Today, more than 400 hours of video content is being uploaded on YouTube channels every minute. That is a phenomenal amount of content.
With so much competition out there, Digital Marketers need a well-crafted, well-executed and consistent YouTube marketing strategy to ensure that your videos are visible in this mammoth sea of video content.
Discussed below are a few proven and time-tested YouTube Marketing tips that will help you to promote your videos and help them get more views.
1. Use Appropriate Keywords to Make Your Video Content Searchable
Using well-researched and appropriate keywords not only in the description but also in the title makes a video more searchable. In your pursuit of making a video searchable, don’t get weird by using any random keywords. The keyword you use in the title should match the video content and you should not stuff unrelated keywords in unnecessarily.
To find appropriate keywords, there is an auto-complete feature on YouTube that you can use. Just try to search for a video like yours and see what comes up. It indicates the most probable phrases that people use to search for a specific thing on YouTube.
Knowing about these searches helps you to frame better titles by using them as your keywords.
2. Tell a Compelling Story
The whole purpose of video marketing is to engage your potential audience. This can be achieved more effectively if you can tell a story through your video as it makes viewers feel connected. If people watching your video believe that you understand their issues, challenges or the problem they face – and can provide a solution for that, they get motivated to perform the desired action.
A story doesn’t need to be a narrative – it just needs to take someone from point a to point b in a way they can (and want to) follow. The way you tell your story through your videos should be indulgent, inspiring and compelling enough to instil a sense of connection and trust in those who are watching it.
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3. Provide a Gist of Your Videos
To gain better visibility in searches on YouTube, providing an appropriate description of your videos works marvels. When a user knows what to expect from a video, it increases their probability of watching it completely without abandoning it in the middle.
If you use the autocomplete keyword phrases from the search function (as mentioned above) in the description, then it further increases the chance of being noticed. Think of your video’s description like a tiny ad for your video.
4. Utilize the Initial 8 Seconds Effectively
An average viewer has an attention span of just 8 seconds before they typically get bored with a video. Therefore you need to make an impact in these 8 seconds. Only if you make viewers engaged (and/or arouse their curiosity), will they feel motivated enough to watch any further.
Make these initial seconds count by asking the correct questions, or providing the correct teasers to make viewers curious and engaged enough to watch your complete video.
5. Use an Intro and Outro Video
To ensure that people remember your brand and to ensure every video that you have posted so far stands out and gets the desired visibility, you need to add intro and outro videos. The intro is a 3 to 5-second clip that runs right at the start of a video showcasing your brand. An outro, on the other hand, runs at the video’s end and showcases the related videos that you have posted on your channel and also requests the viewers to like and subscribe.
Outros are especially important as Google now shows recommendations over the end of videos. This means that to ensure that your video has the impact that you want it to have, you should add a final section to your videos to conclude them (rather than let YouTube do it for you).
6. Share Your Video on Social Media Channels
To enhance the visibility of your video, post a teaser on your various social media channels. This helps in creating a community on these channels and helps you to start getting more traffic from there.
Some good social sites to promote your videos on are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. Make sure to schedule the videos that you want to share on social media channels by using a social media scheduling tool.
7. Make Use of Calls to Action
When posting videos you should always specify the action(s) that you want people to take after watching your video. This can be done by using appropriate call-to-action buttons. CTAs can be placed in either the middle or at the end of a video asking viewers to like it, share it, and to subscribe to your channel.
The “Call to action” technique is used to amplify the video’s reach by utilising your existing subscribers. This technique works wonders in increasing viewership.
In Conclusion
YouTube marketing requires you to have a good grasp of all YouTube algorithms. It is therefore recommended that you include video in your marketing strategy in order to get the most out of it. Alternatively, you could outsource your YouTube marketing to a professional agency that has access to all the required tools and techniques to succeed, and remains updated on the changing algorithms.
However, if you decide to do it in-house, the above-explained tips will aid in promoting your videos for more views.