How to develop youtube video marketing strategy for business?

YouTube is not just for posting videos to enhance and grow your career as an artist, celebrity or actor. YouTube has become an effective form of marketing for businesses. Using YouTube is important because you can expand your reach and engagement.



One of the benefits of YouTube includes capturing your audience’s attention. Using your creative genes to capture more attention can help any business, allowing you to go further with your company’s brand. YouTube can be a fresh way to draw in new followers, increase brand loyalty, expand your reach with a relatively low budget, and improve your SEO (search engine optimization).

YouTube has more than one billion users, which means it is one of your best opportunities for marketing and outreach. With that many users, you have the chance to pull in several new potential customers. YouTube is one of the best social media platforms for reaching more people. There are many ways to use YouTube to your advantage, be it ads or your own videos.

Embedding YouTube videos is easy, which means you can include these videos on your website and share them on all of your other social media accounts. Viewers can easily share them with their friends and pass them on from there. The ability to share your video makes YouTube a highly successful marketing effort. It is the perfect avenue for sharing your products and services.

You may or may not know that Google owns YouTube. With Google’s search engine optimization, YouTube videos are consistently ranked high on search results. The ability to have your videos ranked high means you must utilize this marketing strategy. It is a powerful way to increase your search engine optimization results and increase your online presence. Once you are constantly found at the top, you will be finding more and more customers and leads coming to your business.

With this said, YouTube must be included in your marketing strategy. Videos are a highly effective way for users to engage with your content. There are tons of ways that you can get more followers, more leads, and more customers, simply by making videos. You can choose from numerous types of videos to make, choosing only one, or playing with them all and seeing which works the best for you. Shaking it up every once in a while with a different type of video can help keep your users attentive and is a fun way to get your brand out there and use those creative muscles.

YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL SETUP 

YouTube does not have business accounts. You will need to register just like everyone else. I do not recommend that you use a personal email address for your set up. Use something that you will be comfortable sharing with others on your team so that other people in your business can help manage the YouTube channel. If using your generic business e-mail isn’t working for you, create a new e-mail solely for your YouTube (and overall business) ventures. That way, if someone needs to get into the account for any reason, you won’t have personal messages (be it business or home-related) out in the open for everyone to see. 

So, go ahead and click on the button ‘Create an account’ to register for a new account on the YouTube homepage.

You will be asked for some basic profile information: name, username, password, birthday, phone, and email address. Make sure you select something that reflects the business name as your username. I would recommend the business name or something very similar.

After you are done you will be asked to set up a new profile for the Google account, skip this step for now.

Once this is done, YouTube will automatically set up a YouTube channel for you. At the bottom right, you will see the channel set up page. You will see the question: Would you like to appear on YouTube as a different name, brand or organization? With a link next to it that says ‘Create a username’. Click this to fill out your business name so that your channel will reflect your business and not you as an individual.

Your channel is now officially set up. Below I will talk more in depth about YouTube’s Branded Channels features, which gives you more advanced options and design opportunities. At this point, you can go back and update your profile with more business information.

TYPES OF MARKETING CONTENT FOR YOUTUBE 

Promotional Videos –

·      Promotional videos are often used by businesses to advertise their brand. They usually include a four-step process – a problem, solution, how the solution works, and a call to action. You want these videos to remain short maybe a minute or two and focus on the benefits of the product. Be entertaining and use music to evoke emotion.

There are nine elements of a promotional video that will help you master the video and evoke sales: establish a personal bond, movement, curiosity, irresistible offer, art of rhetoric, creation of mass enemy, adding value, call to action, and memorable tagline.

Last, make sure you have a script and have rehearsed it so that the video works. Trying to make a promotional video without rehearsing what you’re going to say, and really thinking it through, will end up disastrous. Users will begin not to trust you and your videos, declining their sales in your brand. Remember: you’re not making a video ‘Prank for your friends, here. You’re making a video for your clientele; keep it professional, clean and engaging.

·      Interviews - Interviews with industry experts are great videos to post on your channel. You can also interview employees, behind-the-scenes footage of your business, event footage, footage of fans, etc. The most important thing to remember is to use real people with real stories. Be genuine and unscripted. If its natural, your audience with form a bond. With that being said, make sure you write out, beforehand, what questions you want to ask the industry expert, employees, etc. A lot of people get camera shy once it’s in their face, and can lose track of what they were wanting to say. There’s a difference between a few ‘uh’s’ and ‘um’s’ in a video making it look natural and relaxed, and completely forgetting what you’re going to say next and how to respond.

