We’re pretty hopeful that you’ll be able to create or improve a good YouTube channel by the time you have gone through and checked everything off in this guide on how to do YouTube marketing.
YouTube marketing is one of the most frequently ignored forms of marketing, but with Youtube being the second biggest search engine, it seems insane for us not to give it more of our time and attention. After all – it’s an excellent place to find new customers and improve your brands’ reputation. You could even promote yourself as a Vlogger and gain followers, and an income solely paid for by YouTube advertising. The problem is – some people use YouTube as a social media network rather than a search engine, and that’s where they seem to mess up.
Either way, on YouTube, there are endless marketing opportunities, especially if your audience is on the platform, and your rivals are not. YouTube counts two billion monthly logged-in users worldwide and ranks among U.S. adults as the most commonly used website on the whole of the internet.
So, in that sense, it is meaningless whether or not YouTube meets the standards of social networks. It’s more famous than them all. But successful YouTube marketing is easier said than done, with more than 500 hours of video uploaded every minute.
Fortunately, to get you started, we have put together this 10-step YouTube marketing plan. Learn how, with YouTube advertising and influencer partnerships, to optimise your site, increase subscriptions, and extend your scope.
A How To Guide To YouTube Marketing
Creating Your YouTube Channel
Start by setting up a Google Brand Account.
We recommend setting up a new Gmail account for every youtube channel you create. If you don’t mind using your personal account, then you can simply open a youtube channel using a Gmail account you already own – be sure to change the account settings to ensure your personal email stays private or if you do want to share it with the public then leave it on display. You can change this in the settings area.
Multiple approved users can concurrently log in with a Brand Account. Even if you don’t need a Youtube channel right now, as your company expands, it’s a good choice to keep open. You can also open and manage several YouTube channels with the Brand Account.
For specific instructions on how to build a YouTube business account, read our step-by-step guide.
Better Understand Your Audience
If you already have an audience on Youtube or want to know what to do when you have one, then this step is for you. You should set aside some time to think about your channel’s demographics and what you can do to utilise the statistics and demographic data from your YouTube analytics. This is especially important if you’re a newbie to the world of Youtube and Youtube marketing.
This includes Analytical data like:
- Where do the majority of viewers live
- What is the predominant age group (81% of 15-25 year-olds)
- What are the viewing preferences (Mobile, TV, Desktop)
Always, collect whatever qualitative data you can find. For example, did you know that over 99 million hours of guided meditation videos were viewed in 2019? Or that the viewership of videos with “thrift with,” “thrift in” or “how to thrift” in the title increased by 10X between 2017 and 2019.
You have access to an Analytics tab via a YouTube channel for business. To learn about your YouTube audience, use this tab if you already have one up and running. Track watch time and available demographic stats. Will your conclusions confirm them? On the other social media, how much overlap is there with audiences?
Have a read through them to see what you can find about their desires and preferences if viewers have left comments. Also, visit the Group page. If you’d like to know something important, this is a good place to post a question or build a poll.
Compare your viewers on YouTube to your other media audiences. Identify the material most associated with your audience, and use it to brainstorm video ideas. Plan to build content for the target audience that you have and the target audience that you expect to expand.
Research Your Competition
Next up: Competitive analysis. YouTube is a competitive environment, like any network. You will see how your channel matches up and recognises opportunities by performing an audit of competitors.
Identify Competitors
Begin by defining three to five rivals. If you’re not sure, use the free Keyword Planner from Google Ads to see which businesses rank for your brand-related keywords. Or see what channels for the same keywords appear in a YouTube search. (Filter results by channel after hitting search.)
Key metrics such as subscriber counts and audience stats are recorded so that you can use them for your channel as benchmarks. To see what keywords they use, look at titles and explanations. To see what individuals are thinking, read the comments on these videos. The chances are that their crowd would collide with yours.
Conduct A SWOT
Conduct a SWOT analysis to identify each competitor’s strengths, limitations, opportunities, and risks. This is a helpful framework for spotting what works and doesn’t work, and where your YouTube channel can carve out a niche.
