Is your business ready to launch a YouTube channel?
Updated: 4 days ago
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. If your business has an online presence, a YouTube digital marketing strategy should be part of it.
Why? video marketing can help you generate more leads and sales for your business, accelerate customer acquisition, increase brand awareness and improve customer engagement rates.
But is your brand ready for the commitment level needed to build a successful YouTube channel? This article will help you consider what's needed to take full advantage of having a strong video strategy on the worlds second largest search engine: YouTube.
YouTube helps SEO
A YouTube channel can offer a digital marketer more than just promotional video content. It can, in fact, be used to boost SEO rankings by compelling Google to rank your videos higher on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Video is an incredibly powerful tool. Videos not only improve search engine rankings, but also help strengthen your digital footprint and reputation management efforts.
Video offers brands another way of fostering relationships with their customers by telling stories that can deepen relationships with your customer/fan base.
It’s important that your business is ready for the commitment of launching a YouTube channel. Having success requires a consistent posting schedule of video content that is relevant to your audience.
To maximize your effort, you want to be able to commit time, money and resources into producing quality content. It may take some trial and error before you find what works best for your business. Working with a digital marketing agency can shorten the time it takes to reach success.
Identify your goal
Think about what you’re trying to achieve by having a YouTube channel. Define your goals and start from there.
Some things to consider: Do you want exposure, product sales, build brand affinity or provide an educational source for your customers. The best channels in our opinion do all of these things plus more.
As we mentioned above YouTube videos rank high in Google search, so it might be helpful to think to yourself: What would I want someone to know most about my brand?, and start there.
You can use YouTube to promote your business, share videos about your products or services and engage with customers. Start to think about all the ways that creating a YouTube channel can help your digital marketing strategy.
Once you’ve defined your digital marketing goals, think about the social media experience you want to provide.
Ask yourself:
How do I want my community to feel?
What tone should I set for each video across all channels?
Know that creating content takes time! You need a schedule or plan of action before jumping into it. There’s no such thing as overnight success, digital marketing is a long term strategy that takes time to build and reach your goals.
Audience Segmentation
When planning out the type of videos you want to create for your audience, start to segment your audiences and identify the type of needs each segment has. Doing this is an important step, allowing you to reach people through various stages, taking prospects to customers and keeping them engaged through the entire journey.
You can think about these segments as content buckets, where you fit content goals into each bucket. This will allow you to come up with fresh relevant ideas keeping your YouTube filled with fresh, relevant, videos that your audience will appreciate and engage with.
Empathizing with your audience is key to success with any marketing so make sure you take your time and keep evaluating different audience segments your product or service can help.
Segmenting allows you to keep your content relevant, because what’s relevant to a 27-year old single male that doesn't like to cook is going to differ greatly from what’s relevant to a 45-year old parent of a 10 year old as an example.
Another way to segment your audience, is by what stage they engaged with your brand.
Are they customers?
Have they heard about your service before?
Do they have a need that your business can solve if they only knew about you?
You need to make sure that the videos you post are going to interest your target audience and meet their needs in some way.
Save time and money with repurposed content
Once you have your goals, have your target audience identified and segmented, your content buckets set, look to see if your existing video content aligns with those goals. Repurposing old content can be an effected way to decrease gaps while you produce new videos. Saving you time and budget.
The right creative producer and video editor can look through all your existing content and help you repurpose, and reorganize your footage into something completely new and fresh. It might be tempting to just repost content that you may have posted on another platform but don't. Instead use the footage you have to tell a different story or an existing story in a different way.
For example, You may take Instagram reels or stories that you have posted over the past year and re-edit them into a longer re-cap video that gets posted on YouTube. Another idea would be to use b-roll that you may have had captured of a product across multiple lines and create a foundation to a new brand video or sizzle video.
Video Strategy & Tips:
Create an outline so that you know what topics you'll cover in each video. This way, you can ensure the videos align to your overall strategy and goals. This will also help to keep your videos concise and to the point.
Statistics show that some viewers lose interest after watching a 2-minute long video and they may not be willing to watch something longer than 4-5 minutes in order to get their information fix. On the other hand, someone who has never had exposure to your brand may not watch passed the first 5 seconds without a hook that entices them.
Having a strategy going into it and having "content buckets" for types of content will help keep your videos concise so they don’t lose the attention of the intended viewer.
Make sure you have a strategy in place for acquiring new subscribers. You can do this by creating a call-to-action in each video that encourages viewers to subscribe. Making sure your providing valuable relevant content will keep subscribers engaged with your channel and keep coming back for more!
Having a large number of subscribers is important because it shows YouTube that you have an engaged audience and builds trust with users who may be looking for information on your brand. The more subscribers you have, the more likely it is for your content to get recommended.
Engage with other channels in your industry. This can help build relationships and grow your own subscriber base. Partnerships are good way to expand your reach, while also providing an outlet for feedback if you’re feeling stuck or need some fresh ideas.
Make sure you’re posting on a consistent schedule. Posting at the same time every day or week will help your viewers know when to expect new content. Going live on a regular basis is a great way to quickly build an audience.
Brainstorm potential titles for your videos before starting production. Creating a strong title is an important part of getting people to engage with your content and subscribing to your channel.
