximize views.
4. Post consistently on YouTube
Attracting subscribers to your YouTube channel is just half the battle. For maximum impact, you need to nurture your community. You want subscribers who are actively liking and commenting on your videos. This engagement will help boost your video’s visibility on YouTube and may even land you a shot of making YouTube’s trending page—where you can attract more attention and new subscribers.
Further, when your subscribers are responding to your videos, you know they’re paying attention. You can even respond to their comments, furthering a sense of community on the platform, which is important for fostering loyalty.
The first step toward achieving this goal is consistently posting fresh, value-adding, high-quality content in line with followers’ expectations. For example, if your subscribers rely on your channel for interior design tutorials, you don’t want to deviate significantly from that content.
While you want to post regularly, don’t forego quality for quantity. Professional videos shot in high resolution, with consistent audio quality and clear editing (e.g., fading between frames), can keep viewers interested. If you’re racing to post videos and end up skimping on essentials like editing, viewers may get frustrated and seek similar, better-quality content elsewhere.
What do you need to get started with YouTube marketing?
If you’ve never engaged in YouTube marketing before, the prospect may be daunting. Don’t worry. One of the biggest draws of YouTube is that it’s fairly user-friendly and straightforward. Here’s what you need to get started.
YouTube brand account
Note that you will need a Google account to set up a YouTube account (Google owns YouTube). If you have a Gmail account, you already have access to a YouTube account. If you don’t yet have a Google account, you can create one here.
Now, visit YouTube and sign in using your Google account name. At the top right, click the drop-down menu and select “Create a Channel.” At the bottom, you can click “Use a business or other name.” Select “Use a Custom Name” to create a channel using your brand or business name.
You can then tailor display details in line with your brand, like a custom thumbnail image, profile picture, header, channel art, and more. You can also add a channel trailer to introduce visitors to your business. If you’re having trouble or simply don’t have the time to set this up, you can hire YouTube marketers who can help.
A YouTube marketing strategy
Managing a successful YouTube channel requires strategy. You don’t want to just upload videos randomly. Integrating your YouTube efforts into your broader marketing plan will ensure a more focused approach, minimizing wasted effort and helping you reach the right audience with the right content at the right time.
A dedicated team to help
Consistency and quality are key to YouTube marketing success. If you don’t have the time or resources to set up—or keep up with—your channel yourself, look for external professionals to help. If you start building your team from the beginning, you can ensure consistency.
You might want help in areas like:
- Videography: This is the process of actually conceptualizing, shooting, and producing videos.
- Editing: This is the process of creating a polished product from raw footage. This could include cutting together scenes, adding transitional frames and music, and more.
- Animation: YouTube videos don’t just have to be real-world footage. Animation allows you to get even more creative.
- Subtitles and translation: If you want to target people in other linguistic regions, subtitles or translation are beneficial. Subtitles also help make your video more widely accessible, e.g., to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
- SEO: YouTube is technically a search engine. Search engine optimization (like what keywords you use in video descriptions) can help make your videos easier to find.
- Marketing: SEO is just one tool in the YouTube marketing toolkit. YouTube marketing experts can help your videos gain visibility. They can also help you develop strategies for how to best leverage your YouTube to boost business.
Upwork offers a global pool of independent talent covering a diversity of specialties. For your most pressing YouTube campaigns, Upwork’s Project Catalog provides the expertise you need without having to find your professionals.
How to create a YouTube marketing strategy
Creating a YouTube strategy is similar to creating any marketing strategy. It requires research, planning, and continual analysis. Here’s how it’s done.
Start with your goals
First, outline your goals. Do you want to drive visitors to your website? Sell more of a specific product? Improve awareness among a certain target group? Define your goals and craft your content accordingly.
Ideally, your goals will be measurable, allowing you to assess the success of your video marketing efforts. For example, if you want to sell more of a specific product, your video CTA might include a trackable purchase link.
Understand your audience
You want to ensure you’re promoting your business in a way that is relevant to your chosen group. Creating a customer persona representing your target audience can help you figure out what products and services to promote and how.
For example, the media interests of a teenager preparing to leave home for their first year of college will differ from those of a young couple thinking about life changes, like buying a house and starting a family.
Analyze your competitors
Take a look at other channels in your business niche. They likely share your target audience. Surveying their success (and failures) will give you insights into what does and doesn’t work. This data can then inform your marketing strategy.
Take a look at a competitor with an active following (meaning they have people who like, view, and comment on their videos). Next, check out the videos they’ve posted, making note of those with the most views, likes, and comments. Can you identify any patterns?
For example, you might discover that their how-to video format does very well. Alternatively, maybe they did a Livestream where they accepted questions from viewers and answered them directly in a video—and that info-packed video now gets a lot of attention.
Further, consider stylistic details that stand out in their more successful videos. Do they use music, introductory frames, or transitions? Are they more professional and to the point, or are they more personalized and emotional? Finally, are there any gimmicks they use that were a hit, like having a known guest in a video or teaming up with another YouTube for a collaborative video?
Coordinate with your other online marketing efforts
Video marketing shouldn’t be siloed from your other marketing. Integrate video content into your overall marketing strategy. For example, you can use other social networks (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn) to push new videos.
A professional digital marketing strategist can help. You can also find experts to set up formal YouTube Ads and Adwords campaigns if you want to invest more in paid video ads.
Optimize your videos
Write a description and video title with keywords that will get your video ranked in YouTube search engine results. You also want to craft this content to encourage the viewers’ interest and get them to follow your CTA (e.g., like, comment, subscribe, click a link). A creative copywriter can take care of this.
Visuals are another element in optimization. An eye-catching video thumbnail can help attract attention. At the video’s end screen, you might include video cards to direct viewers to additional content.
Set your schedule
Set up a schedule for when you plan to post what content. This allows you to integrate your YouTube marketing into your overall strategy. It’s also a great way to piggyback on major events (like holidays).
Analyze your success and adapt accordingly
As mentioned, one of the big benefits of YouTube marketing is that it’s measurable thanks to metrics like views, subscribers, and clicks. Don’t ignore this valuable data. Use it to figure out what content resonates with your audience and tailor your future content, campaigns, and overall strategy accordingly.
Boost your business with YouTube marketing
YouTube can be a great way to attract new customers to your business—and keep existing consumers engaged. As the world’s second-largest search engine, the video content-sharing platform has significant reach and impact.
However, it’s important to implement YouTube marketing best practices if you want your content to stand out. The above guide provides some essential pointers to get started.