·      How-To’s and Product Tutorials - Demonstrations of products are great because you get to show your audience what benefits they will get from using your products. You get to put the enthusiasm and fun into the video. You get to show your audience the belief you have in your business and your products. Try making a How-To video that someone who doesn’t use your particular product, but a similar one, might want to watch. It may seem counter-intuitive, but by slowly adding videos that can appease the masses, you can gain more subscribers, likes and leads. Always be informative in your videos, adding humor or flare when needed to wake up an otherwise dry demonstration. To do this properly and to be effective, make sure you do your homework, have a script, keep it short, avoid overloading them with information, and finish with a strong call to action so that they know exactly what to do next.




·      Presentations - Presentations are typically used to unveil new product lines or new, bigger and better products. These are slightly larger productions than the other videos. These videos need to be big, powerful and change the way your audience will think of your products. You need to think out of the box and be unique. These are your most powerful motivators that will bring in new clients, and strengthen your bond with existing clients. Think of these videos like a presentation at a boardroom table. Those who come in weak, stumbling and mumbling won’t get a good review and will most likely get passed over for that promotion a few months later. Those who come in strong, knowledgeable, entertaining and engages with those around them will receive great feedback, will be admired and will be thought of when the next promotion comes up. Presentation videos don’t have to be boring and dry. You can keep them up-to-date by bringing in new information and entertain your clients and your future clients in one fell swoop if you take your time to research, rehearse and think outside the box.

·      User Generated Content - User generated content is content that your audience comes up with on their own. You encourage them to produce content by coming up with a hashtag and a contest or something similar. Do something entertaining that encourages your audience to get involved. User generated content is probably the hardest of the marketing content, but probably the most useful. By running this type of campaign and using their ideas, you’re showing that you’re engaged with your audience and that you respect your customers’ opinions. Try asking them what their biggest frustration is with any product or even with a product that your company carries. It may be that the user doesn’t know how to use the said product, resulting in another How-To video as well. If it’s something that’s actually wrong with one of your products, this is a great time to hear about it, instead of receiving mass complaints that you will have to herald later. This may even bring you three extra videos that will capture your user’s attention: The User Engagement video which you can make simply stating that you’re working on these issues and will be unveiling a better product soon; the Presentation video that will showcase the product and everything that it does better than its predecessor; and the How-To video that will show the users how to use this new and improved product.

You always want to be thinking of ways that each video can correspond with the others, bringing them together in one easy batch that subscribers and other YouTube users can find and use.

YOUTUBE ADVERTISING

Just like on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you can use YouTube as a platform for video ads. What was once the most common place for ads, television, YouTube is taking this over and starting fresh. As each video gains more subscribers, views, and likes, YouTube will place an ad in front of it. Some you may not be able to skip and only run for 20-30 seconds. Others, you can skip at a certain mark (30 seconds).Make a video about your company, stating what you do, what you sell, etc. and take advantage of YouTube advertising. This is your time to be playful and energetic about your company, your goals, products, and values. Opt for your own budget, and how many times your video will appear. You can also target specific audiences, such as age and location, plus many others.

YouTube offers a view-by-ad budget. Anything after the 30-second mark on those videos that you can skip, will get billed to you. If your video is under 30 seconds, the viewer has to skip before the end of the video. Anything before is free advertising. Use those minimal seconds to get the most intriguing and entertaining part of your video out. If a video, even if it is solely an advertisement, looks interesting, a user will sit through the advertisement to see what the end game is. A great example is the gathering that comes during the Super Bowl, solely for the commercials. What was once an annoyance and a point in the game to get refreshments is now part of the show.

Use this same kind of thought process for your own YouTube advertisements. You can make a Presentation or How-To video for your advertisement instead of making a typical commercial video explaining your company. Make this video more upbeat than your regular How-To videos, with a little more excitement, intrigue, and fun. If this type of video gets great reviews from those watching, try making more How-To videos like your advertisement, bringing in new customers and/or expand your fan base.

To keep you looped in with your new audience and numbers, YouTube offers Analytics for your YouTube ads that will help you track if this is the right area of marketing to be spending your money. Always make sure to check your numbers before running another ad. One specific ad set may be performing better than another, so why would you continue to run the one that isn’t doing as great? If you find a niche that viewers are loving, stick with it! You can always try new ideas and add them in to run beside these working ads to see if any differences pop up. YouTube advertising is a great way to get your name out further than simply making a video or two on your own YouTube channel.

