YouTube is one of the best networks to build a presence on as it has over 2 billion monthly active users. Users on the network are also highly engaged as the average viewing session is 40 minutes. If you aren’t using it to promote your business, you are missing out on a lot of potential customers. 

So, here’s a quick guide to help kickstart your YouTube marketing. Make sure you use all the tips I have listed below…

Set up an optimized profile:

One of the keys to building a powerful presence on YouTube is the number of subscribers you have. When you have more subscribers, more people will be alerted when you publish your videos and therefore your videos will generate more views from the get-go. 

An easy way to gain more subscribers is by making a first impression with a well set up YouTube channel. You can easily do this by including a good profile image, art (banner) image and adding links to your website and social networks to your channel. 

You can also add some extra details about your business in the about section. 

Here’s an example of a well set up YouTube channel from Amazon Prime Video

A screenshot of a video game

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As you can see, they used their logo as their profile picture, and they included a well designed art image at the top. If you click on the About tab you will be able to see more information about the channel and what they offer. 

Publish a variety of videos:

After you set up a well-optimized channel, you can begin publishing videos. You need to create a variety of videos that will nurture subscribers at different stages of the funnel. This should include educative videos like this one from Bon Appetit.

These types of videos will educate and gain the trust of new subscribers. If you do this well then you will generate more sales when you publish more sales focused videos like this one from Danny Haber

You will also need to publish other types of videos such as case studies, interviews and behind the scenes videos as they will nurture subscribers at other stages in the funnel.  

Optimize them for SEO:

YouTube is popularly known as a social network, but it is actually a combination between a social network and search engine. Just like on other social networks, people can follow channels and like and comment on videos, but a lot of the users come to YouTube to search for videos. This is why if you want to get maximum out of it, you should optimize your videos for the search aspect as well. 

You can easily do this by figuring out what type of keywords are being searched and then add the keywords to your video title and description. 

Promote them:

When you are starting out on YouTube and have very few subscribers, it will be hard for you to generate views every time you publish. So, make it a habit to promote every video you publish. The best way to do this is through outreach. This is where you find the top influencers in your niche, email them and ask them to share your videos on their social media channels. If you have a good budget, you can sponsor the influencer’s videos and get them to promote your videos and channel in their videos. 

Another popular paid method for building your YouTube channel is ads. They also take less time than influencer marketing. Setting up ads is very straight forward. 

Have a conversion plan:

You should also have a conversion plan in place to get more of the people who watch your videos to sign up to your list or buy your products. The simplest way to do this is by adding a link to the landing page in the description and informing people to click on the link and sign up or buy. 

You could also add a link element to your YouTube end cards to help with this. It will appear in the last 5 to 20 seconds of the video and it can work better than a link in the description. As the link will be placed directly in the video. 

Here’s an example of a good end card from Netflix

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As you can see right at the end of the trailer they placed a link to the movie in the video itself. People who watch the trailer can click on the link and watch the movie on Netflix.

Conclusion:

These are my 5 top YouTube marketing tips. Use them today to generate subscribers, views, traffic and sales.