Since its humble beginnings in 2005, YouTube has exploded into the place where millions of people go to watch videos online.

It's surpassing traditional TV viewership at an alarming pace, which is why it's the perfect place for your brand to make a significant impact—especially since only 9% of small businesses as of 2017, are currently taking full advantage of YouTube's ever-growing network.

 

 

What is YouTube in a nutshell?

YouTube, a media sharing network by category, also happens to be the second largest search engine in the world with 3 billion internal searches every month.

That’s more than AOL, Ask, Yahoo!, and Bing combined!

More searches are performed every month on YouTube than on AOL, Ask, Yahoo!, and Bing combined. #B2Bmarketing #YouTube #SMM

YouTube is also the second-most-popular social media when you look at market share, and the statistics say it all:

• There are about 2 million video views per minute on the platform

• A total of more than 500 million hours of video consumed each day 

• On the content side, approximately 72 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute

 

 

If you consider that the average content creator earns $2,000 for every million views, it’s clear why YouTube is popular with brands (for awareness) and creators (for profit) alike.

Demographically speaking, YouTube boasts a colossal 1.5 billion logged-in monthly users, or almost a third of total internet users, regardless of age or location.

Chances are, in B2B, your customers are old enough to be at a career job and not some teens.

This platform is ideal for reaching older generations, believe it or not, and you may be surprised by the platform’s fastest-growing viewer demographics: Gen X viewership is growing at 40% and Baby Boomers at 80% faster than overall growth.

In fact, YouTube reaches 95% of online adults over the age of 35.

For many—if not most—B2B brands, this is excellent news.

The fact that YouTube reaches more millennials and Gen X than any cable network in the US is likely due to its free and easy accessibility in comparison with the paid, oldschool way to view.

Speaking of accessibility, this network is great for mobile consumption, primarily because of its heavy mobile viewing rates but also because videos are auto-optimized by the platform for varying devices, making it simple for brands to reach their prospects on the go.

Consider that the average user spends about 40 minutes per day watching YouTube videos on mobile devices, and logged-in YouTube users increase that amount to at least an hour per day.

There are only so many hours in a day, and with other time-consuming things like work or school, a whole hour is quite a lot that’s dedicated to one single platform.

What are they spending all this time watching, anyway?

Well, it turns out that YouTube is used the most to access videos uploaded by real people, brands, companies, and institutions, with a staggering 74% of millennials using the platform to access branded videos.

Now that you get a sense of why YouTube is highly relevant and useful to your B2B brand, let’s talk about getting the right people to care.

Ways to Engage on YouTube 

Can you believe that only 9% of small businesses are using  YouTube? This means that those of you who are reading this as  an owner or marketer of a small or medium business (SMB) have a  huge chance to make your mark. Other channels are effective, yes,  but saturated with competitors, too. Adding YouTube to your small  business’s marketing strategy can make a hell of a difference and get  you ahead of most of the competition. 

Video 

This shouldn’t come as a surprise: the best way to drive traffic to your  B2B website from YouTube is to create videos with calls-to-action  (CTAs) for your subscribers to engage further with your brand. It’s the  only form of content that you can create on the platform, but that’s  okay—video is continuously increasing in popularity, so this video only platform is equipped for the future.  

There are plenty of angles you could take with your video content, so  here are some of the most successful ones to get your creative juices  flowing: 

How-to Videos 

Your how-to videos will fare very well, with 73% of older  generations using YouTube to access how-to content. In general,  too, how-to videos are increasing in popularity by 70% year over-year. Teaching people a skill through an easy-to-follow video  is a great trick for building trust and authority, and if you are truly an expert on the topic, this type of video should be particularly  straightforward to produce. 

Even though they’re great and easy, don’t solely produce how-to  videos (unless it’s what your brand specializes in), as there are so  many other ways to engage viewers to drive traffic back to your  website.  

Leverage Influencers 

Try collaborating with industry influencers; these pseudo celebrities can put your brand on the map with their huge and loyal  following. You can conduct an interview, get a testimonial from the  more famous people you’ve collaborated with, or even just invite  an influencer onto your channel to discuss a topic in your industry.  This is especially useful if your brand is not very well known, as  influencers can give you a real exposure boost and provide social  proof that your brand is worth this very important person’s time,  and so it’s worth checking out. If you can get the words “check  out their website” out of an influencer’s mouth, you’re sure to get  a flood of traffic, so try to build up strong relationships with these  powerfully influential folks. 

