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YouTube has become one of the most effective social media platforms to take your online marketing to the next level. With 1.3 billion viewers watching over 5 billion hours of video on YouTube each day, it has quickly transformed from being a simple video sharing platform to a high-potential online marketing tool.
Here are some ways you can exploit the sheer power of YouTube to grow your brand.
#1 Treat your channel as a website.
Branding is everything. Customize your YouTube channel so that everything is consistent with your brand or company image. Pay attention to colors, fonts, language, and most importantly sound quality. Make sure they are all in line with what is on your official website, blog, and/or other social media accounts. Finally, include links to these other sites or accounts. Never assume your YouTube viewers will search for your website. Provide your links on each video description.
#2 Use the keywords used by top influencers or companies in your field.
One good way to make sure that your videos rank in search results is to use the same keywords used by those who consistently show up first when you search YouTube. Just make sure that each keyword you are using is relevant to your content.
#3 Learn from the best.
Browse the YouTube channels of the top companies in your field, and see what they are doing right. By “top,” we mean pages with a lot of subscribers and engagement. Try to determine which of their strategies would work well for your company too. Perhaps it is their content, their video style, or something else they are doing that is helping them attract viewers. Whatever it is, study it and replicate it as often as you can.
#4 Create a company explainer video.
Create a short company trailer or have experienced videographers or content creators do it for you. Your trailer should be short, no more than 2 minutes at most. This is because most viewers will only watch the first 30 seconds of a video before clicking off of it, unless it is very engaging. So your best bet is to keep your explainer video short and sweet while still telling viewers what your company does.
#5 Use interesting thumbnail images.
YouTube viewers are “enticed” by lots of colorful visuals whichever channel they go to and whatever keyword they type in. One way to get their attention is by showing good thumbnail images. An appropriate thumbnail image is one that actually appears in your video and plays an important role in it. Make sure that you do not choose misleading images.
#6 Upload client testimonials.
Depending on the nature of your business, you may help boost your engagement by uploading client video testimonials. A lot of customers prefer to listen, watch, or read testimonials because they connect more with their fellow consumers than with companies. Keep the videos concise, and show your product or service in the footages, if possible. Again, keep these video testimonials short and to the point as well.
#7 Frontload your URL in your descriptions.
You want your YouTube viewers to do more than just watch your video content. You want them to learn more about your brand and what you do. To lead them to your site, put your link in the description together with a short call-to-action (e.g., “Visit our site for more info” or “More details here”).
#8 Post your videos as comments to related uploads.
Take the time to search for popular videos related to yours, and look for an opportunity to post your own video as a response. This lets you show your videos to a much larger audience and increases the probability of you gaining more subscribers and getting more views.
#9 Create playlists.
Another effective, but easy way of increasing your view count is by creating playlists. Begin by adding one of your videos to a new playlist and then adding popular (but related) videos to that same playlist. Lastly, give the playlist a fitting title. Remember to use top keywords. That way when viewers search by keyword, your playlist should appear high on the search results.
#10 Remember that YouTube is a social media site.
YouTube is first and foremost a social media platform. You can add people, join communities or groups, and interact with millions of potential clients. These are great places where you can advertise your brand and direct traffic toward your videos, but always make them engaging and shareable!
#11 Promote your uploads.
For maximum exposure, advertise your videos outside of YouTube. Embed them on your blog, website, and social media accounts, especially Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Include a link to your YouTube channel in your email signature (together with links to your other social media accounts). You can also promote your video content on related forums and directories.
#12 Include call-to-action statements.
Call-to-action statements are effective, but make sure not to overdo it. Remind your viewers to like and share your video and subscribe to your channel. Do the same on your website and other social media accounts.
#13 Include your logo in your videos.
Seeing your company logo on your videos themselves will help your viewers remember you more easily. YouTube has a feature called InVideo programming, which lets you add your logo to your video. Considering this, do not forget to show your logo prominently on your channel itself. This feature also deters others from “stealing” your videos.
#14 Have a YouTube strategy.
Plan a YouTube strategy before anything else. Write down what you want to do (create awareness, introduce a new product, etc.), and make sure that all the steps you take adhere to that goal. This ensures that your message is unified and you do not waste any time or money implementing strategies that do not accomplish your main goal.
#15 Monitor all comments and other activity.
YouTube has a very useful analytics feature. It lets you get to know your audience more and find out what they do and do not like. You also want to go over the comments because those tell you directly what your viewers think. Use their insights to improve your video content and consequently increase engagement. Finally, decide how you are going to handle comments. Do you reply to each one? Only to the critical ones? How critical is critical? Define these parameters and stick to them.
Summing it all up…
Entrepreneurship calls for a lot more than knowing how to start a business. You have to know how to effectively market your company for sustained growth, and YouTube offers a great opportunity for you to pull this off. Master these tips above and you should be taking advantage of this social media giant soon.
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