Breadcrumb Trail Links

With consumer behaviour changing through the pandemic, small businesses are pivoting to meet them

Author of the article:

StackCommerce

Publishing date:

Jul 27, 2021  •  17 hours ago  •  2 minute read Photo by Lukas Blazek /Unsplash

Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.

Article content

This article was created by StackCommerce. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through our links on this page.

Article content

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way consumers spend money and, as a result, small businesses have also pivoted to meet consumers where they browse, shop and watch. According to a report by SCORE, as reported by Yahoo! Finance, 91 per cent of small businesses will make use of digital marketing this year. Of course, digital marketing is an essential method of promoting a small business, bringing relevant advertising to targeted audiences where they’re already a willing participant — think website marketing, social media marketing and content marketing.

But businesses — especially small businesses such as sole traders and family operations — don’t always have the resources to dedicate to digital marketing. Like a lot of the other things that get done within a small business, the owner or their few colleagues tend to take on many of the tasks required for the running of the operation day to day. With the right knowledge, however, small business owners can delve into the world of digital marketing with limited expenses, and test and learn strategies to promote their business. Knowing how to build an engaged Instagram following is an essential digital marketing tool, as is knowing the ins and outs of running Facebook ads. Engaging with potential customers on these platforms can help a business start to find new sources for sales, build a customer base, and grow in size.

Originally Appeared Here

Most people can only dream about writing a book and making it an Amazon bestseller, but to publish 3 books in 18 months, Mentor more than four thousand entrepreneurs at the International stage, become a jury at IIT Madras’ Entrepreneur fest and a thought leader in Branding and Marketing, its uncanny how Rishabh Marathe has managed to achieve all of this in such a small time frame.

I had nothing common to talk about on family gatherings and so used to keep quiet. This habit made me an introvert and so shy that I felt invisible. I scraped through engineering college and somehow managed an MBA seat, where I found my passion. I used to devour the huge textbooks on marketing and fell in love with the subject.

For the next 14 years I dedicated myself to marketing and slowly started growing my knowledge, working in organizations like Unilever, BIC and Marico and was happy doing what I loved.

But I still felt hollow. This inferiority complex never left my sight and it never made me an outgoing person. Networking was not easy for me still and I still felt like a LOSER.

2 years back I had a moment of epiphany, when I crushed my foot in an exercise machine and I realized in that moment of excruciating pain that life is short and if I don’t chase a mission, I will remain that ordinary person, who no one knew.

My mission is to help 1 million individuals, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants who struggle to make themselves visible in a cluttered market, rise and shine and become Trusted Authorities in their niche”.

Rishabh’s moment of glory came when he spoke at the “Next MBA” forum in Europe on the same stage that Neil Patel, Martin Lindstrom and huge stalwarts in the Marketing and Branding domain have mentored individuals & Entrepreneurs

Rishabh believes “Your Brand’s Identity is your Reality. So however you position yourself becomes your identity. You can choose to have an identity of a loser or a rebel or change your mirror and change your identity of a person who can make a difference”.

Having impacted more then 10K lives with his work, his ambition is to impact 1 million individuals find that inner voice that makes them achieve the impossible and shine in this world.

Rishabh can be contacted at www.rishabhmarathe.com and his YouTube channel (https://bit.ly/3id7PRc )

His books are available on Amazon -> https://amzn.to/2VMuD2B

Published July 27th, 2021

Originally Appeared Here

Well, YouTube is the world’s largest user-generated content platform. With people making content for other people, YouTube maintains a very intelligent business model. However, speaking of the business model, the content creators on YouTube are also fairly on a good standstill.

With marketers putting ads before their videos, these creators are earning quite a lot. However, more than a passive or even primary source of income for a lot of people, YouTube has become a tool for social media marketers, to advertise their products in multiple ways.

But how so? Well, keep reading to find out. Without further ado let’s jump right into how YouTube can be used for successful business marketing:-

Creating a YouTube channel for business

Well, a lot of people don’t know this, but when you create a YouTube channel with a personal Gmail account, only you can access it. This restricts the people to log into the account simultaneously, which could pose a problem, further down the line. If you’re here to grow your business on YouTube, we recommend you open a brand account on google, which gives you the functionality of multiple logins at the same time.

This enables you to create multiple YouTube channels under one umbrella channel and also lets you manage your channel better. However, when you’re starting you might feel that you don’t need to let multiple people access your account, but down the line and over the years, when your YouTube channel grows and you need to run campaigns on it, you will require such functionality. Hence having a brand account helps.

Keep an eye on the analytics

Analytics is always important. They tell you what you did right and what could be improved and also let you know if you’re catering to the right audience or not. On YouTube, you get a crystal clear view of your demographics and audience, so you can curate and post much better content than you used to. YouTube analytics lets you know the average age of your audience, which can help you understand how you can tune your content accordingly.