Pro tip: Make sure that your rivals do not serve advertisements on your videos! If they are, Google’s ad manager will block them.
See What The Youtube Influencers & Channels You Watch Are Doing
Scroll through your subscriptions and your history of YouTube. Take note of the methods and formats that keep your interest. What keeps getting you back on these channels? How do views, subscriptions, and participation drive the most popular channels?
Take a look at the trending videos on YouTube. Even if your company or industry has nothing to do with these videos, there’s a lot you can learn from them. Are these all high-production videos, or are they taken more casually? What is the length of these videos that is most common? Have they got a host? Are they adding special effects or overlays of text?
Look up and do the same exercise with your favourite brands. Begin to think about your content plan for YouTube. For your brand, what kind of content makes sense? Do you plan to use YouTube as a trendsetter to tell stories, give tutorials, or build your brand? Or any of the foregoing?
How To Optimise Your Videos To Get More Views
YouTube is a search site for content. The results of videos are ranked by names, keywords, descriptions, and other variables, much like Google, which happens to own YouTube. Then there is the recommendation algorithm for YouTube, which decides 70 percent of what individuals watch.
Optimise the videos so that they have the highest chance of showing and gaining more clicks in search results. We’ve built a comprehensive guide on how to get YouTube views. But to start with, here are a few SEO pointers:
Write A Strong Video Title
The title is one of the key indications of the YouTube algorithm, and viewers look at your video to analyse it.
Have important keywords included? In Traffic Sources in YouTube Analytics, search what words individuals use to find your channel. Also, take a look at the Keyword Planner for Google Trends and Google Advertising. See if your title can be added to any of these common search words.
Avoid clickbait, however. Usually, false advertising leads to lower retention, which in turn leads to decreased rating. Dig deeper into your keyword research if the keywords you find don’t fit your topic. Focus on the content and subject. VidIQ is one of the best ways to check for new keywords, less competitive keywords and a great place to find ideas for video titles and video tags.
Pinterest is also a great place to browse. Look for similar keywords on there to see what other keyword suggestions show up.
Put the keywords that are most relevant upfront. Save it for the end if you’re counting episodes or portions of a story. YouTube allows 70 characters, but 60 or less is recommended. This way, in proposed videos, search, and mobile results, your title is less likely to be cut off. Excessive punctuation, all-caps, and vocabulary that is obscene or dramatic is a no-no.
Add An Excellent Thumbnail To Your Video
Thumbnails are the first thing individuals see, right before titles. Ninety percent of YouTube’s best-performing videos have one thing in common when it comes to thumbnails: they’re conventional.
With a personalised creativity, the thumbnail is more likely to stand out. Another benefit is that in combination, you can ensure the picture and title work. If a thumbnail or how-to is your video, show the end result or a thumbnail before and after. This creates anticipation: People are going to wait to see how the final outcome is accomplished.
Ensure that your thumbnail is as high resolution as possible – you can use a blank thumbnail template on Canva or use a premade template and add your details to it and download as a PNG file to ensure you get a great quality thumbnail for your video.
Another great tip is to use colours in your videos that are not on the Youtube site itself. So no red, back or white in your thumbnail. ON the other hand – greens, purples, blues, pinks and oranges are said to work much better and force the eye to look at them when viewers are browsing which should mean your video gets chosen over others coming up for the same keyword as you.
Write An SEO Optimised Video Description
The first 300 characters in your youtube video description are the most important. They let your viewer know what your video is about, what it includes and who it’s for. A user will decide whether they want to click on a video and it’s often based on the videos description as to whether it’s right for them and if they want to click on it.
The description also lets YouTube know those things too and so it can better decide how to rank your videos and who to recommend them to in the search results.
You can also add your social media page links, links to affiliate pages to boost your income and always add in there a link for people to subscribe and a link for them to go to your website or blog.
