By Josh Weidling, Social Media Marketing Strategist at Tiege Hanley
Today, we are going to focus primarily on YouTube, which is one of the most common outlets for digital media. An engaging channel on YouTube can help you acquire more subscribers that can potentially become loyal customers. YouTube also provides a platform for you to learn more about your customers. By tracking statistics provided by the platform, you can determine which products and content will interest your audience the most.
So you’re probably asking yourself, “How do I develop my YouTube audience?” Building up an audience is easier said than done, but it is not impossible! While working on our YouTube channel promoting men’s skin care products, we learned quite a bit about what it takes to develop a connection with your YouTube audience. Here are a few tips and some of the lessons we learned.
Make Enough Deposits Before You Attempt A Withdrawal
If you want to get something from your audience by converting them into customers, you have to give something to them first. “The biggest mistake that most companies make is to ask for a sale first before giving any real value to the customer. Before you ask for anything, solve their problems and then offer them your products,” says Aaron Marino, one of the founding partners at Tiege Hanley, who has developed an audience of over 4 million YouTube subscribers for his Alpha M channel. Produce content that interests your customers and gives them information that they can gain from. After piquing their interest with quality content, slowly start to introduce your products and services.
“Consumers want to feel connected to you as a company, and not just a product,” Marino says. Aaron demonstrates how to build this connection with consumers on our Tiege Hanley YouTube channel, where he shares the pitfalls and successes we experience as a company. By allowing viewers to have an intimate look at our operations, the audience began to establish a connection with our company. In fact, Aaron shared content on the Tiege Hanley vlog for about 6 months before even mentioning a Tiege Hanley skin care product.
Starting a series is another way to gain interest and encourage the audience to return. By providing valuable content in each part of the series, the viewer will see themselves wanting to return to your channel for the next chapter in your series. Let them go on a journey with you and focus on the quality of the content to ensure they enjoy it.
Make Sure To Avoid Excessive Sales Pitches
Your viewers are bombarded with ads literally all day long. A great way to lose your audience is by rambling about how great your products are made. Make sure your sales pitches are short and sweet, and sandwich them between great information. Remember, more deposits and fewer withdrawals.
One of the ways we accomplish this on our own channel is to inform our audience of a few basics when it comes to skin care for men. They can take that information and act upon it as they see fit, but we also let them know that we specialize in men’s skin care products in case they are interested. The sales pitch is the side dish, not the main course.
Know Your Audience
In order to put out quality content that engages your audience, you need to know them inside out. Define your target market clearly, and study their interests. Take note of the statistics regarding each video and highlight the most successful content. Learn from your triumphs and learn from your failures. If a particular segment of your content is underperforming, it’s safe to say that you should shift the focus elsewhere.
Use Titles And Thumbnails To Your Advantage
Nowadays, getting your videos seen is all about the title and the thumbnail. Given the saturation of content out there, you need a title and thumbnail that immediately makes an impact and grabs the viewer’s attention. You have to give them intriguing content that’s interesting to watch. Avoid clickbait — if you put it in the title then you should talk about it in the video to avoid backlash from the audience. Don’t trick them into watching something they aren’t interested in. Be genuine with your content and let users know what they can expect.
Use Celebrity Endorsements Wisely
Leveraging star power to build your brand can be a shortcut to success, but make sure you choose the correct spokesperson. The person should be genuine in their interest regarding your products. You don’t want someone who sells themselves to every company for a quick buck; that doesn’t serve your company or your audience well. Determine whether or not they could have an authentic connection to your brand before you approach them to promote your products and services.
Let your audience see you as more than just a company trying to take their money. Be transparent and honest, always talk about something that you are dealing with in your own company. Let the customers know what is going on and what issues you’re facing. Let them be a part of the journey and share along in your success. We wanted to do something differently, be a resource and offer something that wasn’t available to engage the audience as much as possible along the way.
Don’t Be Afraid Of Giving Away Free Stuff
Giveaways are a great way to keep your audience engaged and excited about your company. They also provide your audience with a great reason to continue coming back to the channel and viewing your content.
Building up Tiege Hanley’s audience has been a wonderful success, but most of all...we're enjoying the journey. We have had our successes, and we have had our failures, but our audience has been present every step of the way. Go find your audience and start connecting with them!
I hope you enjoyed this blog post about the top tips for developing and keeping a YouTube Audience for your brand and business.
Interested in more articles about video marketing and production?
Read Related Resources:
• Everything Involved In Producing Quality Videos
• How To Improve Your Video Production And Marketing
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