YouTube has quickly become one of the most powerful entertainment mediums in the world. YouTube has over a billion users throughout 75 countries and 61 languages, watching well over a hundred million hours of content every second day.
Most importantly, YouTube reaches more people in the United States in the key 18 to 34 demographic than any single television network does.
Clearly, YouTube marketing is vital to any company trying to get their brand recognized and their message to stick. YouTube marketing can be tricky, however, so we’ve put together some simple tips on how you can use YouTube marketing, no matter how much experience you have.
Using YouTube to Advertise
YouTube’s video ad options are simple and straightforward. Ads can be shown before a selected video is streamed, and you will only be charged once the viewer watches 30 seconds or completes the video, whichever occurs first. The second option is displayed ads, which are shown in the search results. These are paid per view.
Here are some ways to create a successful YouTube ad campaign:
- Carefully target your audience. On YouTube, you can set your ad to appear by keyword, demographic, interest, or topic. Taking the time to tweak these setting will greatly increase the effectiveness of your ads.
- Hook them quickly, but don’t rush it. Attention spans are short so you need to hook your audience right away, but you don’t need to make the video short. The most successful ads on YouTube average about three minutes in length. Once a viewer is hooked, you’ll have them for a while, so make the most of your opportunity.
- Create a clear Call to Action. YouTube lets you add a banner towards the end of your video to give viewers a chance to click-through and take another action. Make use of this feature! Call attention to it and ask the user to take action. If they don’t, the advertisement has been wasted.
The best way to get customers to do something is by telling them exactly what to do!
Content Creation on YouTube
Beyond video ads, lots of businesses are taking advantage of YouTube by simply creating video content. Much like a blog, video content is a great way to increase engagement and provide value to customers. Videos are highly shareable, making them a great way to reach audiences you might not even be targeting.
Here are some easy ways to make your YouTube channel a success:
- Update often. The best way to build loyalty is by setting a content schedule and sticking to it. You’ll want to post at least one video per week, and more if you can.
- Create a video series. Using a carrot at the end of your videos will give viewers a reason to keep tuning it. It also gives new viewers a reason to check out your old content, to see what they missed.
- Take lots of chances. Think of all the video channels you view and the blogs you read. Chances are you don’t watch every video or read every post, but you skim a number of sources and check out the ones that interest you the most. Keep this in mind when creating content of your own: keep changing it up so that you whet everyone’s appetite once in a while.
YouTube SEO
Creating content is a futile exercise if nobody finds it. You can improve your video’s success at being found in YouTube and Google searches with only a little bit of work.
Search engines can’t watch your video themselves, so they have to read the text around it to determine if it fits keywords. This means that you have to take full advantage of things like titles, tags, and descriptions.
Descriptions are especially important, since many people fail to take advantage of them. Figure out which keywords you want your video to drive, and create a long, detailed description of 200-300 words for your video. Include the keyword several times and you’ll be able to tell Google exactly what your video is about.
Other things that drive the SEO of your video are its vital statistics: comments, likes, subscriptions that it drives, and views. Share your video across all available mediums: your blog, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, etc. The more popular it is, the more often it will show up in searches, driving even more popularity.
Millions of people search for videos every day, make sure yours can be found!
The best way to make sure that your YouTube marketing campaign is a success is by enlisting a veteran marketing company with years of experience in strategy and video production. If you want more information on how Blue Wave Marketing can help you with your YouTube marketing, reach out to us by visiting us at our website or calling us at 617-576-3100.
