The Importance of Video

We are all aware of the growing importance of video with Cisco predicting that by 2019 video will account for 80 percent of global internet traffic and 75% of mobile traffic will be on mobile by 2020. So how do we capitalize on the growth of video? YouTube, the second largest search engine, with half of it’s users on mobile.

An Introduction to YouTube

  • It is known to be 8x easier to get a YouTube video on the home page of Google than a web page
  • The largest ranking factor for videos in YouTube is watch time (how many hours users have spent watching all the videos on your channel), so it is importnant to maximise hours spent on your videos
  • Audience retention (percentage of the video watched is also a high factor) so if we see where people are dropping off we need to edit the video
  • We have to weigh watch time against getting clicks to the website but if we don’t focus on watch time to an extent our videos will never be found
  • In YouTube content is king and people subscribe to personalities not brands

Keys to success on YouTube

We need people to:

  1. Discover video
  2. Watch video
  3. Watch more videos
  4. Become a brand advocate

There is a play off in making our videos discoverable (reach through search) and making people want to click on them (entice through related videos) we should aim for 30:70 – 30% reach, 70% entice as:

  • 20 % of the views on YouTube come from search, determined by:
    • Watch time, meta data, recency
  • 80 % come from the watch page, determined by:
    • Auto play in series
    • Auto play in related videos – Tags – 4-5 solely about that video , Description has to be accurate, Title optimised

Success on YouTube is determined by:

Youtube strategy

Creating content

  • Make what you enjoy making (inspirational / sustainable content)
  • Create original content that entertains and educates (How to)
  • Use your experience to engage the community
  • Use audience retention reports to determine what users find engaging
  • Update content on a schedule – add new videos at the same time each week and let users know when you upload so they know what to expect – CONSISTENCY IS KEY
  • Read users comments for new ideas
  • Comment on the watch page asking an open question to start a conversation
  • Share the video and get people to watch it to the end

Community

People subscribe to people not brands

  • Creation story : relate
    • What’s your pregnancy story? / what is the brand story?
  • Creed : inspire
    • People must come across as experts – mention credentials
  • Leadership : expert
  • Rituals : pewdiepie
    • Need a start and end ritual
  • Language : sociolect
    • Unique vocabulary to your group

Optimisation

Description

  • Put a the most important link in the first two lines (either to the full playlist if information or to the website if lead gen)
  • Accurate description of the video focused around the keywords (same as title)

Title

  • Descriptive and targeted to video
  • Keywords & relevant info first
  • Branding at the end
  • Cohesive story with the thumbnail and title
    • Thumbnail can be 120 x 90 pixels
  • Reach vs entice
    • Reach – Stuff it with keywords to get high on search
    • Entice – Get people to click it in related videos
    • 30:70 – 30% reach, 70% entice

Tags optimisation

  • Use 10-15 tags, 15 seems optimal
  • 5 Half general
  • 5 Half specific
  • 2 or 3 Branded tags
  • Be specific and do what is relevant to the video

Thumbnails

  • Strong contrast
  • Emotive face
  • Clear text
  • Distinguishable template or colour scheme

Other

  • Upload a transcript of the video to cc and subtitiles (60% of video’s are watched without sound)
  • Add social links and any other links to description below the fold
  • Jumpstart the view figure by sharing on and with social media community – ensuring they watch the complete video
  • Interact with other videographers on YouTube – comment on their videos and / or create a video response
  • Embed the video on <your brand name>.com (and any other relevant websites possible) Build links to the video from press releases
  • Add an open question in the comments to engage watchers

YouTube company about page

  • Grab target audience
  • Value proposition
  • Schedule
  • Keywords
  • Links

Contact

We work closely with a YouTube channel management expert, to learn more about maximising your success on YouTube, get in touch with me on ben@actionableinsight.co.uk