Channel Setup
A good channel trailer is vital for a YouTube channel. A trailer might help you to promote your content on social media, as well as attract new viewers to your channel. When setting up your channel, it may be tempting to just make your latest video the channel trailer, but you might be loosing new subscribers this way. Create a strong trailer for your channel that explains what your brand and channel is about with a CTA (call to action) to learn more at your website and promote other videos on your channel at the end of the trailer.
Having a banner image that matches your brand look will also go a long way to bring in new viewers. Your banner should be eye catching and let viewers know what you are all about in a quick glance. The best size for your YouTube banner is 2,560 x 1,440 pixels check out more best practices when launching your channel.
Some things to keep in mind:
Highly relevant keywords in the video’s title & description will help it rank higher on search result pages. Make sure the description is clear and concise. It’s best to stick with a short paragraph that describes what your video is about and don’t forget to include a link back to your site for any additional information.
Create a custom thumbnail that has high click-through potential. A rule of thumb when creating thumbnails is to use bright, bold imagery with strong contrasting colors that will stand out in the newsfeed. Keep in mind that YouTube automatically selects a default thumbnail but you can upload your own. The best size for YouTube thumbnails is 1280x720.
Make sure your video is relevant to the thumbnail image you’re using. Videos with thumbnails that are unrelated to the content may experience a decrease in new subscribers.
Quickly cover the video's basic information in your description. This is where you can share any details like duration or what topics are covered in the video. It would be helpful to include a few keywords here to help improve SEO (search engine optimization).
Uploading video content that will be SEO-friendly
Remember that YouTube results rank high in google searches so make sure your content answers people questions. You may choose to shoot branded videos at events or during product demonstrations if you’re a retailer. If you’re in the financial services industry, for example, digital marketers may decide to create video content to showcase how their products can help customers reach their life goals or dreams.
For example, you may be interested in increasing knowledge of your brand. To accomplish this goal, it would be helpful to post tutorial videos showing how to use a specific product. This will also help educate potential customers about products they may not be aware of. Sometimes re-imagining existing content can help you get to your goals faster.
You can use technical training videos to both educate and inform your audience about a new product.
In this example 20EVO created a series of videos for our client crankbrothers
introducing and educating their customers about their new line of tools for mountain biking.
Post Frequency
Keeping to a schedule is very important to having a successful YouTube channel. When you start your digital marketing strategy, it's important to set aside time every week to create new videos. If you are not able to keep this schedule up, then YouTube might be too much for your business at the moment.
On the other hand if you and your video production company are able to keep up with the weekly uploads, then YouTube can be a great digital marketing strategy for your brand.
Another thing you want to make sure of, is that you are getting what will work best for your business out of any video or digital production company. Different digital production companies specialize in different things and it is important to find out what your company specializes in before hiring someone. For example, if you want something that has a very polished look, then working with an experienced video production company might be the best option for you because they can help make sure everything is on brand.
Delays in content posting can hurt your digital marketing strategy and it is important to make sure you can keep up with the weekly uploads. That's why, we recommend you have a bank of videos ready to be posted that can cover several months. A good rule of thumb is don't launch your channel without having 12 videos ready or near ready to go.
Summary
It's no secret that YouTube has grown to become one of the most important digital marketing channels for businesses and entrepreneurs. In fact, it is a major ranking factor in Google’s search algorithm which means videos on your channel will help boost your SEO efforts.
While it may seem simple enough to launch a new YouTube channel, there are actually many factors that go into it.
Before you dive head first into creating content for this powerful platform, there are some things you need to know about how to prepare yourself and your business for success.
YouTube is a powerful tool for driving sales. It’s also worth noting that when it comes to social media platforms in general, the key isn't just about getting your content out there-it's about knowing who your audience is and what their needs are. Once you know this, it becomes easier to segment your audience so that each video reaches the right people with the right message at the right time.
Like when you start anything in life, make sure you have clear goals and intention defined when launching your brand's YouTube channel.
If you want to be successful launching a YouTube channel, make sure you have the right strategy in place and content ready. You should also consider your branding before anything else because it will affect everything else down the line. The time invested upfront can save money in expensive video production costs or hiring someone who doesn’t understand how to work with your company's brand message.
Consistent posting of videos is necessary to be gain subscribers so you may think about using existing content to fill gaps as you start. We recommend having several months worth of content scheduled before you even launch.
If you’re ready to take the plunge into video content, then it’s important that you have a digital marketing agency partner who understands your goals and can help guide you through the process. If you have any questions on how to get started with a new YouTube channel for your brand schedule a call with us today and we would be happy to help get you started down the right path.
Is your business ready to launch a YouTube Channel?
Take this quick quiz:
Are you currently generating enough leads through traditional SEO efforts?
Do key stakeholders within your organization understand what digital marketing is & how it benefits businesses today?
Does your company have someone who understands Video SEO best practices?
Can an experienced digital marketer see past any potential challenges that could arise during launch of a new video strategy?
Most importantly... are there clear objectives set for digital marketing initiatives, and is the digital agency you're working with capable of producing high-quality videos on a regular basis?
20EVO is a creative marketing, photo and video production company located in Dana Point, CA that helps brands tell their story through compelling content.