The Ultimate Guide to YouTube Marketing

YouTube is not just about entertainment and education. It is also an essential marketing tool for businesses, academic institutions, entrepreneurs, advertising agencies, freelancers, and influencers.

Online behavior is going through a significant shift worldwide, with users spending one-third of their total time online watching videos.

With a billion active users and videos available in 76 different languages, many marketers use YouTube as part of their marketing strategy. Here are some interesting YouTube statistics to give you a greater perspective:

• Users upload 300 hours of video content every minute on YouTube.
• The platform has a greater reach than any other broadcast or cable network among 18 to 50-year-olds.
• Nearly 60% of the audience prefers watching a video over reading text-based content.
• YouTube is the second-largest search engine on the internet.

YouTube can contribute significantly to your content marketing and SEO goals by allowing you to create unique and engaging content that viewers can consume and share easily.

However, it can be intimidating to get right, especially for beginners, small businesses, solopreneurs, and busy professionals. Therefore, here we share the ultimate guide to YouTube marketing to help you leverage it to its optimal best.

In this blog, we will discuss:

• Launching a YouTube channel for branding
• SEO optimization of your videos
• Types of Videos You Can Create on YouTube
• How to Plan Your Video and Storyboarding

Creating a YouTube video is not as simple as it sounds. It requires a significant investment of time and effort and the right equipment.

Unlike other social platforms, which can host different types of content, YouTube exclusively hosts videos. It allows passionate people to create videos and interact with an audience. It’s ideal for creators who can churn out video content regularly.

Creating quality videos involves consistent planning, shooting, editing, and marketing. You must be mindful of your goals in choosing appropriate topics for your video content. YouTube requires a substantial investment of time and energy, but with engaged audiences and free publicity, the rewards far outweigh the efforts.

Create a Google account to manage your business

Creating a personal and business google account is a different process.  To create a YouTube account for your business, choose To manage my business when the pop-up appears during sign-up.

Fill up the necessary details. Google will verify your account with a code sent to your mobile phone. Your Google business account is now ready, but you need to set up a YouTube brand account before you can publish video content.

You also need to manage editing permissions. Open YouTube, sign in, and look for Google account in the top right corner.

After signing in, click on My channel under your profile icon.

When creating a channel, you shouldn’t enter your name. Instead, choose a business name and click on the Create Channel button.

YouTube will then prompt you to create a brand account. You can change your channel name anytime from the account settings.

To customize your brand account, click on Customize Channel.

In this section, by clicking on the About tab, you can add an icon, channel art, brief description, website links, contact details, and social media handles.

Now that your YouTube channel is up and running, we need to start working on search engine visibility.

As the second largest search engine, YouTube is inundated with content. Therefore, it takes more than just engaging videos to achieve success. Here are some tips to optimize your videos to rank high on Google search results:

1. Create and optimize your video’s metadata: Metadata gives viewers information about the video, including description, title, tags, category, subtitles, and thumbnail. It helps YouTube index your video correctly.
2.  Be careful not to use unrelated keywords or tags; YouTube will remove all such content.

• Title

It is crucial to optimize your video’s title and description, as they appear prominently in the user’s video feed. Therefore, make sure your titles are clear, compelling, and keyword-optimized.

Tip: Carry out keyword research to find the best search terms that people are using to find similar videos, and include them in your title. Don’t stretch your title beyond 60 characters, or else it will get clipped in the result pages.

• Description

YouTube displays about 100 characters of the video description. To see the rest, you’ll need to click on show more. Hence, you need to include essential links or CTAs at the beginning of your description.

Adding the video transcript is vital for SEO as it contains many relevant keywords. You must add a default channel description that includes links to your social channels and video credits. Include relevant hashtags in your video titles and descriptions to increase its organic visibility.

• Tags

Tagging your videos associates them with similar videos, which broadens their visibility. Use the most popular keywords first, and then a mix of the popular and long-tail keywords.

