Everyone loves YouTube! With over 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is the second most popular website in the world after Google, and more than 75% of Americans age 15 and up are on it. So, if you want to market your business successfully, you need to have a solid YouTube marketing strategy in place. In this article, we will provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to crush YouTube marketing in 2024.
What exactly is YouTube marketing?
YouTube marketing is all about promoting your brand, product, or service on the platform. It involves a mix of tactics, including creating organic promotional videos, collaborating with influencers, and running advertisements. However, simply shouting about your products won’t get you anywhere. To succeed in YouTube marketing, you need to understand what your target customers really want and optimize your content to reach them effectively.
Step 1: Create a YouTube channel for your business
To get started, you need to set up a YouTube channel for your business. Since YouTube is part of Google, you’ll first need to create a Google account. Once you have the account, you can log in to YouTube and create a Brand Account and channel. It’s best to manage your channel with a Brand Account, as it allows multiple people in your company to handle and update the channel. Plus, it provides privacy for your personal email address. Make sure to pick a catchy name for your channel that aligns with your brand.
Step 2: Understand your audience
To effectively market on YouTube, you need to know your audience inside out. Spend time researching who your target audience is already following on the platform and what kind of videos they are watching. You can check your YouTube Analytics for insights into your audience’s demographics and interests. Additionally, use social listening to see what people are saying about your brand or industry. Understanding your audience will help you create content that resonates with them.
Step 3: Research your competition
One of the fastest ways to grow on YouTube is by learning from your competitors. Analyze their subscriber count, average views per video, posting frequency, and overall video quality. Identify their most popular videos, how they present themselves, and their brand voice. Use this information to differentiate your company and gather ideas for new content. Conduct a SWOT analysis to understand your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in comparison to your competitors.
Step 4: Learn from your favorite channels
In addition to studying your competition, you can also learn from your favorite YouTube channels. Explore content outside your industry to gain insights into what’s working. Look at their video thumbnails, channel art, video editing techniques, and how they link to posts or products. Pay attention to trends and changes in the platform. For example, prioritize good audio quality over video quality, as it can significantly impact viewership.
Step 5: Optimize your videos for views
To stand out in the sea of YouTube videos, you need to optimize your content for visibility. Start by conducting keyword research to find the phrases people are using to search for content similar to yours. Incorporate these keywords into your video title, description, and tags. Use timestamps to break your video into chapters and make it easier for viewers to navigate. Create a detailed video description with links to your website, social media accounts, and products/services mentioned in the video. Lastly, design an engaging video thumbnail that entices viewers to click.
Step 6: Upload and schedule your videos
You’ve created compelling content, and now it’s time to upload it to your YouTube channel. You can do this directly in YouTube Studio and choose to publish it right away or schedule it for later. Consistency is key, so decide on a posting schedule that works for your audience. Consider the best day and time to post based on their viewing habits. You can also use Hootsuite to schedule your YouTube videos along with your other social media content.
Step 7: Optimize your channel to attract followers
In addition to optimizing individual videos, you should also optimize your entire YouTube channel. Make sure your channel art and profile photo reflect your branding. Group your videos into playlists organized by topic and create a channel trailer that represents what your channel is about. In your videos, ask viewers to subscribe, like, comment, and share. Engage with your audience by responding to comments and using custom end screens to direct them to other videos on your channel. Don’t forget to add closed captions to make your content accessible to a wider audience.
Step 8: Try YouTube advertising
If you want to accelerate your growth on YouTube, consider running YouTube ads. YouTube offers various ad formats, including skippable and unskippable video ads, as well as banner ads within videos or on the website. Before diving into paid ads, ensure that you have a solid understanding of your target audience, have optimized your channel’s visual branding and description, and have uploaded a sufficient number of videos to showcase your content.
Step 9: Explore influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a powerful strategy on YouTube, with almost half of all brands planning to use it. YouTube creators are growing in numbers, and they have a significant impact on their audiences. When considering an influencer partnership, ensure that the influencer aligns with your brand values and can produce high-quality content. Follow FTC guidelines for disclosing paid or sponsored content, and evaluate the results of your campaigns to refine your approach.
Step 10: Analyze and adapt
As with any marketing strategy, it’s essential to track and analyze your YouTube analytics regularly. Use YouTube’s built-in reports to understand your audience, traffic sources, top-performing videos, and more. Monitor your channel growth by tracking metrics such as subscribers, views, view duration, watch time, impressions, and click-through rate. Adjust your YouTube marketing strategy based on the insights you gather to continuously improve your results.
YouTube marketing tools for business
Boost your YouTube marketing efforts with these useful tools:
-
Mentionlytics for social listening: Monitor your social platforms for mentions of your brand or specific keywords. Respond to both positive and negative mentions to build a strong online presence.
-
Hootsuite: Schedule and manage your YouTube videos, along with your other social media content, using Hootsuite’s comprehensive platform. Monitor brand mentions, engage with your audience, and access in-depth analytics.
-
Channelview Insights: Gain deeper insights into your YouTube channel’s performance with Channelview Insights. Track demographic data, traffic sources, subscriptions, and more. Export reports for further analysis.
-
TubeRanker: Conduct keyword research for YouTube with TubeRanker. Discover popular keywords and get ideas for optimizing your content.
Let Hootsuite simplify your YouTube channel management and help you grow your audience more effectively. Sign up for free today and access a range of scheduling, promotion, and marketing tools.
