How to Create a YouTube Marketing Strategy Like a Pro
How many YouTube videos have you watched in the past week? Your answer likely serves as a reminder of why a YouTube marketing strategy is critical. After all, the world watches more than a billion hours of YouTube content each day.
How can you make your company’s videos stand out, though? With these seven essential tips.
1. Craft intriguing thumbnails
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover — which is true. But, that doesn’t mean people aren’t making snap judgments about your video based on your thumbnails. Most of them are, which is why more companies are focusing on the design of their video thumbnails.
On YouTube, a thumbnail is the difference between a click and a pass.
If your thumbnails seem boring or outdated, they can push viewers away. With little-to-no viewers, your video marketing strategy underperforms. Creating an original and compelling thumbnail, however, can encourage users to click on your video.
If you compose a two- to three-minute — or even 30-minute — video, it’s your job to show viewers that the video is worth watching. Before you create a thumbnail, think about the purpose and goal of your video, as well as its selling points for consumers.
When you finish that, you can start designing your thumbnail. Aim to use bold statements and commanding text that will catch user attention and draw them to your YouTube channel. Make sure you also update your older videos with new thumbnails.
2. Emphasize CTAs
So you’ve gotten your audience to click on your videos. Now what? It’s vital to go beyond that first step of getting clicks because now you want those views to translate to something tangible for your business, like brand awareness, engagement, or even a sale.
How do you do that?
Create and emphasize calls-to-action (CTAs) — which direct a user to take a specified action, like subscribing or commenting — throughout your video. Getting more engagement on your videos is crucial when it comes to generating buzz about your marketing tactics.
When you’re watching your favorite YouTubers, you’re likely familiar with how they end their videos. They often use a phrase along the lines of, “Please subscribe to my channel, give this video a thumbs up, and let me know your thoughts down in the comments below.”
If you’ve ever wondered why these video makers frequently request their viewers to take action at the end of their videos, it’s because CTAs increase engagement and visibility. They can also drive users to move through the buying funnel and closer to conversion.
For the best results with your YouTube marketing strategy, invite your viewers to explore your business further or leave a comment on your video. With those kinds of CTAs, you can increase the success of your video marketing campaign.
3. Conduct your research
Video marketing strategies aren’t one-size-fits-all.
Before you produce your video, you need to conduct some research first.
Who is your audience? What is the message of your upcoming video? What type of videos should you make? These are the type of questions you need to answer before you begin your video marketing plan.
The success of any marketing effort relies on careful execution too.
You never want to dive right into shooting a video without creating an action plan beforehand. Collect as much information as possible about the video topic and your audience and use this data as guidance when creating, editing, and promoting your YouTube video.
4. Be creative
While it may seem like a given to produce a unique and innovative marketing strategy for YouTube, it’s a challenge for many businesses. No matter your industry or service, you can develop creative and engaging video content.
If you’re creating a YouTube video to advertise food products, for example, don’t settle for the same mundane video topics already saturating YouTube. Adopt a creative approach. In this scenario, a business could show a quick five-minute recipe for their products when camping.
In comparison, a business selling cleaning products can produce a video that shows dozens of different uses for their products. For an added bit of creativity, you can focus on unconventional — but useful — applications of your offerings.
Never settle for the same approach taken by others in your industry. To rack up those views and create a sense of influence on YouTube, you need to present your video content in an innovative and engaging way.
5. Link to your site
While you want your YouTube videos to generate views and attention, you want them to generate leads too — and send those leads in the right direction. In most cases, you want to direct your leads to your website.
How do you get your video viewers to visit your site?
Always include a link back to your company’s primary website in the description section of your videos. If you produce an informative video, blog, or testimonial video, for example, invite your audience to learn more about your brand by visiting your website.
In addition to including a link to your website in the description, verbally tell your viewers in your video to check out your page too. This action promotes your site further and redirects consumers to relevant pages that provide helpful information about your company, products, and brand.
6. Post on a regular basis
Nothing drives up your visibility quite like frequent postings.
This statement rings true for all marketing forms, whether blogs or YouTube videos. On a site where users post on a routine basis, it’s crucial to maintain a sense of consistency to remain relevant on this platform.
It’s often not enough to produce one show-stopper video every six months.
Create a schedule for your video marketing strategy and stick with it to enjoy the maximum benefits. If you need help producing videos that often, you can always partner with a digital marketing agency, like WebFX, that offers web production services.
7. Pair up with influential partners
What better way to gain visibility on YouTube than by joining forces with influential partners?
Millions of individuals also turn to YouTube to market their brand. Some of these people also happen to have a large following. This means that to enhance the success of your videos, partnering up with successful influencers is often the right choice.
Do you have a makeup product you want to promote? Partner up with a beauty vlogger. Does your business work in the gaming industry? Pair up with a YouTube gamer who can feature your product.
YouTubers can help you promote products and services in virtually every industry. If you need help finding the perfect influencer for your business, YouTube offers a platform for connecting with YouTube influencers —BrandConnect.
Create great content today
When it comes to developing a successful video marketing campaign on YouTube, the key to success focuses on creating compelling and original content. To command a significant presence, you must establish a sense of influence first.
Be sure to follow the steps outlined above to create impactful and strategic videos.
Need a helping hand before getting started? Trust WebFX. With more than 20 years of experience and more than 200 team members, we can help achieve your company goals through strategic, data-driven, and custom marketing tactics.
Ready to maximize your online success? Visit our website to learn more about our services!