10 YouTube Video Ideas to Turn All Eyes on You
Have you ever wondered how many hours of video YouTube users watch every day?
The answer is more than one billion!
If you're a video marketer, that's a lot of eyes on your vision. What are you doing to keep them interested in what you have to say?
Research shows that if you haven't engaged your viewers in 30 seconds, 33% of them will click away to a competitor. This is what makes fresh, compelling media so attractive.
Yet, with so much new content created every day, it's hard to find YouTube video ideas that stick. How can you set yourself apart from other social media videos and encourage your audience to keep watching?
Today, we're sharing 10 proven methods to make the most of your YouTube channel, with ideas sure to give your brand the attention it deserves.
So, are you ready to learn more about YouTube advertising videos and explainer videos? Let's get into it!
1. Introductory Meet-and-Greet
Today's customers don't just want a great product or service. They're also seeking a personal connection with the brands they follow. This is because they have so many options at their fingertips and can afford to be as discerning as possible.
To this end, why not create an introductory video that sets the tone for your channel and lets viewers know what they can expect moving forward?
Start by introducing yourself. Then, take the camera around to your key crew members, explaining what each person does. You can also share your company's vision, origin, and goals for the future.
Let your audience know how often you'll be posting videos and what kinds of topics you intend to focus on. In other words, give them a reason to click that coveted "subscribe" button.
When you're finished, encourage them to leave comments or questions below the video so you know what they're most interested in. Did they like certain elements or were there any they'd rather not see again?
This is a great way to get a feel for what kinds of videos succeed and which flop on your channel. Knowing this, you can create content that caters to them moving forward.
2. Product or Service Explainer
Are you marketing a product or service that is more on the technical side? If so, it can be helpful to create a short explainer video that puts operations in layman's terms.
Explainer videos for businesses can either be produced as a one-off or in a series, depending on how in-depth you take the subject matter. To make a complicated concept easier to grasp, you might also consider creating an animated explainer video (like the above example from Spotify).
If you go this route, consider the video production style that works best for your needs. You want to make sure your marketing content is reflective of your brand voice and aesthetic, especially if you plan to share the video across your social media channels.
Once you're ready, take care to use simplified language, free of jargon and take your time with each step. This isn't the place to rush through a description or skip a major detail.
Explainer videos need to be clear, concise but still engaging for a user.
If you're shooting a live-action video, capture close-ups of product components and turn them over for 360-degree views.
If you opt for an animated explainer video, leverage this format to simplify intricate operations and make even the most tech-centric subject matter more approachable.
3. Becoming a thought leader
One outcome of an effective marketing campaign is that it helps to establish you as an industry leader in your space.
Why not share a little of that insider knowledge with your YouTube subscribers? Regardless of your industry, odds are high that you've got a few skills that others would love to learn.
Are you a mechanic? Teach viewers the basics of changing a tyre and checking the oil. Do you work in web design? Create a beginner's guide to help the uninitiated start their own website.
Using your expertise to build your brand doesn't mean giving away trade secrets or empowering your audience so much that they no longer need your services.
Rather, it means giving credibility and transparency to your company, propelling you into "expert" status quicker than you thought possible. Then, when someone has a question about a topic in your industry, they'll be more likely to navigate to your YouTube channel for answers.
4. Event Promotion Videos
Are you hosting a trade show in the coming months? What about a fundraising event or a formal product launch party?
You could try to build buzz about your upcoming event by writing about it on your website.
You could even post a series of blogs detailing what's to come. Yet, studies show that people remember only 20% of what they read.
Conversely, they retain 80% of what they see.
Event promotion videos (this one from Unilever is pretty awesome) are great at building excitement and anticipation for an event, shoot a video teaser of what attendees can expect when they sign up to attend your event. Film snippets of the locale, the guest list, the itinerary and more. Set it to music and add voice-overs where appropriate to amplify the production quality.
Then, once the party is over, create a re-cap video thanking guests for attending. Event promotion videos are an ideal way to acknowledge a great turnout and get the excitement brewing for next year!
5. Tell a Story
What do the majority of your customers want from you? The answer might surprise you.
Turns out, 80% of them want your brand to tell them a story.
Yes, they want technical details, helpful tips and practical advice. However, they want to receive this information in the form of a narrative starring regular people as the main characters.
How can you meet this expectation? Resist the urge to create a 15-minute long saga that begins with a sleepy opener, reaching the height of the drama toward the end.
