Everything You Need To Know About YouTube Marketing in 2019

Video marketing is poised to grow exponentially in 2019.

When we talk of video marketing, can YouTube be far behind? In fact, it’s the first video channel that comes to mind.

YouTube is the second largest search engine, after Google. With a huge subscriber base and upwards of 50 million content creators, this channel cannot be ignored.

But, the main challenges are creating engaging videos regularly to stand out from the crowd and reaching your target audience.

Keep your YouTube marketing strategy right and you'll be able to overcome both the challenges.

Here’s this 10 - step YouTube marketing guide to help you gain an engaged community that will be your brand advocate, ready to engage and buy from you.

10-step guide to YouTube Marketing

Step 1 - Set-up a YouTube channel for business.

Don’t get this step wrong. Open a Brand account on Google instead of using a regular Google account. A Brand Account allows many authorised Google Accounts to simultaneously log in but a regular account allows only one.

Down the line, when your channel grows, you may want some of your team members to manage it.

Step 2 - Know your audience

The Analytics tab of your YouTube business channel gives you data related to your channel.

Study the audience behaviour like view counts, watch time and interaction rate in the quantitative insights section.

The Watch Time and Demographics analytics is very helpful in understanding:

When and where your videos are being viewed, Age range of your viewers, Gender of your viewers, Knowing who your audience is helps you adjust your content strategy to target the right people.

Step 3 - Competition analysis

Browsing your competitors’ YouTube channels can open up a wealth of information about the videos getting more engagement and this will help you formulate your own videos better.

Read the descriptions, study the keywords they have used in SEO and take ideas to improve your search rankings in YouTube’s search algorithms.

If you find a mention of your brand while going through comments on the competitors’ channels, make sure to respond to them. This projects you in a favorable light and as someone actively engaging with the community.

Step 4 - Take inspiration from channels you love

Some videos, though not related to your niche, may grab your attention and you want to view it again. What’s it about these videos that holds your attention?

Their analysis will reveal some techniques and best practices that you can adopt to get more views, higher watch time, subscriptions and engagement.

Some growth strategies can be applied across all YouTube channels. You just need to have a watchful eye on these YouTuber’s strategies, even if they seem weird in the first instance.

Step 5 - SEO optimize your videos for more views

Your aim should be to get higher rankings in the YouTube search engine for more views. Here are some tips to SEO optimize your site for better rankings.

a) Choose the right title and include the keyword.

A title that grabs attention and has the relevant keyword is a must. Google Keywords Planner will help you find the relevant keywords. The title must reflect what’s shown in the video and aim for 60 characters or less to prevent them from being cut-off in the search results (maximum 70 characters are allowed).

b) Make a thumbnail that piques interest

Instead of using a freeze-frame from your video to use as a thumbnail, it would be better if you make your custom thumbnail to make your content attract eyeballs.

c) Write an effective video description

Things to include in this are a short description of your video, links tour website and social media accounts and hashtags to help you be found.

Some points to note:

1. Maximum 5000 characters long

2. Ideally use keywords at the beginning in the title and description

3. Add timestamps with a contents page, so viewers can go to the relevant sections easilyInterlink to your channel’s relevant playlists

4. Add maximum 15 hashtags. If you add more, all the hashtags will be overlooked by YouTube.

d) For channel promotion, add cards, bumper ads and watermarks

All these are clickable CTAs for your videos and are very non-obtrusive.

Cards can be used to direct viewers to your website, purchase pages or other videos. They are transparent CTAs and on clicking, expand.

Bumper ads appear at the start or end of videos and are 6 seconds long.

Watermarks are only visible to non-subscribers. They are custom subscribe buttons.

e) Encourage viewers to subscribe

This may be a simple tactic but it works like a charm. Just asking your viewers to like, share or subscribe can get you many subscriptions.

Step 6 - Scheduling videos and posting frequency

Uploading a few videos and then forgetting about the channel doesn't get you many subscribers. Create well-optimized videos and post them on a regular schedule. If you’ve committed to your subscribers to post one video every Friday, then make sure you follow that routine.

To ensure posting frequency is maintained, you can upload and schedule them from YouTube’s Creator Studio.

Step 7 - Get more followers by optimizing your channel

Here we are not talking about optimizing videos. You need to optimize the YouTube channel itself to bring a unified experience throughout your channel.

Complete your YouTube profile - Include a keyword-rich bio, an attention-grabbing banner, website and social media links and contact information.Create playlists from your videos - Playlists will keep viewers on your channel longer. Include a logical sequence of your videos in the playlist.Translation into more languages - This can be done easily (although not of high quality) if you allow community contributions from your channel’s Creator Studio.

Step 8 - YouTube Advertising

Want your ads to be seen on other channels? YouTube advertising makes it possible.

There are six varieties of YouTube ads. These ads are skippable, non-skippable, overlay, display and lastly, sponsored cards.

Make ads short, engaging and hyper-targeted that make people want to see them.

Step 9 - Influencer Marketing

Leverage the tuned-in audience of the influencers to promote your brands. You can do this by having paid partnerships with influencers in your field who know and trust your brand.

Let the influencer communicate about your brand the way he likes because he knows his audience inside out. Don't try to impose many conditions on him as that will hamper any creativity and the partnership will fail to make an impact.

Step 10 - Analyse the data and adapt to what your audience wants

This says it all. You may have done all the above listed steps but growing your channel also requires constant monitoring.

After publishing videos, check YouTube Analytics for changes in subscribe count, audience demographics, traffic sources and the devices (mobile, desktops etc) from which your videos are consumed.

Take cues from the comments. Engage with your audience through comments and assess what your audience wants. Tweak your YouTube strategy accordingly.