Product Awareness 

If your B2B business sells products, make product review videos  by recruiting happy customers to go on camera for you. Leverage  YouTube to call attention to new product launches, too, with a  CTA within the video or description that easily directs interested  viewers to the products page of your website. The beauty of B2B is  that the people who recommend your product in a video aren’t just  some Joe Shmoe consumer; they work for a business that carries its own reputation, so their referral comes equipped with an extra  layer of professional trust. 

Service Awareness 

If your B2B business is service-based, YouTube can still be a  powerful tool. You can give viewers a sneak peek of cool projects  that are in progress, provide an overview of the most interesting  completed ones, keep viewers updated on new features, and even  provide viewers with a behind-the-scenes experience of how you  do what you do. Videos that you create regarding your brand’s  services or projects can be embedded into the corresponding web  pages and attract more visitors to learn about your brand in an  easy-to-digest way. 

About Your Brand 

What better way to introduce your brand to more people than  with catchy, bite-sized video snippets? You can use video to  introduce your team to your viewers, explain your brand’s purpose  or mission, give insights into the brand strategy, spotlight any  community involvement that you do, and present company news  in a more exciting format than a plain page full of text. Letting  viewers get to know you better on YouTube can help build trust  and, ultimately, convert prospects into loyal customers. Ideally,  if you cover the highlights in the video and then direct them to  the website for more information, those folks will be that much  more likely to choose your brand over another because yours is  authentic, tech-savvy, and approachable. 

Go Live 

You can get even cozier with your viewers by livestreaming company events, a typical day in the office, or other exciting  elements of your brand. This format is fleeting and trendy, so  experiment with it to give viewers a taste of your genuine and  transparent side of the business. Though this type of content  doesn’t directly drive traffic to your website, it helps build a  stronger connection with viewers, which will put you in the running  for when those viewers hire a brand to aid them in reaching their  long-term goals. 

Repurpose Content From Your Website 

Who says blog articles have to be presented in text form? Some  people prefer to read a document; others would rather watch or  listen to absorb that same information. To please the most people,  take your blog articles and create short and information-packed  videos out of them, then embed these videos in the article as an  alternative means of consuming the same information. Video style articles can be more shareable on social media due to the  increasing trend of watching content on smartphones, and they  can help drive traffic back to your site—especially if you leave out  some juicy details that can only be found in the original article.  

Top Commercials 

Why spend a great deal of effort and moolah on an ad that will run  a few times and then fade away into the realm of the forgotten?  Throw those ads into a playlist, and you have instantaneously  and successfully added quality content to your YouTube channel  that will keep viewers engaged and promote your brand in a  stylish way. Besides, if you happened to have a highly successful  commercial, people may seek it out on YouTube to watch again or  share with friends, so you can reuse that for free exposure.

Trends 

With new trends coming out of every industry faster than you can  imagine, rounding up the ones in your industry to dish out to all  your subscribers can be a great way to leverage the platform. Try  to cover cool industry news or major updates to common apps or  software that’s essential to the business to position your brand as  informative, hip, and worthy of a chance. For instance, 75% of Baby  Boomers and Gen X use YouTube to embrace nostalgia, and 68%  of older folks use it to stay in the know on topics of interest, so if  these fall into your target market, try to make nostalgic videos that  entice those users and show that your brand can keep up. 

Comments 

Though the only content type that you could produce on YouTube is  video, it’s not the only way to engage with your ideal customers, nor  should it be. When viewers comment on your videos, reply as quickly  as you can with something of substance to keep the conversation  going and to make a true connection, not just exchange niceties.  In fact, if someone comments on your video with clear interest and  intent, you can send them a link to wherever is most fitting on your  website to further their interest and interaction with your brand. 

Like it  

Utilize the “like” button (and dislike...if you really want to go there).  If a person comments something very insightful, on top of replying,  hit “like” to show appreciation for their participation on your  YouTube channel. The viewer whose comment you liked will get  a notification—that’s an easy and instant way to show them how  much you care about your audience.

