Nielson Net Ratings reported in
2016 that YouTube has over 68 million
unique visitors per month and has the 6th largest visitor audience in the U.S.
(ahead of eBay, Amazon and Wikipedia). More than 2/3 of the U.S. population
over the age of 25 has watched a YouTube video and 91% of users have purchased
something online. YouTube represents a very powerful marketing channel and
opportunity for exposure on the net.
There are ways to tap into this
immense audience with big ad spend, however I will focus on more cost effective
"organic" tactics. These require time but not a direct cash outlay.
For the purposes of this article, I will assume that you have already created a
branded YouTube channel and are now looking for ways to leverage your channel, broaden
your reach and increase your subscriber base. (If you are new to YouTube and
have not yet built your channel, the YouTube help center is a great place to
start.)
The first step in maximizing
the effectiveness of your YouTube channel is to take a step back and examine
your purpose for marketing on YouTube. Is it traffic, distribution, brand? Once
you have established a firm purpose, you can begin to put together a targeted
plan of attack. Your channel design should reflect your purpose and it is necessary
to regularly to take a look at your layout, logo, images and profile
information. Make sure your design adequately reflects your brand and message.
Think of your YouTube channel as an extension of your website; therefore, it
should closely resemble the look and feel of your website and other business
materials.
Include information in your
profile that describes the type of content that can be found in your channel
and website. Further, make sure that you link to your website and include your
contact information outside of YouTube. Further, make it known in your profile
that you would like users to add comments, rate, share, add video responses and
to subscribe to your channel.
When adding video content to
your channel, make sure that each video has a clear message and is not obscure
and confusing. Keep your content fresh and upload a steady supply of 1 to 2 new
videos per week on the same schedule so your subscribers know when to expect
new content.
Further, update the featured videos frequently. You have the
opportunity to feature nine videos on your channel and can control the order
and placement of your featured videos. Further, use the playlist feature as a
way to organize your videos. Building out playlists by subject matter will help
users and subscribers find videos that they are looking for as well as expose
them to content that they might not otherwise see.
Also, pay attention to the
quality of your videos. YouTube has the capability of displaying videos at a
higher quality level. The quality of the uploaded video combined with the
individual viewers' bandwidth will determine if the video is displayed at
higher quality. Higher quality video means improved sharpness and visual
clarity. The difference is especially noticeable in videos that contain text or
fast movement and in full-screen mode. When uploading a video make sure your
video resolution is 480 x360 or higher and a frame rate of 24fps (frames per
second) or higher.
Each time that you upload a new
video, pay specific attention to the types of videos that have done well in the
past as well as VSEO (video search engine optimization). Copy the format and
subject of videos that have a lot of views, comments and ratings to try to
re-create the success. Include specific keywords in the title that people will
be searching for in YouTube as well as external search engines.
Further, make
sure that your description is keyword rich, specific and give credit to
participants who appear in the video (same applies to location). This way
people who do not know the title of your video can search by the participant's
name or location and your video will come up in the search results. I would
also recommend placing your video in the proper, relevant category (contrary to
the belief that you can manipulate views by placing your video in a different
category). If you are trying to drive traffic from YouTube to your website,
include the link to your website at the top of your video description so the
link will appear directly below your video title.
Another effective tactic that
you can use when uploading new videos to your channel is to use the video
annotation feature. Video annotations are a new way that you can add
interactive commentary to your videos. You control what the annotations say,
where they appear on the video, and when they appear and disappear. The
annotations appear like pop up word balloons (text boxes) as well as onscreen
overlays. You can even link from an annotation to another YouTube video,
channel, or search result. Annotations are effective in keeping users engaged
by linking to your other videos and channels so that they stay focused on your
content.
After you have tweaked your
channel design, message, organization, video frequency, video SEO and site
links, you are ready to increase your subscriber base. The key to successful
marketing in YouTube is a large subscriber base. Subscribers will serve as
evangelists for your content and they validate your purpose. They increase your
view count, rate your videos, comment, add you to their favorites, share with
their friends and ultimately increase traffic and exposure to your
website/brand. In addition, content submitted by a channel with higher
subscriber and friend counts is given more weight when it comes to video rank
and popularity.
YouTube has built their engine
in a way so that subscribers have to be earned. In order to ask someone to
subscribe to your channel, you first have to invite them to become a friend.
Once they have accepted your friend invitation, then you can invite them to
subscribe to your channel. The key is to invite as many people as possible to
become friends. To find these potential friends, stick to the popular channels;
these people tend to be the most active on YouTube.
Further, participating in the
groups feature is another great way to find friends and increase exposure.
Joining groups is an effective way to get in front of people who are interested
in certain subjects and ideas, which ultimately can lead to more friends and
subscribers. It is also very easy to create a new group in YouTube to attract
like-minded users. If you create a new group, make sure it is open and an
invitation is not required to subscribe.
Now that you have added as many
friends as possible, you can begin to use the share feature. The share feature
allows you to notify subscribers and friends each time a new video is uploaded.
This share functionality is very handy because it allows you to target specific
groups (think marketing silos). For example, you can share with subscribers,
friends and people who have received a friend invitation but have not yet
accepted or subscribed.
Another feature that is useful
once you build your friend base is the bulletin feature. Bulletins are used to
broadcast messages and once posted, messages are sent out to all channel
contacts. Your contact list includes other users on the site to whom you're
linked through friend invitations as well as the emails of friends which whom
you've shared videos. You can also create special contact lists by using a
label to describe the common theme of that list. You can then place specific
contacts into different contact lists and send messages to multiple friends at
once.
Because of YouTube's relevance
in the online video space, friends and subscribers should be communicated to on
a regular basis. Whether it is through a bulletin, sharing new videos or direct
communication, treat these contacts like they are an important part of your
business. Remember to respect their privacy and treat them in a similar fashion
to your opt-in email list. Remember people who subscribe to your channel are
interested in your videos but not your spam so walk a fine line.
If you are using YouTube as a
way to drive traffic to your website to increase sales volume, think about the
extra steps that you might need to implement on your site to convert YouTube
visitors to sales. Whether it is landing pages, a customized message, pricing
or any other strategy that will help convert visitors to paying customers, it
is worthwhile to test, test, and test until you get it right.
Next I will outline specific
tactics that you can implement to increase activity within your channel and
your videos. Being an active participant in the YouTube community will go a
long way. Networking can make all the difference in the world when it comes to
being relevant or not. Earlier I mentioned participating in groups and this
definitely falls into the networking category. Here are some additional
networking tactics that are worthwhile to implement:
- Search for popular videos that are relevant to your area of expertise and post video responses.
- Video responses are not widely used and there is a strong possibility that your video response will end up high in the results. T
- The key to remember is that your video can only be used as a response once.
- You can also post video responses to your own videos.
- Watch other people's videos and comment on them. Keep your comments brief, respectful and on topic.
- You can also comment on your own videos to get the conversation going.
- Mark other user videos as your favorites. This will more than likely get their attention and show that you are participating in the YouTube community.
- Take part in the contests that are running on YouTube. This is another great way to get your content and channel noticed.
- Add your most popular YouTube videos to video search engines and video distribution sites.
- Promote your YouTube channel on your other online outlets such as your blog, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
YouTube is a factor to be
reckoned with; the statistic most telling is the fact that 10 hours of video
are uploaded to YouTube every minute. If you implement all or some of the above
outlined strategies, you will most definitely see an uptick in your YouTube
channel results.
Like any other organically grown marketing strategy, it takes
time and patience before you see measurable results. Hang in there and know
that this is a process that is worthwhile and will pay off in the long run.
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