Profitable YouTube Channel Marketing Strategies to Drive Your Online Marketing Results

Digital Marketing

Nielson Net Ratings reported in 2008 that YouTube has more than 68 million unique visitors per month and has the sixth largest visitor audience in the US (ahead of eBay, Amazon, and Wikipedia). More than 2/3 of the American population over 25 has watched a YouTube video and 91% of users have purchased something online. YouTube represents a very powerful marketing channel and an online exposure opportunity.

There are ways to tap into this huge audience with a large ad spend, however I will focus on more profitable “organic” tactics. These take time but not a direct cash outlay. For the purposes of this article, I’ll assume you’ve already created a branded YouTube channel and are now looking for ways to leverage your channel, expand your reach, and grow your subscriber base. (If you’re new to YouTube and haven’t created your channel yet, the YouTube Help Center is a great place to start.)

The first step in maximizing the effectiveness of your YouTube channel is to take a step back and examine your YouTube marketing purpose. Is it traffic, distribution, brand? Once you’ve established a firm purpose, you can begin putting together a targeted plan of attack. Your channel design should reflect your purpose and you need to regularly review your design, logo, images, and profile information. Make sure your design adequately reflects your brand and message. Think of your YouTube channel as an extension of your website; therefore, it should closely resemble the appearance of your website and other business materials.

Include information in your profile that describes the type of content that can be found on your channel and website. Also, be sure to link to your website and include your contact information outside of YouTube. Also, make it known on your profile that you would like users to add comments, rate, share, add video responses, and subscribe to your channel.

When adding video content to your channel, make sure each video has a clear message and is not obscure or confusing. Keep your content up to date and upload a steady supply of 1 to 2 new videos per week at the same times so your subscribers know when to expect new content. Also, update featured videos frequently. You have the opportunity to feature nine videos on your channel, and you can control the order and placement of your featured videos. Also, use the playlist feature as a way to organize your videos. Creating playlists by topic will help users and subscribers find the videos they are looking for, as well as expose them to content they might not otherwise see.

Also, pay attention to the quality of your videos. YouTube has the ability to display videos with a higher quality level. The quality of the uploaded video combined with the bandwidth of individual viewers will determine if the video is displayed in higher quality. Higher quality video means greater visual clarity and sharpness. The difference is especially noticeable in videos that contain text or fast motion and in full screen mode. When uploading a video, make sure your video resolution is 480 x360 or higher and a frame rate of 24 fps (frames per second) or higher.

Every time you upload a new video, pay special attention to the types of videos that have performed well in the past, as well as VSEO (video search engine optimization). Copy the format and theme of videos that have a lot of views, comments and ratings to try to recreate the success. Include specific keywords in the title that people will search for on YouTube, as well as external search engines. Also, make sure your description is keyword-rich, specific, and gives credit to the participants featured in the video (the same applies to location). This way, people who don’t know your video title can search by the participant’s name or location and your video will appear in the search results. I would also recommend placing your video in the appropriate and relevant category (contrary to the belief that you can manipulate views by placing your video in a different category). If you are trying to drive YouTube traffic to your website, include your website link at the top of your video description so that the link appears directly below your video title.

Another effective tactic you can use when uploading new videos to your channel is to use the video annotation feature. Video annotations are a new way to add interactive comments to your videos. You control what the annotations say, where they appear in the video, and when they appear and disappear. Annotations appear as pop-up word balloons (text boxes) and as on-screen overlays. You can even link from an annotation to another YouTube video, channel, or search result. Annotations are effective in keeping users engaged by linking your other videos and channels so they stay focused on your content.

Once you’ve fine-tuned your channel layout, message, organization, video rate, video SEO, and sitelinks, you’re ready to grow your subscriber base. The key to successful YouTube marketing is a large subscriber base. Subscribers will serve as evangelizers of your content and validate its purpose. They increase your view count, rate your videos, comment, bookmark it, share with your friends, and ultimately increase traffic and exposure to your website / brand. In addition, content sent by a channel with a higher number of subscribers and friends receives more weight when it comes to the rank and popularity of the video.

YouTube has built its engine in such a way that you have to gain subscribers. To ask someone to subscribe to your channel, you must first invite them to become a friend. Once they have accepted your friend invite, you can invite them to subscribe to your channel. The key is to invite as many people as possible to become friends. To find these potential friends, stick to popular channels; These people tend to be the most active on YouTube.

Plus, participating in the group feature is another great way to find friends and increase exposure. Joining groups is an effective way to get in front of people interested in certain topics and ideas, which can ultimately lead to more friends and subscribers. It is also very easy to create a new group on YouTube to attract like-minded users. If you create a new group, make sure it is open and an invitation is not required to subscribe.

Now that you have added as many friends as possible, you can start using the sharing feature. The sharing feature allows you to notify subscribers and friends every time a new video is uploaded. This sharing functionality is very useful because it allows you to target specific groups (think marketing silos). For example, you can share with subscribers, friends, and people who have received a friend invitation but have not yet accepted or subscribed to it.

Another feature that comes in handy once you build your friend base is the newsletter feature. Newsletters are used to convey messages and, once published, the messages are sent to all contacts in the channel. Your contact list includes other users on the site to whom you are linked through invitations from friends, as well as emails from friends with whom you have shared videos. You can also create special contact lists using a tag to describe the common theme of that list. Then you can put specific contacts in different contact lists and send messages to multiple friends at the same time.

Due to YouTube’s relevance in the online video space, friends and subscribers should communicate regularly. Whether it’s through a newsletter, sharing new videos, or direct communication, treat these contacts as if they are an important part of your business. Remember to respect their privacy and treat them similar to your subscription email list. Remember that the people who subscribe to your channel are interested in your videos but not in your spam, so walk a very fine line.

If you are using YouTube as a way to drive traffic to your website to increase sales volume, think about the additional steps you might need to implement on your site to convert YouTube visitors into sales. Whether it’s landing pages, a custom message, pricing, or any other strategy that helps convert visitors into paying customers, it’s worth trying, testing, and testing until you get it right.

Below, I will outline the specific tactics you can implement to increase activity within your channel and your videos. Being an active participant in the YouTube community will go a long way. Networking can make a difference in the world when it comes to being relevant or not. I mentioned group participation earlier and this definitely falls into the networking category. Here are some additional networking tactics worth implementing:

o Find popular videos that are relevant to your area of ​​expertise and post video responses. Video responses are not widely used and there is a strong chance that your video response will end up high in the results. The key to remember is that your video can only be used as a response once.

o You can also post video responses to your own videos.

o Watch other people’s videos and comment on them. Keep your comments short, respectful, and on topic.

o You can also comment on your own videos to start the conversation.

o Mark other users’ videos as favorites. This will most likely grab their attention and show that you are participating in the YouTube community.

o Participate in contests that are held on YouTube. This is another great way to get your content and your channel noticed.

o Add your most popular YouTube videos to video search engines and video distribution sites.

o Promote your YouTube channel on your other online media like your blog, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

YouTube is a factor to consider; The most telling statistic is the fact that 10 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. If you implement some or all of the strategies outlined above, you will definitely see an increase in your YouTube channel results. Like any other organically developed marketing strategy, it takes time and patience before you see measurable results. Hang in there and know that this is a worthwhile process that will pay off in the long run.

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