"YouTube Marketing: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide"

Today, YouTube is the most sought after digital platform when it comes to video content consumption. It is the internet’s second largest search engine with about 300 hours of videos being uploaded in one minute. It is a platform for video making that can be accessed in 76 different languages. An average individual spends about “six hours and 48 minutes a week watching online videos”.

It is predicted that by the year 2022, over 80% of internet traffic, globally, will come from video streams and downloads.

From a marketing view point, you cannot afford to do away with YouTube. Video content is immensely growing. Short to long videos are being incorporated in every social media platform. Whether it’s IGTVs in Instagram, short video stories in Facebook or reels in Instagram. Of a user’s total time spent online, one third of it is spent on watching videos. Singularly, YouTube hosts over a billion active users on its platform. With that significant amount, your brand is likely to benefit many folds through YouTube marketing campaigns.

Now let’s take a look at how. The article will guide you through all that you will need to know, from, making a YouTube channel to running an advertising campaign.

1.    Creating and Branding a YouTube Channel

If you have a Gmail id, you can access your YouTube account automatically. YouTube is a Google property, therefore until and unless you have a google or a google+ account, you will not be able to create a YouTube channel. If you do not have it yet, let’s first start by making your Google account. You can make a personal account for yourself if your single handedly going to manage your YouTube channel. Also, if your business is hosted by a group of people then you can make a common Google account too.

Steps to create your Google account

You can create a google account easily using your phone, desktop or your laptop.

Open your choice of web browser (google chrome, opera, Firefox etc.). In the upper right corner click “Sign In”. A box will pop up asking for your email id and password. Click on “create account” in bottom left corner. Click on “to manage my business” (the account is going to be linked later to your YouTube business account). Next step is to fill up your name, email id (keep it simple) and password. When you are done, tap “next”.

Set up a recovery email id (in case you forget the password or email id set up earlier), birthdate, gender and phone number (once you’re done google will send you a verification code). Read Google’s privacy policy and terms of service and agree to it by checking on the small box. Verify your account with the code sent to you. And just like that, you have made a Gmail account for your business.

YouTube brand account

Your Gmail account is for you to access your YouTube channel. To be ready to personalize your YouTube channel, you will need to make a YouTube brand account. .

Open YouTube. In the top right hand corner, check if you are logged in. if you are, proceed to the next step. If not, sign in using Gmail id and password.  Click on your account module. Then click on “my Channel”. Do not fill up the blanks already. See below and click on “Use as a business or other name”. A new box appears, type your brand account name (you can edit it later). Tap “create”.

Steps to customize your YouTube brand account

Personalization allows you to present your account as you’d want. And how you like your audience to ascertain it.

To do so click “customize channel”. For channel icon, click on the default blue display picture. Browse through your gallery and upload a suitable picture. For channel art, click on the rectangular “add channel art” box. You can choose one from your gallery or YouTube templates. Then add the channel description and Gmail id. If you have other digital platforms that you want to connect your YouTube channel with, add their links in the link box. This will help your audience to know more about your business in other platforms too.

Your basic YouTube business profile is completed. Kudos!

Fun fact: YouTube allows you to customize your channel according to your subscribers and unsubscribed consumers. It helps you to display how you want to present your channel to them. YouTube channel trailer will help you to draw this out. A channel trailer is the video version of your description. Sounds cool right? Easy to set up too!

First things first is to make sure if your channel customization is turned on. To do that, click on gear icon in upper right-hand corner. Check to see if it is on or not. If not, turn it on. Next, see the arrow icon in upper right-hand corner of your page. Select a video file from your gallery or enter the URL to a video you would want to feature. Use important keywords to add a good caption. Wait for the video to upload. Once it finishes, you will be directed to your channel home page. Click on “for new visitors” and “channel trailer”. Select the video file you uploaded. And click “save”.

How to set up permissions for your YouTube brand account?

