The Power of YouTube-Based Marketing
Overview
Social media marketing has become a force of nature when it comes to growing your business, especially if you have an online business. Each social media platform has a different algorithm and understanding how each platform works will help you to not only grow your following, but to monetize your business model. YouTube, in particular, is a social media platform that can help you transform your business, especially through monetization and promotions. In this blog post, we’re diving deep into YouTube, how to monetize your channel, and how to leverage YouTube for promotions. Keep on reading to learn more!
First, why YouTube?
YouTube itself is owned by Google, and just like Google, is a search engine. This means your YouTube videos are best optimized by using an SEO-strategy. Organically, SEO is the first step to growing your channel. Some tools to help you with your optimization include Keywords Everywhere and TubeBuddy. When you optimize your videos correctly and create valuable content, you can easily grow a following and collect viable leads.
Monetization is a great tool when it comes to YouTube marketing. You can monetize your channel to earn additional income. So, how do you monetize your YouTube channel?
1. Become a YouTube Partner.
The first way to monetize is by becoming a YouTube partner. YouTube does have requirements your channel must fulfill in order to become a partner. First, you must live in an eligible country such as the United States. Second, you must have more than 4,000 hours of watch time over the last year and more than 1000 subscribers. Third, you need to have a linked AdSense account. Lastly, you need to meet the YouTube monetization requirements.
The goal to achieving a high subscriber base is by creating YouTube videos you know your ideal audience is searching for. This is where your SEO strategy comes into play and as you grow your following, the easier it will be for monetization.
Uploading more video content with an effective SEO strategy will help you achieve your watch time goal faster. Once you achieve all their requirements, you will get access to all the YouTube monetization features as you become a YouTube partner.
2. Engage With Sponsorships.
You can also monetize your channel by using sponsorships. As with any social media following, having sponsorships is a fantastic way to earn additional money. However, you will need some kind of following because that is what companies who offer sponsorships look for. A sponsorship is when you partner with another organization or brand and create content featuring their products, services, and company.
As with all influencer marketing, you can use your following to your advantage and partner with brands for sponsorships to earn an income or additional money. Some great examples of this include brands sending YouTube influencers product in exchange for a video featuring their product and discussing the benefits of the product.
How do you leverage your YouTube channel for promotions?
You can leverage Google Ads with your YouTube channel. By connecting your YouTube channel to a Google Ads account, you can run ads based on interactions within your channel’s videos. This is another great way to monetize your channel. So, what kind of ads can you leverage through Google Ads?
First, there are TrueView ads. TrueView is a type of ad format on YouTube that you can use. TrueView ads are great because they let you pick when and how your videos are displayed.
Next, there are in-stream ads. In-stream ads are those ads that come in on a video you are watching, while you are streaming. This may come at the beginning of the video or during the video. You typically can skip these videos after a few seconds of watching. This style works great from an advertising perspective due to how YouTube has set them up!
Discovery ads are ads where people are discovering you in the related search results or on video pages on YouTube. Your thumbnail and copy will display as an ad and relevant viewers can click on them if they are interested in learning more. These are great for guiding relevant viewers to your channel and eventually to your website or relevant opt-ins.
Lastly are pre-roll ads. Pre-roll ads play before your video. They can be different lengths, all the way up to a minute!
And last but certainly not least, how do you use an effective CTA to convert your viewers into leads?
When you are creating your YouTube videos, you want to include a call to action (CTA). A call to action is something you can add in each video to not only build authority, but to get your audience members to do something. A CTA could be to download a free guide, to get 15% off a product or service, or to join a free live webinar training. Those are all enticing your audience members to go off YouTube to join your email list.
If you do not have an email list set up, you could set up an email specifically for YouTube and use that for your audience members to connect with you. You could invite them to email you to connect rather than joining a list.
The other call to action that is available to use on YouTube is engagement. You could ask a question and ask your audience members to answer and leave a comment below. You could also ask for your audience members to subscribe and click the bell to be notified of new videos and to like your video. This will help the performance and engagement of your videos!
By adding a CTA in your YouTube videos, you give yourself the opportunity to turn your audience members into leads. Plus, even if they are not a viable lead right now, your audience members will become email list subscribers and may become customers in the future.
In summarizing, YouTube is a fantastic social media marketing platform to use if you want to grow your social media following and collect potential leads for your business. We hope this blog gave you some insight on how you can monetize your channel and how you can gain viable leads for your business!
