Did you know that over 75% of Americans over the age of 15 are on YouTube, there are over 2 BILLION ac tive users every month and YouTube is right behind Google as the second most popular website! These statistics alone should be the reason why you want to be producing content for this social media chan nel to showcase your business and/or your personal value. Throughout this document you will find tips for creating and executing on a YouTube strategy in 2022.
Your 9 Step Youtube Marketing Strategy
Step 1: Create a Youtube Channel for your Business
First things first, you have to set up a YouTube channel.
Since YouTube is part of Google, you’ll need to create a Google account first to sign up for a YouTube channel. You can use an existing account or create one especially for managing your business.
- Create a Google account.
- Use that to create your YouTube account.
- Log in to YouTube and create a Brand Account and channel.
We highly recommend managing your You
tube channel with a Brand Account rather
than managing it with a personal account. A
Brand Account allows you to have multiple
people in your company manage and update
your channel. More importantly, it also allows you to expand your business later with addi tional YouTube channels.
After you’ve created your account, make it look professional:
» “About” information.
» Channel art (the “header” image and profile picture).
» Social media and website links.
Customize Channel
Step 2: Learn about your audience
What does your audience really want? To figure this out, you need to answer two questions:
- Who are you making videos for?
- What are they already watching on YouTube?
If you already have your YouTube channel set up, check out your analytics tab analytics tab. This will provide you with valuable insights on who is already looking at your content and people that are finding your content through search.
Step 3: Research Your Competition
The fastest way to grow on YouTube is to figure out what’s working for your competition and then do that… but better!
You can start by looking up channels from the competitors you already know. Complete a competitor analysis for the following:
» Subscriber count
» Average views per video
» Frequency of posting
» Overall video quality
» What people are saying in the comments
» The main topics they post about
And then ask yourself:
» What are their most popular videos?
» How are they presenting themselves?
» What is their brand voice?
» How can I differentiate my company from them?
» What ideas can I get for new content from this channel?
At first, your goal is probably to grow your subscribers and audience as fast as possible. So write down your competitors’ subscriber counts and views. Track your own progress against theirs monthly.
Step 4: Learn from your Favorite Channels
Aside from learning from your competition, learn from the content you like watching! These don’t have to be channels related to your industry.
Simply by consuming YouTube content you will learn what works and what doesn’t work!
For example, did you know it’s more important to have good audio quality than video quality? It’s true: Bad audio can turn people off from watching your video or subscribing.
A lot goes into making YouTube videos people want to watch. Below are a few items you want to pay close attention to while watching YouTube videos:
» Video thumbnails
» Channel art
» How other creators are linking to posts or products
» How other creators edit their videos, including text popups and other special effects
Step 5: Optimize your Videos to get Views
YouTube’s 2 billion users watch about 1 billion hours of video content every single day! So how do you rise above the noise and get YouTube’s algorithm to show your videos?
If you’re familiar with SEO and Google’s algorithm, YouTube works in a similar way with 1 key difference: Personalization.
When you search a phrase on Google, you’re served roughly the same website results as other people. I say “roughly,” because some results change based on location. But if you and a buddy sat next to each other in the same room, on the same Wi-Fi and searched for the same keyword, you’d see the same results. This is NOT the case on YouTube!
When YouTube shows you search results, they take into account the keyword and similar things Google looks for: How popular a video already is, keywords in the title, etc. But YouTube also fac tors in your watch history and the types of videos it knows you like to watch.
That’s why no two users’ YouTube homepage or search results will be 100% alike.
Personalization plays a role, but it’s still important to do all those other YouTube SEO items to get your videos found in search.
Here are the 6 ways you need to optimize your videos to get more views:
Do keyword research
Before you can optimize your video, you need to know what you’re optimizing for. Keyword re search gives you the phrases people are using to find content so you can add it to yours, too.
You can use Google Keyword Planner for research. Additionally, type your topic into the YouTube search bar and see what comes up.
These are all things real people have searched for. This can give you ideas for new keywords.
Add your keywords to your video
You should have one main keyword and a few additional ones for each video. Here’s where to add them:
» The video title (main keyword)
» The video description (main keyword + 1-2 related keywords)
» Use the main keyword within the first 3 sentences
» The video’s tags
» This has minimal impact, but use your keywords as tags anyway. It only takes a second.
Use timestamps
YouTube timestamps are like breaking your video into chapters. It allows viewers to skip around to the sections they’re most interested in. This increases the chance they’ll watch more of your video.
Create a detailed video description
Each video’s description should have a unique section of a few sentences describing what it’s about.
This is what you want to include in your description:
» Website link
» Links to your other social media accounts
» Links to your products or services mentioned in the video
» A call to action
Create an engaging video thumbnail
Custom thumbnails are so important for views. Besides your title, it’s the only other thing users have to decide if they want to watch your video or not.
What counts as a good YouTube thumbnail will vary depending on your audience. As a minimum, make sure it isn’t just a screenshot from your video. Use a photo or your brand elements and add some text to lure viewers like Wealth Advisor Training course videos.
Current specs are a 16:9 format with a minimum size of 1280 x 720 pixels.
Respond to comments
YouTube is a social network, right? So act like it. Responding to viewer comments shows you’re there to build a community, not to push out self-promotional content. It also boosts your video’s status to the algorithm because more comments = more popular-seeming video.
Step 6: Upload and Schedule your Videos
You can upload your finished video directly into YouTube Studio and either publish it right away or schedule it for later.
Step 7: Optimize your Channel to Attract Followers
We’ve talked about optimizing individual videos but you also need to optimize your entire chan nel! Make sure your channel art and profile photo reflect your branding.
The ideal size for your channel profile image is 800px by 800px.
YouTube’s Recommended Banner Size is 2560 x 1440 pixels
Step 8: Try Youtube Advertising
Most YouTube ads are videos but you can also place banner ads, either in videos or on the web site. You can also make your video ads either skippable after 5 seconds, or unskippable.
As a Google company, YouTube ads operate through the Google Ads platform. Running success ful ads requires a strategy of its own.
Besides the campaign strategy, before you try out paid ads, make sure you have: » A rock-solid understanding of who your audience is.
» Optimized your YouTube channel’s visual branding and description.
» Uploaded at least 5-10 videos so your new visitors can get a sense for what you’re all about.
Step 9: Analyze and Adapt
As with all marketing, you need to track your analytics monthly. Use YouTube’s built-in reports to see what your audience is watching, what they like the most, where your traffic is coming from and more.
Use analytics to track your channel growth, too. Write down your numbers monthly for: » Subscribers
» Views
» View duration
» Top videos
» Watch time
» Impressions
» Your click-through rate (CTR)
This becomes your benchmark to measure your channel. If you are not seeing the results that you want, then it’s time to adjust your strategy and type of content you are producing.