Three types of roles can be performed by someone who has an access to your google account. On the basis of their functioning capacity, they are:

Owner who can freely take control over the business’s google properties as you. Managers who will have the same powers as that of the owner but cannot edit listings. Communication’s manager will be able to respond reviews and feedbacks only.

Follow the steps once you have decided whom you want to add for what roles.

Go to the upper right-hand corner of your homepage. Tap your google account icon. See the “settings” icon in the drop-down list. Click on “add or remove managers”. Tap “manage permissions”. If you want to invite new people, click “people icon” top right corner. To give access to a person enter their respective Gmail ids and don’t forget to mention their roles.

Creating a second YouTube channel (if needed)

YouTube helps you to create more than one YouTube channel using the same Gmail account.

Visit your YouTube studio account. Click “creator studio classic”. Go to the highest right corner, click on your account. Click next on “creator studio”. Go to “your account”. Click on “see all my channels”. Tap on “+create a new channel”. Now, consistent with the aforesaid instructions you will be able to create the new brand account.

Guidelines to follow for your YouTube brand account

Your YouTube channel is a representation of how you define your brand.

Channel name must portray what your business is about. People will know you by your channel name. Therefore, pay extra attention while curating yourself a channel name for yourself. For channel icon, google suggests a picture of 800x800px square or a round shaped image. Channel description will help you to tell your audience what your brand is. Using of important keywords will help search engines to optimize your channel content and rank it accordingly. Channel trailer focuses to help visitors to easily understand what kind of content will be generated. It should be fun, short and catchy.  

Once your channel starts to perform well, you will be eligible for a custom URL. To be eligible primarily, you will need to have over 100 subscribers and one month experience in YouTube.

2.    How to optimize your videos for SEO

Optimizing your videos is crucial. As it will help you to gain higher ranking in search engines. It will help you to reach wider audience and generate a good traffic flow in your channel. This can be done through optimizing your channel’s metadata. It includes the title, description, tags, category, thumbnail, closed captions and SRT files, cards and end screens, playlists.

Title

Keep the length of your title to max 60 characters. Exceeding 60, cuts the text in web results. It must be short and clear. Easy to read and understand. Make it catchy so that people get interested to give that click on your channel. Include popular keywords to appear more in search engines.

Description

The first few lines, about a 100 characters must incorporate important links or CTAs so that it drives more engagement in your channel. Captivate the audience in the first few lines of your description so that they be bound to know more. Under this, try to include video transcripts that can help to improve your SEO. You can use popular hashtags and a default channel description as well. Which will include other links and sources to your various social media accounts.

Tags

Choose your main keywords and highlight them in your tags. Tags will help to relate your videos with similar other videos. Which will widen your reach over a large audience. Use important keywords, popular keywords and long tail keywords in your tags.

Category

Categorization is done by YouTube to organize similar videos under one heading. So that it is convenient for users to find with the right SEO. Like  animation videos, blogs, entertainment, travel and news, food, science and technology, auto vehicles, sports , non-profits, comedy, politics, demonstrations of how to, music and education. All these will be under the heading of “advanced settings” from where you can choose a video category.

Thumbnail

YouTube will auto generate few options for you to select from. But it is suggested that you create your own thumbnail.  90% of the videos that have the highest YouTube rating have custom made thumbnails. Again, to ensure that your thumbnail looks the right ratio on all screen sizes, YouTube recommends using 1280x720px image file. Before you create a custom thumbnail, you need to verify your YouTube account by visiting youtube.com/verify.

Subtitles and CCs (closed caption)

They help the viewers to understand your video. They help you to highlight important keywords for better search optimization. You can add subtitles yourself or have YouTube do it for you. If you want to add it yourself: go to your homepage, click on “YouTube studio”. Click next on “videos”. Select the video. Open the “advanced tab” and choose the language. The option to add subtitle will appear. Click and choose to upload subtitle with or without timing. If you want YouTube to do it, type in the text as you watch the video. Also, you have the option to hire professional help.

