The truth is that many marketers overlook YouTube marketing. That is because YouTube is considered a web-based video platform, whereas others consider it a social media network. In any case, YouTube offers many marketing opportunities. It does not matter whether YouTube meets your social network platform’s criteria, it is quite popular, and you need to start using it. You need to know how to grow your channel by increasing youtube watch hours and use it to achieve your business goals.
Create a Channel Dedicated to Your Business
It is quite easier to create a channel with the content you have on your website. Remember to distinguish your channel from your personal channel. The good thing about a brand account is that different users can log in at the same time. Although this feature may not be important for the start, you may need it in the future when your YouTube channel grows. In addition, you can manage several YouTube channels.
Understand Your Audience
As a beginner, it is advisable to set time to learn about YouTube and your audience. You can easily find quantitative data regarding where most of the users reside, the age range, interests, and their viewing preferences. Also, you can gather qualitative data you can get. Fortunately, YouTube provides free access to analytics. This will help you monitor the watch time, demographics stats, and other things.
You can also gather insights regarding your viewers by checking the comments they publish. Check the comments to find out more about their preferences and interests. Ideally, if you want to know something, you can get to the community tab and ask questions or create polls. You need to compare the YouTube audience and identify the right content to use.
Research Your Competition
As you know, in marketing, competitive analysis is quite important. Remember that YouTube is quite competitive. You can start by carrying out an audit of your competitors and check how your channel compares with theirs. In this way, you can identify growth opportunities. Analyze up to 5 competitors. There are many free tools to help you. For instance, the Keyword Planner can help you check keywords that your competitors rank for.
Start by writing down metrics like viewership stats and subscriber counts. In this way, you can use these to benchmark the channel. Look at descriptions and titles to see the keywords that they use. Ensure you read the comments of the videos to find out what their fans are saying.
You can also learn from the top channels. Look at the different techniques they use. For instance, check how these channels get their views, engagement, and subscriptions. The videos do not have to be related to your industry or business.
Optimize Your Videos
As you know, YouTube is a search engine. That means your videos are ranked based on the keywords, descriptions, titles, and other factors. Ensure you optimize your content, so it stands a high chance of showing up in search results. Remember that most viewers will look at the video to evaluate its content. Add target keywords to the content and find what people use to reach your channel.