Doing video marketing on YouTube is one of the most powerful ways to reach an audience. With the right videos, your potential market can be reached!
Launching a business means going up against lots of competitors that are also trying to make an impact. Starting off with nothing but written content can help you gain some momentum, but it’s difficult to maintain focus on writing when you’re not getting any results.
With a medium like video, however, you have the opportunity to talk about things you’re passionate about and convey your message more effectively. You can use storytelling, examples and experiences to connect with your viewers and increase interest in what you offer.
This article will go over all the basics for successful video marketing on YouTube, from filming to editing to promoting. We’ll discuss how to maximize your exposure through various features and strategies as well.
Narrow down your content topics to 1-2
Doing video marketing on YouTube is great because you can create almost anything from talking about products, to creating tutorials or even acting!
Your followers will enjoy watching you do something new if you are able to describe it clearly and easily. When investing in into video production, remember that nothing is worth its price tag if you cannot edit or add extra features to it.
There are many free editing softwares out there such as Windows Live Movie Maker which most people have access to. By investing in some simple paid software like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Studio, you will be able to really enhance and personalize your videos.
These programs cost around $100 – $200 per app so depending on how much time you spend making videos this could be a very reasonable investment.
Develop your video theme
Now that you have done some research into how to do video marketing on YouTube, it is time to start developing your own video marketing channel! While creating videos for yourself as an entrepreneur may sound easy enough, it can quickly get complicated.
As you begin to brainstorm ideas and develop your business, you will need to find a way to organize all of these materials. That is where having a good playlist comes in handy!
By starting with a template or topic, you will be more likely to create a movie related to your main message. Yours could be “My Product Review”, “How to Save Money Online Shopping”, or anything similar.
Once you have this initial base covered, then you can start branching off and exploring other areas. For example, if your product contains free guides, make a video talking about that exact same thing but add your branding and stick to your brand tone!
Your first few videos should be simple and straightforward so people can easily identify what you are trying to achieve and whether or not they like what you are saying.
Research your market
A lot of people start filming videos with no intention of sharing them, which is totally fine! If you’re passionate about a product or service and want to create a video marketing campaign to promote it, then go for it!
But before you get too excited and start creating content, you first need to do some research.
Find out who your target audience is, and what they like. What types of videos appeal to them? Are there any free resources available that you can use to make your videos more attractive?
By doing this, you will be able to give your viewers more information so that they can feel confident in buying from you!
And finally, find out if there are any competitions that focus on your products or services.
Produce high-quality videos
The quality of your video is an integral part of how successful you will be in video marketing. After all, people spend most of their time watching films so having great movie clips or TV shows is important for your business.
As mentioned before, filming with good equipment is essential as it helps create better content. Many companies will supply you with free materials or cheap gear, but professional grade cameras cost around $500 – $1,000.
You do not need this level of camera to start creating videos, but looking into one would help you produce more impressive material down the road. A smartphone can also make a decent filming device since they are usually very easy to use!
Making sure your settings are appropriate and matching your media source correctly is another way to improve your footage.
Create your videos
The next step in video marketing is creating engaging, interesting YouTube videos. Creating a video is an artistic expression that requires creative thinking.
You can make fun of how much money you spend on chocolate every week, but it’s still junk food! Food is a powerful way to connect with your audience so don’t be afraid to use your culinary skills to promote your company or yourself.
Treat your channel like a small business and learn about marketing for businesses. You will also want to keep your editing time frame short (no longer than one hour) as well as being consistent with your production process.
And remember, no matter what you are talking about, your audience would rather watch a video than read a page of content. So choose a topic that you have been wanting to cover and shoot a video around that theme.
Publish your videos
After you have done your research, prepared your message, and gathered your materials, it is time to actually create your video!
The first thing you will need to do is choose a platform where you can upload your videos. You can use YouTube as a starting place since you get all of the tools free with your account!
Once you are ready to publish, you will want to pick either the paid or free version of youtube. The paid option gives you more features but this is also costlier to run. For us, we chose the free version because we don’t make very much money off our channel at times.
After that, you will want to pick if you would like to use google’s own equipment to produce your movie or if you wanted to try other software or sites. We picked the second one because we were not sure what kind of quality we wanted to have so we just used whatever was available.
Now that you have all of that set up, editing your movies is pretty easy. You can edit some things such as length and number of clips in-line or through external programs.
Gain your audience
A few years ago, doing video marketing online would have meant spending hours creating elaborate videos that you had to pay expensive money to film and edit.
Now, anyone with a camera can create a video and upload it onto one of the many free video sharing sites available.
By using these services, you get all the features for free, which means you can easily scale up your content production.
That is why I recommend starting out by giving yourself time to test out different genres and formats of videos.
What people usually do not realize about YouTube is that there are two main types of videos: short and long.
Short videos are typically under a minute and sometimes even less than 30 seconds. They are very eye-catching and gain attention quickly because they are brief.
Longer videos are those between a half hour and several hours in length. These are better for longer stories or how-to guides.
Your first video does not need to be a runny tap of “here’s what we did today!” More like “Here’s something interesting we found around the web and applied to our lives” or “Hey, this tool works! Try it out!” etc.
Once you find a genre you feel comfortable in, invest in some good quality filming equipment (for now at least).
Gain their attention
The first step in doing any form of marketing is figuring out how to gain people’s attention. For video marketers, this means finding an audience that already exists and engaging with them!
With over 2 billion people using YouTube every month, it makes sense to focus on creating content targeted at your target audience.
Start by looking through some of their videos to get inspiration for ideas or even to find something you can enhance and revamp. You could also do a quick Google search to see what other brands have done well and take notes from those styles.
Once you have found a way to attract their attention, the next step is to provide value to them. Create content that they will want to watch and spend time reading/listening to. Provide insights and tips that they didn’t know about before and create quality content that they will keep coming back to.
Gain their trust
Next, try to gain their trust by posting consistently and being transparent. Your viewers should be able to contact you if there are questions or comments or they might need help. Or perhaps you can offer advice or recommendations to one of theirs.
Your audience will give you feedback, so listen and respond to what people say. If someone mentions a product or service you use, make sure to mention your affiliate link so that they get paid for it.
Running an online business comes with its share of challenges, but solving these rest as understanding human psychology.
