The internet creates tons of opportunities for businesses growth. To achieve such feats, many businesses need to expand their audience base and increase conversion rates. As a result, businesses online maximize several digital marketing methods in connecting and engaging with their target audience. One of such marketing tractions commonly employed is YouTube.
YouTube marketing simply involves promoting a business on YouTube's media platform. And this is done by uploading relevant videos on the firm's YouTube channel. While many firms have succeeded in utilizing this form of marketing to their benefit, others have found it challenging.
Due to the massive competition on YouTube, many businesses cannot take their marketing strategy off the ground. This is unproductive; it leads to time loss, waste of money, and frustration. Still, it is very possible to promote your business on YouTube and achieve results. In very basic terms, all you must do is to thrive on this media-sharing platform. But how can you make the most of your YouTube marketing in 2023? This YouTube marketing guide 2023 is sure to help you. It provides best marketing practices that will take your business off the ground to the top without being salesy.
How to promote your brand on YouTube in 2023
These are hand-picked tips and strategies that will help you and your brand reach your target audience through YouTube as it has with successful YouTubers.
1.) Create your YouTube channel
Having a YouTube channel is the first step to take in your YouTube marketing strategy. With this, you can help users identify you on this widely used platform. However, creating a successful YouTube channel involves more than you may think. To attract users, your channel's layout must be top-notch and well organized.
Your channel needs to reflect your brand. With one look, users should be able to tell what your business is all about. To achieve this, you can use color schemes that perfectly match that of your brand. Don't forget to reflect your brand's logo on your channel. All these help users to differentiate your brand from others on this widely used platform.
Your YouTube channel should not only be unique, it has to be well organized to attract users. And this is especially so if you have tons of videos you need to post. You can organize these videos into different sections or playlists depending on what the video discusses. This is to ensure users easily find the videos they want. And this will give your channel as well as your brand a good reputation.
2.) Identify your target audience
Like every other form of marketing, YouTube marketing involves you identifying your target audience. This implies that you know their age group, geographical area, likes, and dislikes. Through intensive research, you can get to know what will likely appeal to your target audience. Hence, you can develop videos that will attract them.
To learn more about your target audience, ensure you read the comment section thoroughly. Here, you can learn a lot about user personas, preferences, and what they think about you and your services. It also allows you to reevaluate your marketing strategy. Hence, the need to modify your strategy to meet the needs of your target audience.
3.) Know your competition
As mentioned earlier, YouTube is a very competitive place. After all, there are tons of brands looking to reach out to customers on this platform. While this poses a challenge for many, some brands have used this competitive nature to their benefit. By comparing your channel with the competition, you can weigh your channel's strength.
To do this, first, identify some noteworthy competitors. You can do this by taking note of those channels that rank higher than yours for keywords relating to your brand. Next, study those channels. While doing so, take note of their titles and description to help you identify their keywords. It is also important to review the comments they are getting. And this will help you know what people think about them. Furthermore, it helps you know how people view your channel compared to theirs. By conducting an intensive analysis of your competitors, you'll be able to identify where you are superior to them.
After studying your competitors, you may realize that their channel, ratings, and reviews far surpass yours. However, rather than feeling downcast, it's time to pick up the pace.
4.) Consistently create YouTube content
YouTube is no doubt the most popularly video-sharing website. Your success on this platform depends on how well your videos appeal to users. However, creating good video content will become fruitless if you cannot consistently keep your viewer's interest alive. Therefore, it is important to regularly upload video content on your channels.
Another reason for this is that your channel feed will remain active thereby increasing your presence on YouTube. An easy way to keep updating your channel's feed is by uploading short versions of longer content at time intervals. You can try building a theme around a particular topic. Then, release short versions of the topic at least once per week. Also, by leaving them with cliffhangers, your audience will become engaged and keep checking back for more.
5. Optimize your YouTube contents
While Google is recognized as the best search engine around, YouTube boasts of being the second-best in the world. And similar to Google, YouTube's search results are determined by several factors. Such factors include keywords, titles, and descriptions. To reach out to potential customers, you no doubt require a high ranking on YouTube's search engine result page. Here are some tips on how to rank high on this video search engine.
Write a good title. Titles are very important to get users to click on your videos. A good and captivating title creates excitement and curiosity in users. More so if the title leaves the user in suspense. While you do this, also make sure your title tells users what your video is about.
Additionally, titles are the primary factors that the YouTube algorithm considers when evaluating your video. Therefore, ensure you include appropriate keywords in your title. With YouTube analytics, search for the keywords that viewers use when looking for your channel. And infuse these keywords into your title in a natural way.
It is also important to know that YouTube allows for only seventy characters. Hence, when writing titles, it is advisable to put the keywords upfront while keeping your word count to a maximum of sixty. All these are to ensure your title is not cut off from YouTube's search results and suggested videos.
Lastly, your title should be simple and clear. Excess punctuation, as well as vulgar language, should be avoided. By doing all these, you are a step closer to your goal.
Write a good description. Similar to the title, the description is yet another factor that greatly influences a channel's search engine ranking. Hence, providing a simple but accurate description of your video is necessary.
Your description should start in a nice and captivating manner. This will keep your viewers engaged and convince them to click on the 'show more' icon. Your description should contain a link to your site as well as your other channels. If possible, add links to other videos that are relevant to the topic being discussed.
YouTube allows for five thousand characters in total. Make the most use out of it while still keeping your description as simple as possible.
Design a good thumbnail. Your thumbnail is as important as your title. On YouTube, the majority of the users have custom thumbnails. Hence, it is easy to differentiate one from the other. In other words, thumbnails go a long way in helping users identify you. YouTube allows 2Mb as the maximum size of the thumbnails. When creating yours, ensure you make use of the highest resolution possible.
To design a simple and accurate thumbnail, you can try infusing your brand's logo into the thumbnail. By doing this, even if no one clicks on your video, you are still spreading awareness about your brand. Remember, your thumbnail should be based on the content of your video. After all, you do not want viewers to think they were being tricked into watching your video.
Encourage Likes, subscriptions, and comments. These are also important factors that determine how well YouTube will rank a video. A video with high likes and comments will have high rankings and vice versa. As a result, brands try to convince their viewers to share, like, and comment on the video. This is usually done casually and mostly towards the end of the video.
You don't want to sound desperate. Rather than doing that, you want to improve your video content because great content have higher engagements than others.
Channels with a higher number of subscriptions are also ranked higher on YouTube. By politely asking users to subscribe to your channel, you increase your chances of ranking higher on this great video-sharing platform.
Conclusion
With over two billion monthly users actively using it, YouTube remains the second most popular social tool. You can just see why it holds so much appeal to businesses trying to engage their customers. Webmasters can also leverage the platform in their sales funnel, using it as a traction point to get more leads. Still, what's the use of investing effort in a marketing strategy with no actual result? This YouTube marketing guide discusses best practices to make the most of the platform in 2023 to amazing effects without breaking a sweat. Applying these simple steps in bits will set your business apart in no time, bringing your content directly to your target audience. As you do so, never disregard the value of CTAs in your content. Remember that you must lead your audience on the right path to take action. Only then will you be able to realize your business goals.