YouTube is currently one of the biggest social media sites in the world. Over a billion hours of video are watched every single day by millions of viewers. If you are capable of making compelling videos that interestingly feature your brand, it is the ideal site for building a following.
The challenge to building that following is that YouTube marketing differs rather sharply from most other forms of marketing. Both technical considerations and marketing strategy require unique approaches. The following tips will help your brand take full advantage of YouTube marketing.
Create a Compelling Custom Video Thumbnail
One of the main keys to getting views is creating a custom video thumbnail that attracts the interest of potential viewers. With over 5 billion videos on the platform, there is almost no topic that hasn’t been covered by multiple videos. Thus, you need a way to differentiate your video from the dozens, or maybe hundreds, of similar videos.
Data shows that almost 90% of the most successful videos on YouTube have a custom video thumbnail and that a compelling video thumbnail can increase engagement by up to 154%. Many viewers make the final decision of what video to watch almost entirely based on the thumbnail. Exactly what you should include in the thumbnail will depend on your video. In general, however, the best thumbnails have bright colors, high contrast, facial close-ups, capture the essence of the video in a single image, and are at a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Use Brief Intros
The average person watching YouTube has an attention span that is under 10 seconds. That means you need an intro that captures their attention and then quickly shifts to the main video. The most successful YouTubers use something short, snappy, and fun. Your intro should set the mood and be consistent with your brand. Once your YouTube channel has become successful, you can occasionally stretch your intro into something longer, but this should be done sparingly and only when it adds value to a particular video.
Make the End of Video Experience Powerful
The end of video experience shares a lot of similarities with the intro. You want it to be consistent with your brand and you want it to be a powerful experience that captures the attention of the audience. However, the purpose of capturing the audiences attention is different in the end of video experience. You aren’t trying to get the viewer to watch a video, but rather you are trying to either generate sales or create customer loyalty.
The end screen should do four things: promote other on-brand videos, encourage users to subscribe, create a memorable conclusion, and direct users to non-YouTube websites associated with your brand. You have a little more time to work with than you did for the intro, but you should still avoid making your end of video overly long. About 20 – 25 seconds is roughly the longest it should be.
Use Video Embedding
You can embed videos almost anywhere. Some of the best places are on your website, in your e-mail signature, on your blog, or on your website. By embedding videos you increase views and viewing time, which results in better rankings on both YouTube and Google searches.
Get the Most Benefit From Your Great Videos
Just like with other types of marketing, great content is essential to customer engagement, but only when supported by effective marketing techniques. For YouTube marketing, your great videos will only be viewed if users can find your links and you can convince them to click those links. By engaging in smart YouTube marketing techniques, you will build an audience and increase customer loyalty, which should result in videos that are recommended by the YouTube search engine.
