The detailed guide to YouTube marketing

YouTube was a dazzling idea from the very start of its existence. It proved to be an ideal medium for fun, entertaining content. However, it also turned out to be a rich field for marketers to implement their strategies. If you considering video as the main business approach in marketing your company, and you should, then you can’t underrate the significance of YouTube for your efforts.

Today, video marketing is the dominant tool for any industry one can work in. If you want people to know and buy your product or services you provide, you don’t write about it, you make a video. It did not happen so long ago, though. In 2017, we thought of a video merely as a marketing tactic; today, it is the only strategy. However, talking about video marketing is impossible without including marketing on YouTube.

To market your products, it is much easier on YouTube than, for example, on your webpage. There are at least several reasons for that. First of all, activity. Just mull over for a second that YouTube has about one billion active viewers. It profusely increases your chances in gaining a larger audience, because people constantly search for new videos to watch and new channels to subscribe to. The platform itself is constantly changing, a place where everyone can find something that matches their current interest.

Second, its accessibility. When you heard about one billion users, you could think with amazement that it actually sounds like an immense country. Now, YouTube is accessible in seventy-eight different languages. It opens fantastic marketing opportunities to those who work for bilingual or trilingual audiences.

The third reason may look like a well-known fact, but to not mention it will be wrong. Ever since the Internet began, the main platform for searching has always been Google. But, after we realize that watching videos became the primary thing people do online, YouTube got a new position; it is now the second-largest search engine.

In fact, one might use it as often as Google. It is not replacing Google by any means, but is definitely competing with it. In light of the fact that Google owns YouTube, it looks like a truthful statement.

Before we jump in marketing guide on YouTube, let’s clarify several things. Why does your brand need a YouTube channel? Besides reasons we just mentioned, brand recognition can be improved drastically with high-quality content on a YouTube channel. If you create unique content, there is no better platform for the viewers to find it, watch, leave impressions and, eventually, share. So, in the end, you can get a bigger audience, better conversion and a possibility to be shared with other platforms. That is right.

Links with YouTube videos appears everywhere – on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. People love to share good content on their main social media pages. You will hardly expect to see Facebook link on YouTube. It always works the other way around. The conclusion is this: if you implement a strong marketing strategy to a YouTube channel, you will land up with a new sense of your own brand and a larger audience.

First thing comes first: what to start with

We do not recommend jumping in and making your channel from scratch. Take your time and plan what kind of content you’re going to make. Before even making your brand’s channel (if you don’t have one already), analyze your future content on its consistency with the marketing goals you are following.

Stick to your brand’s developing plan and then start making videos. The sparkly content might be important, but it is not the only thing that will lead you to success. There will be lots of editing, remaking, scripting; so, get yourself ready for that.

If your team is a unified front on your vision of your brand, you’ll be able to create superb content that will attract the right audience. The first thing you should concentrate on is that not only matter how vociferous your brand and videos are; make sure you can build a gradual, stable plan.

After you spend some time planning your content and rethinking your marketing goals, create a YouTube brand account. It’s absolutely necessary in order to claim who you are. The single operation is completely changing the way people look at your channel once they stumble upon it.

Channel icon and banner

The essential part of any marketing strategy is the channel’s design. That is why we focus on such obvious particularities like channel icon and banner. Most likely, the first impression users will have on your branding channel depends on videos. But the way you choose pictures for channel banner and icon could be the last ones a user sees. It’s never wrong to worry about such things. It must be catchy and match your brand look.

Make sure both of these things are in a visual harmony and going hand-in-hand. After all, these are two ingredients meant to work together. The more your content and design are tonally aligned, the better for you.

Your channel icon is something like a profile photo on Facebook. It is the best and the most pragmatic way is to upload your brand logo.

The description

The way you create a channel description is of great importance. Like previous sections, this one also demonstrates what your company does, whether you tend to take a positive, easygoing tone or not. It tells a lot to your prospect customers about the brand generally.

It’s good to know for any brand channel owners that search engines in YouTube use your channel description when determining how to define your page. That is another level of interaction with prospect customers: by making the search place you in the right position so you could be visible for your targeted audience.

Leave links to other brands that you find relatable to your field, interests or are like-minded companies. It helps to draw a circle; people eventually will associate you with it.

Pretty often we perceive new information by putting it into familiar blocks, generalizing; some things resemble the others, so we tend to add them together. It works the same way with your brand. Realistic portrayal of your company is impossible without context.

The YouTube channel is not your brand; it is just a marketing move in order to help you promote your brand. The description has to refer to the brand as much as possible.

Trailer/About us

Few will argue that people tend to learn about a new channel they find from the trailer video. Some channels create “about us” video. It’s pretty much the same in the very message both of these videos is to try to spread the word about themselves. Trailers are one of the first things that will have an actual influence on your audience. A truly appealing brand channel communicates with the viewers starting from their About Us or trailer video. Imagine it as a powerhouse for the whole channel.

Your trailer shouldn’t be too long (in fact, when it comes to video marketing, long videos are never a good idea). Don’t forget to encourage people to take action.