• Category

You can choose the YouTube channel category under advanced settings. Categorization ensures that your content features alongside similar videos. You can select various categories from the many available options—entertainment, automobiles, sports, educational, fashion, music, and animals.

• Thumbnail

Video thumbnails appear as images when you scroll through a list of video results. The thumbnails influence whether a viewer is going to click on the video or not. YouTube also provides you a few auto-generated options, but nothing can beat custom-designed thumbnails with excellent typography on them. You can use tools like Canva to create custom thumbnails. The standard image size for a video thumbnail on YouTube is 1280 x 720 px.

• Subtitles and Closed Captions

They enhance the user experience and boost keyword optimization for better visibility. To leverage its benefits, you must upload a supported text transcript or a complete video transcript.

To add subtitles:

1. Open your YouTube channel
2. Click on YouTube Studio
3. Click on Videos from the menu on the left
4. Look for the video you want to add subtitles to
5. Click on the video title
6. Go to settings
7. Open the Advanced tab
8. Choose your language
9. Click on the Upload Subtitles/CC option

• Playlists

If you create videos around specific topics and concepts, you can create playlists to offer your users a better navigational experience. It is a great way to organize your content on the channel and encourage visitors to continue watching your videos.

To create a playlist:

1. Click +Add to under the video
2. Choose Create new playlist
3. Type in a name for the playlist you want to create
4. Click on Create

Once your YouTube channel is up and running, it’s time to start creating exciting videos. However, many people get stuck at this point as they find themselves intimidated by the vast range of possibilities.

Therefore, here are a few ideas on the kinds of videos you can create for maximum reach and engagement:

1. Customer testimonials

Have you seen those short videos featuring happy customers? Customer testimonials are important as they help build trust, establish credibility, and boost sales.

2. Product demonstration and unboxing videos

These videos educate your viewers about the various features and benefits of a product and how best to use it.

3. Explainer and tutorial videos

They describe the various components of a product and how to work with it. Such videos are also great for customer support queries and troubleshooting.

4. Expert and influencer interviews

Interviews with thought leaders, experts, and influencers can help boost your brand image.

5. Project reviews and case studies

Case study videos are an impressive marketing tactic, especially for B2B brands. Such videos analyze a successful campaign using statistics and market insights to serve as lessons for others to emulate.

6. YouTube Live

It allows you to share a scoop from your daily routine for a visceral and intimate interaction with your viewers. You can record and use live videos for branded content. To go live from your channel, simply click on the camera+ button at the top right and select Go Live.

7. Video blogs 

Video blogs, or vlogs, are similar to ordinary blogs but in video format. They are easier to create and more engaging than written blogs. With vlogs, you can document life events and give important/complicated information in an engaging way.

8. Event videos

Nothing can match the excitement of being a part of high-voltage events such as workshops, concerts, summits, or conferences. An event video will bring the in-person experience to the screens for all your subscribers.

1. Define your goal

Start with a clear goal and shape your YouTube marketing strategy accordingly.

Your goal could be any of the following:

1. Increase brand awareness
2. Drive inbound traffic to your website
3. Add channel subscribers
4. Boost social shares
5. Inspire your audience

Although you can have multiple goals; it’s better to focus on one at a time.

2. Create a storyboard and write the lines

Storyboards help you prepare your entire video script in advance, including scenes,  frame by frame short descriptions, camera positions, movements, and dialogues.

3. Plan and design additional multimedia elements

A well-done video must have a title, closing slides, graphics, and other multimedia content. You must plan the placement of such elements in your storyboard to ensure a smooth visual content flow.

4. Determine the video’s length

According to a Wistia study, videos shorter than two minutes are highly popular on YouTube. However, you must ensure that your video’s short length does not compromise its message.

5. Choose a location to shoot 

The filming location is as important as the story. Choose a location that represents the video’s theme and message. If it is a casual and candid conversation, choose an outdoor location. For a formal discussion, shoot it in an office space.  You can also select multiple locations for various scenes.

You can know more about YouTube video marketing here.