Cards and end screens

YouTube uses cards and end screens to poll viewers according to the content they watch.

Cards are rectangular shaped small sized notifications that appears in top right corner of the screen. You can choose up to 5 cards in one video spaced evenly. On your homepage left menu, click “Creator studio classic”. Next to your video you will have a drop down arrow. Click on it and then click “cards”. Click “add card”. Now, you will have to choose to create a video, channel or a poll or a link card. Next, drag it to the right place where you would want viewers to see.

End screens will help to keep your videos 5-20 seconds longer. This will increase engagement on your videos, encourage viewers to take positive actions in your channel and promote external links. Find your video manger, in your homepage, click on drop down arrow, choose “end screen”. Add elements that you like. You can do so by using templates, custom made or import the same end screen u used in other videos. It is recommended that you would promote another video or any playlist on your end screen.

Playlists

They help to keep videos, under different themes, in separate categories. This way you will be able to manage them better. Keeping them separately organized will help viewers to keep watching similar contents. Also, they will show up separately in search results. Select the video you want to add. Click on “+add to”. Select “create new playlist”. Give it a name and tap “create”.

3.    How to create videos for YouTube

Before starting to create videos, figure out what your objectives are. What do you want to achieve through this videos. What is the source for filming these videos? Make videos that fits in your brand’s image. That will help you to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. Make videos that will help to build a brand image which you desire to see.

Customer testimonials

Videos that demonstrate experiences of different customers who have used a service or a product.

Product demonstrations

Videos that display the benefits and use of a product or a service. Guiding the viewers on how to use a particular product and a service.

Tutorial

Provides in-depth knowledge of a product or a service. Essentially derived from various customer feedbacks.

Expert interviews

Interview of individuals who have formed an expertise in their field and knowing their story. This will gain you some credibility for the brand.

Case studies

Gives account of successful marketing campaigns and boasts it to the viewers. Tempting the viewers to make an engagement with your business.

YouTube live

Real time broadcasts encourage higher interaction between you and your audience. Live communication helps to facilitate building a positive brand image. To go live, go to your homepage, on the top right corner, click “camera live” and choose “go live”.

Vlogs

These are vlogs (video + blogs) that can be daily or weekly. They show the regular way of life of people.

Event video

These are in-person accounts in a meeting or a conference.

Video script – what it is and how to write it?

You can have as many goals as you want. Having one goal is comparatively easier to follow through. Your attention remains undivided and you stay focused. When you have more than one goal, it divides your attention and might lead to a contention between them. It might get confusing as to where should you be putting more focus and where not. Since this is a new platform to start your marketing venture, it is strongly suggested that you start off with one goal. And eventually, when you get the hang of it, you can have multiple goals to follow through.

Setting your goal/s

Without defining your goal, you will not be able to film a video. Setting up goals, will help to guide you in film making. They will give you a structure to follow through your filming course.

Drawing a storyboard

Storyboard are a series of rough sketches with detailed instructions on filming of every scene. They are like a blueprint before you begin to start filming your videos. Having a storyboard will be like a guide throughout filming of the videos. When you are preparing a storyboard try to make the every scene as detailed as possible. Create frames, basic description regarding the time of shoot, the kind of lighting and camera angle. These are a positive few and you can have as many points to jot down as you want.

Multimedia and animation

They will certainly make your videos more interesting to watch. You can add graphics, animations, and title slides to your videos. Like mentioned earlier, these too need to be sketched out prior to pit them in action, in your video.

Length

The most grossing videos in YouTube are maximum of two minutes. That doesn’t necessarily mean that long videos won’t get you the desired results. It is based on how you are making the video, how relatable the content is and how synced is the video throughout. That is in terms of its pacing, story arc and its visual appeal.

