YouTube is among the most influential social media networks out there today.

In fact, Google released a study revealing that more and more people are using YouTube as a search engine to learn whatever they want – and overall viewership is increasing by an incredible 70% each year. YouTube has truly transformed the way we discover information on the internet.

This makes YouTube a powerful marketing tool for businesses and individuals – anyone who wants to make a name for themselves. Getting the attention you need on a highly competitive platform like YouTube can be challenging and contrary to what most people think, creating content is only half the battle.

In order to get the right kind of attention on YouTube (and plenty of it) you must have a solid marketing strategy. This will help you maximize the platform to its fullest potential.

If you want to know how you can make the most out of this powerful platform, keep on reading. We’ll teach you how to craft a winning marketing strategy, to help you build your audience and thrive on YouTube.

The Keys of a Successful YouTube Marketing Campaign

Know Your Audience

Before you even start shooting your first content, you must ask yourself whether you know your audience or not. You have to be specific when defining your audience, this can help you determine what type of content to put out and how you can help improve their lives.

Developing a Buyer Persona

A buyer persona is a fictional and detailed description of your target customer – or in this case, a typical person in your target audience.

The more specific you are with this, the better. Marketers use buyer personas to help them get their marketing message across in the most effective and relevant way possible.

Knowing what they like, what they don’t like, their hobbies and even the size of their family can help you get the right message across.

How do you develop a buyer persona? Research. Get your hands on as much information as you can about your customers or your audience. This information can come in many forms, so there are a lot of avenues for research.

Here are a few methods that can help you zero in on the people you’re creating content for:

Traditional market research – Entrepreneurs like yourself are no stranger to market research. This can be as simple as conducting interviews among target customers or as detailed as holding focus group discussions.

Base it on your own experience – If you don’t have the capacity to conduct traditional market research, you can always base your determination on your own past experiences. At one point or another you have interacted with your target customers or audience – take what you know and profile them accordingly.

Interview your employees – Your sales team or your employees are some of your best resources. Aside from you, they are the ones who are constantly interacting with your target customers or audience – they deal with them day after day!

Gather your team and discuss what you all know to narrow down on some of the most common traits. By the end of the meeting, you should be much closer to a clear buyer persona.

Issue surveys or questionnaires – Sending out questionnaires can be a pretty straightforward way of acquiring the information you need to develop a buyer persona. You can include this when people make purchases, or just ask site visitors to fill it out.

Take a Peek at your Social Media Analytics

Developing a buyer persona in a day and age where social media reigns supreme can be a lot easier than you think. Checking out your social media analytics and understanding your metrics will help you accurately determine who your audience is.

This may seem intimidating at first, but trust us when we say analytics can get highly addicting.

If you have an existing channel and have been YouTubing for a while, you should have access to all the bits and pieces of information you will need to develop your buyer persona.

Your analytics dashboard will tell you who is watching your video – when they watch it, where they watch it, what they watch it on, and how they are finding you. These are crucial pieces of information that can help you create the type of content that works for your tribe.

Understanding your audience will help you create relevant and valuable content. Define your niche and decode your audience – be as specific as you can. The more specific you are, the stronger your marketing campaign will be.

Create Content – Compelling Content

Now that you have a better understanding of your audience, you can create relevant and valuable content to serve their interests. Use your content to educate or entertain your viewers in whatever way you deem will be relevant to them.

Go for High Quality

Video quality is an important aspect you can’t afford to neglect. YouTube viewers are quick to make first impressions, so make sure your videos look A+.

If you’re looking for a model YouTube account, look no further than the most popular man on the internet – PewDiePie, lesser known by his real name – Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg. PewDiePie is a YouTube comedian and gamer who manages to rake in millions of views on each video he puts out, often within just a few days.

While his videos might comprise, for the most part, of him screaming at the camera, you can’t deny the fact that this man knows how to provide high quality, compelling content.

The videos he makes are often simple but the production value is obvious in the video and audio quality. Although he doesn’t give a ton of thought to his personal appearance, you can easily see that he thinks long and hard about editing and post production.

Get All Geared Up

In order to make quality content, you’ll need the right equipment in order to shoot, record, edit and upload your content on the platform. You can get pretty far with simple equipment, but if you want to be a YouTube pro you’ll need a pro setup.

If investing in equipment seems like too much for you, consider investing in a professional instead. They have the right gear needed to shoot and record high quality videos – for a price.

Get Professional Help

Getting others to create your content for you can be a great way to save time and money. You can hire remote videographers and video editors on websites like Upwork, Fiverr and Videopixie for a reasonable price.

