Commercials online are aplenty these days. Head over to YouTube to watch a video and you’ll find yourself being greeted by a short ad every ⅓ of a video. It’s a little annoying at times, especially when you’re about to get to the good bits and you’re suddenly bombarded with these ads. Yet for all the hate there is for targeted ads on Youtube, there’s a reason why they keep cycling back into play. Try as you may to report or block these ads, they will eventually find a way back into your life. And there’s a reason for that. Approximately 122 million users flock over to Youtube daily to receive their daily dose of entertainment, some for educational purposes and others to work. Youtube algorithms then analyzes these viewers and the respective demographics they belong to and from therein recommend videos to other viewers of the same trait. So if you’ve seen an ad cycling despite numerous blocks, it’s really no bigger. But all that aside, the whole reason ads have found a place in Youtube is the sheer reach that they have, and the amount of influence they exert on viewers through the simple use of visual elements.
If you run an ecommerce and you would like to leverage Youtube to increase profits, here are several pointers you absolutely know.
Right at the top of our heads, social media influencers are the first thing that comes to our minds. Love em or hate em, social media influencers are here to stay, and that’s because of the influence they hold over the average Janes and Joes. An influencer that uses and endorses your product helps to create a positive association between your brand and their viewers. Let’s say you engage a social media influencer to promote your product to 10000 followers, and within, 5000 followers are organic followers. This would mean your brand is now known by 5000 people. Such is the power of social media influencers. The best part about contracting a social media influencer is you can work with them to come up with contents that are specific to your business. Of course, hiring a social media influencer is always easier said than done with the price they charge. But if you can get your hands on a social media influencer, they will do loads to create brand awareness for you.
Youtube is the world’s second most used search engine after Google and you’re going to want to spend time perfecting your SEO engine. Unlike Google however, Youtube does not show real search traffic or the commonly searched keywords in there, instead it relies on Google Keywords planner. Fret not, there’s a way to go around this. First you’ll have to brainstorm a list of topics based on your content, then you note the keywords associated with your topics. Once you’ve narrowed down the keywords, you simply have put them into Youtube’s search bar, which will generate the 10 most popular keywords or titles relevant to your topic.
Tags are also important as they give algorithms an idea about your video. Attempt to fill up the tags section, though be very careful with the keywords you use, as Youtube bars videos if they’re found to contain irrelevant or clickbait keywords.
Perhaps a very overlooked part of Youtube. Publishing contents at a set time helps you capture your viewers’ attention even more. If you schedule your videos to go up at the right time in the right place, you generate more views and traffic to your Youtube channel.
If you’re just starting out on Youtube, interacting with your audience is a must. It helps to build an impression on the brand, and it makes your viewers feel seen or heard, which adds to the positive association that we talked about earlier. Some ways you can create active engagement with your audience is by hosting frequent Q&As, replying to any relevant comments that may pop up on your video, hosting livestreams and even making polls to engage your viewers.
Always be sure to include a link to your product by the end of your video, that way if your viewers are interested in your product, they have a readily available link that they can access to check out your products. While doing that, you may also include little freebies such as a coupon code or promo code to entice early buyers. All these is a part of the CTA, or call to action, where you implore your viewers to do something following the end of the video.
A curated playlists containing similar topics to the ones that you cover will allow your viewers to discover more about the brand and products. This is a very subtle way for you to market your other products without trying to sell it to them directly. Furthermore, the more time your viewers spend on your channel and videos, the more attractive your channel will appear to the algorithm too.
Without a doubt, Youtube is a great way to propel your business to success. That being said, it does take a bit of hard work to make it work. When executed well however, you will be rewarded handsomely.