How To Create A Data-driven YouTube Marketing Strategy For More Views

Versus this long description for the same video:

Source: YouTube

2. Optimize Your Title

Titles are critical for drawing attention to your videos and explaining why people should watch yours over the other 500 hours of content uploaded every minute.

Include a relevant keyword, consider using a number or brackets, and keep it short. How short? 47 or 48 characters is your sweet spot.

I do believe a long title corresponds to a couple of issues that might be related to lower performance. Videos with longer titles might: Be more likely to have keywords stuffed in them. Be less focused on a central concept. Have lower CTRs and get fewer views (and watch time), says Justin Briggs.

3. Check Out Your Competitors’ Tags

Are you starting to run dry on your YouTube marketing tags? Check out which tags your competitors use. According to YouTube, meta-information plays a key role in its search ranking algorithm.

Choose a relevant and well-ranking video and look at its tags. By choosing the same tags for your video, you’ll tell YouTube that your video is related and increase the chances of earning yourself a “suggested” video slot – and of course, more views.

4. Personalize Your YouTube Marketing Content

Video production costs more money than email and blog posts. Understandably, this means many brands play it safe by creating extremely general content that they assume everyone will love.

Your YouTube marketing analytics and views will improve if you do the opposite—create niche content for specific audiences. Use your marketing insights data from YouTube, Google Analytics, and Facebook to create personalized videos just like you would with email campaigns or blog posts.

General content is never relevant enough. Instead, create unique videos for different segments of your audience. The same content won’t appeal to everyone – and that’s okay – but that small group will love it.

5. Identify What Types of Videos People Watch in Your Industry

Before jumping into the YouTube content creation mode, see what your audience is watching. You’ll save yourself a lot of time, money, and heartache by doing a few quick BuzzSumo analyses to doublecheck that your topic performs well in video format.

When we type “yoga lower back” into the Facebook Analyzer and search only for video posts, we get a nice idea of what performs well.

You can also use the BuzzSumo influencer tools to check out content from top creators. By typing “yoga” into the search bar, we can see the top industry influencers along with their Twitter and Instagram links. From there, we can check out their top video content on different platforms including YouTube.

Source: BuzzSumo

For more inspiration on Youtubers to collaborate with, find out who the top 10 YouTube influencers are here.

6. Link to Your Best Content at the Top Drop-off Time

YouTube marketing analytics make it easy to see how people watch and engage with your videos so you can find room for improvement. Start by checking out the drop-off time on your best videos.

If your viewers stop watching your 6-minute video at the 3-minute mark but you don’t give them a “watch next” suggestion until 30 seconds from the end, you should update your strategy.

YouTube wants to keep people on its website. If you can get your viewers to keep watching not only your videos but any creator’s content on the site, your ranking will improve and views will follow.

7. Encourage Viewers to Engage with Your Content

The goals of YouTube’s search and discovery system are twofold: to help viewers find the videos they want to watch, and to maximize long-term viewer engagement and satisfaction. – YouTube Help

There it is in black-and-white—yes, accumulating views is important but engagement and satisfaction are crucial, too. When you create and upload a video, include plenty of CTAs:

• Ask your viewers to subscribe in the video and description.
• Tell viewers to comment on their thoughts and questions.
• Remind viewers to give a thumbs-up and save the video to one of their lists.
• Ask them to share the video with their friends.

Engagement isn’t just good for your own conversions—it tells YouTube that people enjoy your content.

Need Help Finding Trending Topics for YouTube Content Creation?

Optimizing headlines and descriptions for keyword SEO won’t get you far if you don’t choose topics that your audience finds interesting. Sometimes it feels like everything’s already been done but there’s always room for some nuance.

Wondering what videos are trending in your industry? Start a 30-day no-strings-attached free trial and run your topic ideas through the BuzzSumo Content Analyzer to start generating data-driven video ideas.