YouTube Marketing: How to Effectively Optimize Youtube Videos

Believe it or not, YouTube Marketing is on the rise in Canada more than in any other country in the world! Algonquin College reports that 17.6 million Canadians, which corresponds to 71% of Canadian internet users, spend 360 minutes each month watching videos on YouTube. In fact, by the year 2017, at least 78% of all internet traffic corresponded to video.

Evidently, video is the future. For owners of both online and offline businesses, marketing on YouTube is an effective way to take advantage of this shift towards video. That being said, it is crucial to learn how to effectively optimize your YouTube videos. Because, without optimization, your videos will not be known to the world - leading to zero exposure and absolutely no conversions. Continue reading for tips on how you can use Youtube for digital marketing purposes.

How to Develop an Effective YouTube Marketing Strategy

Marketing your business on YouTube is similar to marketing on any other social media platform, and the first step should always include developing an effective marketing strategy.

1.Define Your Goals

First of all, you will have to determine your objectives. Write down the targets that you are going for, such as engagement, clicks traffic or reach, and subscriber numbers. Make sure that your objectives are specific enough,  are actually attainable and have a deadline. You will also need to be able to track your progress accurately. To do this, you will need to establish your KPI’s (key performance indicators) at this stage.

2. Follow a Schedule

Just like with any other marketing strategy, for YouTube Marketing, consistency is key. Similar to blogging, the more content you publish, the higher your chances will be to reach a wider audience.

The most successful YouTubers follow a very strict publishing schedule, and promote their videos in advance on social media platforms. As such, while developing a plan for your business video marketing strategy, think about how often you can realistically post new content and stick to the plan.

In addition, it is important to take into account at what time exactly you should release your videos. The fact is that most YouTube viewers watch videos at certain times of the day and on certain days of the week. The trick here is to publish a little bit earlier to allow some time for your videos to be indexed and ready to go by the time the potential viewers start their searches.

3. Vary the Types of Marketing Videos

In order to keep your audience’s interest, it is important to vary the types of videos that you post. In addition, it may be a good idea to experiment with different types of content early on in order to understand which videos work best for your channel.

At Xi Digital, we have experience creating all sorts of video content, from how-to videos to product videos, testimonial videos, commercials and much more. When you contact Xi for video production, we will help you explore a wide range of video ideas such as:

• Listicles: Listicles are one of the most popular content formats, both for blog posts and media posts, such as videos, infographics, and more. We can help you create informational, educational, or entertaining listicles. In addition, we can create listicles that highlight your services or products.
• How-to videos: How-to videos provide a lot of value to the user, and, as such, these types of videos tend to perform very well on YouTube. For example, if you were selling sauna kits, you could post how-to videos explaining how to assemble the sauna. At Xi Digital, our YouTube Marketing professionals will pick the most engaging topic for your how-to video or develop a plan for an entire series of videos.
• Behind-the-scenes videos: With any marketing strategy, it is important to “humanize” your brand, and behind-the-scenes videos are a great way to do so! Show that you are more than just a service or brand: interview your team members, talk about the production process, and more.
• Product videos: Video is one of the greatest ways to display the products or services that you offer. At Xi Digital, we can create videos that explain certain product features, highlight the product updates, and announce any new released products.
• Case studies: Another effective way to promote your products and services is to create case studies of your services. They don’t have to exclusively focus on your product: they can talk about the client stories, achievements, and plans for the future.
• Interviews: Another good idea to attract viewers is to interview well-known influencers and experts from your field. These experts have a list of their own subscribers, so if they promote your video in return, they can boost traffic to your YouTube channel!
• Testimonial video reviews: Video testimonials are an effective way to share positive reviews of your products directly with your potential customers.

What You Need to Know About YouTube Video SEO

Just like with any other search engine, YouTube will rank your video posts better if they are properly optimized. Here are some important factors that YouTube takes into consideration when ranking the search results:

• Your channel’s keywords. You should use proper keywords for your channel to make sure that YouTube understands what it is about.
• Video tags: You also need to add appropriate tags to all of your videos. Here, careful research is required as well.
• Video headlines and descriptions. It is important to know what your audience is searching for and to use the appropriate keywords in your video headlines and descriptions. At Xi Digital, we conduct thorough keyword research prior to starting a new marketing campaign. Only after, we can optimize your headlines and descriptions appropriately.
• Video transcript: A video transcript not only improves the user experience, but also makes your video more scrapable by search bots.
• Watch time: The video watch time also affects your video rankings. The longer the video, the better!
• Engagement: When ranking videos, YouTube takes into account your video’s engagement, including the number of likes and dislikes that you receive, as well as the number of comments and shares.
• Thumbnail image: This image will be visible when your video is indexed - it should be relevant and compelling.
• Subscriber numbers: This number isn’t only the total number of subscribers that your channel has. The number of people that subscribe after viewing a particular video matters as well, as it demonstrates that your video was indeed relevant and interesting to the viewer.

How Much Does it Cost to Advertise on Youtube?

Another way to utilise YouTube for your marketing needs is to take advantage of paid advertisements. Not only are video ads extremely effective, but they are also extremely affordable.

With YouTube ads, your costs depend on the number of video views. A typical video ad costs anywhere between 10 and 30 cents per view, depending on your targeting, your video quality, and your overall goal. For example, if your ad campaign runs at 10 cents per video view, it would cost you $1000 for 10 000 users that watch the ad.

Benefits of Video Marketing on YouTube

If utilised correctly, YouTube marketing can open your business up to the numerous benefits:

• You can reach a global audience. When published on YouTube, your video can be seen by users from around the world. However, if the wrong people are watching your video, you will not gain customers or clients. When you hire Xi Digital for video production and marketing services, we will make sure that your video reaches the exact audience that you are trying to target.
• You can increase your Google rankings. If you publish a video on YouTube and include a link to the business website in the description, this will increase the traffic to your site and, as a result, make it rank higher on Google’s search engine results page.
• It is cost-effective. Advertising campaigns can often bring significant expenses. The best thing about YouTube is that you can upload as many videos as you want at no cost at all! In case you do decide to opt for paid YouTube ads, the costs would still be significantly lower compared to other types of paid advertisements, such as Google Ads or Facebook ads.
• It doesn’t need to be funny. It is a common belief that videos published on YouTube need to be humorous to gain many views. Indeed, videos need to be interesting to engage the audience, but they can be informative as opposed to funny. If the video is constructed properly by an experienced professional, it could quickly become viral.
• People will subscribe to your channel. Viewers who likes your YouTube video will be excited to follow your channel. Once they have subscribed, you will have the opportunity to contact them through email. In other words, you have just expanded your customer email list - at absolutely no cost!

Contact Xi Digital for Effective YouTube Video Production

At Xi Digital, we can help you to design and implement a well-planned, effective YouTube marketing strategy. Let our team of marketing experts take care of everything, from creating and posting professional YouTube videos, to optimizing your channel and taking care of user engagement. Visit https://www.xi-digital.com/digital-marketing/web-video-production for more information or contact us directly at 416-628-5410.