Online video is booming.
Video captures our attention and imagination in ways that no other form of media can.
A picture paints a thousand words and a two-minute video has 120 frames (essentially pictures) per second…
You do the math.
Reading time: 10 minutes
Level: Intermediate
Skip to the section you're most interested in:
When it comes to video, there's no other giant like YouTube. This platform has over one billion users and reaches more people than any TV network. Over one billion hours of video are watched on YouTube daily.
Many eyes are on YouTube - those eyes could be on you too.
YouTube marketing can be a powerful tool for your brand and is a great opportunity for you to reach and connect with your buyer personas.
However, it's a very saturated playing field and can be tough to master. If you want to learn more about YouTube marketing, you've come to the right place. We are going to teach you about the challenges and benefits of YouTube marketing, as well as how to set up your channel for success.
Is YouTube Marketing Right For You?
When branching out into any new social media network, you must have a purpose.
It's not enough to make company profile page on every network. You need to have a plan to use those outlets and update them regularly.
A dormant account on a social network can actually hurt your brand reputation. A profile that hasn't been updated in several months portrays a lack of discipline, effort, and planning. Visitors may even think you've gone out of business. Social profiles going dark is often a result of overstretching your efforts.
Maintaining a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube page all at once isn't easy.
Of those sites, YouTube probably requires the most labour. And with over 300 hours of new video uploaded every minute, it's not easy to stand out. If you don't have the manpower or the resources to make a dedicated effort on YouTube, it might be a good idea to reconsider your future path.
That said, if you're up to the challenge, a strong presence on YouTube will really benefit your home building business. Through YouTube marketing, you can show off your knowledge and creativity, boost your traffic, and maybe even go viral.
YouTube is Content Marketing
Content marketing drives traffic to your website. It's a vessel to boost your SEO through keywords and links. And, perhaps most importantly, it gives your visitors something of value.
For most people, the first type of content marketing they think of is blog posts.
While they are indeed popular and effective, blog posts aren't the only way to engage your audience.
When creating a strategy for your YouTube marketing, it's helpful to think of your videos as another piece of your content marketing puzzle. Videos serve as a healthy complement to your written work. Effectively using video and written content together makes your company's marketing well-rounded.
Showcase Your Expertise
An important factor in building your home builder brand's reputation online is to position yourself as an expert in the industry. No one wants to do business with someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.
A huge part of content marketing is showing off what you know. It's your opportunity to provide answers to people's most important questions. Well-researched and thorough content on relevant topics boosts your brand in the eyes of both viewers and search engine algorithms.
Using YouTube marketing to display your expertise provides some unique opportunities. While a written blog allows you to tell, a video allows you to show. A post can describe the detailing in your new show home kitchen, while a video lets the viewer see it.
Some people prefer to watch videos instead of reading blog posts. Adding a YouTube channel to your content marketing plan is a great way to ensure you don’t miss out on opportunities to connect with your target audience.
This aspect is especially significant when creating how-to or demonstration content, like home maintenance tasks. Written instructions can sometimes be confusing, but a well-made video can make things crystal clear.
If you want your home-building business to be influential in the industry, you need to make your expertise apparent. YouTube marketing is one of the best ways to showcase your skills and knowledge.
Show Off Your Show Homes
While usually not the focus of a given piece, all your content has the ultimate goal of boosting sales. Sometimes this means linking to a company page, while other times it may mean looking in-depth at what you offer.
Showing off your show homes is a great way to entice visitors to stop by for a visit. Try including some eye-catching scenes of both the interior and exterior of the home. You could even incorporate some videos of nearby green spaces or shopping centres!
Make sure to include information about where your new potential customers can connect with your company. Monitoring your channel is important and responding to questions in the videos' comment sections promptly is an important part of excellent digital customer service.
Finally, I can't stress this enough - be prepared to connect your sales department with leads who seem are interested in learning more. Because if you don't, your competition will be more than happy to engage with a lead who felt ignored by your company.
Engage Your Audience
For consumers, it's difficult to trust and support a brand that isn't engaging on a personal level. A business can seem like a nameless, faceless entity.
That's where video can be very powerful.
YouTube marketing is your chance let your authenticity shine. It's an opportunity to let your customers know about your hard-working team making your company run smoothly.
Sure, it's possible to express personality and voice through blogs and written content. But it's not the same as having a live person talking directly to you through a camera.
Remember, YouTube is considered a social network. So be social! If you feel like your company needs to do a better job of building personal relationships with your audience, YouTube marketing may be a great approach.
Boost Your SEO
One of the most important benefits of content marketing is how it impacts your search engine ranking.
Without content, you're limiting how people can find your company through searches. The more content you have, the more pathways are opened for people to reach you.
Videos are a great way to diversify your content and bring more eyes to your brand. But using YouTube specifically gives you some special perks.
First, YouTube isn't just a video hub. It is actually its own search engine. In fact, it's the second-largest search engine behind Google, and YouTube actually gets more web traffic than Google.
Making videos is the only way to show up on the #2 search engine in the world.
Second, posting videos on YouTube actually helps your Google ranking.
Why? Well, Google owns YouTube. Naturally, they're going to promote good content through both of their own channels.
