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YouTube Marketing: A Guide to Successful Corporate YouTube Operations (2023)

YouTube is the second largest search engine in Korea, following Naver.

According to OpenSurvey's 'Social Media and Search Portal Trend Report 2022', YouTube is the second largest platform service in Korea, following Naver.

YouTube has been used not only as a service with many users, but also as an information search channel. According to NAS Media's '2021 Internet User Survey', YouTube plays the role of the second largest information search platform in Korea, following Naver.

Furthermore, according to YouTube's Consumer Insight, 90% of users discover new brands or products through YouTube. YouTube has become the most important channel for promoting our brand and reaching out to new customers.

Search our company name. What comes up?

Try searching our company's brand, product name, and related keywords on YouTube. What videos appear first? Is our company ready to meet customers who are exposed to our brand through YouTube?

Why is corporate YouTube channel operation difficult?

Many companies have attempted to operate their own channels to establish their channel strength on YouTube. However, corporate YouTube channels have more failure cases than success stories. What could be the reasons?

First, setting the wrong goals.

Companies that fail in operating YouTube channels designate the number of subscribers and views as the KPIs of their channel operations. However, what is the purpose of operating YouTube for our company? Is it to increase the number of subscribers and views to generate advertising revenue? The most important thing is to have channel strength that can expose our potential customers more frequently.

Secondly, failing to continuously generate content ideas.

Currently, videos from professional studios are popular on YouTube. However, many channels that attempt to operate YouTube without a long-term content strategy often upload content only once or twice and then discontinue operations. This is because it becomes difficult to generate content ideas, and the effort required for planning, filming, and editing becomes overwhelming.

Thirdly, investing excessive time and resources in video production.

For example, if the goal is to upload a 5-minute video on YouTube, editing alone takes at least 10 to 15 hours. Considering the time required for planning content, recruiting participants, and actual filming, even if there is a dedicated person for this task, it is not easy to create one video per week.

Fourth, not considering the risk of creator turnover.

There is a drawback to the method of featuring a specific employee as a creator in corporate YouTube operations. Although it can have a positive impact on our company's promotion as the creator gradually becomes popular, if the creator suddenly retires, it can lead to the survival risk of the entire corporate YouTube.

Create a suitable YouTube channel operation process for our company.

The most important aspect of operating a YouTube channel is consistency. Yes, it's the hardest part. However, if there is a production process that enables consistent operation based on a clear YouTube operation strategy and purpose, YouTube channel operation can become an integral part of our company's work.

1) Establish a YouTube operation strategy

Clearly define the purpose of YouTube operation

To avoid following the failure cases of corporate YouTube operations that we saw earlier, it is important to clearly define the purpose of YouTube operation. When we think of YouTube, we often think of the number of subscribers and views first, but these are important conditions for monetizing YouTube, not KPIs from a content marketing perspective. YouTube channel operation should be discussed from a long-term operational perspective as part of content marketing. It is recommended that corporate YouTube aims to secure channel strength through owned media.

Establish KPIs that can be shared within the company (including distribution frequency)

So, what specific KPIs can we set? Let me show you an example.

When you search for "flower festival" on YouTube, KBS News is ranked 1st, but it is worth noting the content of the Kimhae Flower Festival ranked third. Although this account has only 10 subscribers, it is ranked at the top. (As of May 2022) It is at the top in terms of Google search, which means it is displayed in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). When you search for "Mapo-gu real estate," a 5,000-member channel is ranked higher than JikbangTV with 450,000 subscribers. It means that there are more important factors than views or subscribers, and even if the size is small, it can be exposed at the top.

What KPIs can we set to motivate ourselves to consistently conduct YouTube channel activities? I recommend setting the exposure rank by keyword as a KPI. And, by recording the exposure ranking weekly, you can set the number of distributions (distribution cycle) required to maintain/manage the increased exposure ranking as a KPI.

In general, keyword ranking management is done using specialized SEO tools. The screen above is a screen that registers keywords and shows the Google search rankings on a weekly basis using the SEO tool called Semrush. However, for YouTube search rankings, there are no third-party services that support Korean search yet, so you can simply use Excel to organize the rankings. Here's a Google Sheets template that you can use as a YouTube keyword tracker.

When we look at the principles related to YouTube SEO, the most important thing is consistent posting. Therefore, even if we happen to rank high, we need to continue posting to maintain that position. Therefore, the number of distributions can be a good KPI to maintain/ manage consistency. Of course, in order to prevent unwanted spammy content on YouTube, a good content strategy is also necessary.

Find a reliable source of content (generate ideas)

When setting short-term goals and focusing on views or jackpots, we can be more cautious in selecting content. We can choose content that we can consistently produce using our capabilities within our company, rather than stimulating or entertaining content. As most failure cases of companies are due to exhaustion of content, finding long-lasting content is a crucial part of achieving our goals.

An effective way to find content is by turning common knowledge about our work into informative videos. This matches the interests of our customers and guarantees consistent responses. Additionally, the most important thing is that finding topics from our work is like finding a reliable source of water. We are just converting documents stored in the cabinet into YouTube content.

Another good method is to use the logic tree of storytelling to find content that we can continuously publish from our company. Although it is designed mainly for advertising videos, it is a very good comprehensive methodology for finding content. You can also access the Storytelling Logic Tree through this link to review it for free.