BUILDING YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL 

YouTube is a hard market for business, but can be one of the best marketing strategies if it is used correctly. Most businesses do not invest in YouTube marketing because it is difficult and can be time-consuming and expensive (if you’re using professional videography). However, 17% of all internet traffic is on YouTube and YouTube is the second largest search engine on the worldwide web. So why not use it?

There are a few keys to building your YouTube channel following. First, who are you creating your content for? Who out of your target audience is going to be watching these videos? Obviously, the same as those that will be buying your products. Therefore, your methodology and strategy for creating videos needs to be focused on just that. Do not think you are selling to the entire world, because you know every business has a niche market. Focus in on your audience and create your videos for them, not everybody. If you’re not getting many views right off the bat, remember that you are selling to a niche market and this isn’t a music video or a make-up tutorial, which are frequently searched by users. Keep up your videos, making them more polished and professional as time goes on and your viewers will come.

Second, what is your audience’s primary goal? What do you have to offer them? What matters to them? What do they need? Once you understand more about what they need and want, you can relate your business to them and/or offer new products based on their needs. Remember, you do not have to focus on the entire audience. You can separate your target audience into groups.

To attack more views, make sure you are entertaining or accomplishing a goal. Most people watch videos to be entertained or to learn how to do something or more about something. Establish your goal and make your videos useful from there. Always, always make sure you make quality videos. If your videos are low quality, they will be useless because they will not be watched. If your budget allows, try hiring a videographer for those videos that take precedent, such as your video ads or specific promotional videos. If your budget doesn’t allow to hire a videographer and use their equipment, buy a professional-grade camera that you can use to snap photos for your other social media accounts and that will produce videos for your YouTube account. The better the video, the more views and likes you will receive.

Most importantly set up a routine schedule for posting new videos. The more you post, the more you will get subscribers who come back to watch more. Successful marketing is about putting good quality material in front of your audience, so do so regularly.

Youtube video marketing strategy for business: TOOLS AND FEATURES 


·      Youtube video marketing strategy for business: Branded Channels  - A branded channel on YouTube is a more customizable channel that allows you to customize the appearance of your channel so that it looks more like your website (including banners and background images). It is a better way to promote your business and advertise your brand. Your branded banner can include links to your other social media platforms so that viewers can easily get to your Facebook page, Twitter, and all other accounts. They all integrate very nicely.

You are also given an analytics management page so that you can monitor the performance of your channel including metrics and tracking of viewers. How many visits you get, the best performing videos, worst performing, etc. Analytics will help in creating new content as you grow your channel and learn more about your audience. I’ve said it many times before, but keeping up with these analytics and tracking every little detail is very imperative. You wouldn’t go out and spend thousands of dollars on a new vehicle without making sure that it passes many tests, would you? The same is true when marketing on social media. If you’re chucking in hundreds (or thousands) of dollars into one venue and idea and it’s not working, re-evaluate your strategy. It may be just the creative content that isn’t working for viewers, the professional quality (or lack thereof), or it could end up that YouTube isn’t right for your business.

If posting many videos on YouTube turns out to not be right for your business, still keep your account and use it to upload videos onto your website or other social media sites. YouTube can essentially be your hub for all marketing videos because you can embed them on your website and other platforms.

·      Youtube video marketing strategy for business - Analytics YouTube comes with an analytics page as most social media accounts do. Most users of YouTube are looking for the analytics of the number of views and likes and how much money they’ve spent and where. You can also look at where the viewers were finding your video (under which category, if on YouTube itself, or generic search), showing you where to put your next video(s). This will even show you a report for your audience retention, showing you how well viewers stuck it out with your video(s), and letting you compare to other videos with similar content. This is a great tool to use, especially if a lot of videos tend towards the drier side.

People’s attention spans have deteriorated over the years, so placing the most intriguing part of your video in the first 15-30 seconds is important. If they’re going to stick it out until the end, they’re most likely true followers. If you use the first 15-30 seconds of your video (with attention spans waning the closer you get to 30 seconds) to get your brand, product or services out in the open right away, you can still chalk that up to a good marketing video. The more people see your name, the more likely they’re going to think of you when it comes time to use your services or product.

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