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15 Mistakes Businesses make while Promoting their Brand through YouTube

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Video marketing is becoming widespread and more affordable as it is advancing in technology and is easy to spread across the globe. Marketing videos require creativity and knowledge of human psychology.

YouTube is hugely becoming popular leading to a lot of competition. YouTube is one of the biggest alternative, most popular websites in the world, which is what makes it an incredibly powerful and potential marketing tool to promote your business. As per studies, YouTube is also the second most popular search engine, first being Google.

According to statistics, as of May 2019, more than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. This equals to about 30,000 hours of newly uploaded content per hour. More than 6 billion hours of videos are watched every month on YouTube. So remember, if you want to be successful on YouTube, you need to learn how YouTube’s algorithm works today and to make sure that you have the time and the resources to publish quality content on a regular basis. You will also need a worthy YouTube marketing plan. In this blog, we will discuss the blunders made while using YouTube for promotion.

If you are not marketing and promoting your videos in the correct manner, they will never be seen by your target audience. However, as you create more videos, you will get better, refine the styles and formats you use, and improve your use of keywords leading to better promotion.

Listed below are tested, proven, common mistakes businesses make while promoting their brand through YouTube:

#1 Not using the right content strategy

The first step is to create your strategy. In order to create your YouTube marketing strategy, you will want to start by defining your goals. Put together your objectives: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. This will help you make sure that your objectives are specific, have a deadline that is do-able. Figure out your video production strategy and balance production strategy with marketing strategy.

#2 Not branding the video correctly

Branding can establish your channel’s identity and attract viewers to help grow business. Most viewers will be introduced to your channel through your brand. If you want visitors to subscribe to your YouTube channel, you need to look professional. Branding your channel will help users recognize your content. YouTube branding should be consistent, and one way to achieve consistency is by using your company logo for your channel. A logo makes a great difference as it is a point of identification.

#3 Not using Data-driven videos

Vision is the most dominant sense in humans. Most information transmitted to our brain is visual, so data-driven pictures and graphs can boost engagement massively. In order to properly measure your video engagement rate, you will need to provide the viewer with data-driven facts. Collection and analyses of data provide insights throughout the YouTube strategy process.

#4 Not setting a consistent schedule

Uploading YouTube videos consistently allow your channel to remain active and gives your subscribers a good experience. Plan to post the same time as each day, week, or month. With consistent postings, viewers will know when to come back for more.

The moment you stop uploading YouTube videos at a consistent rate, you will lose some of your subscribers, and your growth will halt. The number of videos you upload should depend on your channel and subject. Keep these simple vlogging tips in mind as you plan the schedule:

• Be consistent
• Publish on weekly or daily intervals
• Be realistic as per your business
• Don’t make your schedule ambitious, else you won’t be able to sustain it
• Make sure you can meet your goals
• Space out your content
• Consider time zones. Choose a time when your target audience is available and active
• Add a schedule to your about section and channel trailer

#5 Not avoiding bad audio or bad video

If you post a video online that is not of the highest quality, you run the risk of your brand looking unprofessional, and maybe even doubtful. Your business will appear to be spurious and people will not feel comfortable giving their money.

Marketers are still creating products with poor quality images and sound in 2019, in spite of the great and affordable technology that is accessible. It is really baffling. Video quality is commonly defined by its resolution. Get a good camera and microphone if you are making a video with higher demands.

#6 Making your videos too long or uploading too short videos

Ask yourself how long was the last online video watched by you. The longer you make a video, the lower the likelihood of someone watching it until the end unless it’s really valuable and the faster viewer engagement drops. Similarly the shorter the video the message is unclear. Keep it short, sweet and to the point. Nothing less or nothing more, about 60-90 seconds is the magic length.

#7 Not focusing on a single message

Don’t try to tackle too much information in one video. Each video should focus on just one topic, question, process, task, etc. If your video lacks the focus, break it into separate videos. Deliver a single message with your video so that viewers have a definite takeaway. Include a clear call of action so that your viewers know what to do after they have watched your video.

