With hundreds of hours of content uploaded per minute, there’s a lot for people to watch on YouTube. So, how can you expect them to come to your account and watch the content you put out?
In this guide, we discuss an approach to the YouTube marketing strategy that will help you grow your channel.
Tips for Creating a YouTube Marketing Strategy
The YouTube algorithm keeps changing from time to time. However, its inherent purpose stays the same – to introduce the viewers to content they’d enjoy.
Here are some tips to ensure your content is picked up by the YouTube algorithm.
Customize Your YouTube Account
When you start your YouTube channel, you have to ensure that it’s unique to you. For that, you must customize your channel.
Click on the ‘Customize Channel’ button to begin. First off, add an icon for your channel. You can hire a freelancer to design it for you or make it yourself on Canva. Then, add channel art.
Make sure you follow the platforms’ channel art templates.
Finally, add a link to your personal website, if you have any, and a channel description. You can also link to your social media accounts, such as Instagram or Facebook.
Consider giving your channel or video an extra boost with our YouTube services.
Identify Your Audience
Only a chunk of the billions of people that come to YouTube every month makes up your audience. So, you need to identify this target group. The YouTube demographics give you information about your audience.
You can learn where your audience comes from, what their age range is, their viewing preferences, and the devices they’re using to access the platform.
Knowing your audience’s age and demographics can give you an idea about their preferences.
For instance, if most of your audience comes from the US, they’ll have different needs than the viewers from central Asia. Likewise, you can also learn a lot about your viewers from their age range.
Gen Z viewers prefer short-form content as opposed to the older individuals who like long-form content. Therefore, if your audience is made up of younger people, you might want to put out shorter, expert-shot video clips.
These analytics also give you an insight into popular topics on the platform. For instance, the video searches for ‘thrifting’ went up by ten times from 2017 to 2019. Depending on your channel, you can use this information to your advantage.
If you run a fashion, lifestyle, or beauty channel, you can make thrifting views to rack up views.
You can also read the comments to learn more about your audience. Often, people leave comments requesting you to make certain videos. If such comments seem to have a lot of likes, it means a fraction of your audience is interested in that video topic.
Research The Competition
By researching the competition, you can find a lot about possible opportunities and know what you’re up against. You can use the free Keyword Planner from Google Ads to find the five top-ranking channels for the keywords you’re using.
Alternatively, type these keywords in the YouTube search bar and see which five channels appear on the top.
Look at the titles, thumbnails, and descriptions of these videos. They’ll give you an idea of what you need to do to make your videos just as prominent. You should also read the comments on these videos because it’s likely that the audience on these channels overlaps with that on yours.
Optimize Your Videos
You can optimize your YouTube videos by writing proper descriptions, using the right keywords, and managing other factors. Optimizing your videos will ensure that they rank higher on the search results.
Titles
First off, start by writing a captivating title for your video. It should contain the keyword and must grab the reader’s attention.
However, do not keep clickbait titles. They may work once or twice, but after a while, your audience will start leaving due to false advertisement of your video content.
Try to write ‘How to’ titles as they make it very clear what the video is about. Here are some examples:
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How to apply a winged eyeliner?
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How to wear a pencil skirt in 3 ways?
Similarly, you can also add numbers in the video title as they tend to rank higher up. Here are some examples:
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4 easy ways to apply winged eyeliner
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3 ways to rock a pencil skirt
Although YouTube lets you write 70 characters, you should keep the title below 60 characters to prevent it from being cut off in the search results. Also, do not use excessive punctuation or spaces in your title.
Make The Thumbnail Stand Out
90% of the best performing videos on YouTube have a custom thumbnail. That’s a clear sign that having an attractive thumbnail is likely to make you stand out.
When creating a thumbnail, think of all the things your video represents. For example, if you’re making a thrift-flip video, you might want to keep a before and after picture as the thumbnail.
For a makeup look, keep the finished result as your thumbnail as it will intrigue people into watching the video to find out how you created that look.
Make sure the thumbnail is optimized for mobile phones, too, as most people access YouTube through their phone app.
Additions To Your Videos
Here are a few things you can add to your video to enhance their performance:
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Cards: These are small CTAs that expand upon clicking. You can add up to five cards in a video to send the viewers to another video, your website, playlist, etc.
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End Screen: The end screen contains four clickable frames in the last 5 to 20 seconds of the video. You can use it to promote your subscriptions or related content on your channel.
Conclusion
Wrapping up, the YouTube marketing strategy for your channel might look different from any other channel. However, some things are standard and need to be followed to gain attention from the YouTube algorithm and the audience.
For a instant boost, you can use our YouTube services to grow your YouTube channel and join the race for the top-tier content creators.