YouTube is a big deal these days. Hundreds of hours of video are uploaded onto the platform each MINUTE. Along with how-tos and fun entertainment, many creative home business owners and freelancers are using YouTube to market. The only problem is figuring out how to stand out to potential customers and get noticed. We asked our experts for their advice on how YouTube to stand out and market your home or online business.
Cat Crawford
Cat Crawford Marketing
@catcrawf_
For services based WAH businesses, I would suggest looking into ‘how to type videos’ and tutorials around your niche. These types of FAQ videos work wonders to help boost your authority and show that you have the knowledge and skills needed to help your customers effectively.
If you have an online store and WAH, then using YouTube to film product videos to better showcase your products can do wonders for your conversion rate. Video gives you a better opportunity to highlight key features or the design of your products and being able to see a 360 view makes customers feel more confident in their purchasing decisions.
Using YouTube to market any business lies within two categories. One is paid YouTube ads and the other is building a community. YouTube is a great way of demonstrating your authority in a business sector and by making videos that hold value to your customers, you will start to build a loyal and converting customer base.
Alina Adams
NYC School Secrets
@nyschoolsecrets
1) My Work-At-Home business, NYC School Secrets, which helps parents identify – and get into – the best schools for their kids, produces YouTube videos to help families navigate the confusing and complicated process. Partnering with the tutoring company, Bright Kids, allows me access to their audience and client base. The key to successfully using YouTube to promote your business is getting the videos seen by as many people as possible. Sharing a platform with another business expands your reach.
2) I give away free information via my YouTube videos, but I speak in general terms. Parents who need to know how the generalities apply to their particular situation than reach out to me for private consults, or attend one of my open-to-the-public workshops.
Syed Irfan Ajmal
1) Use Quora, AMAfeed or FB Groups to figure out the most popular questions of your niche, and then answer them in your videos.
2) Learn the basics of keyword research from various online resources such as those published by SEMrush, Ahrefs etc and then use those to include some keywords in your youtube video’s title and/or description. Remember, just because a keyword has 100,000 searches doesn’t mean it’s the best for you. Try to find keywords which may have moderate search volume (especially if you are just starting out) but which have low ranking competition.
3) Reach out to an author or a company you mentioned in your video, or just someone who isn’t a competitor but has the same audience as you. For instance if you have a fitness app and you came up with a video about the right supplements, reach out to a nutrition blog with massive following and ask if they can promote at their end. Offer to promote their blog to your mailing list, or connect them with someone from your social network whom they would love to get to know.
Nate Masterson
Establish yourself as an authority. – If you have a business and you’re trying to promote it with YouTube, you need to establish yourself as an expert in your niche. By creating relevant and useful video content, you can educate consumers while winning their trust at the same time. Educating your customers does not go unrewarded.
Embed your videos on your homepage. – By embedding your video on your website you can increase your SEO ranking, and by doing so you can also increase your traffic. If someone watches one of your videos on your website, your average customer page-on time will increase, and Google will reward you accordingly. If your going to put time and energy into your content you might as well get the most out of it and you’re not getting the most out of your content if you’re not taking advantage of the potential SEO benefits.
April Davis
LUMA – Luxury Matchmaking
@LUMA_Search
Youtube Trailer: Having a simple but informative Youtube trailer gives your audience a great overview of who you are and what they can expect to see on your channel. Highlighting your brand and different topics you will talk about without selling allows viewers to see the real you and allows them to trust you. Youtube viewers are interested in content and are not looking to be sold to when viewing your channel, being believable and real is important for viewers to want to watch and subscribe to your channel.
Youtube Banner: Have an eye-catching banner that speaks to your brand but also grabs youtubers attention and interest. To really succeed and compete against traditional content producers, you must have a professional but interesting banner to draw in consumers.
New Content: Consistently provide fresh content–not necessarily to steer your audience to your product. Our posts give useful tips about things like wardrobe, or commentary pieces from our dating experts about celebrity news. By not using our youtube to constantly sell, we’ve been able to engage our audience with our brand on a deeper level. They look to us as experts in not just the dating field, but on a variety of topics that they’re interested in
Note from Leslie:
I watch a lot of YouTube. Probably too much. When I have a tech issue, often there is a YouTube video that will show me how to fix it. When I want to get new ideas on marketing or other business aspects, there’s a YouTube video. When I need a good laugh, there’s always a YouTube video.
For years I’ve wanted to incorporate more video, but it’s taken me awhile to create ideas and schedule and get them filmed, and I’m kicking myself for it because I know I’ve left a lot of exposure and money on the table for not doing it sooner.
Like all other marketing tactics, I believe YouTube marketing starts with providing your target market with something they want. Because YouTube is visual, you have the opportunity to show people about you and your business in a unique way that will boost your credibility. In many ways, it’s like blogging, in that you should post regularly, which is something I need to work on. Finally, share your videos on social media as well as your own website, if you have one. While YouTube videos can help you be found through YouTube, by having them on your website and social media, you can enhance those platforms as well.
Finally, you don’t need a fancy studio and expensive software to create good video. While many YouTubers do have that, they didn’t start out that way. And many still use their smartphone and webcam. Just make sure you’re lighting is good and your content gives value, whether that’s in helping people or entertaining them.
To learn more about creating YouTube videos, check out YouTube’s Creator Academy.
Do you have tips you can share on how to use YouTube to market your home business?
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