YouTube is a fantastic platform that allows everyone to have a voice. But how can you make sure your voice stands out from the crowd?
Follow these three important steps to make sure you’re using YouTube to your best advantage:
- Research your niche
- Develop a video timeline strategy
- Know when and where to include your e-mail opt-in
Once you understand these parts of the process, you can improve your YouTube digital marketing efforts!
Step 1: Research Your Niche
YouTube is a unique platform. While it features some of the same elements as Facebook and Instagram, this video-sharing service is one of the more complicated social media sites.
If you want to start using YouTube to reach more customers or to engage the customers you already have, you first need to do your research. Find out what people are actually searching for in your niche.
A simple way to do this is to start by opening an incognito or private window in your browser. Because YouTube uses cookies to track the videos you’re watching, you don’t want to use your normal browser that already has collected cookies about your search data. If you do, then the YouTube algorithm will give you results based off of your past searches.
Instead, you want to see what people (including your potential customers) are actually typing into the search bar on YouTube. So, once you have that incognito or private browser open, go ahead and type a keyword related to your niche into your search bar.
YouTube will give you suggestions that show what people are really searching when they use that keyword. Once you’ve read through the list of real-user search phrases, you can gather some ideas about what your video topics should be.
Research Tip: Watch and Learn
While you’re gathering information to help develop your video creation plan, you should take the time to watch successful YouTubers’ videos in your niche. What are these YouTubers doing in their videos that keeps you watching? On the other hand, what are they doing that makes you click away? Once you know, make sure you’re including the right elements and avoiding the wrong ones in your videos.
Step 2: Develop a Timeline Strategy
Now that you have a list of video ideas based off of actual user searches related to your niche, it’s time to start planning out your different videos and their topics.
First of all, you need to decide how many videos you’re going to make. Here’s a secret: the YouTube algorithm loves series that are turned into playlists. Why? Because series/playlists tend to draw viewers in and make them spend more time on YouTube, which generates more ad revenue for the platform.
Another way to think about this is to compare a YouTube series to a Netflix TV show. You’ve probably seen the “Are you still there?” message appear on Netflix after you’ve spent a couple of hours watching TV. YouTube wants you to spend as much time on its platform as you do on Netflix. A video series encourages viewers to spend more time on the platform.
So, it’s a smart move to create a series and turn it into a playlist to influence the YouTube algorithm to promote your videos. A five-to-six video series is the best format to use because that’s the number of videos that fit across the YouTube channel page in a playlist.
You have video ideas, so now it’s time to plan how to make them flow across a five-to-six video series, which you can easily turn into a playlist on YouTube.
Strategy Tip: When to Promote Your E-Mail Opt-In
You know YouTube loves five-and-six video series playlists. On the flip side of rewarding you for keeping viewers using the platform, if you send users away, YouTube will actually promote your videos less. That means that sending your viewers off of YouTube at the end of your first video is a bad idea. You want to encourage your viewers to stay on the platform and watch more videos.
One way to do this is to promote your other video content in the first four videos of your series. That way, you’re encouraging your viewers to continue consuming your content and to stay on the platform. Doing this encourages the algorithm to promote your videos more!
In the last video of all your series, you need to send viewers to your e-mail opt-in, your sales page, or your website. Try to create an opt-in that complements your series and provides additional value if the viewer downloads it.
Step 3: Where to Include Your E-Mail Opt-In
You now know the best time to include your e-mail opt-in: at the end of the final video in your series/playlist. So, where should you include this important link?
The best place is in the description box for your video. Make sure you include the hyperlink of the website so that the link will be clickable for your viewers.
It’s a smart move to actually say something in your video directing your viewers to opt-in by clicking the link in the description box. You can even point below your video or include an arrow directing the viewer to look below. The extra emphasis of you telling your viewers to click will remind them more than just including the link in the box by itself does.
Once you have over 10,000 views on your channel, you can add an associated website. Then you’ll be able to use cards and end screen elements. These elements are actual clickable options on the video, and they can be added after you’ve uploaded your video to YouTube. That means that viewers will easily be able to click the link right on the video and be sent to sign up for your e-mail list!
YouTube Success
You know how to find great ideas for your YouTube channel, how many videos to post, and where to post the opt-in to your email address. Now it’s time to act, grow your e-mail list, and increase your customer base!