As e-commerce has continued to skyrocket post-pandemic, advertising techniques have become more entrenched in the digital world. Recently, video marketing has garnered a lot of attention with social media platforms integrating ‘shorts’ into their format. This is an opportunity for businesses to reach an online audience and to develop creative marketing strategies for the next generation of consumers.
Alongside shorts, longform video advertising has continued to prove successful. Youtube Marketing has demonstrated itself as an essential marketing tool in recent years. Receiving 13.34 billion visits as of 2021, Youtube is the second most visited website in the world. For businesses that integrate YouTube marketing techniques, it opens up potential for increased foot traffic, a broader customer base, and exposure to new audiences.
Video marketing will continue to dominate the digital advertising scene. Businesses that want to remain relevant and competitive need to jump on the digital bandwagon and capitalise on these emerging business and marketing opportunities. If you’re convinced video marketing is the way to go but don’t know where to start, then we’ve compiled 5 hacks for effective YouTube marketing. Read on to find out more!
1. Create A Channel & Research The Target Audience
The first step to Youtube marketing is to create a channel. You can do this easily on the YouTube website. As a business, it would be beneficial to create a brand Google account so multiple members of your organisation can access the youtube channel.
Next, you need to commence research on your target audience. Use analytics to determine their age, location, viewing preferences and needs. Aside from analytics, you can use polls, surveys, and comment sections to get a sense of your target audience’s needs. It’s also an effective way to engage with a potential client base. Starting with this data means that from the beginning your Youtube marketing strategy is highly specific.
2. Commence Competitive Analysis
The size of the Youtube platform means that there are many opportunities for growth, but simultaneously it is very competitive. You should conduct a competitive analysis on rival companies to determine what their strengths and weaknesses are. Start by identifying your top 5 competitors by performing a keyword search to determine which brands have the highest ranking in your industry. Find these brands on youtube and record salient information points like video titles, like/dislike ratios, comment sections, posting schedule, video style and more. This is a goldmine of information about your shared client base. Use this data to integrate what you’ve learned into your own YouTube marketing strategy.
3. Consider The YouTube Algorithm When Producing Videos
The YouTube algorithm determines which videos people see based on their previous likes. It also uses creator behaviour like thumbnails and posting schedules to promote certain videos. To ensure your marketing videos don’t become lost in the sea of content, you need to work with the algorithm. This means using recognisable thumbnails, keyword-optimised video titles, and posting at regular intervals. You can use YouTube analytics to find what keywords people are searching and integrate them into both the video title and the description, much like you would with Google Analytics. Try putting keywords at the start of your title to gain the viewer’s attention. You can also optimise your video for the algorithm through clickthrough actions: at the end of each video, make sure you ask the viewer to like and subscribe. If they do this, the machine learning in the algorithm will show them more similar videos – including yours.
4. Upload Content & Provide Important Information
Now that you’ve determined your target audience and are working with the algorithm, it’s time to start uploading marketing videos. Start a consistent upload schedule so your viewers, and the algorithm, know when to tune in. Choose a day and time with high engagement and views. You can determine this from your YouTube analytics once you’ve uploaded a few videos. It will take some time to get the rhythm right, but once you’ve established a pattern the results will snowball into high engagement and, hopefully, sales. To make sales through video marketing, your audience first needs to know key information points about your brand and service. Start by putting your company logo as your profile picture as well as a short bio on your main page. This is another opportunity to use keywords. Ensure this bio, and any video descriptions, include links to your website, social media pages, and online store. This way customers can easily access your product if they see something they like in the video.
5. Promote Your Videos & Track Your Success
You can use cross-platform advertising and paid advertising to promote your videos. This is crucial for gaining those first subscribers and viewers. If you have Instagram, use a countdown on your story to create anticipation for your first video release. You can also provide teasers or little snippets of the main video to encourage your audience to check out your YouTube channel. Shorts are an excellent way to do this, and mean you can recycle content. A video editing or videography course by an approved SkillsFuture provider in Singapore will be helpful when it comes to the technical side of video marketing as you can cut, edit, and join together longer videos to make them more effective in a short-form format. Once your first video is uploaded, track your progress through YouTube analytics. Use this information to determine future video marketing strategies. Remember, your marketing strategy should be fluid and innovative. Don’t be afraid to try something new or change plans if a trend comes along. Changes in demographic, subscribers, and viewers will all indicate how successful your video marketing campaign is.
Market Successfully On YouTube With @ASK Training
These 5 tips are a great introduction to YouTube marketing, but there are many layers to this complex digital format. Alongside general digital marketing strategies, your team requires technical know-how when it comes to making the video.
At @ASK Training, we provide corporate training courses and short digital marketing courses in Singapore to enhance your business operations. For a successful YouTube marketing strategy, consider enrolling in our videography course. If you are looking instead to start a career in digital marketing, we also provide SkillsFuture Career Transition Programmes including an Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing, a Diploma in Digital Marketing and a Specialist Diploma in Digital Marketing.
We provide flexible study options designed to work around rigorous professional careers and lifestyle commitments. To learn more about our training courses, look at our website or get in touch with our team today.