Pin it 

If you have some favorite comments on your videos, pin them to  the top of that comment section—the user will feel appreciated  and acknowledged, and if you happened to reply with a link to  your site, the comment is strategically positioned at the top to  guarantee a higher amount of traffic than if it were buried in the  feed.  

Ask it

Utilize comments for honest feedback, too. You don’t want to  waste ample resources on content that doesn’t resonate with  your target market, so if you feel like you’re missing the mark, ask.  Not only do people like to be a part of something and will eagerly  chime in, but it also shows that you care about serving up the right  stuff to your people instead of being oblivious and strategy-driven.  Besides, what better way to get inspiration for your next video than  from the very people who requested it? 

Optimizing Your YouTube Efforts

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where you could simply upload  a video, sit back, and sip on a tequila sunrise while the comments  and website visits flood in? That sounds great, but it’s an entirely  unrealistic outcome to expect, which is why you must optimize all that  you do on this platform. 

YouTube has over 50 million content creators, which is the largest  creator base in the world...which also means that you have some seriously tough competition ahead of you. The reality is that, in order  to rank in YouTube, your videos need to consistently generate likes  (or dislikes, ironically), comments, views, long watch times, shares,  favorites, new subscribers...and all of that needs to happen quickly  and steadily after you hit “publish.” Watch time matters so much; in  fact, the YouTube experts say that it’s the real ranking gold. That’s  because too many people buy fake viewers to inflate views—but fake  viewers don’t stick around for 90% of a video because they aren’t  actual, engaged, realistic viewers, and so watch time is a valuable  metric that weeds out the real engagement from the fake stuff.  

One key element for hitting all these ranking goals is to continuously  create fresh, high-quality content. It seems obvious, but as with all  social media networks, you need to show up regularly and frequently  to play in the big leagues. 

Video  

As a general rule of thumb, try to create content that is either  educational or entertaining—or both if you’re a content marketing  rockstar and have the ability to do so. No matter what, even though  you’re here to drive traffic back to your company’s website, do not  sell; rather, focus on delivering the utmost quality to win the hearts  (and eventually, business) of your viewers. 

Size and quality 

The ideal upload size for your video is to keep the aspect ratio at  16:9, but more importantly, you want to create videos that are large  enough to have the highest quality possible. Luckily, on YouTube,  there are only two key sizes to keep in mind:

• HD-quality video size: 1280px by 760px 

• Thumbnail size: 640px by 360px 

The thumbnail for your video is the second visual element that you  need to get just right, so make sure to use a high-resolution and  eye-catching thumbnail photo as it’s the first interaction users will  have with your video.  

Add Music

One simple element that will take your video from “meh” to  “wow” is adding music for impact—there are heaps of free  music on the web that you can use, or, if you’re extra creative,  

you can make your own! Chances are you’re too busy to record an  original soundtrack for your YouTube videos, so just make sure not  to use copyrighted songs to avoid legal implications. If you create  

a video series, using the same, catchy song in every video will  help your content maintain a consistent theme and create brand  recognition. 

Branding

Including your brand’s logo is a must, as it creates brand familiarity  and associates the content with your company website— recognition is key here for bridging the YouTube-website gap. Use  the logo as a watermark: go into your account’s creator studio,  click into your channel, then into branding, and finally, upload a  logo and customize the times and duration of when it displays  in videos. This is a cool feature because it carries across videos  without you having to manually add the logo each time.  Another cool addition to your videos is an end slate where you can  run the credits, plus provide clickable CTAs to further engage your audience either on your channel or website. Give them a place  to subscribe, more related videos to watch, and even a link to  relevant content on your website.  

Mobile compatibility 

Your video must be mobile-friendly, as 40% of YouTube  views come from mobile devices. Though all YouTube videos  automatically display well in both desktop and mobile views thanks  to the platform, it’s whether your video is even listed in the mobile  app that makes a difference. If you go into creator studio, then  video manager, and you see a copyright strike next to any of your  videos, it means that you’re legally violating YouTube’s terms by  using copyrighted, third-party content, and so the video is not  available on mobile. (On the desktop side, the video is there, but  your account gets a copyright strike against it.) Now, you can either  dispute this violation if it’s not true, or take the video down, remove  the third-party content, and safely re-upload the video to qualify for  the mobile app. It’s important to check for violations so you don’t  miss a chance at 40% more views! 

