If you've recognized the value of video marketing in this day and age, chances are you now have a YouTube channel and want to post videos. Before that, you need to figure out your niche, come up with a catchy brand name, design a logo for your brand, and write a bio with links to your other social media accounts.
A Quick Guide to YouTube Video Marketing
As you can see, you need to have several things in place before you switch on the camera, conduct a webcam test, and start streaming. If you want to create YouTube videos and monetize them, this article is for you.
Table of Contents
What should you know about YouTube?
Here are a few things you should know about YouTube:
- YouTube is the largest hub for videos in the world. It plays host to billions of users every month. As great as this is, you must bear in mind that you are not going to get any mileage as a brand by merely uploading videos. Most brands and content creators, and influencers use this platform and others to promote their products and services to build an audience, generate leads, and facilitate sales.
- If you have plans to make money off YouTube, remember that you need to have at least 10,000-lifetime views. Of course, there are several things you can do to drive up traffic to your website and make money.
- Do not make the mistake of thinking that uploading videos to YouTube alone will help you make money or build a growing audience. You need strategy and planning to make specific efforts to increase your brand awareness.
- Your videos need to have value if you want to stand out in today's market. In other words, you need to make sure your videos are either informative or entertaining or preferably both. Also, make sure that people find your video on YouTube. There's no point in making the greatest videos if people cannot find them.
- This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play. You need to optimize your video titles and descriptions. Do keyword research, include relevant keywords, tags, and hashtags in your titles and descriptions.
Things to do to boost traffic
If you are wondering what to do to increase traffic, check out the following steps:
Proper planning and research
Planning your videos involves a wide spectrum of things, including your brand goals, your niche, target audience, what the audience wants from you, your immediate and long-term plans, and so on. You need to get these things in order to make sure your efforts aren't wasted. Ask yourself how your audience will benefit from your videos before you create them.
Once you answer this question, you will be able to create videos without running out of ideas. This leads us to the next thing – research. Once you know what your audience wants, you need to research your content extensively before you put out anything. Meanwhile, look at other channels and creators you admire and keep track of the comments they receive to understand your audience better. Emulating the content creators you look up to can help you.
Visually-appealing thumbnails
You need to have appealing thumbnails if you want to grab the viewer's attention. Remember, your audience has a ton of options to choose from. If you want to stand out, give them a reason to, right off the bat. Play with different colours, add some text that you think will grab their attention.
Use Keywords And Hashtags
As discussed, you need to optimize your content for SEO. If you want to upload videos that gain traction, put in the work and do some keyword research to find out which words are being frequently searched in your niche, and include them in your video title. Include those keywords in your video description and bio as well.
You can either enter words in the YouTube search bar that you think people search for and list them down, or you could get a word-tracker. Using a word-tracker is recommended for in-depth research. These tools display a bunch of parameters and show you how easy or hard it is to rank for a particular keyword, the volume of searches, and other vital details.
Additionally, you will have to add both branded and general hashtags to get as much traction as possible. Generic or general hashtags are usually searched for and followed by everyone. Branded hashtags, however, are typical and exclusive to your brand. You can use them to make it easy for others to discover your brand and channel. Make sure you include them in every video title and description.
Use Call To Action (CTA) Buttons
Using a CTA button is essential. Be sure to include a CTA during or at the end of every video that you post on YouTube. You can use YouTube cards and end screens for this. If you are looking for examples of CTAs that you want your audience to take, here are a few: liking your video, subscribing to your YouTube channel, sharing, commenting, checking out your website, buying your course, joining your email list, etc.
If video selling is a priority, as it should, you cannot afford to exclude CTAs from your videos. As you are a content creator, you can create content, post snippets, and use a CTA to get people to stay on your channel, buy a product, or anything else.
That's all today, I have shared A quick guide to YouTube Video Marketing. If you have some good suggestions or any query, please comment below.
