YouTube has become an active and creative space for brands to connect with their audiences. No longer just a video-sharing site, it now serves as a powerful search engine – where brands are, quite often, made.
If you’ve recently noticed YouTube appearing more regularly in the Google search results, there’s a good reason for that. Beyond the fact that YouTube is owned by Google, it is striving to refine and expand the diversity of its search results by including video content.
This is largely driven by user-demand in a bid to present information in a way that people will find most valuable. As the demand for video content continues to grow, brands have a clear opportunity – and challenge; to use YouTube as a tool in their communications armoury.
What can YouTube offer your brand?
Success on YouTube isn’t something you stumble upon overnight. Building a successful channel relies on patience, strategy, experimentation, and the ability to learn from setbacks. If you’re approaching YouTube to replicate the success of a video you’ve seen that went viral, you may wish to reconsider your approach. Going viral is rare – even more so when you try to force it.
A better approach is to focus on consistency, authenticity, and content that serves your audience in a meaningful way. Here is where YouTube can genuinely make an impact:
Giving you a platform to be a thought leader
Whether you’re an individual expert or a business, video offers an engaging way to demonstrate your knowledge. Creating engaging video content that matches search intent can be a great way of building engagement and help you become a thought leader in your space along the way.
The right video content matched to search intent can connect you with people who are actively seeking out your knowledge. The chances are your audience is out there – you just haven’t found them yet.
Boosting engagement
One of YouTube’s strengths is that it appeals to both visual and auditory senses. From detailed product tutorials to in-depth industry discussions, video content suits multiple learning styles.
In digital marketing, building a loyal and engaged audience is often more valuable than chasing immediate conversions. Pushing too hard for a sale is off-putting, instead, focus on creating content that resonates. This means avoiding a call-to-action in your content too early on.
Reaching the right people
With billions of views each day, YouTube’s reach is vast. Whether you’re an e-commerce brand, or a large financial firm YouTube provides the platform to reach a global audience.
YouTube is also particularly attractive to younger demographics and digital natives. In fact, many use it as their primary source of news and information.
So, if you’re not on YouTube, you could be missing out on a valuable proportion of your target audience.
To make the most of YouTube’s potential, here are some practical tips to help you strategically plan your content and approach.
- Keep perspective when comparing. Looking at what other businesses are doing on YouTube can be motivating, but it can also be misleading. Comparing your channel’s early stages with a competitor’s more mature platform can easily leave you feeling disheartened.Viewer numbers can take years to build and a period of trial and error may be required before refining your content strategy. Therefore, measure progress against your own goals and not someone else’s viewer numbers.
- Views aren’t everything. It can be tempting to focus on viewer numbers as your sole metric, but they only tell half the story. Watch time, audience retention, comments, and subscriber growth paint a much fuller picture of how your content is performing and how viewers are engaging. Growth on YouTube depends on viewers watching your content, engaging, coming back for more – which ultimately means that they trust your brand.
- Understand the 95/5 rule. A helpful rule in content marketing is 95/5; only 5% of your audience is ready to make a purchase, and the other 95% haven’t made a buying decision yet. Therefore, focusing all of your attention on that small group risks losing a huge opportunity. Instead, nurture the 95% with educational, engaging content and this will position your brand as an obvious choice when they are ready to buy. After all, trust and familiarity aren’t developed overnight.It’s the product of consistent, helpful content that builds a connection over time.
- Say no to clickbait. The temptation to use sensational titles and thumbnails can be real, especially when you’re starting out. But clickbait damages credibility and trust. YouTube itself is beginning to investigate misleading content. It’s far better to prioritise honest, quality content that reflects your values. Trust takes time to build and seconds to lose, so don’t focus too heavily on generating short-term spikes.
- Develop a smart content strategy. Success on YouTube relies on a smart and solid content plan. Start by establishing how often you’ll post – weekly uploads are a good starting point – and base your production schedule around this. Consistency helps to keep your audience engaged and keeps the algorithm happy, demonstrating that you’re reliable. Yet, don’t be afraid to tweak things here and there if your strategy isn’t delivering the results you expected. Try new formats, change your posting times, and explore new topics so that your content evolves with your audience.
- Use keywords to improve visibility. Apply search engine tactics to your videos to improve your reach and maximise visibility. Use keywords in your descriptions and captions and include transcripts to improve searchability. Think about what your audience may be typing into the search bar – this can impact your results both in YouTube and Google.
- Explore YouTube Shorts. Short-form video content is currently trending and these vertical, bite-size videos are being prioritised by YouTube. They can, therefore, bring in new audiences very quickly. Use YouTube shorts to experiment with ideas, tease in long-form videos or to give quick updates.
- Make use of YouTube’s community tab. This lets you post updates, polls, and behind the scenes content – providing a great tool for maintaining engagement between videos. Use the community tab to keep in touch with audiences and gather feedback.
- Collaborate with other influencers. Teaming up with relevant industry experts or influencers can boost credibility and open your brand up to new audiences. Interview other thought leaders to build authority, film tutorials to help audiences understand wider industry challenges and use your satisfied customers as influencers with case study videos.
When used strategically, YouTube can be a vital digital marketing tool to grow your audience, build authority, and gain trust. Once you have a solid understanding of the platform’s strengths, the next step is to put a plan in place and start creating. Don’t be afraid to experiment with formats, styles, and ideas — the key is to stay consistent, stay curious, and let your audience guide what works.