Video length 

As with virtually all social media platforms, there is no universally  ideal length for the content. Some say to keep videos short on  YouTube so you can get to the juicy heart of the content sooner  rather than later in order to improve watch time. Those people staunchly adhere to keeping their videos at an optimal 5 minutes  or shorter. On the other hand, there are others who claim that long  videos rank better—and when they say long, they mean closer to  an hour, such as with detailed, step-by-step tutorials or other dense  content. It really depends on your audience, the depth of your  content, and a whole gaggle of other factors, but there are some  things you can use to keep your audience engaged, no matter the  length. For instance, using an “open loop” that mentions what’s  coming later in the video helps people know what to expect, look  forward to important parts, and keep them watching for longer  than otherwise. Having a branded introduction that categorizes the  video by purpose also helps viewers confirm that they’re watching  the right video for their expectations. 

Another way to ensure that viewers stay on the same page  (literally) as you is by adding a table of contents within your video  that maps out when you’ll be talking about what by displaying  which topic will be covered at what exact time. If a viewer is  watching your video for a specific reason, he may be more inclined  to jump to chapter 2 at 1:34 if you inform him of it than to leave  the video and search for a more specific one. This doesn’t have  to be anything fancy—even just a still image with the topics and  corresponding times, though not the prettiest way to present the  information, gets the job done. Take this up a notch and add the  subject somewhere visibly in the screen within the time that it’s  discussed to keep your viewers informed on which topic they’re  currently watching. 

Caption it 

Imagine if someone happened upon one of your videos while in public, but not wanting to be rude to the people nearby, tries to  watch it without the sound on—only to realize that she has no  idea of what’s going on and promptly leaves. That would be a  total wasted opportunity, which is why you absolutely must add  subtitles to your videos. Even better, those subtitles could easily be  downloaded into a transcript for your video so that search engines  and people alike can use it to understand the content. Including a  transcript helps you rank better on Google, and more importantly,  gives users a more flexible experience. Furthermore, if you  transcribe a video that you created, it can easily double as content  for your website and can potentially double the ranking impact!  

While YouTube does have a feature that automatically creates  subtitles—though there is typically a delay between uploading  and generating subtitles—for your video, tread carefully here:  

the subtitles are not always accurate, so you must review them  yourself before making the video publicly accessible. Sometimes,  therefore, it’s simpler to just upload your own transcript to be safe  and avoid a potential PR fiasco. 

Keywords  

Having your video content optimized for search engines is a  great way to raise awareness for your brand, as video results are  more likely to capture users’ attention on Google’s search result  page. If you want your YouTube content to rank in Google’s first  search engine results page (SERP), you best do your homework.  Conduct keyword research, just as you would with all other forms  of content, to determine the 30 to 50 keywords you’d like your  content to rank for, SEO-wise. You can use Google’s Keyword  Planner for starters, but there are plenty of paid tools if you want to take your keyword research up a notch. Make sure to jot down  both the keywords you currently rank for and the ones you’d like to  rank for on your website for best results and to complete the traffic  loop. The goal is to find keywords that list YouTube video results  on page 1 of Google, formally called Video Keywords. If there are  no video results, it means that you will only rank for those specific  keywords within YouTube searches—but not on Google. A tip to  get better luck with finding keywords that show video results on  Google is to include the word “video” in the phrase. But...how do  you identify the most ideal keywords, once all the other hurdles are  cleared? You want to aim for a perfect balance of keywords that  yield a high search volume of at least 300 results and also have  low competition, both of which are something you can identify in a  keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner.  

Once all that is said and done, a key placement for your strongest keywords is in the beginning of the title; it helps your video surface  when people search for that topic.  

Metadata 

Let’s start with the title of your video: studies show that, out of  the 100-character maximum, 70 characters, or about 5 words, is optimal. As per the section on keywords above, designate at least  one of those prime keywords as the beginning of the video title for  best results.  

