How to Use YouTube to Drive Sales

As the owner/operator of an SME, you should constantly be looking for new ways, methods, and strategies to get your brand name and your product in front of new eyes, and you're always looking for ways to drive sales. If you haven't already, it's time you should consider using YouTube as a tool to help promote your brand. YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world, according to Forbes, and it has over 2.6 billion active users. That's a lot of potential customers! In this article, we will discuss several various ways that you can use YouTube to help sell your products or services, including increasing your brand awareness. We'll also provide tips on video production, including information on using royalty-free and copyright-free music. Let's get started!

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Create a Branded Channel

The first step in using YouTube to drive sales is to create a branded channel. This is the home for all of your company's videos, and it's where potential customers will go to learn more about your brand. When creating your channel, be sure to include keywords that describe your business and products in the title and description. This will help more potential customers find your channel more easily when they're searching for information on YouTube. Additionally, make sure to include a link to your website in the "About" section of your channel so viewers can easily find and purchase your products.

Produce and Publish Short Videos

Now that you have a branded channel, it's time to start creating and publishing videos! When creating videos for YouTube, make sure to keep them short - under three minutes is ideal, and the sweet spot, especially for short-form content, seems to be between 30 and 60 seconds. Viewers often have short attention spans, so make sure your videos grab their attention and are interesting and informative. After all, YouTube videos under two minutes in length get almost 50% of all views! You don't want people to see your videos as a chore. You need to make sure they're fun and entertaining, first and foremost.

Include a Call-To-Action (CTA)

Make sure to include a CTA, or call-to-action, in each of your videos. A CTA is an instruction that tells the viewer what you want them to do after watching your video. For example, if you want viewers to purchase your product, you would include a CTA at the end of your video that says something like "Click the link below to purchase now!" or "Visit our website to learn more." By including a CTA, you increase the chances that viewers will take action after watching your video.

Be Consistent With the Content You Produce

It's important to be consistent with the content you produce for your YouTube channel. This means publishing new videos on a regular basis - at least once a week, if not more. Viewers will quickly become bored if they see the same old videos over and over again, so it's vital to keep them fresh by regularly publishing new content. It's also helpful to poll and survey your audience to gain valuable feedback. Ask them to leave questions for comments for you to address in your next video. Or ask them what they'd like to see more of in the future.

Focus on the Quality of Your Videos

While it's crucial to be consistent with your video content, it's even more important to focus on the quality of your videos. There's no use in regularly publishing low-grade, subpar videos - it will only reflect poorly on your brand. Instead, take the time to produce high-quality, well-edited videos that are both informative and entertaining. While there's no need to purchase an expensive camera, lighting, and sound equipment, it would still be well in your best interest to invest in something mid-range. A decent investment into quality production equipment now will pay off in the long run, especially when you commit to producing at least one video per week.

Try setting up an area of your home, perhaps an office or a small space in your basement or garage, where you can assemble a tiny, makeshift studio. This will help you to maintain visual consistency, both with background and lighting setups. This will also help you produce more videos efficiently since there should be little setup or takedown.

Use Copyright-Free and Royalty-Free Music in Your Videos

One of the most significant aspects of producing a high-quality video is finding ways to give that professional edge, and often it's choosing to include some music. And the event you want to happen is to receive copyright claims or have your videos taken down because you used copyrighted material without permission. That's why it's important to use copyright-free (AKA non-copyrighted music) and royalty-free music in your videos. This type of music is free to use and won't get you into any legal trouble.

There are a number of different methods to find copyright-free music and royalty-free music. You can do a simple Google search or look for specific websites that offer this type of music. Some popular copyright-free and royalty-free music websites that we like include Soundstripe and Premium Beat. These sites offer tens of thousands of tracks of new music that are both copyright-free and royalty-free. It also offers sound effects (SFX) which is another audio idea to make those videos pop.

Explore YouTube's Analytics

YouTube's analytics can help you not only track how many views your videos are getting but also how long viewers are watching, where they're coming from, and what other videos they're watching. This data can help you to understand what's working and what isn't so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

In addition to using YouTube's analytics, consider using Google Analytics to track how many viewers are clicking through to your website from your videos. This data can help you further understand the effectiveness of your video content and make necessary improvements.

Advertise with Google Ads

Google Ads is a very useful and effective way to reach new potential customers who may already be interested in what you have to offer. You can create video ads that appear before, during, or after other videos on YouTube. In addition to video ads, Google Ads also allows you to create image and text ads that can be displayed on YouTube and across the millions of websites that make up the Google Display Network. If you aren't sure where you can begin, Google offers a number of resources to help you get started with advertising on YouTube.

