5 Tips on how to Promote Your YouTube Video

If you have a video and don’t know what to do next follow these steps.

1. Order Subtitles.

1st head over to Rev.com or Fiverr.com and order a subtitles file for your video.  I like Rev.com because it’s super fast and you don’t have to look around to find the right freelancer.

Just upload your link or video file and in an hour or so you get back your SRT file.  That’s the type of file you get for your subtitles, which essentially gives a video hosting platform your text along with time-stamps so the platform knows when to show each piece of text.

Next, you’ll use that SRT file on YouTube and LinkedIn so when somebody watches your video they can also read the subtitles.  That’s CRITICAL because many people consume video content without sound on.  In fact, many people refuse to watch a video that doesn’t have subtitles!

2. Set up a YouTube channel for your company. 

That’s the 1st place you’ll be posting all your videos in order to get the best ROI out of your video content marketing efforts.

Because YouTube and Google index your videos and soon you could start appearing on the front page of Google’s organic search results, getting free traffic – or ranking for search terms on YouTube.  Did you know that YouTube is the 2nd most popular search engine?

More and more people are now researching on YouTube because video content is much better than wading through a sea of poorly written or researched articles.  Typically you know that if someone posted a whole video on a topic they’ve done their work because a lot more goes into producing a video than a blog post, which you can outsource for as little $10.

For optimal results with your video content marketing, SEO-optimize your video’s title, which means to start it with the keyword you want to start ranking for.  Instead of saying something like “5 tips to a smoother digital transformation” say “Digital Transformation: 5 tips for a smoother transition”.

And don’t ignore the all-important video thumbnail – make sure it grabs attention and it has some design consistency for branding.  Branding goes hand in hand with sophisticated video content marketing so consistency and design pay dividends over the long term, make you more memorable and sharable you’re your audience.  For a good example, check out our YouTube channel, and we have loads more to share.

3. Upload your video on LinkedIn. 

Upload your video natively on LinkedIn. Don’t just paste the link because like any platform LinkedIn hates it when your posts send someone away from their platform and penalize you.  Instead, upload the video file through the little video button at the bottom-left of a new post.

As your video is uploading, at the top-right you’ll see an edit icon that looks like a pencil.  Click on that and that’s where you’ll be able to upload your SRT file.  People often go through LinkedIn at work and they don’t have sound on, so don’t forget the subtitles!

For best results, write a very quick 2-3 sentence intro to the video.  And for even better results, think if you can tag 1 or 2 people on LinkedIn because they will receive a notification and may comment or like your video.  And that means that people in their network will start seeing your video too.

4. Upload your video on your website’s blog.

4th upload your video on your website’s blog, along with the transcript.  This way, you’re repurposing a high-value asset and getting the most bang for your buck.

You’re adding keywords to your website, and people who engage with your content will probably spend more time on-site when they see a video.  All these things factor into Google’s algorithms to boost your SEO rankings, and give you exponentially more free traffic.

5. Promote your video.

Finally, you can take your blog post and pay-promote it through a platform like QuuuPromote.co, which shares your content with influencers on Facebook and Twitter so they can share with their audience.

We’ve found quite a bit of success with this platform and so far it’s been the most cost-effective out of other content promotion platforms like Taboola or Outbrain, but feel free to test those out too and let me know how it goes.

The most important thing is to get started now.  Start producing your videos.  Leave a comment below about what’s holding you back or if you have any questions to get you started.

But also have a solid strategy in place.  Write out a checklist with these 5 items and any other growth hacks you come up with, and let your videos go to work for you!

So whenever you have video content, don’t forget about the marketing part of it.  It’s called video content marketing because you have to think of ways to amplify your message and broaden the reach of your content.  Think like a growth marketer whenever dealing with video.  Because it’s such a high-value asset and you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of it.