As we continue to accept the importance of video content in the year 2019, I still find most small businesses avoiding or putting off starting a YouTube channel. Whether it’s the fear of being on camera or the overwhelm of where to even get started, not using YouTube is such a missed opportunity.
Why Is YouTube Important for Your Video Marketing Strategy
While most of us use YouTube on the daily, many small business owners aren’t quite sure how YouTube is going to work for their business. I’m told all the time that, “I don’t think my audience is on YouTube.” To that I typically ask, is your audience on Google?
You see, Google owns YouTube. And when you have a video on YouTube, plus embed that video to a blog post on your website, you could potentially have two front page Google search results. Not to mention, YouTube alone is the second largest search engine in the world.
Here are your first steps to getting started on YouTube to ensure the time you put into creating YouTube content actually pays off!
5 Steps to Take Before Starting a YouTube Channel to Improve Your Video Marketing
Step 1: Let go of perfection.
You first need to have a mindset adjustment. This is the biggest hurdle I encounter when working with business owners getting started on YouTube. You want to have the perfect video equipment, the Pinterest perfect background, and it needs to be the “perfect time for your business.”
But here’s the thing, nothing will ever be perfect. And more importantly, your audience isn’t going to connect with perfect. Your audience wants to get to know you. They want to feel like they are learning or watching a friend who cares about them. There are so many choices to buy from today, and your people are going to hire you when they feel most connected to you.
Step 2: Know Your Value
One of YouTube’s superpowers is being able to get your videos in front of your target audience better than any other platform! But you have to clearly understand what value your channel is going to provide to viewers.
This is called your channel value proposition. And while you may want to help the world, the riches are in the niches on YouTube. Just like on regular TV, we go to ESPN for sports and we go to HGTV for Fixer Upper.
Start thinking about, who do you want to speak to on YouTube? What value is your channel going to provide your audience? Why will your audience come to your channel?
Step 3: Research Your Content
If you are going to put time into video marketing, my goal for you is that you are creating videos that reach your audience, connect with them, and more importantly, convert them.
The best place to search for great video ideas is YouTube! If you start typing a video idea into YouTube, the YouTube search bar tries to predict what you are going to type by suggesting actual search phrase people are searching on YouTube!
For example, I started to type in “How to grow an insta” and you can see the video ideas YouTube is already giving me:
- How to grow an Instagram account from scratch
- How to grow an Instagram Art account
- How to grow an Instagram account organically
- Focus On The Right Optimization Elements
When it comes to optimizing YouTube, so many people worry about using the perfect video tags. While yes, this is a step in YouTube optimization, it’s not as important nor should you waste much time on this step. Spend more time on the following optimization elements.
Thumbnails – This is your video’s primary marketing material and how you are going to get people to watch your video. Best practices for thumbnails include having your face on the thumbnail because we as humans are more likely to click on a video when we can see the whites of your eyes. Also have a pop of color so your thumbnails stand out on a white YouTube background.
Title – For a long time it was thought if you just stuffed as many keywords as possible into your video title, your video would perform better. But we need to be optimizing our video titles for humans. Humans are the ones who are going to decide if they want to watch your video based on the thumbnail and title, not an SEO robot.
Audience retention – You want to create valuable content that gets the viewer to the end of your video. The key metric we see channels hitting when YouTube starts recommending more of their content, is when your videos are hitting 50% of audience retention at the end of your video. This just means, of all the people that clicked on your video, 50% are sticking around to the end.
Step 4: Create A Schedule
Consistency on YouTube is key for your video marketing strategy. Posting once a week is all you really need to see great results. It’s best to remember quality over quantity here.
So how do you start planning all of this out? Batch film your videos. If you are going to take the time to set up all your equipment, make sure you have a quiet house, and do your hair and make up, try to film a couple videos at one time. I suggest setting a goal for filming 4 videos at a time, that way you are done with your video content for the month!
Want to learn more about getting started with video marketing and transforming your business leads? Get our Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing here.
