The Best YouTube Content Strategy for Business Growth

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Mention YouTube, and most people will picture a cat playing the piano.

But among a certain type of small-business entrepreneur, that name conjures up a different image: dollar signs.

Such entrepreneurs often sound like members of a well-meaning cult. For instance, Scott Imbrie, owner of Original YouTube Skateboards—a brand largely built on its YouTube presence—says the platform is better for marketers than Facebook.

Another YouTube evangelist is Jeffrey Harmon, chief marketing officer of Orabrush, a Provo, Utah–based oral care brand that recently turned a series of successful YouTube videos into a national distribution deal with Walmart. Original Skateboards, which joined YouTube in 2005, and Orabrush, which released its first YouTube video in 2009, were clearly ahead of the curve—but YouTube is still a great place to launch or grow a brand.

Here are some tips from entrepreneurs like mpoid login who have thrived on YouTube, along with a few from Lane Shackleton, a YouTube product manager (and, yes, a distant relative of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton).

Buy Some Ads

Because your video probably won’t go viral on its own (or at all), you should consider buying some ads on YouTube. Fortunately, the rates are pretty good compared with AdWords. Harmon says that currently YouTube search ads sell for about 50 cents per click versus $1.50 per click on AdWords. That said, you don’t have to sink a lot of money into it.

In Orabrush’s early days, the company spent $30 a day on YouTube search ads. While Orabrush saw great returns back then, Harmon says you can still do quite well today by buying “promoted videos,” ads that appear when people search on YouTube. However much you spend, make sure your content is relevant to the search terms—Google bases ad placement on that relevance.

Don’t Expect Your Video to Go Viral

Ready to become the next Orabrush? It might be time to reset your expectations. Harmon points out that 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute—so you’re probably better off playing Powerball than waiting for your clip to take off.

“Anyone who thinks they’re going to make a video go crazy on YouTube is dreaming,” says Harmon. “Think base hits, not home runs.” Raw numbers aren’t as important as reaching the right customers, so don’t panic if you don’t hit a million views.

Use Comments, Hot Spots, and A/B Testing as Your Focus Group

If you hired a Madison Avenue agency to run a TV spot, they’d probably want to test it with a focus group. But if you’re a DIY small advertiser, your best bet for a focus group—aside from your spouse and her Rotary Club friends—is the comment section under your video. Sure, many comments will be bland or crude, but some may contain real insights.

YouTube also offers tools to help you gauge how your video is performing. One is Hot Spots, a feature that lets you see when people tune in and drop off during your video.

Another option is A/B testing. Big ad firms do this too, but you can do it on a smaller scale by running two different versions of your clip as unlisted videos promoted with search ads—then see which one performs better. Pick the winner.

Finally, there’s Google Analytics, which can tell you how much referral traffic you’re getting from YouTube. Shackleton says that on average, people who come to your site from YouTube spend more time there than those arriving from elsewhere.