Videos convert better than text. Marketers have known this for years and where better to promote your video content than on YouTube. However, just like any other social media channel, YouTube takes commitment and time to beat the algorithm and appear at the top. If you do it right you’ll be rewarded with more video views, so we’ve gathered our best practices to ensure your video goes viral:
Step 1 – Titles are make-or-break
Your title is the first thing people come across when browsing YouTube. It’s your job to find that fine balance between killer titles and clickbait headlines. Luckily there are a few ways to boost your title, even just simply by adding hyperboles such as ‘insane’ or ‘mind-blowing’. ‘Best-of’ lists and ‘how-to’ titles are always a safe bet too, but make sure your title still contains relevant keywords to the video’s content. The same goes for your descriptions; keep reading to find out how to perform a good keyword research for YouTube.
Step 2 – YouTube housekeeping
If you are just starting out on YouTube, there are a few fundamentals to take care of first. Keep your visual identity on YouTube in line with your branding and upload a flashy new banner and profile pic to your channel. Don’t forget to complete the ‘about’ section with a thorough description of your business and keep all contact details up to date. If you do plan on investing in more video production and video marketing, you might want to figure out what your niche is first. A clear focus is easier to subscribe to than one that appears to be doing many different things.
Step 3 – Personalise your thumbnails
Besides the title, the thumbnail is the first part of your video people see. Even though YouTube can autogenerate thumbnails for you, these are hardly ever eye-catching. So get creative, design your own thumbnail and make sure it’s descriptive and distinctive without it screaming for attention. Creating clickable thumbnails doesn’t have to be rocket science either, you’ll find plenty of templates to work with on Canva.com.
Step 4 – Share, Share, Share
Uploading a video to YouTube and waiting for the views to come in usually won’t do the trick. As part of your video marketing, you should share your video content on as many personal channels as possible, always using the YouTube link to embed in social posts, blogs, website and more. It’s good practice to use AutoPlay when using embedded videos, so add “&autoplay=1” to the video’s embed code right after the video ID and your video will automatically start playing!
Step 5 – YouTube SEO
More than a social platform, YouTube is also the second-largest search engine in the world. So just like any other piece of online content, your YouTube video titles, descriptions, tags and meta data should be filled with the right keywords to rank in the desired search results. To conduct keyword research, you can actually use Google keyword planner and select YouTube search on the far right. Always keep in mind to use keywords when it makes sense, not just for the sake of having them.
Step 6 – Use cards and end screens
You’ve put all this time and effort into video production and marketing, so now you want to gain direct traffic from them to a landing page, website, application and so on. Luckily YouTube provides us with a few features to facilitate call-to-actions. You can create cards in the form of pop-ups to send direct traffic to your website. End screens also provide buttons to all the relevant information regarding your channel, other playlists, recommended videos, and your verified website. Last but not least, make sure you add relevant links in your descriptions!
Looking for video production? Yellow have everything you need from script to screen.