Video content has become very popular and in demand among people of all ages. According to the Global Overview report 2022, people aged 16 to 64 report watching some sort of video every week. This is 92% of users worldwide. Nowadays, video is frequently used in every business industry. No matter what products or services are on offer — the variety of videos impresses greatly. Each company strives to promote its products and raise its revenue by reaching potential clients and encouraging them to purchase. YouTube is a good option to enhance your business by using it directly or as a mediator to drive traffic to your website. In this article, you will have a better grasp of how to sell videos using YouTube.
It is up to a company what media channels to choose for its brand promotion. But it is essential to explore the market for the most-watched channels and those that lead to better marketing realization. YouTube is the second most popular social media site in the world after Facebook, with billions of users. It means your ad campaigns are likely to be viewed more on this global video platform.
Business models available with YouTube
YouTube uncovers a good deal of opportunities to expand a target audience and unveils diverse ways to earn revenue. When partnering with this media platform in the context of selling videos, it offers the following ways of making a profit:
- Revenue on advertising. This method enables you to earn some profit by using AdSense, allowing ads to run on your videos.
- Affiliate marketing. According to this type of collaboration, you can get paid for commissions generated by purchased products you recommended.
- Sponsorships (brand collaboration). You can interact with brands willing to expand their recognition and use their branding in your videos by being paid in return for profitable collaboration.
- Channel membership. This involves offering exclusive content to paid members.
- Sell off-platform products. This type of YouTube engagement allows you to sell products or services by redirecting the target consumer to a landing website.
Keeping in mind the number of business models available on YouTube, one can decide which approach suits them most and build a strategy on how to sell videos on YouTube. Of course, it depends on the marketing goals a company follows. Now, let’s talk about practical steps.
Key elements to start selling videos with YouTube
When it comes to the steps needed to sell videos on YouTube, it is important to account for common points in planning video marketing in your company. In general, there are three main points to be followed to start selling videos with YouTube:
- Create a YouTube channel. If you haven’t published any videos yet or haven’t opened an account on YouTube, it’s high time you do this. Once you create your personal channel, you can upload meaningful content so people will become curious about the product or service you offer.
- Build a base of loyal followers. For sure, your company might already have a bank of customers interested in your business. But it is essential to engage them on your YouTube channel and appeal to more viewers.
- Think monetization over. Once you reach a particular number of subscribers on YouTube, you can make real money by selling videos. This stage requires other vital steps to generate traffic, which will be reviewed in detail in the next section.
In addition, one should get acquainted with the requirements and rules the digital platform YouTube provides. Before becoming a YouTube partner and creating a marketing strategy, you should think about the following conditions:
- Live in a country where YouTube partnerships are available;
- Have at least 1000 subscribers on your channel and 4000 valid public watch hours;
- Have a linked AdSense account;
- Meet YouTube monetization policies;
- Comply with YouTube Community Guidelines.
These conditions might seem pretty tough to achieve for one company and the revenue might seem impossible to obtain in the nearest future for others. For example, when deciding to drive revenue with YouTube ads, an expected return is not unattainable in the short run for two reasons. First, this channel keeps about 45% of your ad revenue. Second, you get paid only when viewers become engaged in your ad. If you want to generate good income, you will need dozens of thousands of views per day.
Regarding this, YouTube is still considered an invaluable marketing platform to develop strategic plans for driving traffic to a landing page when you want to grab viewers’ attention. So, you should accept the terms and conditions of the site and cooperate with it so as to accomplish good promotion of your channel and increase your traffic by selling videos on YouTube.
How to use YouTube as an effective marketing tool
Becoming a YouTuber for branding and advertising is a worthwhile deal to start. As Statista reports, in 2021, YouTube’s global ad revenues were $28 billion. This amount significantly increased – up to 46% – in comparison with the previous year. This shows that a huge number of companies, agencies and other entities are investing in advertising on YouTube that makes the video advertising on-demand. So how to make money on YouTube when having a channel and a lot to offer an audience? This objective can be achieved by determining and completing the stages mentioned below.
Creating compelling YouTube videos
This stage is vital because the number of consumers you are aiming to gain and attract to your website also depends on the quality of your videos. So how can you upgrade ad formats to make your video content more compelling? Here are some tips to consider:
- Video trailers. They are supposed to be one of the most popular video advertisements to promote your site. Typically, they are 2-3 minutes long.
- Teasers. This kind of ad video mixes dialog and footage and is shorter than trailers — a maximum of a minute.
