If you’ve ever wondered how to get more views on YouTube as a brand or business, the good news is that there are indeed a few cheat codes to help get you there.
Video is a versatile and highly engaging content medium that not only gives audiences a real-life picture of what’s going on, but also is relatively easy to share across multiple platforms. It’s easy to digest, entertaining and is readily accessible to just about anyone with an internet connection – and YouTube is regarded as the first to capitalise on this.
While the likes of Snapchat, TikTok and short form video are having their moment in the spotlight, YouTube has been around since 2005 – making it virtually a dinosaur in the many realms of social media. As the platform was rapidly approaching over one billion views per day, paid video advertising was introduced in January 2009. While the formats have been “tweaked” over the years, these days the four most common include:
- Skippable in-stream ads
- Non-skippable in-stream ads (including bumper ads)
- Video discovery ads (formerly known as in-display ads)
- Non-video ads (overlays and banners)
If you’re a brand or business trying to tap into the power of video content marketing, then the good news is that there are a few methods to deploy when it comes to packing a digital punch.
Eight YouTube Growth Hacks To Try
According to recent 2020 statistics released from Wyzol, a whopping 87% of businesses are using videos as a part of their brand’s content strategy. Oddly enough, of those businesses surveyed, 83% reported that video content is giving them a strong return on investment.
As all marketers know, getting a good bang for your buck is the ultimate end goal for just about all advertising strategies. However, carefully crafting a well thought out video that’s both on brand and high quality is only half of the battle, and getting it firmly in front of the right audiences is another beast entirely. Thankfully, learning how to get more views on YouTube is a shortcut to ensuring that your content performs at it’s best.
Deploy Click Bait Titles – The title of your video is often your one and only moment to hook in potential viewers, so it’s important to make every character count. Although it’s deemed to be unethical (and ultimately counterproductive) to use your video title to trick users into clicking, you do need to write something enticing that motivates potential viewers into action.
Optimise For SEO – Believe it or not, YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world in and of itself. Just like people search for products and need problems solved via Google, the same rings true on YouTube. Take care to properly optimise things like your video title, description, allocated categories and tags if you want a shot at ranking well.
Customised Thumbnails – Before you shoot your next video, conduct a YouTube search for your target keyword or theme, and see what other creators have used for their thumbnails. You want to stand out from the pack, so it’s wise to find out what you’re going up against before hitting record. Skimping on customised thumbnails is a no no if you want to get seen.
Series vs Individual Videos – Have you noticed that most of the big YouTube sensations host playlists on their platforms? Not only is it a way to effectively categorise your content and make navigation easier for your fans, but it also instils a sense of consistency so that both new and existing audiences know what to expect from you via methods like filming a series.
Engage Regularly – Finding success on the internet is often a two way street, and the traffic doesn’t usually flow one way. If you want to get seen, you need to put yourself out there, so start actively engaging with other posts and accounts by liking, commenting or sharing their content. Although it can be time consuming, even thirty minutes a week is better than nothing.
Repurpose Your Content – If blogging is already part of your content marketing strategy – hint, it should be – why not write a blog post to accompany each of your YouTube videos? While this practice does require an additional investment of your time, the benefits far outweigh the costs, particularly if you are already allocating the time to write a video script.
Give The People What They Want – Much like the basics of keyword research that powers the big search engines, the best content in the world is rendered useless if it doesn’t resonate with viewers. Try to think outside of the box in regards to what you’re filming, such as how to guides, lists, and product tutorials that go beyond a simple monologue.
Partner Up – The magic of micro influencers can be found within their engagement levels. Usually capped at a maximum of 100,000 followers, these public figures may have a lower audience – but it’s a specific, attentive and engaged audience – and often directly in line with the type of people that your brand should be connecting with.
Sourcing Help With Your Video Content
Producing quality, consistent and on brand content takes time, effort, experience and resources – and you’re not alone if you can’t quite commit to that. Avoiding blogging for business altogether may actually be doing your brand a disservice, but thankfully – outsourcing and in turn, investing in a solid content marketing strategy has never been easier.
Here at Content Hive, producing top quality digital content is exactly what we do best. We have itemised a list of digital content services, and allocated credits next to each of these. This means that each month, you can use your credits with us to produce digital content such as blog articles, social media posts, videos and even animated Instagram stories. By using this model, we believe that it enables us to produce high quality content with faster delivery times. It also means that because you have a monthly credit, you are going to want to make sure you use these up – and so do we – meaning that your digital content is always consistent.
If you aren’t quite sure where to start on your digital marketing journey and would like to speak to a professional, why not book in a free discovery call with us at Content Hive today to discuss how we can get your brand buzzing online.