Getting More Views with SEO

Just like with any form of sales content, it's important to optimize your videos for search engines if you want them to be seen by as many people as possible. Start by including relevant keywords in your video titles and descriptions. In addition, make sure to upload transcripts of your videos to the video description so that YouTube can include them in the search results. Finally, take advantage of YouTube's tagging feature to ensure that your videos are properly categorized. Have a digital agency SEO team look at them for a third eye. 

Transcribe Your YouTube Videos for Blog Use

If you're looking to get the maximum mileage out of your YouTube videos, transcribe them and use the transcripts as blog posts. This is a fantastic way to repurpose your video content and give your written content a boost at the same time. Not to mention, including transcripts of your videos on your website can help improve your search engine optimization. If your videos aren't too long (they shouldn't be), then it should be fairly easy to transcribe the videos yourself. However, there are also several online services that can do it for you if you're not up for the task.

Share Your Videos on Social Media

Make sure to share your videos on social media to give them an extra boost. In addition to YouTube, there are a number of other video-sharing sites that you can utilize, such as Vimeo and Wistia. And, of course, don't forget to share your videos on your own website and blog. You can also embed your own YouTube videos on other websites to further increase their reach. Remember that it's vital to take a multi-platform approach to posting on social media. In other words, don't just post links to your videos on one channel; also post engaging images and snippets of text to really capture people's attention. You don't have to post everywhere, but we'd suggest at least 4 to 5 platforms.

Use Video Testimonials

If you're searching for another really effective way to boost sales, consider using video testimonials. Customer testimonials are always powerful, but when they're delivered in video format, they can be even more convincing. After all, people are more likely to believe what they see with their own eyes than what they read. If you need some assistance to get started, simply ask your satisfied customers if they'd be willing to record a short video testimonial. Then you'll be able to post these videos on your website, social media, and even on YouTube. You may even try offering them a future discount for their time, or whatever you feel is appropriate.

Publish How-To Videos

How-to videos are always popular on YouTube, so if you have expertise in a particular area, consider creating how-to videos to share your knowledge with the world. Not only are these types of videos great for helping people out, but they can also be a useful strategy to promote your business or website. In addition, how-to videos tend to be evergreen, which means they're relevant and useful long after they're published. And, of course, don't forget to include links back to your website or blog in the video description so that your viewers can easily find more information about what you do.

Repurpose Your Video Content

There's no real need for you to start from square one every time you want to create a new piece of video content. If you have a video that's performing well, consider repurposing it into a new format. For example, if you have a popular tutorial on YouTube, you could turn it into an infographic or even a blog post. There are a number of various ways to repurpose video content, so get creative and see what you can come up with. Not only will this save you a good amount of valuable time, but it will also help ensure that your video content is always fresh and relevant.

Create Custom Thumbnails for Your Videos

Don't make the common mistake of using one of the video stills as your thumbnail. Instead, take the time to create a custom thumbnail that's both eye-catching and relevant to the video content. This will help you get more views and clicks, which is obviously the goal. If you're not sure how to create a custom thumbnail, there are a number of tools and tutorials that can help you out. Just make sure that your thumbnail is high quality and that it accurately represents the content of your video.

Use High-Resolution Photos for Your Video Thumbnails

When it comes to creating custom thumbnails for your videos, make sure to use high-resolution photos. This will help ensure that your thumbnail looks good when it's displayed on a variety of different devices. If you're not sure where to find high-resolution photos, there are a number of websites that offer free stock photos. Just make sure to read the terms of use before you download anything.

According to Google, YouTube's prime thumbnail size is 1280x720, with a minimum width of 640 pixels. Remember, you wouldn't post a low-resolution image to Facebook or Instagram, so don't do it anywhere else, including YouTube.

The Bottom Line

YouTube is an incredibly powerful tool to help sell your product or service. By following the tips outlined in this article, you can produce high-quality videos that will certainly entertain and engage your viewers. Just remember to keep your focus on quality over quantity, be consistent with your content, and include a call-to-action in each of your videos. Another tip we'd like to add: have some fun with it. If you aren't enjoying yourself, how can you expect customers to get excited about your product? After doing all of this, you'll be well on your way to using YouTube to promote brand awareness and successfully drive more sales for your business.

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