This can be highly convenient for business owners who don’t have the time to sit down and create the content from scratch.

With most of the content you publish on a platform like YouTube, it’s important that you keep it direct and simple. Complicating your video can make it too long and too confusing for your audience.

Spawn a Series

Once you have your channel all set up and ready, create different series for your content.

This can help your viewers find what they’re looking for a lot faster. Creating a series on your channel can also help you stay on track, as far as direction and goals go.

Make your Goals Happen

From there, you can let your creativity run wild. Use what you learned in the previous steps to help you create the type of content that will be helpful to your viewers. Set a goal – whether it be to educate or strike an emotional chord among your viewers – and run with it.

In order to amass a following on YouTube, you must provide your audience with content they cannot find anywhere else. Give them reasons to hit that subscribe button every time you come up with new videos and content ideas.

Look the Part

Having a YouTube channel is similar to having your very own talk show on TV: that means you need subscribers to keep you relevant and on the air (you can exist as a channel without followers, of course, but nobody wants that).

They say in order to get the part, you must look the part – but looking the part may not be so easy for most of us. Especially those who are just starting out.

This is where purchasing followers and other social signals comes into play. Buying followers and engagements like plays, likes and comments can help you boost your credibility on the platform.

Bought followers won’t become customers, of course, but they can attract authentic viewers through their engagement. Think of it as setting things in motion and setting up your account for success. Of course, you can always do this via normal organic growth – if you have the time and the patience for it.

Buying YouTube views on their own isn’t enough, because it will make your video metrics look lopsided. If you have 1 million views on a video but barely any comments or likes, people will take notice and it won’t be good. So even though it’s cheaper to only buy views, it’s just not worth the money unless you buy engagements to go along with them.

You don’t want to be like the guy below, with over 2 million views and less than 3,000 likes. Compare him to PewDiePie above, and you’ll clearly see the difference between an organic following and bought views without engagement:

Instead of channeling all of your resources towards just one social signal, try to spread it out evenly and purchase reasonable amounts of each. This can help you look the part of an organic success – no, not the kind sold in Whole Foods.

Treat YouTube like you would Google

Earlier, we mentioned how YouTube is fast becoming one of the most utilized search engines on the internet. People go to YouTube to solve their how-to moments, as videos often provide the best answers.

Being the 3rd most visited website in the world, it’s safe to assume that YouTube is a pretty busy platform. In order for your campaign to gain more visibility, you have to treat it as you would any search engine.

YouTube’s algorithm looks for keywords in key places which we will discuss below. Your job is to make sure you include all the right keywords on every video you upload. This way, you increase your chances of being found when people search for anything related to those terms.

When choosing keywords, stick with those that are most relevant to your industry and the content you put out. Using irrelevant keywords in various parts of your video can actually get you in trouble so be as specific as you can.

YouTube as a Search Engine

Getting the attention your video deserves does not solely rely on your content – it includes your strategy as well. To show up on as many search results pages as possible, you must apply SEO techniques to help you leverage success.

While YouTube’s algorithm may not be as complicated as Google’s, it still takes cues from various other social media platforms to determine which videos are most relevant for a particular search result.

According to Search Engine Watch, YouTube uses the following signals in its algo:

Title field information

Views

Audience retention

Keywords in description field

Tags

Video length

Number of subscribers after watching

Comments

Likes and dislikes

While some of the social signals mentioned above are out of your control as a marketer and content creator, there are still a few things you can do to optimize your channel.

We’ll discuss some crucial tips to find the right keywords later on, but for now it’s important that you know where to put these keywords in order to increase your chances of being found. YouTube’s algorithm looks for search terms in the following places:

Video title – When it comes to your title, use keywords that best describe the type of content you came up with. Words such as tutorial, unboxing and demo can help viewers identify whether it’s something they are interested in watching or not.

Description box – The description box may be one of the most neglected features of YouTube. Be sure to fill it with relevant information, like info about your business and links to your website, as well as important keywords.

Experts suggest that you make the most out of the description box as Google relies heavily on text content in order to influence its ranking. You can even consider adding a full transcript of the video.

Meta tags – This is how you are found on YouTube. Choosing the right meta tags can help viewers discover you whenever they do a search. Pick your meta tags carefully as youTube penalizes channels that overstuff and use irrelevant meta tags.

Choosing your Keywords Wisely

The keywords you use have an immense impact on your campaign.

Choosing the right keywords for your video is probably far simpler than most people think. It often requires just a tool or two – and patience. Below, we rounded up a few helpful tools that can help you find the best keywords for your content.

