YouTube, the second largest search engine in the world, is a powerful tool for promoting your franchise business. The trick is knowing how to use YouTube correctly and effectively to strengthen your social media strategy. YouTube is the number one go-to when wanting to show the world what you are really about.
But you should not be misled. You should also know that YouTube is heavily populated with both good and not so good brands. It is the brands that know how to establish a strong, unique brand identity on the YouTube platform that make it to the top. It is backed up by statistics: around 70-80 videos are posted by leading brands per month and 400-500 videos are posted by top media outlets per month. Just looking at these numbers tells us something.
The following are 10 YouTube marketing tips
- Create multiple videos: your story is worth telling
Usually, we advise on focusing on quality rather than quantity. But in the eyes of YouTube, quantity overtakes quality! Put simply, the more your brand is promoted, the more viewers will come across your brand. Each video should be telling a story! You should ensure you have answers to the following questions: who is your target audience? When does your story happen? What is the setting of your story? Why should your target audience take interest in your story? What point of view will they see your story from? Following a clear, orderly structure for each video will bring the viewer on a journey from the birth of the brand to the present moment. Starring characters who will feature in future videos can spark an interest in the viewer, encouraging them to follow your content on a regular basis and catch up on those previous videos to gain background knowledge of what the brand is really about.
- Optimise the quality of your videos with keywords
YouTube is home to billions of viewers daily, making it the ideal platform to use when wanting to reach potential customers. Did you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google? So, what are you waiting for? There is no time to lose. Upload those videos! Having said this though, as there is a large volume of content that potential customers can browse. A YouTube marketing tip is for your videos to contain keywords if you want to be included in the top 10 search results. The question that crops up regularly is how to do YouTube marketing correctly? YouTube, like other search engines, follows a set of rules that you should be familiar with in order to optimise your franchise business. One thing to take into account is that viewers who come across your videos are often in search of answers to their questions, hence incorporating those keywords will help you in the long run.
- Create a diverse range of content
The content you produce should be varied. Creating a series of identical videos will only attract negative comments by viewers and your audience will become smaller with a blink of an eye due to becoming bored with your channel. Your content may be exceptional, but the way you present your content may be monotone. This is why a YouTube marketing tip that should be taken in consideration is to put your imaginative cap on and use a number of creative ways to deliver your content.
- Stream live on YouTube
The benefits of YouTube for businesses are numerous. One of them is having the opportunity to carry out live streaming on the YouTube platform. It can be stressful and even scary at times. However, it does bring a number of advantages that should be taken into account:
- You have the opportunity to reach every screen across the globe that has the ability to display live video feeds, hence strengthening your social media strategy.
- YouTube automatically encodes your live stream, so it can be saved on your channel.
Your live streaming social media strategy must be well thought out and planned. It can either make or break you. You have the option to either tell a story on live video or share tips with your target audience. They should leave the video feeling knowledgeable and happy they spent 10 minutes of their precious time watching your video and that it was not a waste of time.
- Engage and educate your target audience
Engaging and educating your audience must be your two top priorities and you should have this in mind when creating new content.
- An engaged audience: will be interested to discover your new content and take the time to look through your previous videos to educate themselves about your stories. They will feel encouraged to take time to post a comment or ask questions.
- Educational content: Your target audience is in search of answers, hence using an instructional video format will most probably get you into the top 10 search results.
- Boost your influence with star brand placement
YouTube has acquired a group of brand celebrities, one of the best YouTube marketing tips is to make use of the option to use YouTube to reach out to YouTube personalities to gain a star brand placement. The influencers who you are advised to choose must be popular and well known in your market niche or share the same values that you have built your business on. By doing this, you will be able to access a wider target audience.
- Create something that is worth marketing
You need to ensure that whenever you create material and content, it should be considered as worth marketing: You need to aim to do the following:
- Shock your target audience
- Scare your viewers
- Inform your watcher
- Be unique to hold the users’ interest
- Be timely so that your video is relevant.
A question that is most commonly asked is how to do YouTube marketing effectively? The answer to this question is to tell a story in your video and not only focus on promoting a single product or the services that you offer. You should ask yourself why should your target audience take the time and energy to read or view your content, what makes you different from other brands selling the same product as you? Your video should be concise and get to the point quickly. The video should not drag on. The viewer should understand exactly what your brand is all about after watching your video for a few seconds. Delaying what services you offer to the last few minutes of your video can leave the viewer feeling disappointed as it may not be the answer to their questions or not exactly what they were trying to find. You do not want to mislead the viewer!
If you enjoyed reading this article, take the time to download the following PDF that explores the benefits YouTube has for your business with examples.