YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world—and it's only getting bigger.
That's because there are 2 billion active users on YouTube every month. If you're looking for an audience, that's a great reason to market your business on YouTube.
In this guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about YouTube marketing.
What is YouTube marketing?
YouTube marketing is the process of using YouTube to promote your business. The most common way to do this is by creating videos that help educate or entertain viewers and then driving traffic from those videos to your website or other social media channels.
It’s important to remember that content is king. This is especially true on YouTube, where your audience expects to find the best of what you have to offer. They want to see relevant content, and they want it to be engaging.
It's not just about creating great videos—you also need to make sure that the right people find your videos. That's where SEO comes in.
YouTube is a search engine, and if you want to rank well on YouTube, you need to make sure that people can find your content when they're searching for something related to your industry or niche.
YouTube Marketing in 10 steps
Step 1: Create a YouTube Channel for your business
Before you can start uploading videos to your YouTube channel, you need to create a Google account. You can use an existing account or create one specifically for managing your business.
If you’re using an existing Google account, log in and then click the “Account” link at the top of any page. If you don’t have a Google account, click “Sign Up” on the left side of the screen and follow the prompts to create one.
Let's discuss setting up a Brand Account. For starters, a Brand Account enables your business to have various employees manage and maintain your YouTube account. This might be quite useful if you want to offer someone access to help manage your channel or if you want to collaborate with a lot of people on the content creation process.
Step 2: Know your Audience
If you're just getting started on YouTube marketing, it's important to understand some fundamental demographics. Over 2 billion people use YouTube, and 72% of internet users in America routinely access it. YouTube is used by 77% of those ages 15 to 35, and unlike other social media sites, the percentage doesn't significantly decline as people become older.
YouTube's audience is also fairly evenly split between genders. Women make up 55% of users, while men make up 45%.
The first step in creating a successful YouTube channel is finding and researching your target audience. The best way to do this is by spending some time on YouTube itself! Spend some time browsing through different channels, and see what kinds of videos are being watched and shared by the people who are already following those channels.
Once you know what your audience is interested in, you can create content that caters to those interests. This will help ensure that your videos get seen by the right people and make it easier for them to click through to your site or product page.
Step 3: Study your competitors
The quickest approach to gain subscribers on YouTube is to study what your competitors are doing that is successful, then copy it—but better.
Start by searching for channels from the rivals you are already familiar with. You should pay close attention to the information they provide, how they provide it, and who they are targeting.
You'll also want to pay attention to how their videos are organized, their Youtube thumbnails and titles, any strategies they have for increasing engagement on their videos, and any strategies they have for reaching new audiences.
If you can't find anything from your direct competitors, look up some channels in similar niches or in similar industries. You'll be able to see what kind of content is popular among those audiences, which will help you decide whether or not it's worth creating similar content yourself.
Step 4: Take some tips from your favorite channels
If you're trying to grow your YouTube channel, it's a good idea to learn from the top channels in your niche.
These channels have already built up a large audience and have learned what works for them. You can find their strategies by watching their videos and publicizing their successes on your own channel.
However, if you don't have time for that, there are still ways to learn from other channels that are more relevant to your industry or goals. For example, if you're trying to grow a brand on YouTube, you should be watching other brands on YouTube.
Step 5: Optimize your videos to increase views
If you want to grow your audience and make money from your channel, you need to understand how YouTube's algorithm works. Here's a quick breakdown of what we're talking about:
The YouTube Algorithm
YouTube's algorithm is what decides which videos get shown in search results, on the home page, or in the "Up Next" section. It also determines what videos are recommended to people who watch similar content.
The algorithm takes into account many factors when deciding whether or not to show a video. These include:
Viewer retention rates—how long people watch videos before clicking away
The difficulty of content—how easy it is for viewers to understand what they're watching without having to read text or subtitles (which means that longer videos tend to rank better)
Viewer engagement—the number of comments and likes a video receives within its first few hours online.
The following six ways can help you optimize your videos for increased viewership:
- Search for Keywords
- Add Keywords to your videos
- Use timestamps
- Create a comprehensive video description
- Make an engaging video thumbnails
- Reply to comments
Step 6: Upload and Schedule your video
If you're uploading a video to YouTube, it's easiest to use the YouTube Studio app.
YouTube Studio is a free program that you can use to manage and edit your videos. You can use it to upload finished videos, or you can upload unfinished videos and edit them in the program before publishing them on YouTube.
It's important to note that not all of your video creation needs will be addressed by YouTube Studio. If you want to do things like create dynamic slideshows or insert product links into your video description, you'll need to use another tool like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro X.
Step 7: Attract your followers by optimizing your channel
If you're just starting out, it's important to make sure that your channel art and profile photo reflect your branding. Your channel art is what shows up when people search for music video production services on YouTube, so it's important that it not only looks good but also conveys the feeling of your brand to viewers.
Your profile photo is what appears next to all of your videos—it's how people will recognize you as a creator and connect with your content.
Step 8: Try YouTube Advertising
YouTube ads are a great way to promote your business and get your product in front of potential customers. You can place ads in promotional video production company, on the website, or both.
You have the option of making your video ads either skippable after 5 seconds or unskippable. Skippable ads will allow viewers to watch your ad when they're ready, but if they prefer not to watch it, they can skip it immediately—so don't worry about losing anyone who might be interested in what you have to say. If you want them to stick around for a bit more persuasion, make sure that your ad is unskippable!
Step 9: Try Influencer Marketing
The number of "creators" on YouTube is increasing yearly. According to YouTube, the number of producers making over $10,000 annually and those making over $100,000 annually has increased by 50% and 40%, respectively, over the previous year.
But what does that mean for you? It means that you can reach a huge audience of people who want to learn more about your company and products by working with creators who already have an established audience.
YouTube is a high-performing channel for companies, even if new social media platforms are always emerging and rising to the top as the "hot" places to promote, such as TikTok in 2021. YouTube will be used by over half of all firms that intend to use influencer marketing.
Step 10: Analyze and Adjust
You should be monitoring your stats at least once a month if you're utilizing YouTube to promote your company. Use YouTube's built-in reports to learn more about your audience's viewing habits, favorite content, source of traffic, and other information.
You can monitor how many visitors are coming to your website from YouTube by using Google Analytics. This will offer you a clear image of how effectively your commercial video production services are bringing visitors to your website and producing leads for your company.
Concluding Thoughts
Whether or not you are new to YouTube marketing, we hope that this guide has helped you. Now that it's the largest video site on the entire Internet, there's no question that YouTube marketing is here to stay.
If you're wondering how you can get started with this marketing strategy, there's no better time than right now.
By sticking to what works and avoiding what doesn't, you can create a successful channel that truly fulfills your business needs as well as your creative ones.
