If you are reading this, chances are you plan on building a brand from scratch or have an established business and want to take it online, particularly YouTube. Content marketing has become a necessity to get online mileage. So much so, that there are content marketing awards to recognize the best marketers. YouTube is home to billions of videos and channels, making it the most popular platform for video content. YouTube marketing is an integral cog of content marketing.
Creating videos is an excellent way to reach your target audience because videos are the most engaging form of content. Videos evoke emotions and engage the senses like no other form of content. If you want to gain traction on YouTube, you need to learn how to make videos and market them.
How Do You Make Valuable Video Content?
Video creation involves a multitude of steps. You need to create videos that your audience finds valuable, which means you need to follow these tips:
Do Research And Plan Your Video
Your video will fall flat unless you plan the content and the shoot properly. An integral part of content creation is adequate research. Be sure to look up as many successful YouTube channels to get new ideas and find ways to improve your content. Also, look at your competitors and see what they are doing to get the results you want and emulate them.
Finding your niche and target audience is vital because your content depends on your target audience and your objectives. You cannot create valuable content without determining your target audience. Research and planning is the first step of YouTube video creation.
Draw Up a Script
You need to have a script ready before filming so that the process runs smoothly. You should have a storyline and storyboard and ensure everyone involved is aware of their role in the shooting to avoid disasters. Using clear and understandable phrases and dialogues is critical to make an impact. Ultimately, you need to evoke emotions and establish context for the viewer to watch the entire video.
Invest In Good Equipment
You do need the best equipment that exists, but you are better off spending some money on good equipment for filming, especially if you are doing this full-time. Fortunately, equipment does not cost all that much, at least not nearly as much as it used to. You do not have to shell out too much money to shoot a video.
Either buy a DSLR camera or a phone that has a high-quality camera. You will also have to buy a tripod to avoid shooting shaky footage. Shooting high-quality video is one half of the equation. The other half is capturing excellent audio. While your phone or camera can pick up audio, it isn’t the best quality you can get. Instead, invest in an external audio recorder. You want your video to be as professional as possible.
When you shoot, make sure you mainly use natural lighting. You could supplement this with other light sources as well. Getting your lighting right is not hard. There are tons of tutorials to look up to get it right. Ideally, you should invest in a lighting kit. However, you could make do with a DIY lighting kit as well.
Optimize Your Channel
There are many ways to optimize your channel. Use a high-quality profile picture, include a descriptive bio with links to social media and your website. Aside from this, place your videos in different playlists to make your channel easy to navigate. You should also use YouTube cards to direct your visitors to other videos on your channel, your website, or another channel. Be sure to take a look at the Youtube cards logo (png). Another thing you should do is adding a Call-to-Action (CTA), such as subscribing to your channel, commenting below, liking the video, visiting your website, joining your mailing list, and so on.
Keyword Research Is Important
Keyword research is an essential part of optimization. You need to use words related to your content that people search for on Google. Incorporate these keywords in your video titles and descriptions to increase the likelihood of ranking high on the search results. This practice is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Collaborate With Other Content Creators
Want to expand your audience? Work on this with someone else. Doing this alone is a daunting task and can take you a little too long. Instead, contact other YouTubers and ask them to collaborate with you, thereby exposing both of your channels and videos to each other’s audiences. Doing this will help you boost your traffic in no time.
Promote Yourself on Other Platforms
Cross-promotion is another vital cog in your marketing machine. Given how social media platforms are popular, chances are you will find your target audience on all the platforms you use. Be sure to let your followers know that you have a YouTube channel and share every video on your social media handles as they go up on YouTube.
Additionally, you should repurpose your YouTube videos for them to do well on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. One-minute videos do well on Instagram feeds and stories. You can include your YouTube channel link in the bio and your captions and get people to check out your channel.
Do Not Neglect Analytics
Aside from creating content and optimizing your channel, you have to learn how to read and understand analytics. This is true of all platforms. Analytics help you track your posts and gauge their performance, which is essential to create a lucrative marketing strategy.
Conclusion
These tips should help you build an effective YouTube creation and marketing strategy to get the traction you want. Follow them religiously, and you should see your viewership and traffic shoot up in virtually no time.