Create a keyword roadmap

In fact, continuous content discovery should go hand in hand with keyword discovery. Even if we can consistently publish content, it will be inefficient if it is not connected to keywords that our potential customers would search for on YouTube. Of course, having high-quality content is valuable in itself.

SEO has a concept called keyword difficulty. If a company has just entered and others are already firmly ranked, it will be difficult for a newly entered company to compete. Therefore, it is recommended to start with niche keywords that don't have high search volume but have less competition. Since the exposure starts from niche keywords, the natural inflow to our channel increases, and naturally, our channel strength also increases. With all marketing, there is no royal road, and this is especially true for content marketing, and only proper methods survive in YouTube SEO.

2) Establish a YouTube video production/distribution process that can be consistently operated

Plan content formats based on non-filming approaches

To ensure consistent operation, it is essential to determine a format that we can consistently maintain with our resources. The biggest problem with videos that require filming is the tremendous amount of time and effort required for filming and editing.

As alternatives, there are 'faceless YouTubers' and 'educational videos'.

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These are examples of videos like this. Since there is no burden on filming, video production can be much more efficient, and the response to the content is also quite good. Of course, this is because the content is good. Furthermore, there are also cases of using AI voices or AI humans. In other words, instead of burdening specific employees, this kind of content format allows collaboration with the company's work.

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From the beginning, our goal is not a studio-quality blockbuster content, but a content that can be consistently exposed in a tolerable and non-spammy level on YouTube. Therefore, this format is the most suitable for operating a corporate YouTube channel consistently.

Consider YouTube SEO criteria

Once we create content, elements such as how to create thumbnails and titles have an impact on search rankings when posting on YouTube. These elements are analyzed by YouTube's ranking algorithm, and the exposure ranking is determined. In fact, no one knows exactly how YouTube ranks videos, but based on the known factors, we can make educated guesses about what to pay attention to.

The known ranking factors of YouTube can be divided into four categories: watch time, comments, subscriptions after watching, and total watch time. Looking closely at these four factors, it is clear that YouTube intends to give high scores to high-quality channels. In particular, 'subscriptions after watching' is expected to have a significant weight. That's why many YouTubers use outros that instruct viewers to 'subscribe, like, and set notifications' as a means to achieve this. (Although you may wonder if this is effective, according to experiments conducted on YouTube, there was more than twice the difference in performance between when the video instructed users to take action and when it did not.)

So, what efforts should we make to meet these ranking factors? The first is periodic posting. Although there is no concrete evidence, many users' tests suggest posting "1-2 times a week" is recommended. Additionally, when we upload videos to YouTube, there is a detailed information section. Each element plays a crucial role in SEO.

However, after filming videos, we often neglect the contents of each item due to exhaustion, and we roughly fill in the contents without much thought. These elements, including the title, have an impact on search rankings. Therefore, it is recommended to summarize the content in a way that arouses readers' curiosity without summarizing the entire content. Additionally, timestamps make it easy for viewers to engage with our videos. To insert timestamps, simply include the time in the description, leave a space, and write the title.

Have you considered clicking "Read more"? There is a hidden menu containing many elements such as tags and categories. If the word can be expressed in various ways, such as 'YouTube' or '유튜브', it is beneficial to put tags. Specifying a clear category also increases the possibility of exposure to our potential customers.

Seems complicated, right? That's why we need tools that can increase our productivity. With VideoStew's YouTube One-Click Distribution, it takes care of essential elements for YouTube SEO, including thumbnails, titles, and descriptions. It perfectly matches the aforementioned YouTube channel operation strategy, maximizing efficiency.

Increase reusability through template customization

In the end, when we simplify the YouTube format, it can be composed of 'opening - content - outro'. In the opening, a flashy video that showcases our channel identity is shown, followed by actual content, and it is finished by 'subscribe/like/set notifications'. Of course, nowadays, a format that shows a highlight followed by an opening, content, and an outro, highlighting the most interesting part, is also commonly used.

In other words, when considering activities for operating a corporate YouTube channel, once we set an opening template and outro template, there is no need to change them, and we only need to produce content that matches the methodology mentioned above. VideoStew significantly increases the reusability of such content.

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Learn more about creating YouTube Shorts in just 5 minutes with this blog post.

If you want successful YouTube operations, choose VideoStew

1:1 personalized consulting

Starting a new task in a company that has not been done before is very challenging. Moreover, integrating it into the company's process is an even bigger task. Understanding this, VideoStew provides various soft landings. We provide support for customized template creation for customer companies, as well as a video content production methodology that allows you to visualize the 'knowledge' you have in a video format following the grammar of videos.

We continuously provide assistance until the video production process becomes a repetitive task within the company. If you are interested in VideoStew, you can book a consultation session through this calendar link.

Oh, and don't forget to join our weekly online class held every Thursday evening to learn more about VideoStew's basic use!

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VideoStew has been selected as a solution for the K-Non-face-to-face Voucher Support Program and the Cloud Service Support Program. If you are a demand company for the K-Non-face-to-face Voucher Support Program or the Cloud Voucher Support Program, you can introduce VideoStew at a low cost by receiving 70% government support.

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