For the video description, keep in mind that the maximum  amount is 5,000 characters, but only the first 150 characters are visible before the user has to click “show more.” Adding a link  to your company website at the very top makes the description actionable and can yield more website clicks than hiding the link  underneath the “show more” cut-off. To make the most of this trick,  try to pick a link that’s the most relevant so that it makes sense  for video viewers to want to click it. Another best practice with the  description is to include a keyword or keyword phrase within the  first 25 words, then try to use it 3 to 4 times throughout—but do it  without sounding spammy. We’re not playing black hat SEO games  here. 

If your videos are consistent and follow a common theme, you  could consider creating a default description with all the proper  social links and CTAs—however, if the description doesn’t match  the video, this could cause more harm than good, so tread lightly  and always test your efforts. To add a default description, go to  your creator studio, select “channel,” then “upload defaults,” add  the description to its designated field, and you’re all set.  

Finally, properly tagging your video is what allows it to show up  in the right search results and makes the user experience (UX)  that much better on the platform. You add specific tags, the right  people find you, your video hits the spot, and everyone’s happy.  You have a 500 character maximum on tags you can add, so refer  to your keyword research to really squeeze every last drop out of  the opportunity to be discovered through relevance.  

Most importantly, you must optimize your video within 48 to 72  hours of posting. The good news here is that you don’t miss the  opportunity immediately upon uploading; nonetheless, there is  quite a bit to be optimized, so you’ll need all the time you can get.

Channel 

Your YouTube channel hosts all of your videos and is like a profile for  your brand; this means that it needs to be properly optimized to give  viewers the context they need to confidently choose to subscribe to  your channel. Make sure to complete the “about” section with your brand’s company information, specialties, services, and what kind  of content users can expect from the channel. Within all of that, you  should be including the top organic keywords that people use to find  your business. Basically, the first 48 characters of your channel’s  “about” section are pulled for search results, so make them count! 

As for your channel header, or the cover photo, you want to use a  branded image that conveys your brand’s purpose or value. Your  profile photo should be the company logo or some kind of branding element that ties the look of the channel together. YouTube really helps those in the B2B world who are attempting to drive traffic to  their website by allowing you to add up to 5 links in the header. 

Simply go to your channel, click into the “about” tab, then click the  pencil icon in the “links” section, and add away. Try to include the  most actionable links that subscribers would be likely to click after  consuming your content. For instance, it wouldn’t make much sense  to link to a highly technical blog article about backend development  if your channel focuses solely on the marketing side of your brand’s  services.  

Repurposing (or Upcycling) Videos 

Now, this doesn’t directly apply to utilizing YouTube’s platform, but  rather how you can take the content that lives there beyond the site.  YouTube videos are effortlessly shareable on social media, so bring  some life back into the more stale ones by posting them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, in your Instagram bio, on Google+, you name  it. If it fits the platform’s purpose and overall vibe, give it a go—all of  those posts count positively toward your SERP ranking, so there’s  really nothing to lose. 

Go beyond the popular social media sites and share your video on  sites like Quora, Answers.com, Yahoo!, Digg, and other forum sites  because video responses to questions are quite popular. Make sure  that you’re posting the videos in forum topics where it’s appropriate,  relevant, helpful, and certainly not spammy-feeling; that would count  against your goal of helping people in order to help yourself.  

Embed your YouTube content within other content like whitepapers,  training courses, and even guest posts—with permission from  the author, of course. Do a 180 here, too, and convert the very  whitepapers, articles, and training courses into bite-sized videos  to post to YouTube. So long as it’s high-quality and relevant to your  brand strategy, the upcycling possibilities are endless. 

Finally, the perfect place to reuse those puppies (no, not puppy  videos—unless your brand is in that industry) is on your website.  Write an article, create a video about it, then embed that video within  the article. It’s in your brand’s best interest to do so, as embedding  video in your website can increase conversions as much as 80%.  That’s not a lot of work in for a whole lot of value out. 

Advertising on YouTube 

There are so many ways to make the absolute most of your YouTube  content for the best results, but if your brand is in a saturated and highly competitive industry, you just might have to take the strategy  up a notch and go down the advertising route.  

