A successful online presence for a business includes more than just Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. YouTube has evolved to become an extremely important marketing tool as video sharing now provides a great opportunity for advertising. The best part of it all is that uploading videos is free!
Here are 10 simple tips to utilise YouTube to the fullest:
1. Give your business a face
As every business owner knows, brand awareness is important. You want your YouTube page to stand out, but you also want it to be memorable. Change your appearance settings and the background colour to match your company colours. You should also add a logo wherever possible to become easily recognisable across all online platforms.
For more information, go to https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2972003?hl=en
2. Drive people to your website
The point of social media marketing is to drive people to your website and increase traffic and conversions. The content you present to viewers should be engaging enough for them to want to visit your website. Within the first two minutes of your video, make it clear to the viewer why they need your service or product. If a viewer understands what you’re offering and why it benefits them, it is much more likely that they will visit your website
3. Direct business link
It’s important that people know how to find your business once they’ve viewed your YouTube video. For most businesses the aim of your video is to direct people to your website or business profile. Make it easier for your viewer by including the link to your page in the description field below the video. The last thing you want is for them to search for your business and have your competitors come up in the search results.
Tip: Don’t always link to your homepage, link to relevant internal pages too.
4. NAP (name, address, phone number)
This goes without saying – when you set up your YouTube account, include all your business’s contact details. This not only shows potential clients can see that your company is legit, but it assists with where you appear in search results, because Google favours clear, concise and complete webpages. It may seem insignificant, but will increase your visibility among the online community.
Tip: If you are a local business make sure your NAP is the same on your website, Google+ business page and YouTube.
5. Use the description field
The description field is not only for business and website information, it’s also a place for optimised content to increase rankings. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, so make sure the description beneath your video has keyword relevant content. Make your description unique and include primary keywords in the first sentence. You can also include links to your other active social network channels and blog.
6. Focus on entertainment, not advertising
If you want to advertise on YouTube, its best to pay via AdWords and have your advertisement promoted across the platform to relevant demographics. However, when you’re uploading videos via your own YouTube channel, stick to entertainment rather than advertising. Keep in mind how video is important in the buying cycle.
Fun and informative content will be shared above traditional advertising. . Since you’re going to all that trouble to lure people to your page, make sure the content on your page is light and informative. This will increase the chance of them interacting (comments, likes) and sharing your videos.
Tip: When advertising on YouTube, make sure to test all ad placements, such as standard & in-video overlay, in-stream, in-slate and in-search. Every placement will have a different conversion rate.
7. Get optimized
Your video needs to be discovered among a sea of billions. Keywords are your best bet for optimising your video content. Make sure everything under the SEO umbrella is taken care of. Ensure your title includes all industry relevant terms as well as the word ‘video’ or ‘clip’. Use the YouTube tag tool to create specific and focussed, search-friendly tags for your clip.
8. Get collaborating
Join forces with your fellow YouTubers to grow your audience span – this is also known as ‘cross-promotion’. The more you share your peers’ content, the more they will share yours, so it helps to partner with people who have a similar presence to you online. Create a cross-promotion strategy and then reach out to potential partners and discuss your collaboration.
Don’t forget about YouTube as a network to grow your business! The content may require more effort to create, but your reach is exponential if you optimise the video correctly and collaborating with people on the same mission as you.