Is your school using YouTube for content marketing? If not, you may be missing out on a golden opportunity to boost website traffic.
Higher education institutions often use web pages and blog posts for content marketing. The content provides value because it explains what a college or university offers. Yet, those interested in your school are looking for an amazing digital experience — something that’s difficult to provide solely with text and images.
Today, colleges and universities can use YouTube videos to go beyond text and images to drive online engagement. The result: YouTube for content marketing can help provide exceptional digital experiences for your recruits time and time again.
What is YouTube for content marketing?
YouTube videos let schools show — rather than tell — prospective students what they’re all about. They enable a college or university to showcase its community and facilities to viewers from around the world. They can also help a school take prospective students on virtual tours, answer top-searched questions, and more.
Why should schools invest in YouTube for content marketing?
YouTube provides a fast, efficient way to connect with a global audience. The platform boasts 2 billion logged-in monthly users worldwide, and it’s the most commonly used online platform among U.S. adults.
In addition, YouTube lets schools collect data about their target audiences. For example, schools can track and measure audience engagement data for their YouTube videos. They can then use this data to produce future videos and other marketing materials to ensure they hit the mark with the audience.
Videos can help a school boost traffic to its website, too. An Aberdeen Group study indicated that video for content marketing can drive more web traffic from online searches. Furthermore, a Moz study revealed embedding a video into a web page or blog post can drive backlinks.
Let’s not forget about using YouTube videos to boost a higher ed institution website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs), either. Videos can help a school increase dwell time on its site. And, the more time visitors spend on the site, the more likely it becomes it will rank high on search engines.
5 steps to take advantage of YouTube videos for content marketing
Make YouTube videos a part of your content marketing strategy — you’ll be glad you did. Now, let’s look at five tips to help you get the most value out of your video content marketing efforts.
1. Create a YouTube channel
Set up a YouTube channel for your school. The channel lets authorized users publish videos and share them with a global audience.
2. Evaluate the competition
Find out what types of videos other colleges and universities are publishing on YouTube. You can use this information to determine which videos your school should produce.
3. Produce a wide range of videos
Consider your target audience and the message you want to share in a YouTube video. You can then produce video content that emphasizes different aspects of your school.
4. Promote your videos
Integrate your videos into web pages and blog posts on your site. You can share them via social media, too.
5. Update your content marketing strategy
Use YouTube Analytics to track the performance of your videos. Update your content marketing strategy to ensure it hits the mark with your target audience.
How to optimize your YouTube videos for organic search
In addition to creating YouTube videos for content marketing, you need to ensure your videos rank high in YouTube’s search engine. Here are five more tips to help optimize your videos for organic search.
1. Identify relevant keywords
Think about the terms and phrases YouTube viewers will use to look up your video. Oftentimes, it helps to conduct a YouTube search to see how many results are associated with various terms and phrases.
2. Learn about your target audience
Consider the audience members you want to watch your video. For example, a high school student may use YouTube to look up a virtual tour video of your college or university. Meanwhile, an alumnus may look for videos highlighting a recent event at your school.
3. Use keywords in your video’s title, description, tags, and transcript
Incorporate keywords into your video’s title. If possible, include keywords at the beginning of the title. Also, ensure keywords are used in your video’s description, tags, and transcript. Try not to stuff keywords into your video’s description; instead, ensure keywords flow naturally within the context of your description.
4. Choose an eye-catching thumbnail image
Select a high-resolution image that showcases the topic of your video. You can add text on top of your image. However, if you do so, choose an easy-to-read font and font size.
5. Leverage captions
Use captions with your video. You can take advantage of automatic captions from YouTube or add custom closed captioning. Regardless of which option you choose, ensure your captions are accurate.
The aforementioned tips work great for search engine optimization (SEO) on YouTube, but they won’t improve the quality of your videos.
When it comes to YouTube for content marketing, quality should always come first. If you create engaging videos, you can stir up lots of interest from YouTube viewers. And, once you optimize your videos for organic search, you can drive web traffic like never before.
If you want extra with using YouTube for content marketing, KWALL is available. Our team can help you develop and execute an SEO strategy to grow your presence on YouTube and other digital platforms. For more information or to request a free website audit, contact KWALL today.