Where to Shoot

Your filming location can be an outside spot or your own living space as well. Before you decide on a filming spot, understand that according to the kind of video, each scene may or may not require different shooting locations. If you see, that few scenes would need a different location than the others, have a sketched out plan before you drive to the filming spot. Make notes of which scene requires what kind of location, at what time of the day you would want to shoot and what kind of camera would be favorable etc. most importantly, no matter where you have decided to shoot, visit the place beforehand and study it. Because when you are at home, you can choose to film at any corner you want. Right? But for those shoots at other’s property, you might need to have a permission slip. You don’t want to start off filming at a location quite happily, only to get interrupted with formalities you didn’t consider before.

All you need to know about video shooting (extra tips)

You have a good content for your video? Great! You have a good storyline? Awesome! But what if you cannot film the video properly? What if you cannot portray what you want your audience to see? Often, a minimal storyline performs very well because of the way it has been brought forward on the screen. You don’t need an expensive video camera of a very high tech filming set up. But you do need to know the right tactics to shoot a video with a minimal understanding.

Therefore, laying out six essential tips that you would want to consider if you desire your videos to perform well on YouTube

Tripod stand

A tripod stand will help you to eliminate the shakiness of your video. Filming a video in a stable tripod stand and filming the same in hand camera brings wide difference. A stable video with ease of motion is much nicer to see for a long period than one without a stability. Tripod also helps you to position your phone or camera at any angle you want to.

Manual recording

Manual mode will allow you to edit your shoot as you want. Adjust the lighting now and then, focusing as you desire and giving exposures as you feel is right. So set your camera to manual mode and shoot however you want to.

Shoot lines and Angles

Each scene requires different edits and cuts. It helps the viewers to stay engaged in your video. A seemingly long video without cuts will also make you tried to shoot for long. Cuts and edits for each scene will make your video easy to see. Especially, if the video is for a long time. Usually for a straight one location interviews, it is advisable to shoot at a 45 degree angle with the right frame of zoom in and zoom out. It all comes down to how interestingly you can film the scenes.

Extra back-up recording

Keep a record of more than what you need. All that you will film, you won’t be putting all of it up. There will be certain scenes that you will cut off and to replace them, you will be needing a set of other similar scenes. Make sure you have plenty of moments you need. At least, more than what you think you will be needing.

Motion efficiency

Motion efficiency is nothing but being able to monitor subtle motion changes while filming your video. Little bit of motion edits are desirable just to put in an extra charm in your videos.

Microphone

The quality of sound is very important while making a video. You can have a very beautified and informative video. But if the quality of the audio is not up to the mark, it will create no impact on your audience. You can easily plug in mics in your smartphone and record. Also, you can buy separate mics to record more high quality audio content.

All that goes into editing a video

Tools

There are a range of many editing software’s that you can download in your computer. Also, your computer can also have already installed software’s like windows movie maker and iMovie. And you can use them easily with a little understanding to edit your videos. They help you with basic editing, cropping, adding titles, filters and color corrections. If you want a more dynamic editing software with more detailed functions, you can use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe premiere and final cut pro X etc. interestingly, YouTube also has its own editing tools. You can experiment with them, before heading out to other applications.

Thumbnails

A range of thumbnails is available for you to choose from in YouTube. Or else, you can create your own thumbnail according to your liking.

Watermarks

Watermark is a self-made subscribe button that the viewers can click on anytime as they see your videos. Visit your “YouTube studio” and click “settings”. Tap on “other settings”  then on “channel branding”. A screen will open with the button “add a watermark” and follow the further instructions to upload one.

Music

Music sets the tone of a video. You can put different music for different videos. According to the mood of the video. You need songs that are marked “royalty free”. If your thinking aren’t there any free songs? Well there is indeed. But for more professional high quality sound and music, these “royalty free” audios will only charge you a flat rate without nay licensing fees on that. Apart from this, other good resources are epidemic sound, pond 5 and premium beat.

