Is your district looking to improve your YouTube channel?
Do you have a game plan to get the most engagement from each of your videos?
In this post, I give five tips to do before you create your next hit video on YouTube.
How to Build an Awesome YouTube Plan Before Going Viral
It’s every marketer’s dream to go VIRAL on YouTube.
We all have a dream of creating that one video that takes our YouTube Channel to the next level.
Because here is a secret… views are not the most important thing on you YouTube channel.
Here are five tips to do before you create your next hit video on YouTube:
Before you create a viral video (which is really hard and requires luck), you need to have a game plan to make your YouTube Channel the best it can be. Here are five tips to make you successful.
1. Bring Your Brand to Your YouTube Channel
Your brand is one of the most important assets you have when it comes to marketing your school district. Every social media platform you are on, every post you create, should have your brand associated with it.
Do not let social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube do your branding for you. Your brand is not a Twitter Egg or a Grey Avatar. Your district’s logo should be your profile picture. Action shots of your teachers or students need to be on your cover photo. There should be no excuse when someone visits your YouTube Channel that they do not know what district or school is being represented. Be proud of your brand. Show it off.
Read my blog post on Brand: What is Brand? Most People Are Confused…
2. Have a Link to Your Website and Social Media on YouTube
Just like your logo being visible, you must have a link to your district’s website on all of your social media platforms. It is critical that YouTube is not your visitor’s final resting place. You need them to eventually be on your own turf.
Read my blog post on Borrowed Platforms: Don’t Stake Your Claim on Borrowed Land: Facebook is Down… Now What
Your district does not own YouTube. No one knows what what the future holds for their platform or what rules they might implement. However, you do own your district website, and it is important that your marketing, including YouTube, draw them to your “Hub” of resources and information… your website.
Once you have them on your own website, you can show them other content and have them sign-up for your newsletter or email list. By doing this, you now have a database of people you can invite to events and share additional content with. They have given you permission to market to them. Take advantage of this permission.
3. Create a Trailer Video
An awesome feature on your YouTube channel is the channel trailer. This powerful feature allows you to highlight a video and make it the focal point of your YouTube channel. My district has had great success with our trailers. They get big views and awesome engagement on our channel.
My advice would be to rotate various videos using the trailer feature. Do you have a program you want to highlight? Do you have an upcoming event you want to promote? Use the trailer feature every time you have an important message to push. When you don’t have a program to highlight, use a generic trailer to give an overview of your school district.
4. Have Other Great Content
Your viral video should not be your only content on your YouTube channel. Build an arsenal of content before you heavily promote your channel. You want to have more than one video or piece of marketing when your audience visits your channel.
5. A Clear Call to Action?
The goal of having a YouTube Channel is not to get a bunch of views. Having views can be fun, but that is not the most important number you should be focusing on. Engagement and ROI should be your main concern for all of your marketing initiatives.
Think about this… Where is your audience going after they watch your video? They need to be going somewhere. You need to give them a Call to Action.
You can drive them to your website. You can have them sign-up for your newsletter. You can invite them to an event. Video is power. Use it as a tool to drive engagement for your district.
Conclusion
The best way to implement the above tasks is to have a plan. You need a plan on every social media platform you are a part of.
You might enjoy my other YouTube Post: How to Easily Optimize YouTube Videos for Sure Fire Success
Do you have any other YouTube tips? Leave them in the comment section below.
