How does a business owner prepare for video marketing success? You start with YouTube. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world – and it is owned by the largest one, Google. If you are wanting to reach your potential customers, it would make sense to be on the largest search engines on the Internet. But did you know ONLY 9% OF SMALL BUSINESSES ARE ON YOUTUBE. This is just crazy. Video is really leveling the playing field when it comes to marketing your company. For a small business, video is an inexpensive and relatively quick way to get in front of your target market. It allows you to connect with your audience in ways you never could before. However, it can be overwhelming when you are first starting a video marketing strategy. So here are three steps to keep in mind as you begin your video marketing strategy.
- Topic, Title, Thumbnail
Yep, you gotta know what you are going to talk about. You must be creating videos where you have something to say. People will know when you are just phoning it in, and it will hurt you more than it will help you, so make sure what you are talking about is relevant. Think of the pain points your target audience is experiencing. What are they trying to move away from – or toward – and why are you the person to help them with that?
Once you have your topic, then focus on a catchy title. Let’s face it, people can scroll rapidly. The title of the video is very important since that is one of the first things the search feature of YouTube will go to. Don’t get to caught up in making your title fancy or shocking. That is what your thumbnail is for. The title is very important for the AI function of YouTube. It will suggest your videos if someone is watching another video with a similar title or topic. So make sure to keep your title very specific, and of course relevant.
The thumbnail is where you get sassy, shocking, eye catching, or thought provoking. When people are scrolling either on their phone or their desktop looking for videos to watch, YouTube shows them the thumbnail loud and proud. So it is in your best interest to make it eye catching! - Spread The Love
Video marketing is NOT “if you build it, they will come.” Even though YouTube should be the FIRST place you put your video content, it should not be the only place. If you are going to spend all this time and energy on creating great content – why would you not share it EVERYWHERE? Every video you do should be blasted all over your other social media channels. Put it on your website, send it in your email newsletters, edit out clips and make graphics to post with a link to the entire video. One video is a plethora of content to be shared all over the place. Get over being shy and share this magnificent piece of content you have created! I cannot stress this enough. Just make sure whatever platform you are using is supporting the type of video you created. For example, if it is a regular video, you may need to do some re-editing to make it vertical so you can share it as a Reel or a TikTok video for example. Definitely share it, but make it look like it is supposed to be there. - CONSISTENCY IS KEY
Video is definitely hot right now, so ideally a new one a week should be your minimum. Remember what I said about being consistent? This doesn’t meant you are shooting video every week. Set aside a day where you can record multiple videos and then drip them out on a schedule.
This is also not something you try for a month and see what happens. You have to stick with it. It takes time to build a following and create relationships on any platform. YouTube is no different. I cannot stress this point enough. It takes time to earn someone’s trust. You can’t simply talk to them and move on and expect them to trust you. Video is the next best thing to being there, so make sure you show up! Test and measure along the way to see what works and what doesn’t. You can do this – don’t give up!
Remember that YouTube is not just a place to post and watch videos – it is also one of the biggest search engines on the Internet – second only to Google. This means that your content will always be there, it can come up again and again when someone is searching for your topic. It is not like other platforms that show posts in chronological order, thus making your post outdated over time. YouTube will always pull your video up when someone is searching for it – so why would you NOT be on YouTube? Using video to market your business is definitely not going away and I am sure we will see a lot more this year in technological advances that will make it even more simple to do. I would love to help you get started on your video marketing strategy.
Contact me about today so I can help you be consistent and successful with video.