![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/miro.medium.com\/max\/300\/1*TAPMniNjo_BT1S-OWc_Vfw.jpeg)
Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash<\/p>\n
Y<\/span>ouTube is a valuable resource that allows small businesses to reach a global audience and promote their products for maximum return on investment.<\/p>\n Millions of consumers every day rely on video presentations before deciding to buy products. Businesses large or small compete on a level playing field limited only by the imagination of marketers.<\/p>\n \u201cI visit YouTube most of the time for tech tutorials and hands-on labs,\u201d he said Danielle Alice Desanges Auceane<\/a>.<\/p>\n Telecommunications engineer, must be up-to-date in her field. He founded Auc\u00e9ane TMG-NATEXO-Orion<\/a>, specialized in data analysis, business intelligence and programming. YouTube fills in the data it wants while publicizing its brand.<\/p>\n Auc\u00e9ane spoke to the sellers Ivana Taylor<\/a> i Iva Ignjatovic<\/a> on how to use YouTube for business.<\/p>\n Taylor is the owner DIYMarketers<\/a>, a company “committed to helping small business owners get out of the doldrums.” Ignjatovic is a marketing, strategy, leadership and business consultant.<\/p>\n “I’m on YouTube at least a couple of times a week,” Taylor said. “I usually go there to try to learn something, see a demo, or figure out how to use a tool.”<\/p>\n She is not alone. Seconds Hoosuite<\/a>With over 14 billion monthly hits, YouTube is the second most visited website in the world.<\/p>\n “I’m on YouTube a couple of days a week, for sure,” Ignjatovic said. \u201cI look for music, TV shows and animal videos. From time to time, I look at business content.\u201d<\/p>\n Certain types of video content work best for small businesses on YouTube.<\/p>\n “YouTube is a vital marketing platform for engaging and thought-provoking educational videos and product reviews for all modern small businesses,” said Auc\u00e9ane.<\/p>\n For her part, Taylor prefers videos that teach her how to do something and give her a “confidence” factor.<\/p>\n In fact, YouTube can bring a whole new world to your special brand.<\/p>\n “I like any video that can show business benefits and results,” Ignjatovic said. \u201cThey can be demos or short educational videos.<\/p>\n “YouTube is good for music, entertainment, science or something I don’t see or hear often,” he said. “Business topics are great if I find something really interesting or innovative.”<\/p>\n Auc\u00e9ane believes that the more engagement a video receives, the higher it will rank, based on these YouTube ranking factors:<\/p>\n Target Keyword Usage Audience Retention Video Engagement and Subscribers<\/p>\n “Practice videos or demos are the ones that rank well,” Taylor said. “However, those are just the ones I’m most interested in. Who knows? The top videos probably show cats destroying property.”<\/p>\n Seconds Sprout Social<\/a>the three countries that access YouTube the most are the United States, India, and Japan.<\/p>\n “When it comes to small business videos on YouTube, relevance is what gets attention,” Ignjatovic said. “Someone’s name (personal brand or just a company brand) will always get more attention no matter how much I optimize my videos or if my video is good.”<\/p>\n Optimizing a YouTube channel can be a good idea, as long as people agree on what that means.<\/p>\n “It all depends on your business goals for leveraging YouTube,” Auc\u00e9ane said. “After all, a successful YouTube channel starts with high-quality, relevant video content.”<\/p>\n Frequency of use is a crucial factor in optimization.<\/p>\n “If you intend to use your YouTube channel for content marketing and to sell products or services, then optimization is very important,” said Taylor. “YouTube started with a much shorter format: three or five minutes,<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many things that need to be optimized,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s a full-time job to optimize anything. However, if video isn’t your strength or focus, it’s definitely a waste.”<\/p>\n There are alternatives to YouTube, but you should stick with either option.<\/p>\n “I go through these phases on Instagram where I’m really trying to do something there, but I’m not,” Taylor said. “Instagram has taken the place of the old original short blog post: an image and about 250-500 words. I still haven’t gotten around to it, though.”<\/p>\n In support of the videos, DIYMarketers has published, “15 Easy Ways to Generate Leads on YouTube”.<\/a><\/p>\n “Video optimization can’t hurt,” Ignjatovic said. “Companies should optimize everything they can.<\/p>\n “Shorts get a lot of views and attention, but not everything can and should be instant,” he said. “YouTube is looking for a piece, or much more than a piece, of the TikTok pie with short video formats.”<\/p>\n Auc\u00e9ane sees a correlation between video optimization and views or traffic.<\/p>\n “An optimized description helps you appear in the suggested video sidebar,” he said. “This is a major source of views for most channels.”<\/p>\n Helping to support it, Google<\/a> has found that 70 percent of people have bought a product after seeing it in a YouTube ad.<\/p>\n “As I optimize video content for my clients, I often test it and update the optimization to test key phrases and keywords,” said Ignjatovic. “People often think that optimization ends with SEO or search engine optimization, and very basic at that.”