4.    YouTube marketing strategy

It is already an achievement to be able to create a storyline, film and upload a video. But let’s not stop there. To create a market for your videos, is another task altogether. Ask yourself, what would you do with your videos if they do not reach the people, they are made for? Therefore, it is vital to have an understanding of how to spread your voice across different digital platforms.

Social media platform/s

Click on the “share” button under the video you want to post to and select the platform you want to post in. It can be your Facebook account, your Instagram or anywhere else too. Fun fact: for ease of posting, YouTube allows to shorten your video URL and post it in an easy format. For higher engagement in your YouTube channel, try to let your audience know about why you have created a particular video. What led to you film? What was your inspiration? Your video can be a tutorial to the reviews and questions of your viewers, also, it can be about any social cause or of a current topic in issue. Whatever it be, letting your audience know the reasons behind making a video is likely to build a good connectivity between you and your viewers.

Personal blogs and websites

Add your YouTube channel link in your blog sites and websites. Then, embed few YouTube videos on those platforms. That will help audience on those platforms to get easily directed in your YouTube channel.

Email newsletter for subscribers and followers

Keep your subscribers and other customers timely updated about your content. Share your account updates and recent videos through emails. This will help personalizing your interaction with them much more.

Q&A

If your videos are about providing solutions to consumers, sites like Quora are a great way to market your business. It helps to address various queries of consumers. Thus, making them aware of your businesses’ ability to cater to their interests.

Collaborations

Find brands that have a similar audience interest as you. See how they have established themselves on this platform. Try to meet and engage in a collaboration by creating videos that will attract more viewers to your channel. It is fun and engaging. You will get a lot of exposure and understanding of the market presence.

Interactions with your viewers

Your viewers will drive your channel. They will help you to grow your business. Therefore, it is important that you answer their questions, respond to their comments, ask for their opinions and develop a personal relationship with them.

8 tips to market your videos

Consistency on all your digital platforms

Be updated across all your platforms. Keep making sure that what you post on one platform is shared to the others.

Optimization

Include keywords in description and frame your title knowing what your audience’s interest.

Multimedia

They make a video more fun and exciting. Don’t go overboard with them. Try to feature real people in your videos so a more lively video interaction.

Thumbnails

Custom thumbnails perform much better than YouTube generated ones. They display what kind of video is it and why should the viewer watch it.

Call to action

They will help you to see immediate results in your videos. Incorporate them as much as is desired.

Easy sharing of video

Keep your video sharing process very easy for your viewers. Nobody wants to dive in too much of a hassle.

Curating playlists

Separate playlist for different category of videos is essential. It allows smooth tracking of how your videos are performing and helps you to organize your content in a better manner. As for your audience, they will find it easy to search your videos according to the category they want to.

Be Punctual

It is critical to always schedule your videos. Not to worry though. Eventually, when you get the hang of it, maintaining a schedule is way easier.

5.    Understanding YouTube Analytics

Focus on your goal

A goal driven project is easier to analyze than without one. Targeting one goal at one time is more efficient than focusing on two to three goals together. Your goal depends on what you want to achieve. If you want to achieve a substantial share of subscribers, your marketing strategy should be to use as much of your social media as you may to share your videos. Organic promotions and paid promotions will affect the kind of videos you would create. For instance, for organic growth of your business, you will have to make videos giving description of your brand’s history, service or product demonstrations and tutorials.

Key metrics

This is the analytics section of your YouTube channel. Wherein it provides you with a detailed analytical framework of which video is doing how well. Keeping a track of your videos performance in the last 28 days. How many viewers have watched your video in a limited time frame? What was their watch it and at what part of the video they leave (if any)? To do this, you need to go in the “YouTube analytics section” that will give you all the necessary statistics of your channel’s performance. You can choose to filter your result depending on what you wish to analyze, if it’s the video content or the subscriber’s growth etc. other than that, you can also use the different charts and interactive map of YouTube that can guide you accordingly.