- Previews. Compared to teasers, previews show a real scene of an episode as it is.
- Product reviews. If your company manufactures some products or provides some services, video reviews are the best thing to create. This method is a great way to appeal to new followers of your YouTube channel.
- Tutorials. It is important to consider “how-to” videos where experts’ pieces of advice and insights are discovered. This helps you build credibility online with your subscribers and “passerby” users.
- Interviews with leaders involved in the company’s brand. The presence of famous and successful leaders in your videos who are working in your area will have only a positive impact on followers’ trust in your product or service. Such interviews should be created if possible.
- Events. Whatever occasions your company might have – innovations in production, new partnerships, changes within the company, or even a party – it is essential to keep loyal subscribers in the loop and make them feel they are valuable to your company.
Free videos should be applied as a way to provide some value to consumers. Thus, viewers can be engaged with the website to get more information needed.
Linking YouTube videos to your website
Simply creating striking content is not enough to reach the goal of monetization. You need to link the content to your site or landing page in order to generate traffic. It can be attained by including in videos the following features:
- clearly defined call-to-action (CTA);
- the use of YouTube interactive tools – cards and an end screen where CTA and a specific URL are displayed;
- website logo and web address;
- deep integration of your brand launched by visualization and vocal.
Considering the above-mentioned points help entice potential consumers and redirect them to your web page, It will be no surprise that these approaches convert leads.
Marketing a YouTube channel
The last stage in making a profit with YouTube is the process of marketing your channel. This part is obviously essential as it affects the success of selling videos on YouTube. Let’s go through the basic components incorporated into a channel’s promotion:
- YouTube SEO optimization. While YouTube is the second biggest social media site in the world it is also the second most-visited website after Google. Its videos are shown up in Google search in the first rankings. If you want your YouTube content to be found first in a search engine and immediately viewed, it is necessary to optimize search rankings. For this, highly searched keywords should be mentioned in titles, video descriptions, and tags.
- Implement the “sequel” technique. This method leads to a boost in views by targeting your video to your niche. It involves advancing the original video by improving graphics, quality (content, audio), pacing, and content delivery. Keeping these features will boost the click-through rate (CTR) that makes videos stand out in the search results and suggestions. The higher your CTR, the more views your YouTube content will get.
- Mind the video and watch time. When creating video content, its duration matters a lot. Its optimal length on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter ranges from 30 seconds to 2 or 3 minutes. In the case of YouTube videos the first 15 seconds play the most important role in captivating viewers and keeping them engaged. This parameter also influences a video’s visibility in search results.
- Be exceptional. To stand out in the market, it is necessary to offer unique products, services, or solutions to people’s needs. This feature will capture more interest with a high number of views as a result. Try to take stock of your competitors and make your YouTube channel exceptional, not equal to any other.
- Leverage partnerships. Promoting your videos outside the YouTube platform is also a good marketing approach. Interacting with other companies that can offer adventurous solutions helps you expand your influence on other social channels, blogs, community forums, and other sources that can result in a high conversion rate.
These are the main stages a company should follow willingly to sell videos on YouTube. They include content message development as well as improving technical features to increase the search ranking and visibility.
Where else can I monetize YouTube videos?
Besides YouTube, there are other methods to monetize your videos. Connected TV (CTV) is one of the well-run systems for monetization. It allows you to generate traffic through various internet-supported devices capable of streaming plenty of channels that aren’t available on linear TV.
You can create your own channel on CTV and develop a marketing strategy for sharing videos. Such an approach isn’t difficult to complete when deferring to the professionals from VlogBox. In addition, this platform offers monetization solutions that will promote your business to receive passive income from your videos more easily compared to YouTube.
Takeaways
YouTube allows you to implement various video ad formats to promote brands, get people involved in some upcoming events, advertise a valuable product or service by encouraging viewers to buy it, and so forth. The application field can be endless as it requires creativity that is often something hard to pin down. But the membership and sales conditions of this digital platform might seem not beneficial to follow for a company that is willing to reach an expected income soon.
Accordingly, we recommend you take on board these tips when developing a strategy of selling videos on YouTube:
- use the YouTube channel as a marketing tool to meet your goals instead of the main platform for selling videos;
- provide relevant content to your subscribers to keep them engaged;
- pay more attention to driving traffic to your website or another web page you want to deliver to captivated viewers;
- consider other platforms for monetizing your videos.
There are always options to improve your advertising and marketing objectives by creating a YouTube channel for selling visual content.