I always add on 3 hashtags to the end of the description but if you want them to appear, you should avoid adding a location to the video as that will be displayed under your video instead so have a think about what’s more important about your video. The hashtags or the location.
Adding Cards, End Screens, Watermarks & Bumper Ads
The clickable CTAs you can add to your YouTube videos are cards, end screens, bumper advertisements, and watermarks. These elements help drive behaviour in your videos and keep individuals on your stream.
Here’s a rundown of your various options:
Cards: Thin, transparent CTAs that, when clicked, extend. To guide viewers to your website, fundraiser, playlist, and more, up to five can be used per video.
End screens: Up to four frames that are clickable and appear in the last 5-20 seconds. Use them to promote similar content, subscriptions, the website, etc.
Bumper advertising: Unskippable video ads for six seconds that appear at the beginning or end of a video.
Watermarks: Custom subscription buttons that are available to non-subscribers only. Follow YouTube’s guidelines to add them to your videos.
Remind Viewers To Like, Share & Subscribe
There’s a reason why many videos on YouTube end with the host calling on viewers to “like, share, and subscribe.” Asking doesn’t ever hurt. A helpful reminder is often needed by people. Plus, with the YouTube algorithm, this form of interaction awards points.
Upload & Schedule Your Videos
It’s time to schedule them for release now that you’ve produced and configured your videos.
YouTube has replaced conventional network television for most 18-34-year-olds. But it didn’t actually substitute expectations. People still expect to have videos available on a reliable schedule, particularly webisodes and series.
To see if there’s a specific day or hour of the day that appears to have a high level of viewership and interaction, review your channel analytics as well as your competitors, you can do this by using a Chrome plugin called Tube Buddy. If you’ve established the best time to post, try to publish within this window on a regular basis.
Scheduling tools help you maintain continuity on auto-pilot. You can now pre upload and pre-schedule your YouTube videos from the Creator Studio in advance or with a platform like Hootsuite that allows you to cross-promote your video releases from the same dashboard with posts on other social networks.
Optimise Your Channel To Attract Followers
Make it easier by optimising your channel for people to find and follow you on YouTube. Here are a few ways to check, display, and follow your account to prime your account.
Complete Your YouTube Profile
If you haven’t, apply the finishing touches to your profile on YouTube. Fill out the following areas or apply some gloss to them:
Description of the channel: Offer a keyword-rich summary of what people should expect when they subscribe to your channel in the “About” tab of your profile. Here, you also have links to your website and social media.
Channel icon: Upload your logo with a high-res version.
Channel art: In order to welcome viewers to your channel, use this banner space. This region is a good place to advertise the schedule of your channel, or an upcoming exhibit, product launch, or operation, with this guide, master channel art, and nab free models.
A list of featured channels may also be added to your profile. Feature other YouTube channels you own or offer subscribers easy access to other services they may be interested in on YouTube. You match your brand with complementary companies and add value to your page by doing this.
Add social media links to your banner.
A prime place for adding a few main links is your YouTube banner. To connect to your website, other social media, or even to an auto-subscribe prompt, use this area. Put upfront what matters to your business most.
Create a channel trailer
Your YouTube channel teaser, much like a movie trailer, is an opportunity to preview your channel. When an unsubscribed visitor lands on your videos, channel trailers auto-play, so it’s best to presume that they’re new to your website, and your brand, maybe.
Introduce new audiences to your brand. Give a sneak preview at what your channel can expect from viewers. Build suspense and foresight that leaves audiences seeking more. Create a brand statement that’s bold. Above all, offer viewers a clear reason for subscribing.
Organise videos into playlists
Don’t leave it up to an algorithm on YouTube. A series of videos are auto-played by YouTube playlists, so viewers can keep watching your channel without being distracted elsewhere.
To be coherent and have a clear progression, build your playlists. Organise a variety of tutorials from beginners to advanced levels of skill. Think like the algorithm on YouTube. What kind of video do you think you’ll be more likely to want to watch next if anyone likes your first video?
It is possible to create playlists of your own videos, or include partner videos. Similarly, see if you can convince them to add your videos to their playlists if you’ve started networking with other YouTubers.
