Google’s hit platform, YouTube, is one of the fastest growing and most used social media platforms out there with almost 2 billion users (totes their CEO Susan Wojcicki). According to Smart Insight, the average person will spend “100 minutes every day watching online videos” in 2021. Unlike users of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, many YouTubse watchers are utilizing the platform in their own living rooms, not just on their phones. “YouTube reaches more U.S. consumers 18-49 in an average week than all cable TV networks combined,” and it is millennials number one source of entertainment, according to Google’s President Allan Thygesen. Another interesting tidbit is only 9% of small businesses are on YouTube. Therefore, it stands to reason that small businesses like yours need to start using YouTube to market to potential customers.
Now that you are considering YouTube as part of your marketing plan, the next question is where should you start?
Set goals
First of all you need a marketing strategy. As with all strategies you need to have a few goals. Goals might be generating traffic, trying to engage potential customers, or to build subscriptions. Make your goals quantifiable and attainable.
Spying again?
YES! Check out the competition. Look for some of your competitors on YouTube (you likely won’t find them). But if you do, find out what kind of videos they are producing and how they are performing. Utilize some of their content topics in your own video production calendar.
Keep it consistent
As with all of your social platforms, you need to be consistent with sharing content. Think about a brand you subscribe to on YouTube. Currently, I subscribe to a couple of fitness gurus; they try to post new content, weekly. If you only post once a month, you may generate interest, but you might quickly lose it. But, be realistic. If once a week is too much, just do once a month and then try to progress to a bi-monthly calendar as soon as you are able. Consider what community events, promotional opportunities, and holidays you might want to center content around. Create a 6-month calendar and brainstorm potential videos. You can always adapt and move topics and content as needed.
Timeliness
Determine when you will share your videos. Videos posted in prime time during the week and early on weekend days get more views than those shared at other times. Promote your videos using other social media platforms. Get the word out on Instagram that a new video will be coming or has just been posted. The better you can “market” your YouTube content, the more views and subscriptions you will acquire.
Variety Matters
As with all your content, it is a good idea to generate a variety, but not be so unique that you have your subscribers scratching their heads. Utilize different purposes for your videos to add diversity and keep your audience coming back for more.
Educational videos that teach your audience how to do things pertaining to your industry are a big deal on YouTube (it seems like everyone has used YouTube at one time or another to learn how to do something)!
Product/service introduction and sharing, warrants a video. If you have a new product or service, you definitely should take advantage of YouTube to share that product/service with your subscribers!
Customer reviewers are another great source of video content. Share them with all your fans while at the same time asking subscribers to share what they love about your brand, company, products/services.
Interviews your employees, your stakeholders, and industry experts to provide entertaining, relevant, and engaging content for your loyal fans. Even interviewing those individuals behind the scenes in your business can provide your subscribers with insight into the brand and build trust and loyalty.
Engage, engage, engage
As with all social media, customer engagement is key. Following through on comments and responses to your videos is as important as the videos themselves. If you find that your social media presence and maintenance has gotten too big for you to handle (first of all, celebrate because that is great news), a social Customer Relationship Management tool might be in order. They can give you instant data on customer engagement and customer demographics as well as notify you of interactions. The information they provide will help you to adapt your current marketing strategies and plan for future content and campaigns.
Search Engine Optimization
As with all your digital content, you want to determine keywords that users are looking for so that they can find your videos. Using those keywords in your video descriptions and headlines are essential to your target audience finding your YouTube content. There are a number of keyword finding tools that can help.
Get Started
Get your account set up
Create your YouTube channel
Create channel art or select images
Get creating and sharing videos
There is very convincing evidence that small businesses need to start utilizing YouTube as part of their marketing arsenal. This may be your opportunity to jump ahead of the competition. But, as we all know, teaching old dogs new tricks can be daunting, especially when the old dogs are ourselves! Getting started is the hardest part, we promise. Because, once you start making YouTube videos and get into the swing of things, you will wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.