What are the benefits of being on Youtube?

Those of us who have been following Youtube since the beginning know all the steps the platform has taken over time to improve its service.

If we have already gone through several important milestones – such as the arrival of streaming or, more recently, Youtube Shorts – we are currently in a kind of “new resurgence” both for the end user and for brands.

Youtube is not only more alive than ever, but it is also at one of the most important moments in its history thanks to the ease of creating content that is within our reach.

If you want to be visible, build audience loyalty, find a new communication channel, support your marketing campaigns or become an expert in your field, the time has come to turn on the camera and start recording.

YOUTUBE FOR COMPANIES, AN ALLY?

There is a lot of talk about the importance of social networks in any self-respecting digital marketing strategy, but it is important to emphasize that the main drawback lies in the volatility of the networks themselves.

The content we upload to the internet tends to be quite ephemeral, and if you don’t believe me, think about the amount of videos, posts, photos, etc. that you see per day. Our brain is incapable of processing all the information. We would literally go crazy.

This content is based on pure entertainment and that’s fine, because it is clearly in demand (Youtube Shorts had 1 BILLION views the first year of its launch).

But entertaining is not the only way to upload content to networks and, in this case, to Youtube. In fact, if it has become the second most used search engine in the world, it is for queries related to: “How to [insert your question here]”.

These types of questions, more than a form of entertainment, are a way to educate, and this is where the key is for companies.

One example of a company that entertains and educates on YouTube is Domoelectra. They will tell you that the key is that it understands what its audience wants and makes content based on that, and that is true.

But it is no less true that it has been able to merge entertainment and education to achieve the records it manages today.

Create a brand image on YouTube

We agree, therefore, that the opportunity to improve our visibility as a brand is within our reach. The difficult thing is to get in front of a camera and provide valuable content, but we will talk about this later.

The important thing is to understand that this channel is perfect for communicating to our audience who we are and transmitting brand values, which is otherwise more complicated.

Let’s imagine for a moment that we are a bookstore. We would all agree that there is an urgent need to turn around the business model for selling books, since it is clear that better times have passed in its history.

So, how can a bookstore improve its brand image, reach more potential customers and entertain its audience? It’s certainly not easy, but there are ways to do it.

I can think of three:

Readings of the first chapters of new books that are coming out or have just come out. There are many people who look for this information before going to a bookstore to buy a book.

Audiobooks. This concept is booming and there are many copyright-free works that can be published on video.

Reviews by authors. Or what is the same, giving an expert opinion about an author or a work.

These are just examples of how any business can make content on Youtube and improve its brand image. What is clear is that the limit is in our own creativity.

USES YOUTUBE AS A STRATEGY AGAINST THE COMPETITION

If you’re not on YouTube, your competition will be. And that potential niche market will be someone else’s, so it will be harder to get started. Am I being catastrophic enough?

I’m sure you’re convinced that you need to start making videos, but you don’t know where to start or you’re overwhelmed by the amount of things you need to learn.

Don’t worry, it’s normal, our biggest advice here is to take it easy and start small. In fact, the first thing you should do is to see what your competition is doing or, as we say in marketing, do a Competitor Benchmarking.

I know it sounds like a super complicated technique, and in a way, depending on the level of analysis, it is. But what I propose is that you do the following (seriously, you will see how simple it is):

Write on a piece of paper those phrases or words that describe what your YouTube channel is about.
Make a list of between 5 and 10 words/phrases.
Open Youtube and search for those words.
Write the name of the channels that appear in your list.
Go to each of the channels, look at the last 20-30 videos posted and select topics that are similar to yours.

If you repeat this last step with all the channels you have discovered, you will have achieved two things: you will know what your competitors are talking about and you will also have a list of topics to make videos without even having stopped to think about it.

Okay, but it is just as important to be clear about the content we are going to upload as it is to make it easy for Youtube’s neural network to position them for us.

Are you familiar with SEO? Well, just in case, let’s do a little review.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT SEO ON YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Don’t worry, we are not going to do an SEO masterclass, it is not the objective of this article, but in order to understand the following point, we have to talk a little bit about it.

Those of us who are all day threading marketing strategies are very aware of the importance of SEO, but it is true that sometimes it is difficult to explain.

What we are looking for with SEO on Youtube are two main objectives:

That our videos appear in the top positions in searches and recommended on the platform.
That our videos can be positioned in Google for these types of searches.

To do this, we must take minimal care of some things when uploading videos. For example:

The title of the video must be attractive and ideally use copywriting techniques. Think that someone who does not know you, through the title, should be curious to click.

The description must also take care of itself. If we want to opt to position our videos in Google, one of the best ways to “animate” Youtube is adding chapters to the video. This is very easy to do, we just have to put the minute in which the chapter starts and Youtube will cut it automatically. For example: 1:12 How to make an SEO strategy.

Using playlists is practically essential. I don’t know if you know, but Youtube loves order, and lists are a very practical way to sort categories of videos.

Tags are important, but not essential. My advice is to add about 10-12 that you think define your video. It is true that years ago they were taken into account more, but they have lost value over time.

Use tools like VidIQ. This is a free Chrome extension that will be integrated into your YouTube channel and will help you to improve the SEO of your videos with very simple explanations.

You always have the option of hiring an expert to upload those videos and create an SEO strategy for you, but it never hurts to learn, right?

OFFERS CONTENT THAT PROVIDES

Finally, and one of the most important things for a brand to grow on Youtube, is to make content that contributes. Here we will differentiate two main types of content:

Trends: content that is trending or you know that it is going to have many searches because it is on everyone’s lips. We have the possibility of going viral, but it tends (never better said) to be very volatile and ends up being buried over time.

Evergreen: this content is the one that lasts forever and does not follow trends or fashions… The perfect example is cooking recipes. Everyone is looking for how to make lentils, even if in many cases you know how to make them (I confess, I do).

Which one provides more value? Actually both provide value, the main difference is that the content based on trends is positioned faster and then disappear and evergreen content is the opposite.

The ideal is to combine both options, reach more audience and have a well-defined market niche, although, to tell you the truth, the latter sometimes comes by itself.

Orbis Advisers is a digital marketing agency, 100% results oriented. We specialize in Google Ads, and natural positioning in Google (SEO).