If you want to be well-positioned in search results, YouTube marketing is a smart course of action.
How To Get Started
If you're ready to set up a YouTube channel for your company, it's not a difficult task. Creating a channel is free and easy.
Create Your Channel
To make your YouTube channel, you first need a Google Account. Your company may already have an account, especially if you've already claimed your business on Google My Business. If not, simply follow these instructions:
- Sign in to YouTube using the Google Account.
- Click on the profile icon on the top right and click Creator Studio. On this screen, you'll be prompted to create your channel.
- Click that link, and then click "Use a business or other name." This will allow you to create a Brand Account, which adds some special business management features that aren't available with a personal channel.
- Fill out the name of your business and click create.
Fill It Out
Once your channel is live, it's time to fill in the details.
Click on the "About" tab and add a description for your company. You can (and should) also add contact information, location, and links to your website and social media profiles.
You'll then want to make your channel look good with channel art. Add a profile picture (perhaps your business logo, ideally whatever you're using on other social channels) and create a banner. The recommended dimensions for your cover photo is 2560 px by 1440 px (max size 6 MB) - this is a good place for a gorgeous show home image.
Once your channel is filled out and ready, you can move on to the exciting stuff.
Start Making Videos
Video creation is an art form. Your business goals and your brand's personality will play a big part in what you create.
But before you start filming and uploading, you need a few things.
Equipment
Obviously, the most important piece of equipment is the camera.
Phone cameras aren't ideal, but they'll work. Phone camera quality continues to improve every year and you can get some decent results. But if you want top quality, look into buying something a bit nicer to film with.
Your camera also needs a tripod. If your videos look like they were filmed by Edward Shakyhands, no one will want to watch them.
Good audio quality is vital for YouTube. Look into buying a lapel mic for hands-free operation. And for voiceovers, get a nice desktop microphone.
Finally, you'll need some software to edit your videos. When it comes to the best video editing software there is a program to fit every budget. We love Lumen5, it's super easy to use and looks great. There are others out there too, like Design Wizard, iMovie, Adobe, and more.
There are also several free and open source options if your editing isn't too fancy.
Video Ideas
Your first video priority is a channel trailer. These videos are the first things viewers see when they visit your channel's homepage.
Channel trailers are a quick introduction. You can introduce your company, what you do, and what you can find on the channel. Trailers generally aren't more than a minute long.
Beyond that, you're free to come up with fun and informative video ideas. Here are a few:
- How-Tos/Instructional Guides - basic home maintenance ideas to ensure new owners don't void warranty
- Client Testimonials - these should be done either on or as soon as possible after possession day when they are the happiest
- Customer Interview/story - a walk-through a customer's journey from ground break to getting the keys
- Community showcase - showhome parade, green spaces, community amenities
- Event Coverage - grand opening events
- Office Life/Employee Recruitment - these put a much more human element in your brand
- While being on YouTube always includes the possibility of trending and going viral, the best videos are usually "evergreen" -- Interesting and helpful year-round.
Fill Out Video Details
Once you upload a video, you'll need to optimize it for search by filling out metadata.
Your metadata is extremely important because it's how the computer and algorithms understand your video.
If you were writing a blog post, an algorithm could crawl through your writing, analyze your words, and classify your post accordingly. A video doesn't naturally have writing. Although speech-to-text technology is improving, a computer still doesn't exactly know what your video is about. Unless you tell it.
Of course, filling out your video details is helpful to the humans, too.
You'll want a strong title, an informative description, and accurate tags. Think about your keywords, just like you would if you were writing an SEO-optimized blog.
Feel free to add links and on-screen annotations when and wherever appropriate.
It's also good to add subtitles for the hearing-impaired or people trying to watch with no audio. YouTube has automatic closed captioning, but you'll want to go in and check the speech-to-text and make corrections if needed.
Share Your Videos
Congratulations, you're publishing videos and engaging in YouTube marketing! With good quality and correctly optimized metadata, you should see organic views coming to your videos.
You'll also want to share your videos on your other platforms to your already-established fan base. You can embed your videos on your website and in blog posts. You can also link to your video on your other social media profiles.
You can also use your videos to network. Send your videos to some key influencers. If they like it, they may share it on their own website or social media.
Bonus: Get Monetized
A perk of YouTube marketing is the opportunity to make some money directly off of your content.
Monetizing your videos allows YouTube to run ads before your videos. You'll get to keep a portion of the ad revenue. If this is something you're interested in, click here to learn more about the YouTube partner program.
Once you've been reviewed and approved, you can start earning money for the content you worked hard to produce. If you can grow a significant viewership, you can make a decent chunk of change.
Because monetization requires running ads from other companies, you'll need to discuss with your company if it's appropriate.
Make YouTube Marketing Part of Your Plan
With the right about of time and effort, YouTube can become a uniquely effective marketing tool for your company. It takes hard work and consistency, but creating videos can allow you to reach people in ways that no other form of content can.
YouTube marketing, of course, is only a part of a well-rounded marketing strategy. For more insight on how to effectively boost your company's reputation and sales, check out our other marketing resources.
Originally published March 16, 2019; updated August 20, 2019.