View time of your videos

It will help you to see how long your video is being watched. If people are dropping out before completing the video, at what points are they doing so. Which will help you to understand why they are doing so. What is there in that part which needs to be improved? Any video with a higher watch time supposedly has a higher ranking in YouTube searches as well.

Retention rate of audience

Retention rate is defined as a video’s average percentage being viewed per view. Which means the average percentage of a video being watched per user view. They help to indicate the possibility of a viewer to watch your video till the end. And that is one of the objective to keep while marketing a video. You must make sure that the average watch time remains high which will encourage a high viewership. One of the way to do it is by using cards and end screens along with call to actions to make an improvement in viewer retention.

Your audience’s traffic source

They help to inform you on the source of your audience. That is exactly, from which digital platform are you receiving the highest audience numbers. This will help in to strategize your future marketing ideas suiting to the platform that brings in more traffic. You can head over to the “overall traffic source” category, to have an in depth study of your traffic flow.

Population demography

Understanding your audience’s demography will help to you deliver the right services to the right category of the population. It is impediment to create contents that your audience can identify with, that they can relate to. Therefore, keep yourself aware of which section of your audience is interested to see what. Delivering of content, by keeping that in mind, is bound to earn you a steady positive growth.

Engagement analysis

They help you by understanding what kind of content is being watched by your audience. And not only that, you also get to take an insight on what contents are being shared the most by your viewers, on what videos are they making most of their comments and what videos are they likely to promote more.

6.    How to run a YouTube Advertising campaign

Some brands rely on organic traffic flow while some look forward to paid promotions. While we know the workings of organic traffic flow. It is also crucial to know the process of paid promotions. You never know what side you want to explore to! Therefore take a look at this section.

YouTube advertisement’s cost

CPV is a YouTube concept as cost per view whereby you pay when and if a viewer engages with your ad. If, because if the viewer skips your ad, you will not be charged for that view. On an average, the cost per click is $0.06. You can also set your daily campaign budget, and YouTube will continue to display your ad until the budget is entirely spent. After which you may decide to set up another budget as well. Whether you want to do it that soon or later, depends on how fruitful the previous budgeting ad campaign experience was.

Different types of ads in YouTube

Video discovery: ads which appears on a YouTube homepage, depending on your search results, with other videos related to it. It is like streams of videos discoverable to your audience depending on the kind of searches they do on YouTube.

In streams: these ads are in play within a YouTube video, before the video content starts to stream. They can be customized according to various overlay texts. In this mechanism, viewer more often have the option to “skip ad” if they don’t want to see the advertisement. These ads usually play for five seconds before being skipped over. There are also mid-roll video ads that suddenly come up while watching a video. Especially in those videos that are 10 minutes and longer.

Setting up an ad campaign

To set up a campaign, visit to “google Adwords account” and select “new campaign”. Next, for your campaign type, select “video”. Then, select a goal as your choice, to access the further campaign settings. Before you head to the next step, it is important to let you know that there are certain type of goals that will help you to make more customized campaign goals under it. Like that of brand awareness and brand consideration goals. It is not very vital to set a goal, if you so feel, you can move ahead without setting up of any goal. In case you have chosen that, then Google will not be able to guide you ahead step-by-step.

Lastly, choose the name of your campaign, set a budget with a timeline. Choose your budding strategy, ad networks, the target language and demography. Further customization includes, choosing as to which devices you would want your campaign to appear and how frequently. Once done, scroll down to name your ad group, set keywords, may be topics and placements to narrow your reach for a specific targeted audience. Then you will be asked to place on a bid for your ad campaign.

Input the video URL. Then choose the type of your ad campaign video format. Final step is to give your audience an indication or a direction to where you want them to go when they click on your ad with a call-to-action (recommended). Click “save and continue”. And, you are all set to go.