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Marketers no longer have the option of relying solely on the written word. In today’s marketing landscape, content must be dynamic and engaging—and video content is at the very top of the heap.
YouTube videos can be especially powerful ways to enhance your brand and connect with your audience. Just consider some of the stats: With a billion monthly users, YouTube is the second most popular of all social media platforms, eclipsed only by Facebook. Roughly 80 percent of individuals 18-49 watch YouTube videos at least monthly, while the average YouTube viewer spends an average of 40 minutes immersed in video content.
You can’t ignore the power of YouTube, but neither can you approach it haphazardly. In this post, we’re going to show you what all your YouTube videos are going to need in order to be truly effective. With this checklist, you’ll have a firm foundation for YouTube success.
Our Checklist for YouTube Success
Here are the components every effective YouTube video should have.
Branded intro footage. Even if it’s just a few seconds long, you need a way to tag each of your videos, allowing viewers to immediately know and recognize what they are seeing. This is crucial for making your videos truly feel unique to your brand.
A hook. Following that branded intro, you need to grab your viewers’ attention—and quick! Statistics find that it takes just 10 or 15 seconds for a viewer to turn off the video if it doesn’t strike their interest.
High-quality sound. Is the dialogue in your video intelligible? Is the music you play in the background enhancing, or distracting? A good video needs to look good, but it’s just as important for it to sound good. Clarity is key; if viewers have to strain to hear what you’re saying in your video, they’re likely to get frustrated and move on.
Brevity. Shorter is almost always better, especially since YouTube allows users to search for videos and filter their results by length. We’re not going to give you a specific timeframe here; we’ll just encourage you to keep things fairly straight to the point.
Actionable content. Your videos—like your blog posts and social media updates—should provide something of value to your viewers. They shouldn’t just be commercials; they should impart something meaningful, and allow the viewer to feel like he or she has learned something. Always ask yourself: What’s in it for your viewer?
A call to action. Calls to action aren’t just for written content. Your video, too, should exhort viewers to do something—whether that’s visiting your website, subscribing to your YouTube channel, calling your office, or purchasing a product.
Getting Started with YouTube Marketing
Now, you may notice one thing we didn’t say you needed—and that’s professional studio equipment. That’s because, generally speaking, it’s pretty easy to get a good-quality video from an iPhone. So long as you take the time to light the scene properly, and you record somewhere there won’t be sound interference, you shouldn’t need to invest a lot of money in Hollywood camera rigs.
With that said, you should invest in a sound strategy—beginning with the checklist offered here. Also consider how YouTube videos can be integrated to your broader marketing approach. That’s something Driven2020 can help you with.
Remember: We’re all about results. We don’t do things just to do them. We do things because we know they’ll improve your bottom line. We’d love to talk with you about a marketing plan that will actually move the sales needle for your brand. Contact us today!