While YouTube can help you promote your small business and broaden your reach, you shouldn’t take YouTube marketing for granted. The truth is that there’s a lot of worthwhile content on YouTube that doesn’t get nearly as many views and shares as marketers expect. Why? It’s usually because of three big mistakes that people who are new to YouTube marketing make.
1. Overvaluing View Counts
The more views your videos get, the better, but that’s not all there is to video marketing. In fact, engagement levels are far more important. Wouldn’t you prefer to have ‘only’ 10,000 views and 100 conversions than 100,000 views and just 10 conversions?
Include a call to action at the end of your video and a clickable link in the description. Also, avoid making videos that, though entertaining, stray from the purpose of your business.
Pay attention not only to views but also to shares. Facebook and Twitter shares are often more valuable than others because they promote your video content to a wider audience. Also look at the time spent watching the video and the action the viewer took once the video ended.
2. Not Having a Distribution Plan
Because nowadays content overload is the norm, it’s not enough to publish great video content — you need to encourage people to discover it by actively distributing it on YouTube and other online channels. This doesn’t have to mean paid distribution.
Talking about your video on your website, share it on other social sites, and continually reminding people about it. Be patient and keep on promoting your video content even if initially it gets only a lukewarm reaction.
3. Focusing Too Much on YouTube
If you give YouTube too much attention, neglecting other online video channels like Vimeo and Facebook videos, you may actually sabotage your own video marketing campaign. Lots of videos that reach the peak of their fame on YouTube have started their life on smaller video networks.
A bit of research before you post your video on YouTube will help you discover other video networks relevant to your niche. Look at the video networks your competitors are using. They could prove more profitable than YouTube. YouTube’s great for driving engagement, but as many small businesses find out, it’s not always the best for driving sales.
In the end, if you can avoid the three major YouTube marketing mistakes above, your video marketing will be more effective. But remember that ultimately, it’s the quality of your content that makes all this difference. That’s where you should put most of your energy.