If you haven’t invested in YouTube advertising yet, you’re missing out on the enormous opportunities that come with it. Hundreds of hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute and devoured by an audience of billions! Its high engagement puts the platform as the second most popular search engine in the world but with all that content coming online all the time, you need to create quality video that will help you stand out. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- While optimisation goes a long way to helping you stand out and be visible, poor content will let you down and reduce engagement. Your content must provide value to the viewer and encourage them to come back to the video or, better still, subscribe to your channel to continue watching your content as you upload it.
- Quality content is not just what you say but how you say it. In terms of YouTube that refers to video – really cool video. Fluidity, resolution, and presentation all have to be professional to the extreme, to reflect the high standards you set for your business. So, engage the services of a professional videographer or, if your budget allows, invest in a professional video toolkit that includes everything you need to produce your own video including camera, microphone, tripod or stabilizer (essential as no one likes jerky footage), lighting and editing software.
- Make the most of the first 15 seconds. In fact, you might not even have that long to make a positive first impression. You have to capture the attention and interest of your viewer straight away. To help you do that, work out ways to creatively introduce yourself or your topic. Look at other videos (there are a lot of them out there!) and see which ones grab your attention and why. Also, don’t be cryptic and mysterious. Explain how your video will help the audience by solving their problem, as that’s one of the big reasons they’re there in the first place. And if you choose to use your video as a vlog, share the top, funny or exciting scenes at the start.
- As YouTube can detect what you say in your videos, it’s crucial to include your keywords within your content. Mention keywords in your title, description, and tags because the platform depends on video titles and tags to index content for users. Video titles work similarly to meta titles on regular web pages, so factor in these points when preparing your titles and tags: use tags relevant to the content in your video, start with the primary keyword as a tag and add variations, and try to leverage your competitor’s top tags
- Concentrate on the text associated with your YouTube video, as words are a powerful tool alongside your footage. Here are some of the best things you can do to ensure they work for your video: Add a description of at least 200 words to your video, mention the topic of your video in your description (remember, it’s all about being helpful, not mysterious), include your main keyword in the first 25 words, and use your keyword two to four times throughout the description.
- Small thumbnails have a big impact! Your thumbnail should catch a viewer’s eye and clearly represent the topic of your video. YouTube will give you the option of selecting a video screen from your video, but it is widely recommended that you upload your thumbnail reiterating your video title. Here are the YouTube dimensions to keep in mind while working on your thumbnail: perfect thumbnail size is 1280 x 720 pixels, and they use an aspect ratio of 16:9. The thumbnail size should be a minimum of 640 pixels wide, with images should be under 2MB. And always include part of your video title within your thumbnail.
YouTube marketing is worth doing and worth doing well. Get experts on board to help you because the better you do it, the better the results. And given YouTube’s global audience, those results could be spectacular.