YouTube’s ad platform has diverse options and capabilities, and  they seem to work well because of it: 62% of millennials and 51%  of Gen X are likely to take action after viewing an ad on YouTube.  Or consider the fact that nearly half of millennials would pay more  attention to an ad that’s personalized and relevant to them, which  proves that the platform’s fine-tuning features are effective. 

If you’re skeptical of how many brands really take advantage of  YouTube advertising capabilities, it’s important to note that 100% of  the top 100 global brands ran YouTube ads in the past year—so  something is clearly working here, and the big dogs get it.  

Besides, it’s cheaper to target keywords on YouTube than it is on Google Search, with the average cost of YouTube keywords being $0.06 per click compared with Google’s $1 to $2  per click. Even so, if you’re advertising on Google anyway, you can  easily link AdWords to your brand’s YouTube channel for a smooth  advertising experience. As with other advertising platforms, YouTube gives you ample targeting capabilities to get the most bang for your  buck and reach the right people in the right place.  

You can target viewers by:  

• Demographics  

• Interests  

• Video remarketing  

• In-market audience (people  who are shopping around for  a solution) 

• Placement marketing • Affinities 

• Topics 

• Keywords 

There are a few ad types available, so let’s run through them to give  you a clear picture of your options. 

TrueView Ads 

This is the standard video ad type that YouTube offers; it’s the easiest  to customize, too. The length depends on which UX you want  viewers to have: skippable TrueView ads must be between 12 and  60 seconds in length, but non-skippable ads can be between 15  and 30 seconds, likely so that users don’t get frustrated with being  “stuck” watching a longer ad. Luckily, YouTube makes the cost fair  for advertisers, too: you only pay when viewers watch at least 30  seconds of your longer ad, the full 30 seconds of shorter ads, or  interact with the ad by clicking a CTA. A benefit to this ad type is that  you can choose between two display options: video discovery ads  and in-stream ads.  

Video discovery ads 

Video discovery ads play after a user performs a search on  YouTube’s platform. They can appear on the YouTube homepage,  

in the search results, and in related videos. Essentially, the name  implies the strategy: your ads will appear in the places where your  prospects are most likely to discover your brand when actively  seeking information. It’s a perfect way to utilize paid inbound  marketing tactics on YouTube to attract the right customers.  

In-stream ads 

In-stream ads differ in a couple of ways: first, these ads play before  the video a user is watching, and they have the option to skip  after some amount of time passes. The option to skip to the video  is slightly better than having to watch the entire ad, which makes  in-stream ads preferable to users. In-stream ads can also play  anywhere in the Google Display Network or on sites that purchase  Google video ad space. In other words, if you’re trying to maximize  the power and reach of your video ads, this ad display type has  more capacity to make that happen. Better yet, in-stream ads can  be customized with different CTAs and overlay text to make the ad  optimized and ready for action. 

Bumper Ads 

While TrueView ads work well for longer, more in-depth commercials,  bumper ads are quite the opposite: this ad type is ideal for short and  snappy content. These ads are delivered to users in non-skippable clips that last up to 6 seconds before the actual video is played,  which is typically less interruptive to the viewer’s experience than TrueView ads can be. This is an important detail to consider, as an  ad won’t be very effective if it disrupts people’s video-watching  experience and irritates them. 6 seconds is not a lot of time at  all, so this ad type is ideal for upper-funnel goals such as brand  awareness—there simply isn’t enough time to pack much more 

information in without becoming overwhelming. Bumper ads are paid  on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) basis and are ideal for  mobile devices: people increasingly watch videos on the go, and 6  seconds of ads is much more bearable than an entire minute when  patience is worn thin.  

Final Thoughts 

YouTube is the leading social network in the video department; it’s  also a valuable tool for SEO as the platform is owned—and therefore  preferred—by Google. Since our goal is to drive traffic back to where  matters (your site), YouTube is an essential tool in linking together  all of the moving parts into helping your brand be more active and  therefore present in search results. Besides, video is well on its way  to becoming the main form of content that is consumed online, so  implementing a YouTube strategy will help you keep up with this  crucial trend in staying relevant in an increasingly competitive online  landscape.