YouTube is one of the most underused yet extremely powerful social network platforms. A lot of online content covering a variety of topical areas is featured on the channel. By mid-September 2021, the total number of monthly users on YouTube was estimated at 1.9 billion. Those actively using the social platform on a daily basis were over 30 million towards the end of June 2021.
All these statistics point to the fact that this channel is a very strong platform that can be a source of business exposure for you. The influence of YouTube video clips across social networks is tremendous and can boost your overall marketing strategy.
If currently, you own a YouTube channel, one of the things you will acknowledge is that the path to higher engagement is not linear. Views only give you immediate gratification, but they are pretty much vanity metrics. If you want to enhance engagement with your subscribers on YouTube and increase views, the following are strategies that can help you.
Simple and Beautiful Thumbnails
This can increase your engagement by more than 154%. In website results, visual thumbnails occupy a much larger real estate. Human eyes are naturally drawn to pictures and including thumbnails will help you get more clicks on your videos.
According to the YouTube Creator Academy, close to 90% of the best-performing video productions on the YouTube channel have a custom thumbnail.
Also Check: Buy YouTube Views Without Damaging Your Channel – Influencive
When uploading your video, there is the option of choosing a custom thumbnail that floats with your video. With a thumbnail, users’ expectations are set, and they know exactly what they will get once they click the video. The images you use should be of the resolution 1280 x 720 pixel and the text you use should be legible.
Add Annotations to Prompt Desirable Actions
As a video marketer, it means a lot to be direct. If you want a user to subscribe to your channel, make it clear to them. If you want someone to share your videos, all you need to do is just to remind them.
There are 4 ways you can leverage annotations in YouTube marketing. You can use annotations to:
- Gain subs for your channel
- Interact with audiences
- Grow your viewership
- Drive traffic to a targeted website
At the end of a video, you could put end-card annotations so as to get more viewership and increase your subscriber base. Typically, annotations deliver about 10% click-through rate with others getting up to 30% CTR.
Make Your Videos Shorter
One of the key ranking factors for videos is video watch time. The more your video is watched, the higher your score. Most viewers spend around 20 seconds on a website. This means their attention span is relatively short.
Related article: The 8 Best Sites to Buy YouTube Views, Subscribers, & Likes in 2021
Try to grab their attention within the first 5 to 10 seconds using the following techniques:
- Go straight to the point without putting in long and winding intros.
- Use a proven storytelling framework to weave a good story through your content
- Make your video for about 3 minutes. Longer videos have poor retention.
Use Basic SEO and Marketing Principles
YouTube just like any other social network has fundamental marketing principles that you must observe. To get top YouTube search results, implement the following tips:
- Promote your videos – Even though YouTube has a large audience, if you don’t promote your videos, you will hardly have any engagement.
- Keyword research and optimization – This is important for both your content creation and video marketing. You can plan your keywords using the keyword planner to deepen your video reach to your potential customers.
- Optimize your videos when uploading – While keyword research is important, keeping SEO in mind as you upload your video is even more important. The filename of your video ought to include your target phrase. The title of your video, as well as your video description, should also include the keyword.
Measure Performance
Using tools such as YouTube Analytics, compare numbers for each of your videos to establish the interest of your audience. This will also help you discover your target audience, source, and destination. Using the retention report, you can monitor your subscriber numbers and drop off rates of users. When you pay attention to each of these bits of data, you can create videos that will help you drive traffic to your channel.
YouTube hasn’t been saturated by marketers as yet and you can take advantage of this window to build a great audience for your business.