This isn't the Golden Globes. This is YouTube, where you only have a few seconds to make a first impression - just like the below piece from Dollar Shave Club, which pushes its value proposition up-front, then dives into entertaining, comedic sketches to keep you watching.
That said, Dollar Shave Club is an outlier - it’s usually a good bet to shorten your scale and focus on quality over quantity. This is one area where animation shines.
Leverage it to create seconds-long tales that convey emotion, reality and entertainment all at once. This is especially important in YouTube pre-roll advertising.
In 2018, the platform put a stop to the unskippable 30-second ads that play before some videos. It replaced them instead with six-second bumper ads that viewers cannot skip.
You can also place ads in-stream, which you'll only be charged for if viewers stick around for 30 seconds or longer.
When you want to keep them on your side, you need something that catches their eye. In this case, animation delivers.
6. Q&A Session
Sure, you can release a PDF with answers to your company's most frequently asked questions. Why not answer them on your next YouTube video instead?
Read the questions aloud on-screen and look the camera in the eye when you respond to add elements of sincerity and personalization.
Want to mix it up a little? This is also a great way to showcase the expertise of your workforce.
Gather your most common inquiries and walk viewers around the office to the team members best-suited to respond.
For instance, you might direct a question about shipping times to your warehouse manager, or let your HR director take the lead on new hire discussions.
This showcases the myriad personalities in your office and reveals that everyone on your team is dedicated to customer support.
7. Online Reviews
Surveys show that 84% of people trust online reviews as much as recommendations from their family and friends. They're flocking to the internet to find the best of the best, from skincare products to software tools.
It wouldn't be smart business sense to hop in front of the camera and give your competitors glowing reviews. However, why not compare and contrast offerings that are related to (but not in competition against) your niche?
Say, for instance, you sell custom jewellery. You can shoot a video review of the best beading tools, burs, gauges and mallets that you use in your workshop. If you're a marketer, you may share your opinion on productivity tools that can help small businesses skyrocket their production levels.
Like a how-to lesson, these videos help establish your authority. You can also highlight your personality in review videos, explaining why you personally advocate for or against the solution in question.
8. Customer Testimonials
Consumers appreciate hearing from experts. However, they love hearing from ordinary people like them.
Customer testimonials are a great way to humanize your brand. They also serve to create an emotional connection between your audience and your company.
The below example from Omada Health showcases the power of marrying motion graphics with live action video to empahsise key phrases and selling points.
Have you received glowing, five-star feedback from satisfied customers? Ask a few to share their sentiments on your YouTube channel. Keep the testimonials brief but full of impact, taking care not to over-edit or make the end result too commercialized.
Encourage customers to be as specific as possible as they share, using concrete data to drive their point home. As they do, they'll help you build brand loyalty and trust.
9. Year-End Highlight Reel
Looking for YouTube channel ideas to give your viewers a front-row seat on a journey inside your company? Compile a year-end highlight reel that depicts all your top moments.
This can be a combination of photographs and video. You can even combine live action and animation to help diversify the tone. Use live action when sharing in-person memories, and then animation to display impressive stats such as earnings or team growth.
Showcase important company awards, individual employee achievement, events you held and sales quotas you met.
Be sure to set your highlight reel to music and you've got an immersive, interactive look back that encourages viewers to join along as you tackle the next year.
10. Create an Animated Infographic
Animated infographics are ideal ways to break a complex concept down into manageable chunks. If you have a substantial amount of data or statistics to share, it's helpful to create one to simplify understanding.
By making an animated video for YouTube, you have even greater freedom with your infographics than if you were creating a traditional one-page version for a PDF. This is because you can leverage each frame of the video to display a new insight or piece of information.
As you organize the content, split it into logical categories. For instance, you might spend five frames talking about your product's manufacturing process, five discussing how it works, and five sharing statistics on its effectiveness.
Set the infographic to upbeat music that grabs attention without pulling it away from the subject matter at hand. Then, incorporate eye-catching graphics and animation that encourage viewers to watch until completion.
Creating animated videos for YouTube can be a timely task; so if you’re looking to cut down on the work of arranging your data in an engaging fashion, get in touch with a professional animation studio and unleash their creativity.
Turn Your YouTube Video Ideas Into Reality
Are you ready to leverage the power of video marketing to transform your traditional client acquisition strategy?
These YouTube video ideas are a great place to start when you're looking to engage with your target audience where they’re consuming the most content - online.
From explainer videos and infographics to testimonials and meet-and-greets, there are many ways to add personality to your brand.
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