It’s hardly a trade secret that Kenyan businesses, particularly professional firms and consultants, are conspicuously absent online.
That’s not right, you might be thinking.Our firm does have a websiteanda strong social media presence!
While that might be the case, you’ve got to ask yourself if you’re using these tools for anything more than just informing potential clients about what you do and how they can contact you.
Do you know what’s also true? Kenyan businesses could reap big if they focused ongrowing traffic and increasing brand awareness.
One of the tools that businesses in Kenya could leverage is YouTube.
There are numerous marketing opportunities available on YouTube. But there’s a tendency to think that it’s just an online video platform that people visit for DIY tips or novelty.
As of June 2021, however, YouTube issecond only to Google as the most popular website in the world. The online video platform boasts 22.8 billion monthly visits and an estimated 2.1 billion users worldwide.
Pause. Think about this for a moment.Then, consider that:
- YouTube has virtually no competition
- 8 out of 10 Internet users watch YouTube videos in a month
- More than 1 billion hours are spent consuming content onYouTube daily. This figure is expected to grow in the foreseeable future.
- Organizations are increasinglyspending more on digital video advertising
No better channel than YouTube exists for Kenyan businesses looking to dive into video marketing. There’s no reason, therefore, why you can’t leverage this online video platform to grab the attention and interest of your prospects— at leastenough to convert them into paying customers.
Here are some handy YouTube marketing tips you’ll find useful for your Kenyan business, especially if your audience is on YouTube and your competitors aren’t:
- Brand your YouTube channel
- Learn about your audience
- Optimize your videos to get views
- Create outstanding YouTube thumbnails
1. Brand Your YouTube Channel
If you haven’t already created a YouTube channel for your business, begin by opening aBrand Account on Google.
Unlike a regular Google account, Brand Accounts allow many authorized users to log in simultaneously. They also give the option to open and manage multiple YouTube channels.
Once you’ve set up your YouTube channel, you can encourage your visitors to take you seriously by making it visually attractive.
For this, you need to invest in a graphics package that should contain at the very least brand assets such as your logo, channel art, intro video, thumbnail templates, and CTA outro videos.
Visually appealing channels increase brand awareness and give interested viewers bonus reasons to spend more time on your channel.
One technique that helps boost brand awareness is including your brand logo on your videos’ thumbnails. It’s effective because you spread awareness even if YouTube viewers don’t click and watch your video.
Naturally, if your face, not some logo, is what most viewers associate with your business, you can always use your headshot or a caricature.
Another technique you could use to brand your YouTube channel and help people find you is to add titles and descriptions to your videos. Include links that point to your website and social media on your custom banner image and in the video descriptions.
If you are part of a referral program from which your audience can derive value, the video description section is prime real estate to get them seen.
Lastly, don’t forget about your bio. Create a relevant and informative bio in the ‘About’ section of your YouTube channel about your business so that viewers know what your brand is all about. Keep your bio short and engaging.
2. Learn About Your Audience
You may create the most stimulating and engaging videos for your enterprise’s channel, but if you know zilch about your target audience, you won’t reap maximum value from your YouTube marketing efforts.
Every serious YouTuber knows to use the analytics tab in the Creator’s backend. This dashboard provides powerful and actionable audience insights such as demographics and watch time.
There are several factors that you’ll need to consider depending on the age range of the audience you’re interested in reaching. The most important thing is your content. Take into account the kind of videos that your target audience prefers watching and make more of such. The only way to know what they like is to test out various ideas and use the audience insights to understand which ones resonate with your audience.
Additionally, issues such as the aspect ratio you use for your videos should be guided by your understanding of your audience’s viewing preferences. You wouldn’t want to create loads of content with a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of 16:9 if 80 percent of your viewers watch YouTube on their phones.
Staying in the loop about ongoing trends can also help you attract followers and boost viewership. Certainkeywords and phrases have been shown to increase the likelihood of viewers playing business videos.
