4 YouTube Channel Growth Tips for B2B Companies

B2B companies often think of video as a secondary marketing channel, but B2B audiences increasingly expect to see product information and learn about brands across multiple channels.

People watch over 100 million hours of YouTube videos every day. The simple reality is, if your content isn’t easily accessible on the platform, you’re missing out on this traffic.

Almost three-quarters of B2B buyers watch online videos to research purchasing decisions. A lot of these people are watching at least 30 minutes of content, according to Google research.

To make video an effective tool, you’ll need to not only create valuable content, but also attract an audience and keep them around. Here are our top tips to grow a productive B2B video marketing channel:

The 4 Pillars of YouTube Channel Growth

Growing a video audience as a B2B brand relies on four key pillars:

• Building a recognizable brand
• Connecting with your viewers
• Generating visibility and traffic with search engine optimization (SEO)
• Keeping your content offerings fresh and new

Here are some methods to generate growth and build an effective channel using these levers:

1. Create a Recognizable Brand

Your brand is your identity. It’s more than just your logo and name; it’s also a theme and unifying force that makes you identifiable and recognizable on any platform.

With video, visual themes are a major element of successful branding. Some brands rely on creating consistent color schemes for their video backgrounds or title pages. A custom thumbnail “title page” alone can be a powerful way to visually link your brands’ videos together and make them stand out from others.

Simple details like using a consistent background color scheme and fonts, or adding a logo or watermark, can boost viewership and increase subscribers substantially.

Once you get beyond aligning visual elements, make sure the content of the videos aligns with your business’ why and your audience. Video is an immediate way to present who you are, aimed specifically at the people you want to do it for. Things like humor and tone also help establish a recognizable brand voice and “personality” that will stick with your audience and make them more likely to keep watching.

3. Reach Out to Your Community

Video at its best feels like an in-person interaction – a two-way street. To have a successful channel, you’ll need to actively seek out new viewers and retain your existing audience.

The most sustainable way to do this is to create and engage a community around the content you offer.

• Publish content regularly on a schedule to maintain momentum and build a following.
• Link related content together to boost the number of times people stay with your content after finding one of your videos.
• Publish shareable content – many people look to videos to answer questions or entertain: if you can creatively do this, you’re more likely to see organic growth from people sharing videos with their own networks.
• Section your homepage to highlight the videos you know are popular or most representative of your brand.
• Provide opportunities for dialogue and interactivity: respond to all questions in the comments, ask for feedback, and if possible, structure your future content based on viewer responses.

3. Make Yourself Visible with Video SEO 

Like Google, YouTube has built-in search and discovery algorithms designed to make it easier for viewers to find videos relevant to their search queries.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works with search engine algorithms to make sure that people see your content in search results.

Of course, the best tactic, like with Google search optimization, is to build good content that adds value and that people would want to watch. YouTube’s algorithms are always changing, and it can be tough to stay abreast of the current best practices.

However, some basic tactics still make a difference, like: 

• Keyword research: What kind of content and topics are people searching for? Do your videos match these queries? Even if your tools for keyword research are limited to YouTube’s search autocomplete feature, make sure you are paying attention to what people are searching for. Create content targeting high volume keywords as well as low-volume, as well as highly specific content with less competition to capture as much traffic as possible.
• Titles: How well do your titles match your content? Are they appropriately long to be descriptive, but not cut off in search results?
• Descriptions: Include extra information with your video to aid in indexing, but load important information into the first 100 words, which is the only part visible under the video unless viewers deliberately click “see more.”
• Subtitles: Enabling closed captions gives YouTube more information to accurately index your content. It also makes it more accessible to those in other countries (who may make up to two-thirds of your views, on average) or with hearing impairments.

4. Keep Your Content Fresh

While quality is almost always preferable to quantity when it comes to video, brands who can post consistently often see better and more reliable growth over time.

To avoid getting stale or stuck in a rut with the same topic themes, user feedback is often the best source of inspiration for future content.

YouTube offers surprisingly robust analytics tools to make your content planning and strategy easier. Once you have existing content, learn from your previous successes and failures to adjust as you go.

For example, once they are on your channel, how long does it take for someone to leave? How many videos do they watch before leaving?

What length video gets the most views? What are your audience demographics like? Which series or topics are most successful, and is there a way to focus more on these topics?

Once you get some traffic, you can also try A/B split testing the details – even something as simple as changing the color of a “subscribe here” button could have a sizeable impact on your conversions.

Implementing All Four Levers of B2B YouTube Channel Growth

Creating a successful YouTube channel doesn’t always require a huge budget, but it will take some time and effort to see consistent improvement in views and subscribers. 

It’s always possible to DIY your channel successfully, but professional help often makes getting off the ground or back on track faster and easier. If you would like guidance on how to make YouTube channels a more effective tool for your brand and drive more traffic, we’re here to help. Simply request a free consultation and Bob DeStefano, SVM’s president, will reach out to set up a call.

Ready to Learn More About SEO for Your B2B Company?

Check out our essential guide to B2B search engine marketing for more insight on how to implement a strategy that produces results for your company. We explain search engine marketing’s role in your marketing mix and how to define and implement a strategy that will help your industrial company produce results.