<\/p>\n Creating videos for YouTube is not a simple proposition. A little forethought is required.<\/p>\n “A common mistake is to create videos about everything,” Auc\u00e9ane said. \u201cThat makes it hard to grow subscribers because they just don’t know what they’re subscribing to.<\/p>\n “Then there’s plagiarism,” he said. “Being on YouTube, you have to be yourself and create something new.”<\/p>\n Taylor admitted his own mistakes.<\/p>\n “I treat my channel like a library of video content,” he said. “It doesn’t have much purpose. Content creators should have a goal and purpose for their channel. Still, I wonder how many people actually buy from someone based on a video.”<\/p>\n For outreach, it helps to consider people with disabilities when creating content.<\/p>\n “Companies don’t have to make an ‘A’ production for YouTube, but the sound has to be good and have a decent production,” Ignjatovic said. \u201cPeople appreciate well-edited videos.<\/p>\n “One of the mistakes small businesses make is when they just publish and never optimize or promote,” he said. “Why bother uploading videos?”<\/p>\n Small businesses need to create videos that stay current and interesting over an extended period.<\/p>\n “Show your experience,” Auc\u00e9ane said. “Be known as a subject matter expert. People will come to your channel to learn more. Well, that’s the goal, at least.”<\/p>\n Those with experience creating content have an advantage with video.<\/p>\n \u201cI look at YouTube videos like a blog,\u201d Taylor said. “Every business can create evergreen core content that educates customers.”<\/p>\n Consumers also take their time browsing videos. statesman<\/a> has found that users spend nearly 30 minutes per visit on YouTube.<\/p>\n “Small businesses should make sure they create videos that are original and interesting,” Ignjatovic said. “Be careful of repeating old ideas. There has to be something specific about the business.”<\/p>\n Video optimization for small businesses is generally considered essential.<\/p>\n “Think of YouTube search engine optimization similar to how you think of Google SEO,” Auc\u00e9ane said. “If you optimize your channel for SEO, you’ll rank higher in the results when someone searches for a video.”<\/p>\n She has come up with this relationship: more results = more views = more leads = more sales<\/p>\n “Optimizing videos is especially important,” Taylor said. \u201cYouTube is really a search engine. If you have content that will help people solve a problem, you need to optimize it for keywords.<\/p>\n “I can see YouTube videos ‘selling’ an offer on a landing page or as part of a Facebook ad, but I’m not sure if those videos can be sold from YouTube,” he said.<\/p>\n This is where tracking comes in.<\/p>\n “People can find your videos and watch them, but then what?” Taylor asked. “I’ll have to do some research to see what the data says.”<\/p>\n DIYMarketers<\/a> has an additional blog post, “Try these small business video marketing tips.”<\/a><\/p>\n “Think of YouTube as another search engine,” Ignjatovic said. “Also, Google tracks videos by collecting the data, showing relevant videos in Google search.<\/p>\n “Optimization is important, but so is promotion,” he said. “Honestly, if your content isn’t good, it isn’t valuable to your audience, no amount of optimization is going to save it.”<\/p>\n Especially in the early stages, small businesses often make mistakes when creating videos for YouTube.<\/p>\n “This includes using YouTube as a sales platform immediately,” Auc\u00e9ane said. \u201cPeople no longer want to be sold the traditional way, especially on YouTube. People go to YouTube to find answers to their questions or problems.<\/p>\n “Of course, the first mistake is not starting at all,” he said.<\/p>\n To this extent, a business has to start somewhere.<\/p>\n “It’s a smart move to have core content on YouTube,” Taylor said. \u201cMost companies don’t create enough videos. Business owners have told me they don’t want to share information and lose customers.”<\/p>\n Rather than being modest, a presentation should be bold and clear.<\/p>\n “Videos should have some kind of call to action, either as text or a link, or as part of the video,” Ignjatovic said. \u201cIt doesn’t have to be sales, but at least it sends people to your website. Many videos don’t have any kind of CTA.”<\/p>\n In the coming years, Taylor foresees better video products supported by the technology.<\/p>\n \u201cI watch a lot of AI videos,\u201d he said. “I hope this technology will really improve.”<\/p>\n Ignjatovic believes the trend will favor increasing variations in short-form video content.<\/p>\n Whatever the course, the journey can be fast or slow, keeping in mind the moral of the story of The Tortoise and the Hare.<\/p>\n “You can be more successful by doing things slowly and steadily than by acting quickly and carelessly,” Auc\u00e9ane said. “Based on that, I’d rather be the turtle.”<\/p>\n About the author<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Katzaman is manager of Largo Financial Services<\/a> and worked in public affairs for the Air Force and the federal government. You can connect with him Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> i LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n