Remember, it’s not always abouttracking vanity metrics so you’ll feel good about having huge traffic or a large following. It’s also about ensuring that you’re providing your viewers with value as you continue meeting their needs and learning about their interests and preferences.
Above all else, keep your audience engaged. Take the time to respond to every comment you receive (to the best of your capability). Visiting your channel’s community tab will also give you access to tools that allow you to post questions or create polls. This can be a great way to help plan for content that appeals to your target audience.
3. Optimize Your Videos to Get Views
Since YouTube is a search engine, goodSEO practices do make a difference in the discovery of your videos. YouTube’s ranking algorithm takes in part factors like titles, keywords, tags, and descriptions when determining search results.
Then there’s also therecommendation algorithm which influences 70 percent of what people watch.
If your attempt at YouTube marketing is to succeed, you have no option but to optimize your videos to ensure they stand a good chance of showing up in search results and getting more views.
Certain SEO pointers will help you market your Kenyan business on YouTube:
a. Write a Compelling Title
Including good keywords in your title will not only tell Google’s crawlers (and YouTube’s algorithm) what your video is about but also inform your viewers about what to expect.
Remember YouTube Analytics? Check out Traffic Sources while looking at them to find out the words people use to find your channel. Taking a look atGoogle Trends will also loop you into what the popular search terms are, and you can decide whether to add them to your video’s title.
To ensure that your viewers will see the whole title in a glance, you’ve got to keep it short and under 60 characters. And while the idea is to have a clear and descriptive title that doesn’t leave viewers wondering what you’re on about, steer away from using clickbait.
Yes, clickbait does amount to false advertising. It might compel viewers to click on your video, but it’ll make them leave just as fast, leading to lower viewer retention.Thatwill lead to a lower ranking, so stay authentic.
b. Create YouTube Thumbnails That Stand Out
There’s a reason 90%of the best-performing YouTube videos have custom thumbnails. It’s because thumbnails are responsible for portraying the first impression of your video to your viewers.
Custom thumbnails are more likely to stand out, and they are also more likely to make the image and title work together.
Naturally, including a short description and a relevant image in the thumbnail will help your viewers understand what your video is all about.
You want to ensure you’re using high-resolution thumbnails, around 1280 by 720 pixels, created with the 16:9 aspect ratio that works well for YouTube players. Anything lower, and the images may look blurry on larger screens.
A final tip is to maintain a consistent look when you’re creating your videos’ thumbnails as adhering to a certain style works well to maintain your brand image and create familiarity in the viewer’s mind.
4. Bonus Tip: Use Call-to-Actions (CTAs)
You can add cards, bumper ads, end screens, and watermarks to your YouTube videos.
This clickable calls-to-action (CTAs) help direct viewers to your website, a playlist, or even promote some related content. Bumper ads, in particular, add six-second non-skippable video ads at the start or the end of your video.
Lastly, you’ll find that there’s nothing like asking your viewers to “like, share, and subscribe.” It not only helps you earn points with YouTube’s algorithm but also works because sometimes people appreciate the helpful reminder.
5. Extra-bonus tip: Advertise
Pre-roll YouTube ads — when executed properly and natively to the platform — present a source of the cheapest traffic that you can buy from the internet. Compared to Google Search Ads, YouTube Ads can be up to7 times cheaper.
Seriously, why do you think those annoying YouTube ads are so common nowadays? Why the increase in ads? Businesses stand to gain a lot by including YouTube as a placement when planning their digital advertising strategies, particularly for building brand awareness and driving traffic.
While Click Through Rates for YouTube ads remain relatively low, the other advantage of using YouTube ads is as a brand growth tool. Since CPMs are so low, you can repeatedly get your brand seen by thousands of people for cents per view.
Above all else, remember that the biggest differentiator for your YouTube marketing activities is the quality of your content. Strive to give your viewers value for each second that they spend watching your content.