By Maureen Mattia
​April 2, 2020

Let's talk about the WHY - YouTube is the second largest search engine, second only to Google. And Google OWNS and LOVES YouTube which is why they put video results at the top of search returns. You’ve seen them - right there at the TOP. Wouldn't you love to see your own content here?...but you are not even in the running until you have your own YouTube videos in your content mix.
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​If you are creating any type of content, your goal is to use that content to establish authority, market products or services, provide instruction or otherwise attract and retain customers with your brand message. If your content is primarily text in blog posts, case studies, white papers, or other written resources, then you are sitting on a gold mine of content that can be repurposed into video.



WHY REPURPOSE TO VIDEO? 

We are all aware that video is more engaging, more memorable and preferred to any other type of content among consumers. (See Content Trends: Global Preferences, hubspot.com) So once you decide to create more video content, it’s a no-brainer to add YouTube to your marketing resources - don’t forget the platform is free to use. YouTube gets over 30 million viewers per day and 50% of YouTube viewers use it to LEARN something. Make sure you are creating some informative or educational content to attract new viewers in your target audience.

Consider further: B2B brands appeal more to customers when using emotive rather than rational marketing messages. (G2 branding statistics). Video is hands down the content type to help convey emotion for your brand’s benefits.
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​Once your video is on YouTube, you can embed it in your website, cross-promote the content in your blog, your social media accounts, your email marketing, even add it to your email signature. Anywhere you are communicating with your audience is exactly where video belongs. 

Before we delve more into the actions around increasing your video reach, let’s look at how YouTube works to promote your videos.


HOW YOUTUBE PROMOTES YOUR VIDEO and BRAND

YouTube’s free platform works to strengthen your brand 24/7. YouTube is constantly ON providing answers and entertainment regardless of the hour or time zone.  According to YouTube insiders, ”the goals of YouTube’s search and discovery system are twofold: to help viewers find the videos they want to watch, and to maximize long-term viewer engagement and satisfaction.”

Its algorithm is complex and it determines the six different places your video can surface via YouTube:

• In Google and YouTube search results - the holy grail of SEO
• In YouTube recommended streams
• On YouTube’s homepage
• In trending streams
• In channel subscriptions
• In subscriber notifications

The big question is - are there any factors the YouTube algorithm uses to determine these search results that WE can influence? Happily, the answer is YES!

​It mainly revolves around how much your video has engaged users already - with likes, comments and watch time. This leads us to the specific actions that you can take to grow your audience and increase the reach of your brand message through video.

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​8 STEPS TO INCREASE THE REACH OF YOUR YOUTUBE VIDEOS


1. Make sure YOU personally (and everyone else in your company/friend group) subscribes to your YouTube brand channel.

To be clear, let's review that Google owns YouTube and a Google Account works across all Google products, like Gmail, YouTube, Maps and others. You will need a Google Account to sign into YouTube and interact on the platform, whether you create a channel or not. If you have used any of these products before, then you already have a Google Account and can use that email address to sign into YouTube.

Note: You can skip this step if YOU are your own brand channel and do not maintain a separate email address personally. Otherwise, consider creating your channel with a separate brand name and email account. For instance, I have a personal account and YouTube channel as Maureen Mattia and a separate Google account for Edit Dash Video Marketing for that YouTube brand channel.
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This first step you only need to do once, and you want to get to this first. So, yes, you will need a Google account to interact personally on YouTube, but no, you don’t have to use a Gmail address - you can link your own email to a Google account. Subscribing personally to your channel enables you to interact with your video as suggested in the further steps recommended here.



2. Invite all your clients and prospects to subscribe to your channel. Put this invitation on repeat.

Take the opportunity often to point out valuable content your current and future clients won’t want to miss. More subscribers to your channel will equal more organic reach for your videos. A subscriber will see your content more often in their suggested videos. This works even better if the subscriber turns on notifications; YouTube will send them a notification every time a video is uploaded to your channel.

3. Watch every video through to the end to increase watch time.

Watch time, or audience retention, is part of the YouTube algorithm for ranking videos. It is more important to higher ranking than total video views as the amount of watch time is a better indication of content quality. Even if you don’t need to watch your video to the end (because you’ve reviewed it so many times that you can see it your sleep now) at least leave the video player running to the end if you switch your attention elsewhere.



4. “Like” every video on your channel.  
 
Pay attention here - DO NOT "like" your video while you are signed in as your company brand and do not ask your friends to try to inflate the numbers with multiple views. YouTube will recognize these activities as fraudulent, along with checking for spambot and malware views, and will discount those views and possibly freeze your "view count" for awhile.

DO "like" your video from your personal Google account and encourage unique views from your followers (sure, it's okay for your Mom to join in). You’re not going for vanity metrics here, but real engagement from an interested audience, however small that is.



5. Share your videos from YouTube via the multiple options below the title.   
 
Use the “copy link” option to email target customers and prospects with your new video (always add that note to subscribe). Use the embed code to put your video somewhere pertinent in your website. Share your video on social media (but come back soon for a future post on better practices for video engagement on Facebook and LinkedIn than just sharing the link).



6. Comment on your YouTube videos from your brand account.

Comment on your own video after it is live. This is an extra opportunity to suggest links to further resources as you can add links in the comments or video description. You could add a call to subscribe to your channel or follow you on other social platforms. You may want to "pin" this comment to the top of your YouTube comment feed so it stays visible.

It may be that your comment inspires further comments - and drive the higher "comment count" that along with views will boost your video ranking.

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​7. Alternate links to the newest or best-performing videos in your email signature.

This is an underused piece of marketing real estate that is highly engaging to your recipients. Even out of casual curiosity, a lot of people will click on a video link that is put in front of them...if it has an interesting title. It’s a great place to sporadically post broader concept videos, just keep it alternating between videos (and no video at times) to keep it fresh.



8. Put a YouTube subscribe button in your email signature.

This is pertinent if you are following best practices to keep all your social subscribe buttons visible on your website, in all your social channels, and yes, even in your email signature. 



Food for thought: Companies with consistent branding expect to earn 23% more annual revenue than the brands that are inconsistent. (Lucidpress)

​Let all your content types connect to and reference each other in your marketing efforts. And consider all the ways that video can build a stronger brand - that can build up your business. Let us know in the comments what has worked for you or if you have questions we can answer.
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