On YouTube, you can create playlists, and with Hootsuite, you can manage them. To improve your YouTube SEO, remember to include important keywords in your playlist names.
Add captions and translations.
Just 33 percent of the most popular videos on YouTube are in English. And over 60 percent of the views of a YouTube channel originate outside the country of the founder. With YouTube’s built-in translation tools, extend the scope of your videos.
Start by adding your videos with captions. This will enable non-native speakers, people with hearing impairments, and people watching with sound off to view your video. Automatic captions are also provided by YouTube, but the result is never flawless. Be sure to edit transcripts for errors if you use them.
To see the top locations and the top subtitle languages that people want to watch your videos, check YouTube Analytics. Translate your title, summary, and transcript from there so that you can provide subtitles. Either you or your community’s crowdsource translations can do this yourself, but again, this choice is not foolproof.
It’s worth the extra time or fee to get your transcript translated if you have put effort into making a video. Don’t make viewers assume that your company cuts corners or doesn’t value their business.
Try YouTube Advertising
A successful way to extend your scope beyond your channel can be YouTube ads. Are you looking for your channel to grow? Target an audience you think would be interested in your content.
Would you like to promote your brand, an activity, or a new item? YouTube commercials are also fantastic for that. Compared to TV ads, people are three times more likely to pay attention to online video ads.
In these four categories, YouTube advertisements are available:
- Non-skippable in-stream ads
- Skippable in-stream ads
- Video discovery ads (AKA in-display ads)
- Non-video ads
Analyse & Adapt
It is time to start measuring your progress with your YouTube channel up and running. And with failures. Testing and experimenting are involved in making YouTube marketing right. Not all will succeed, and as long as you learn from it, that’s all right.
To track your channel’s growth and track the success of your videos, use YouTube Analytics. Keep an eye on the latest video when you post it:
- Significant changes in subscriber count
- New or changing audience demographics
- Video playback locations and traffic sources
- Device reports (mobile, desktop, smart TVs, etc.)
Your YouTube marketing plan should be guided by what you find. Also, do not undervalue qualitative metrics. To learn exactly what individuals think about your video, read the comments. To see what people are talking about, visit the Group tab frequently.
YouTube Marketing Tools To Use For Your Business
Get better DIY results on YouTUbe by utilising these marketing tools:
YouTube Audio Library
With music and sound effects, just about every good YouTube video is backtracked. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to use all songs and sounds. Avoid infringing on the copyright by sourcing directly from YouTube’s free audio library.
Fesliyan Studios
This is a free sound effects and sounds website, everything is available royalty-free with no cost to the downloader.
Canva
Build video and channel art with Canva pre-sized models. This tool provides access to a vast stock photo library and features that make it easy to customise and brand entirely.
Trello
Trello is a free content calendar creator and will allow you to set up a team board, and individual boards to track your content activity and ensure you are posting as and when you should be.
Channelview
Up to 10 separate YouTube channels are tracked by Channelview and its companion Channelview Insights tool. For YouTube marketers who handle several customers, or for brands with multiple platforms for different verticals, this is perfect. Channelview lets you streamline your process and calculate your efforts across the board for YouTube marketing. Get a complete picture of how the YouTube channels work together to optimise playlists and raise subscribers.
TubeBuddy
TubeBuddy is a great tool for Youtube SEO, analytics, keyword research, emerging keyword tips and lots more. A similar tool you can use alongside this is VidIQ. Both are great tools.
We hope this guide to doing your own YouTube marketing has helped you and will be used as your guide to youtube marketing too. We’re sure your video content is spot on but if that’s something you need help with then we’ll be posting a blog up really soon about how to make better video content and what kind of video content you should be making for your business. YouTube marketing isn’t the be all and end all of becoming a successful Vlogger – marketing also plays a huge role.
If you have a questions about Youtube marketing then please post it below, email it in or request a blog post from us to answer your queries relating to YouTube marketing.
