YouTube Strategy for Startups: Building a Marketing Strategy
Videos have proven itself as one of the most reliable and effective forms of social media. Moreover, it is one of the best forms of content in terms of customer engagement. If you want to build strong and trustworthy relationships with your users -YouTube is a perfect platform to do so.
Having a YouTube channel is not enough. You need to put a maximum effort to manage it by means of adding videos on a regular basis, engaging with users in the comment sections and promote your brand on the platform.
If you are looking for new ways to promote your business, YouTube could not be the better option. Being the second most popular website in the world, YouTube enables to promote your business values and increase your brand’s visibility. In addition, creating videos for YouTube enables you to share them across other social media platforms, for example, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In fact, using your own video content during the email marketing campaigns or using it on your website and landing pages are a great way to prove your high level of expertise.
Eventually, YouTube marketing is like marketing on other social platforms. The first step is to create a strategy, set the goals and follow them. It is crucial at early stages to specify your main priorities and targets you want to achieve, like engagement, clicks/traffic or reach/subscriber number. Based on your priorities, the marketing strategy will be built.
At 2muchcoffee, we understand the importance of using modern solutions during the process of startup development. That is why we prepared top tips that will help you to shape your YouTube strategy for your business.
Construct a brand identity
Your YouTube channel is supposed to be your brand’s voice. It means that in the “About” section there should be a short description of your brand main idea. The description should introduce every new user about your brand’s message.
Choose what types of video you would like to post on your channel, there could be one of the following listicles, How-to videos, behind-the-scenes, product videos, case studies, and interviews. In addition, you can use live videos are a great way to connect with your audience in real-time and establish a bond with your current and potential users. We recommend mixing the mentioned types to create more rich video content for different audiences.
The schedule is a key
Upload videos on a regular basis are a crucial element of the overall marketing strategy. It is better to do a strict publishing schedule and stick to it. Once you determine how often you can post, you should also consider when you release your videos. A user who will subscribe to your channel need to know when exactly it is expected new content from your brand.
According to statistics, most viewers watch YouTube videos in the evenings and on weekends. That is why the best time to post your content is early afternoons (12pm-4pm) during the week or early (9am-11am) Saturday and Sunday mornings so that your videos will be indexed by the time your potential viewers are searching.
YouTube Tools and Features
It is better to change your channel into the YouTube business account, so there will be an additional tool that you could use while collecting the analysis of your channel activity online and other crucial metrics. In fact, the platform has a host of tools and features that can help you enhance your YouTube marketing strategy. You can add transcripts to your videos or closed captions - these will make your content universal. Use end screens and cards to add your desired calls to action.
Additionally, check your comments every day so you can respond promptly, ask questions of your views in your videos and use the “Community” tab to post images, GIFs, and video previews, as well as to poll your subscribers. These moves will increase engagement and user views.
Don’t forget about SEO optimization
Optimizing your video content is crucial for establishing your YouTube marketing strategy. As a top search engine in the world, which is one of the reasons why it’s such an attractive promotional tool for business. What this means is, quite simply, that if you take the time to optimize your videos and you produce quality video content on a regular basis, you can dramatically increase your chances of reaching a wide and targeted audience.
There are several important factors that count towards your search results ranking; some are completely in your control – like the keywords you use and how you use them – while with others, you don’t have as much power over them (like how many people subscribe immediately after viewing one of your videos).
Here are some of the most important video ranking factors that you need to know about:
Your channel’s keywords: Use the right tags to make sure that YouTube knows what your channel is about.
Video headlines and descriptions: Research keywords to find out what your audience is looking for and use these keywords in your video headlines and your descriptions. (Quick tip: the closer the keyword is to the beginning of the headline, the better!)
Video tags: In addition to keywords, you need to add tags to your videos – research tags to find out which ones perform best.
Video transcript: Including a video transcript is a great way to make your video more scrapable by search bots. It’s also good for viewers: if they need to check the spelling of a word or can’t increase the volume to hear the video, they can still access the content.
Watch time: Your total video watch time (how many minutes/hours/etc. people watched of your videos) also counts towards your ranking. The bigger the watch time, the better!
Thumbnail Image: The thumbnail image will be visible whenever your video is indexed, so this should be compelling and relevant.
Engagement: YouTube also looks at your channel’s engagement, including how many likes/dislikes you get, as well as how many comments and shares.
Subscriber numbers: This doesn’t just mean how many YouTube subscribers you have. As I mentioned earlier, how many people subscribe after viewing one of your videos also matters. These subscribers show that your video was relevant and provided value to the viewer.
Conclusion
YouTube marketing is the right solution for your business. Since it is the second most popular platform it enables to provide strong video marketing. Eventually, marketing on YouTube is like marketing on other social platforms. The first step is to create a strategy, set the goals and follow them whether you want to focus on user engagement, clicks/traffic or reach a certain subscriber number. Construct a brand identity, stick to regular schedule plan of uploading the videos, use a wide range of YouTube tools and features and do not forget about the SEO optimization of your channel. These are the top tips of how to provide an efficient marketing strategy.
If you have any questions left, feel free to contact our team and we will help in any inquiries!