YouTube Marketing Beginner’s Guide

What is YouTube Marketing?

YouTube is a video-driven social media network that, since its launch in 2005, has become a dominant way people stream video online. Owned by Google, which bought YouTube in late 2016, the platform is now responsible for 11 percent of all global video traffic, second only to Netflix. Currently YouTube has more than 1 billion users, and more than half of all views come from mobile devices.

The dominance of YouTube means businesses now have an opportunity to establish and groom their brand through interactive videos that can build followers. YouTube offers users their own channels they can use to develop and execute their marketing strategy. Another way companies can use YouTube is to advertise on video content that streams on other channels besides their own.

Users don’t need an account to view videos, but an account is needed to upload and share videos. Taking advantage of what YouTube offers companies requires a deep understanding of all its features, how to optimize your individual channel, how to groom followers, what’s needed to advertise on other channels, and what you need to do to monetize your channel to grow profitability.

Why You Should Be Marketing On YouTube

It only makes sense that before we dive into how you can grow your channel, we’ll cover why you would want to do so. There’s plenty of great benefits to marketing on YouTube that many businesses don’t fully consider.

The first is nearly self-explanatory. Video is huge right now. It is dominating the world of marketing, and if you aren’t using video, you’ll almost certainly lose out to your competitors. That’s not a hyperbole; with video ranking higher on all social platforms and performing well in ads, customers are more likely to notice and respond to businesses using video.

When you’re using YouTube, you’ll have a whole library of videos. You can then upload the video files natively to each platform. You can also embed the YouTube videos into your blog posts with just a few clicks, making your blog posts more dynamic and engaging.

YouTube also has an enormous and very diverse audience, which happily uses both YouTube’s and Google’s own search engine to find content they’re looking for. If you’re able to optimize for the right keywords (and I’ll show you how to do that later in this guide!), you’ll be able to connect with that audience instantly, instead of hoping a Facebook Ad shows up in their feed. This allows them to find also has an enormous and very diverse audience, which happily uses both YouTube’s and Google’s own search engine to find content they’re looking for. If you’re able to optimize for the right keywords (and I’ll show you how to do that later in this guide!), you’ll be able to connect with that audience instantly, instead of hoping a Facebook Ad shows up in their feed. This allows them to find you, not the other way around.

Since YouTube videos can show up early on in Google’s search results and YouTube is the second most commonly-used search engine after Google, you want to have this huge benefit on your side.

One last benefit? Only 9% of small businesses are using YouTube. You’ll have less industry competition here than any other platform, giving you an edge.

The Best Marketing Practices on Youtube

Channels vs. Pages

It’s important that you reset the way you look at YouTube channels versus YouTube pages as you begin to think about YouTube strategically. You need to think of YouTube as a kind of second website. Your channel is the homepage that anchors your YouTube website. Your videos are the webpages.

Every video you have on your channel strengthens the website, because every video points back to your channel page. The more authoritative your channel/homepage becomes, the easier it becomes for your site to rank.

Here’s a key thing to remember, the rules of good web design apply in YouTube the same way they apply elsewhere.

To build authority, you need to keep your videos relevant to the theme of your channel. Whether your niche is model trains or growing azaleas, you should create a specific channel for each major topic.

In other words: There’s no benefit to throwing a ton of unrelated videos on one channel. That would simply dilute your channel’s authority.

Video Creation

This is usually the first big challenge that comes up when a first-timer wants to launch a YouTube Channel.

Most people are a bit camera-shy and don’t feel comfortable having their face plastered all over YouTube. Well, here’s the good news – you don’t have to become a YouTube celebrity. In fact, it might actually be better if you don’t appear in your YouTube videos.

But before you even begin the creation process, you have a very important decision to make: What purpose should your video serve?

Here’s a list of goals you might want your video to achieve:

To build your website’s readership – Your video is a great opportunity to encourage viewers to check out your “real” website. This move can often lead to an opt-in or even a sale down the road.

To capture a lead – You can also ask for an opt-in directly in the video. Simply draw attention to a link listed below your video, and explain what visitors will get once they’ve opted in.

In addition, it’s really important that you track all of the leads you get from YouTube – because they’re educated about your product. And an informed lead is worth roughly 10 times the value of an uneducated lead.

To build your website’s brand – While most brands do this almost exclusive, it’s really hard to tell if you’re accomplishing anything, because it’s not measurable in any way.

To make a direct sale – There’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t present a CALL-TO-ACTION in your video and provide a link that goes directly to an order form. We’re actually shocked to see how few people actually do this!

To sell an affiliate product – Here are the three best affiliate marketing strategies used on YouTube.

1. Open box buy – In these videos, affiliates will simply open a product in a YouTube video, showing viewers exactly what’s inside the packaging. Then, they’ll provide their affiliate link to that product on Amazon or elsewhere.

2. Reviews – YouTube reviews are another great way to relieve buying anxiety and provide an affiliate link.

3. Training videos – Lastly, many affiliates make money by simply training viewers how to use a complicated product, and then sending those educated leads to their affiliate link.

Video Sequence

Timing is everything, and sequencing is the key to making sure your timing is perfect. While we’re on the subject of timing, the ideal length of your YouTube video is right around 3 minutes.

If yours is an in-depth training video, you may have to go considerably longer. Still, we recommend that you keep it under 10 minutes if at all possible.

Here’s a 7-step sequence you can use in your video marketing strategy:

Intro and branding – In the first step of this sequence, you’ll want to inform viewers about who you are and where else they can connect with your brand – e.g. Facebook or Twitter.

Tell them what’s in it for them – Immediately after your brief intro, you need to explain 2 things: WHY they should watch AND how long the video is going to run (most people don’t like open-ended commitments).

Give them the value – The third step is where you actually deliver whatever information you promised in your title. YouTube videos are great places to explain concepts.

So if your video is titled, “What Is Facebook Timeline?” this is the part where you’d explain all the key ins and outs of Facebook’s latest overhaul.

Recap with a conclusion – Referring back to our old marketing proverb, this is the part where you, tell them what you told them. You may say something like, “Today we learned what Facebook Timeline is and how it works.

Advise them – Offer some advice based on the information you just gave the viewer. It may be a recommendation, encouragement, or even a warning; you just need to impart some form of helpful advice.

Call to Action (CTA) – You didn’t produce this video just because you had some extra time to kill, did you? Of course not. That’s why you need to memorize this mantra: READ, LEAD, or BUY.

ALL of your videos should have a CTA that asks viewers to become a reader, subscribe to your list, or buy something. It’s amazing to see how many YouTube marketers miss out on this step completely!

Drag at the end – Once you’ve delivered the CTA, leave a little dead time for emphasis, maybe a minute or two. It may just be silence with an arrow pointing down to the link you’re promoting.

You don’t want the video to simply end, because Google will immediate suggest other videos inside the player – and your link will disappear.

YouTube is the New Twitter

And finally, this is one very important YouTube concept you need to know: YouTube is no longer just a video search site – it has aspirations to become a top-tier social networking site as well.

That means, the more friends, likes, viewers, and engagement your videos get, the better they will rank.

If you’re looking to maximize your YouTube channel’s social engagement, internet video marketers have given positive feedback about Tube Toolbox. This service is notable for being highly effective and for playing by the rules of YouTube’s terms of service.

But how important is it to have your own YouTube channel?

Here are some tidbits you might want to know.