As digital and video marketing continues to rapidly grow and evolve, there are trends within every social media platform. One platform that is experiencing explosive growth is YouTube.
In this episode of the Garlic Marketing Show, Ian Garlic is going to explain some of the current marketing trends on YouTube and how you can use them to benefit your business.
#1: The Correlation Between Your YouTube Channel and Website
The biggest trend taking YouTube currently is using your channel as a replacement for your website. When a channel is designed properly, it should mimic, in ways, a website.
The idea behind this isn’t for maximizing subscribers, it’s to close more referrals, get more high-quality leads, and connect with your ideal clients.
When people go to your website, yes some might click around. Some might read a whole page, increasing view time. Some might even click on your contact page and decide to reach out because they’re interested.
But typically, people spend 2, 3, maybe 4 minutes on a website.
If they are truly your target audience, they might pass your website on to others they think would benefit from your services. But you know what else gets passed around between people?
YouTube videos.
And, if you have a robust channel, people are much more likely to stay on your YouTube channel watching your videos far longer than they would read your website. People are familiar with YouTube- it’s the second most used search engine for a reason.
It’s a familiar space that they’ll spend a lot of time on, which ultimately means more people you’ll convert.
#2: How to Use YouTube Ads Successfully
YouTube has become flooded with ads over the years.
I’m sure anybody without YouTube Premium is used to waiting 5 seconds to skip every ad they come across and when they can’t skip it, the temptation to refresh the page might pop up in their mind.
The issue with all of these ads isn’t the ads themselves, it’s that usually they aren’t targeted to any specific audience.
For a service, agency, or business, a great way to use YouTube Ads is to create ads that have educational content in your niche and retarget to your audience.
If somebody looks up an exercise video, and an ad pops up showing them more efficient ways to execute that exercise, now they’re interested.
They won’t skip the ad. Instead, they’ll watch the whole thing and probably click on the video to see more from that creator.
By using this retargeting strategy properly with YouTube ads, you’ll get their attention and they will drift over to your channel.
#3: How to Make YouTube Shorts
The rapid rise of TikTok has shown the effectiveness of short, sub-60-second clips in marketing.
YouTube has taken that trend and made it its own with YouTube Shorts.
There is an immense opportunity for YouTube Shorts especially since they are a two-fold opportunity.
The first part is the YouTube mobile app.
What is the one object people have on them at all times? Their phones.
They are constantly on their phone, scrolling through social media. People are going to spend more time on the app than anything.
YouTube Shorts are easy to scroll through on the app and are very curated to the interests of the viewer.
It gives a good chance for your videos to be suggested to somebody in your target audience. Then, you can layer YouTube ads on top of this to get your videos suggested more frequently.
The second part of YouTube Shorts is Google searches.
YouTube Shorts are being prioritized on Google Search over TikToks because they optimize YouTube.
This prioritization allows you to control your online reputation better and get your name and business ranking faster.
YouTube Shorts should definitely be a big aspect of your marketing as soon as possible.
#4: Optimizing Your Content for Search Engines
People are doing a lot more research about services and products these days.
Google has said that a prospect will see your business up to 500 times before they’ll make a decision. This isn’t just in searches, this includes a variety of ways they could come across your business.
It’s a good thing that people are doing research and searching for things. You can use that opportunity to market to them throughout their journey.
You should always be thinking about the customer journey in your YouTube marketing plan.
It’s a great way for you to be posting videos, providing information that answers all of their questions along the way.
By doing this, you are controlling the searches both on YouTube and Google for your business and your industry.
Because the more these prospects see you, hear you, and hear about your company, the more they will remember you and be likely to work with you.
#5: Google’s Continuous Scrolling: What does it mean for businesses?
Everybody wants to rank on Google.
They want to get their business or product on the first page of Google because it increases their chances with prospects.
Now with Google’s new feature, continuous scrolling, the first page of Google might not be relevant anymore.
Yes, it’s still important to try and get your website, your videos, and your content as far up on the search results as possible, but continuous scrolling is increasing the chance to be seen.
You want to take advantage of this by creating content, finding those longtail keywords, and getting yourself on those searches as much as possible.
#6: Grow Your YouTube Channel Using TV
Television has become a huge trend for YouTube.
A lot of people watch the platform on their TV, just as they would any other streaming service.
Adults watch it, kids watch it.
By creating engaging content, building out your channel, and thinking about your videos are television, you’re capturing not only the audience of people who view on their computer, and their phone, you’re also engaging the people who watch on their TV.
Using YouTube in 2023 to Grow
Regardless of where you’re distributing your content currently, you need to make Youtube a priority going into this next year.
YouTube is constantly evolving in ways that other platforms can only dream of.
If you’re overwhelmed, think of your customer journey to start. What questions are you always asked the most about your business or your niche?
Also, think of your customers’ stories themselves. Do you have any with great stories who would be willing to sit down and share those stories on video to showcase your journey together?
If you need any help creating a YouTube plan, don’t be afraid to reach out to us.
Subscribe to our channel too if you want more content like this. We are always giving away the current tips, tricks, and trends going on in YouTube and other digital marketing spaces.