Optimize a channel

SEO is an essential process that helps to optimize videos for the search engine. Youtube is receiving the data that you give and place the account accordingly. The video title, description, category, tags and thumbnail have an extreme value in making optimization. If you arrange the information in the right order, YouTube will show your content when people will be looking for similar videos.

Remember when we were talking about the importance of the description of the channel? The same thing goes for each video. Title and description both have an enormous weight for the viewers. When it comes to description, keep in mind that YouTube shows only the first three lines of it. If the user gets interested in this, they click on an action – “show more”.

In the tags, you simply enter keywords. Be careful and try to avoid common tags – it might lead you to the wrong audience or too wide range of viewers. In the category section, what you look for is the one that describes your content better. The categories on YouTube are quite general, so it mustn’t be too hard to choose which is yours.

You will see the list of these: Film and Animation, Autos and Vehicles, Music, Pets and Animals, Sports, Travel and Events, Games, People and Blogs, Comedy and Entertainment, News and Politics, How-to and Style, Educations, Science and Technology, Nonprofits and Activism.

Video thumbnails are as important as the video itself. It influences on if a user is going to click on a video or not, and, eventually, whether you’ll get a chance to get a subscriber and improve a conversion rate. If you take your brand seriously, and you most likely are, upload your own thumbnail.

YouTube, as a profound search engine and platform, offers several options for every video you upload. Nevertheless, it’s better to use yours. It could represent a part of a video, its idea, or showcasing the most intriguing shot.

Video Script

Before you get into filming and making content, gather your team and define what your goal is. For example, if you are looking to promote your brand, it will affect your content plan in an entirely different way than in the case that your goal is to get a bigger audience. Some brands wanted to pursue several purposes, and they act accordingly. For what it’s worth, you couldn’t find a single successful marketing strategy without a clear goal.

Once you’re setting a goal, decide how long your video will be. It depends on the type of video; each of them has its common length, and it’s better not to overstep that boundary.

Pick a location, discuss with your team what sort of filming techniques you’re going to implement, including graphics or animation. Finally, start working on a storyboard and lines. Write down every scene you come up with, so you have what to exclude, what you think will be irrelevant for the story. The video script is an essential part of any marketing video. You’re practically drawing a map that indicates how your narrative and the visual story will move.

Playlist

Consider making several playlists. If you’re planning on having only one type of content, make one playlist. Conceptualization is a key; it’s easier for people to know that videos on the channel are not thematically interspersed, but have something in common. Having playlists means that you will be able to highlight videos not only from your channel but from others with similar content, too.

Once you make a playlist you preventing the channel from a little chaos,  because all your videos will be well organized. It is an advantage for both the owner of the channel and the audience. It also works well as part of searching optimization. Videos that belonged, let’s say so, to a certain playlist, is easier to discover through the search.

In order to create a new playlist, pick a category “+Add to” when you’re uploading a new video and select “create new playlist”. Give it a name and start filling a playlist with content.

What kind of videos to create and upload?

Video marketing tends to be creative. If you came up with an amazing and unusual idea that can be related by visual tools – make a video.

Marketers recommend uploading all type of videos that help to present your brand – explainer video, promotional, product video etc. But the good thing is to use possibilities of the platform. Go on live from time to time, make customer case study videos, blogs and vlogs also could be helpful in order to build trust between the brand and the customers.

Produce and upload videos regularly. YouTube is overfilled with great content and to win over attention is not a piece of cake. To keep it is even harder. People tend to leave channels that post new content rarely.

How to promote channel on other platforms?

So now you have a full pack: a channel, videos and a content plan. But you shouldn’t wait for the audience to find you. The most practical approach is to share your channel on the other platforms. YouTube is fully customized for such an option. Click the button “share” underneath a video and send a link to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. Promoting your brand’s channel on social media platforms is an excellent way to gain subscribers and brand recognition.

It is also important to use the link on emails. Direct your audience to a channel trailer on simply put a link in traditional weekly news (if you have such a thing on email).

If you have only several videos on the channel and the audience is small so far, consider asking other channels to share your link or tell a few words about the channel. Brands quite often use a shared playlist and help each other to gain an audience.

YouTube advertising campaign

YouTube runs paid advertising options for everyone who wants to use it in promoting a page. You just have to choose between two types of advertisements:

Video discovery ads and in-stream ads. The first option is well-known to every single internet user. The promoted video appears at the top of the search list. You could see it quite often when you google something.

The other one plays within a video. Viewers will have the option to skip it.

How much does it cost? Youtube charges you only for the video that has been seen. If a user skipped it, then the ad cost you nothing.

YouTube Analytics

Well, you did everything you could. Imagine, you have your channel running over a few months now. If you want numbers  in order to understand if your efforts were worthwhile, use YouTube Analytics. The platform will show you the results according to the filters you set.

You can see the engagement rate, which is important to know if you want to plan your next move, watch time, subscriber status, where your viewers watched the video, type of devices, traffic sources. You’re not only measuring your success; each of these sections is helping you to understand the audience you are working for and plan a future for the channel.

Review

Nowadays, YouTube is a marketing platform that can open fantastic opportunities for your brand. Each section can be customized to help you find your audience and prospective customers. Infrequently, your success can be a matter of hours; some videos tend to go viral and make the brand a golden one. Set out your goals and materials to make the best possible interaction with your audience.