Secrets for Successful YouTube Content Revealed

At the close of March, YouTube released content that they denied existed since 2008: the secret formula for creating viral original content.

Suzie Reider, Google's managing director of brand solutions, was the keynote speaker at the 2014 ANA Media Leadership Conference. Not only did Reider look at key industry trends and educate advertisers and brand marketers about the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing, but she also announced The YouTube Creator Playbook for Brands.

Before the Playbook, YouTube was generally tight-lipped or broad when answering questions about how to make content worth watching and sharing. The only piece of advice the programming checklist offered was to “[c]reate content that is unique, compelling, and entertaining or informative.” The YouTube Spotlight channel even went so far as to upload an animated short called “The Birds and the Biz” that claimed there was no “magic formula” or “secret potion” for creating successful videos or marketing campaigns.

But now that The YouTube Creator Playbook for Brands exists, digital marketers can use the seven steps the playbook offers to reel in watchers and subscribers.

1.       Content Marketing as part of Your Brand Strategy

"Before making videos, create a content plan to ensure that your content both meets your brand's goals and engages your intended audience. Our five guiding principles will then help you define your content marketing specifically on YouTube using simple questions. "

These guiding principals include:

• Know what problem you’re trying to solve
• Know who you are trying to reach
• Know your brand on YouTube
• Know the competition
• Know what success looks like

2.       10 Fundamentals to Create Content People Love

"A successful creative concept can have an enormous impact on a channel. Compelling videos can bring in new viewers, introduce them to the rest of your content, and build a loyal fanbase. While no strict rules govern content creation on YouTube, ten fundamental principles have emerged as the most important guides to a successful creative strategy."

These fundamentals include:

• Shareable content
• Collaboration
• Discoverable topics
• Accessibility
• Consistency
• Targeting
• Sustainability
• Converse with viewers
• Interactive Content
• Authenticity

3.       Schedule Your Content

"Now it's time to map out your overall channel strategy. How do you decide which video to release when? First you need to communicate what your channel stands for, and then you need to map out the different types of potential videos and the best times to release them."

4.       Optimize Your Content

"Creating great content is essential to finding success on YouTube, but it's only half the battle. YouTube is a big place with lots of content for viewers to choose from. A successful optimization strategy will help you take full benefit of the platform's functionalities and avoid execution mistakes."

5.       Promote Your Content with Paid Media

"The key to success on YouTube is not only to produce great, relevant videos, but also to make sure your target audience sees them. In this section, we'll guide you through cost-effective strategies to help you get the most out of paid and earned video views and ensure effective promotion of your content on YouTube."

6.       Amplify Your Content with Social

"Online video is an inherently social medium. People are drawn to online video and web series because they can interact with the creators in ways that they can't on television. In this section, learn how to optimize the social amplification of your content."

7.       Measurement

"Measurement is key, both for defining success and optimizing towards it. In this section, we'll present you with tools that will help you track metrics around all of your paid, owned and earned media on YouTube. We'll also help you select KPIs that make sense for your objectives."

At the beginning of each chapter, the playbook offers a brief insight on the content’s strategy, why it works, how to do it, its impact, the time it will cost to implement, its effect, and its optimization.

This 100-page playbook is revised from its previous incarnation to include tips to amplify content through Google+, and though it mentions other marketing channels, such as Facebook and Twitter, comments have been made that the playbook is not as comprehensive as it could be in that respect.

Source: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/research-studies/youtube-brand-playbook.html