YouTube Search Bar – Yes, you don’t have to look far to do basic keyword research. If you’re just starting out or if you’re not too keen about using other tools to mine the best keywords, the search bar is the best place to go.

Do a few searches and take note of all the suggested keywords in the dropdown list. These are the most competitive and relevant keywords to use in your niche.

UberSuggest – UberSuggest delivers results much faster than the previously mentioned tip. UberSuggest also makes it easier for you to copy and paste all of your findings into your video through their nifty clipboard tool.

Keyword Planner – When determining the best performing keywords, nothing beats Google’s very own Keyword Planner. This can give you a more intensive overview of the search hits each keyword gets on a monthly basis, but you’ll need to be using AdWords to use it.

Google Trends – Google Trends is also a good tool to use for seasonal keywords. The top and rising section can also give you great keyword ideas based on trending topics in your niche.

Market Samurai – If you’re looking for more competitive keywords, Market Samurai is a free tool that can provide you with long tail search terms that go best with your content. You can also analyze data based on your own rules, giving you more relevant results.

Your Calls to Action

When undertaking a YouTube marketing campaign, your primary goal is to convince people to do what you need them to do. To do this, you’ll need to provide effective calls to action.

There are a number of methods to infuse your video content with creative CTAs. Below, we rounded up a few creative ways you can convert viewers into loyal customers.

Say it outright – One of the best ways you can get your message across is to just say it out loud. From time to time, you can mention your call to action in your video.

Like, subscribe, visit your website, whatever it might be. Just don’t go overboard or your video could seem like a commercial.

Annotations – These little bubbles of text can be utilized to remind viewers to like, subscribe, comment, view past videos, visit your website – anything you can think of. Be direct.

If you feel like your viewers might not have the patience to view your entire video, use annotations to help them jump to a specific clip.

Ad Overlays – YouTube Ad Overlays help you monetize by laying a translucent banner over your video, which you can link to your website. You don’t have to worry about shelling out because ad overlays are free.

If you’re not using CTAs on your videos, you’re missing out on a lot of conversion opportunities for your business – so be sure to use them to their fullest potential, on all of your videos. This is a great way to direct viewers to your sales page or convince them to subscribe to your newsletter.

Engage with your Audience

Engagement on YouTube is at least as important as on any other platform. When you’re just starting out, it’s worth your time to reply when people leave comments.

That way, other people will see that it’s worth it to talk to you, because you’ll actually talk back. It will also encourage people to have discussions among themselves.

This is especially true for your subscribers. They’re like your regulars, who will be consuming your content pretty consistently. So you definitely want to have a good relationship with them.

The more people you have talking about your content, the better. Keep a careful eye on the comment section, and quickly respond to anyone who wants to chat.

Now, that is the easy part about engagement. If you want to make the most out of YouTube, you have to dive into the metrics of your videos. Understanding your analytics can help you pinpoint what works and what doesn’t.

If you are serious about creating content that makes a difference – whether it be for your personal brand or for your business – you have to learn to gain insights from this data. YouTube analytics will tell you who your audience is (viewer demographic), where they come from (traffic source), what they like (audience retention), and what compels them to unsubscribe (viewership).

All those data points and charts may seem intimidating at first, but you’ll get used to it. Trust us when we say you will be hooked on data when your first views come rolling in.

Use Social Media and Social Linking Sites

When you publish videos on YouTube, they don’t need to stay on YouTube.

You should share your videos in some way on all the other major social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Remember, keywords are important there too.

There are also social linking sites and message boards like Reddit and StumbleUpon, which can help you become more discoverable on the world wide web.

Submitting your content on these platforms is easy and won’t cost you a dime. All you have to do is create an account and share away. The better your reputation on sites like Reddit, the more favorable the community will be towards you.

It’s important that you remain consistent when sharing your content. The more consistent you are, the more visible you are. Consistency can also help you build a unique network of followers on other platforms, whom you can direct to your YouTube channel on a regular basis.

Get People to Watch Your Content & Keep Them Watching

Remember, creating compelling content is only half the battle. Your mileage will vary depending on your overall strategy and how well you utilize different online tools to your advantage.

Understanding your viewership, growing your audience, and building up your content with the right keywords and tactics will help you gain more visibility on the internet. The more people are familiar with your brand, the more opportunities you have to direct them to your business.

Put as much thought into your overall strategy as you would any of your content. At the end of the day, your strategy and your content will work together to take you where you want to go!

Date: December 1, 2016 / Categories: SEO, Tips, YouTube, / Author: Mariko