# 8 Not optimizing video titles

The title is perhaps the most important element of a YouTube video. Using a catchy title will draw users to your video, alluring them to click and watch it. On the other hand, an irrelevant title can ruin your YouTube marketing efforts by discouraging users from watching your video.

YouTube has a limit for the number of characters in video titles. The limit is 100 characters including spaces. For maximum visibility, it is best to keep your titles under 70 characters. This way, your titles will not get lost during a search.

#9 Not using SEO for your video

On social media, you can cross-promote content on different channels. Promoting your videos on social channels other than YouTube is the easiest way to grow your audience. It is a big fault if you are not sharing your YouTube videos on other social platforms. Getting your audience to see the video you uploaded is crucial. Just posting it on YouTube isn’t enough and does not guarantee it will get thousands of views. Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Pinterest, there are many options to choose from.

It is important that you use relevant keywords in the categories, title, tags, and description. This will help people find your video during online searches. In order to grow the number of your audience and get more views to tweet it and promote it on other social networking platforms. Always optimize titles, tags, and descriptions with keywords.

#10 Expecting instant results

Expecting a new initiative to drive instant results is one of the top biggest mistakes of video marketing. Little by little you get far. This same mantra is applied to video marketing. Very rarely do videos go viral. And when they do, most of the time it’s because of an established social media presence. Set clear, attainable goals for your videos. If you don’t hit the mark, don’t panic, plan a better-improved video.

#11 Failing to address your target audience

Creating a video with a message that does not address a specific audience is a big blunder. The video you create should focus on only one target market. The goal of your video should be to address concerns and provide information that reaches this target audience. Even if you have products and services that can benefit a wide audience, your video will be more effective if you focus on one point. Different people have different pain points. You need to decide which ones you want to address.

#12 Not adding subtitles

Subtitles open up your content to a larger audience, including deaf viewers or those who speak languages besides the one spoken in your video. Captions in your videos can have a big effect on their success. This is true for movies, TV shows, social media videos, training content, and any other kind of video you might record and share.

Subtitles are important as:

• Everyone cannot hear your audio
• Not everyone knows your language
• Many people cannot turn on the video
• Subtitles help to comprehend the video
• Helps engaging viewers
• Subtitled videos increase social reach

#13 Adding too many ambiguous messages

A lot of brands make the mistake of trying to fit all possible information in one video as everyone wants to offer a comprehensive view of their company. You would want to include your products, services, staff, awards, and location, but does your viewer really need to know all this? Perhaps they will not even watch your video till the end.

Don’t try to cram 2 minutes of video with lots of information, and explain one simple thing. Your viewers need to grab a single message from your video. Videos with too many messages or confusing concepts will put off the audience. Always choose quality and not quantity, the viewers will surely come back.

#14 Not asking for subscribers or comments

At the end of every YouTube video, always ask the audience to subscribe or comment. These days’ people do that at the beginning of the video as well. There are annotations that show up during many videos enticing people to subscribe.

Many videos also encourage interaction and subscriptions. You obviously want to make sure the people who appreciate your video the first time can easily get notified about your new videos.

#15 Basing success on view counts alone

Businesses just after producing videos, hope to get 1 million views, however, this result is ambiguous. Today’s social media, success isn’t always measured in view counts but meaningful engagement is what matters. YouTube stopped ranking videos by view counts several years ago. Instead, today videos are ranked on the basis of Watch Time.

Conclusion

If used in the right manner YouTube can be a great way to promote brand awareness and reach more potential customers. Since videos are engaging and personal you need to ensure that you provide maximum entertainment value. Always remember the following tips to achieve success:

• Strategize your YouTube presence ahead of time
• Plan your videos in advance
• Publish new content
• Create unique and different videos to appeal to a wider audience
• Take the time to engage with your subscribers and viewers
• Optimize your channel and videos for the YouTube search engine to boost your reach
• Have realistic expectations
• Tailor your content to make it interesting and informative
• Spread the word about your videos through social media and other methods
• Upload videos on a regular basis

If you take the above mentioned tips into consideration, you are all set to take on the world and pull off YouTube marketing with success. To increase the impact of your business you don’t need to wait, as now you can turn your YouTube Channel into an App in minutes with Appy Pie’s YouTube App Builder.