5 Tricks to Boost YouTube Engagement
YouTube is one of the most popular social media platforms today. With over 1.47B users, it is the most-visited video platform worldwide. In fact, the number of YouTube viewers is expected to reach 1.86B by 2021.
Videos are very effective at delivering marketing or brand messages to audiences. Good videos are engaging, interactive, entertaining, and thought-provoking. They also have a greater impact in the minds of consumers and help them retain messages longer.
All of this suggests that if you’re not using YouTube as one of your primary marketing channels, you might be losing out on a lot. Being the second biggest search engine, it offers tremendous potential to attract and engage your audience.
In this post, we’ll take a look at a few effective tricks that will help boost your YouTube engagement.
1. Understand Your Audience and Use CTAs
Brands that succeed at driving immense YouTube engagement, are the ones that create content tailored to their audiences.
So, first understand what your audience wants. The better you know them, the better video content you will be able to create. Create videos about topics that your audience is likely to search for. Remember, people tune in for a reason, so you need to identify them and use them to your advantage.
Use annotations and make sure to provide a “call-to-action” in each video. Do not hesitate to use statements like “If you found this video helpful, press the like button or subscribe to our channel.” People who watch the video completely are more likely to complete your requested action.
Image via YouTube
As you can see, Amazon has used a CTA at the end of their YouTube video that showcases how to use the “Show Mode” on their Fire tablet. The CTA directs them to the support center. Alternatively, you can also place these CTAs along the entire length of your YouTube video.
2. Post Quality Content Consistently
The most successful brands are those who focus on their target audiences and deliver great content consistently. A consistent flow of good content is one of the best ways to boost your YouTube engagement.
Brands that consistently publish content that offers intrinsic value to their audience are able to drive maximum engagement. So, keep your content fresh as well as valuable. Give your audience a reason to come back for more.
Consistency doesn’t apply to your posting schedule alone. It also applies to the kind of content you upload. Consistently choosing topics in your niche is likely to boost authority and credibility, too.
For example, Quicksilver, a sports and surfwear brand posts cool videos on surfing, skating, or snowboarding to promote their products. These videos relate to their products and are captivating. They’re quite consistent in their posting frequency, too.
Image via YouTube
3. Optimize YouTube Videos for Search Results
If you optimize your YouTube videos for search results, it can help gain better visibility. This will further result in increased engagement and can also help you rank higher in SERPs.
You should consider optimizing your video content with relevant video keywords. With relevant keywords, both YouTube and Google search results will send users to your videos.
Include the main keyword in the file name, the title of the video, and its description. You should write a 250-word keyword-optimized description for every video.
You can share links to your YouTube videos on forum sites and other social channels to drive more views and engagement. Also, encourage people to share and subscribe.
To check if your efforts are working, monitor your rankings on a regular basis. Tools are available to allow you to easily analyze the change in your rankings over time.
This can help optimize your SEO efforts for better results.
4. Ensure an Apt Video Length
It’s true that our attention spans are getting shorter. But that does not necessarily mean that a shorter video will drive more YouTube engagement.
75% of videos that were published last year were shorter than 2 minutes in duration. A study by Wistia found that video engagement drops significantly after 2 minutes. So, as long as you keep your videos under 2 minutes, you should be fine.
Of course, certain kinds of content might require you to create longer videos. There’s no point in trying to squeeze in 8-minute content into a 2-minute video.
The Wistia study also found that the engagement stagnates after the 6-minute mark. The idea is to not make your videos unnecessarily long. If you have something really valuable to show, you can create longer videos.
Just remember to not place your call-to-action at the end for longer videos. Also, make sure that the first few seconds of your videos grab the attention of your viewers.
5. Leverage Influencer Marketing
Simply creating videos is not enough to drive engagement on YouTube. You need to promote your brand, too.
Influencer marketing is a great strategy to promote your brand on YouTube. It’s known to generate 11X as much ROI as traditional marketing.
Influencers have a highly engaged audience and they have a strong personal connection with their followers. So, collaborate with influencers on YouTube and ask them to promote your brand.
Motorola ran an influencer campaign on YouTube to drive awareness about their Moto Z products. They worked with 13 different influencers to reach a broad range of consumers. The videos generated significant YouTube engagement with 11.6M views and 38.1M social impressions.
However, the success of an influencer marketing campaign depends on who you collaborate with, what your strategy is, and how well you track results.
Doing everything manually can be quite challenging. Consider using various tools to make influencer marketing easier. It can help you find the right influencers, automate tasks, and track the performance of your campaigns.
Final Thoughts
YouTube is a great platform for businesses to drive engagement and raise brand awareness. Not doing so can be detrimental to your overall business development.
Use the above-mentioned tricks to increase YouTube engagement and watch your brand grow.
What tactics have you tried to boost your YouTube engagement? We’d love to hear from you, so please share with us in the comments below.