For example, if your audience consists of GenZ kids then they might be more inclined to watching shorter videos and on the other hand, if your audience is more mature, they will be more likely to consume longer and informative videos. This is how YouTube analytics lets you know what you should do to increase engagement YouTube.

YouTube ads

Well, we’ve all seen YouTube pop-up ads at the beginning of videos that we’re watching. This happens because marketers often pay YouTube to put those ads here and the content creator decides where he wants to put the ad. Well, more often than not, though those ads we explore the new domains of products, and sometimes we do invest in such products as well. This is why using YouTube ads can change your entire marketing stats.

Considering you run a business if you advertise your products in a way that is interesting and gets people excited, then running YouTube ads is going to be a boon for you. Also, if you’re a content creator and you want to market your content, then the ability to put ads on the right part of the video is very important.

Buying YouTube Subscribers

This tip has helped various YouTubers and can help you market your business on YouTube as well. Buying YouTube subscribers has been beneficial for a lot of influencers as this works as social proof for the organic audience to rely on and hence is a must when it comes to growing your channel on YouTube is concerned.

Also, since YouTube values engagement more than just standstill followers, buy youtube views, likes and comments are going to help your video get on the recommended and trending pages, from where you can get a lot of organic content. After you’ve acquired the audience that you were looking for, you are good to advertise products that you think will work on such people, and hence buying YouTube subscribers and engagement is a must-try.

Learn from your favorite creators

Learning never gets old and hence you should always keep an eye out for good content. Even when you’re watching YouTube as a leisurely activity, keep an eye out for good quality content, that you would want to implement on your channel. This is going to be very helpful for you in the future and will help you improve your level of content by many folds.

This could be a subtle editing feature on their video r maybe even a content idea, taking inspiration from your favorite creators is never wrong. However, do not go ahead and copy their entire routine, because it will not look good if you do so.

Optimize your content

What this means is, you have to add certain elements to your videos or uploads that stand out amongst the rest on YouTube. How you can do this is first, add a catchy title, and second, add an interesting thumbnail.

Adding a catchy title that hints about the content in the video are very important, this tells the viewer what they’re up for and hence is a must if you’re trying to make your video go viral. However, do keep in mind, do not make this title overly long, because it can very well mess up the entire thing.

Keep it short and something easy to remember. Coming to the second point, thumbnails are pretty much the reason everyone clicks on a video. If it’s interesting enough, it can get you millions of views on your videos, even though the actual content is not that great. The thumbnails act like a hook as people are interested in things that stand out. If you manage to do that with your thumbnail, then you’re on the right path.

Write a good description

Writing a good description can make your video go from 0 to level 50 in no time. Writing a description that has good keywords and the required information, is a must to get your YouTube videos a lot of views. If you check out the top YouTubers, they never leave their descriptions empty which is what makes them rank where they are.

If you write a description that fetches information that wasn’t available in the video and adds certain tags, then your video has the potential of going viral.

Conclusion

These tips mentioned above have helped multiple marketers, content creators, and influencers to become famous on this platform, and you can do so oo. All it takes is some effort to make good content and present it decently. If you do even that, with time, you will be able to grow your YouTube for business.

However, if you want to increase the engagement on YouTube pretty quickly then put these seven tips to practice and you’ll surely see a change in your YouTube account. We know there are multiple other advanced tricks as well, but you need to make your fundamentals strong before you leap onto the more advanced techniques we hope this was of help to you, till then we wish you grow well on YouTube!

Published July 27th, 2021

Originally Appeared Here

Yellophant Digital has bagged the digital marketing mandate for mySmilist, following a multi-agency pitch. The agency will manage the brand’s digital marketing duties, consisting of creative and content solutions, social media management, digital campaign strategy, media planning and buying, ORM, SEO, and SEM.

Akshat Dwivedi, co-founder of mySmilist said, “As we embark on this journey, we are proud to collaborate with the Yellophant Digital Team for realizing this dream through digital routes. We are confident that with their wide experience of supporting multiple start-ups to successfully scale-up, Yellophant Digital will add immense value in our journey of gaining consumers’ love, trust, and appreciation.”

The account was won following a multi-agency pitch…

Preksha Seth, co-founder, Yellophant Digital, said, “The team of Yellophant Digital looks forward to taking up new challenges with every new partner brand. We are thrilled to collaborate with mySmilist. We are fortunate and grateful that we have taken this responsibility to look after the brand’s complete digital mandate. We are super excited to come up with insightful first thoughts for the brand and aptly use social media to amplify awareness among the audience.”
Originally Appeared Here

Marketing has changed a lot over the past few years, and if you are trying to learn more about what marketing looks like in the digital age, then this is your chance. Wccftech is offering a limited-time discount offer on the 2021 Premium Digital Marketing for Entrepreneurs Certification Bundle. The offer will expire in a few days, so avail it right away.

2021 Premium Digital Marketing for Entrepreneurs Certification Bundle Features

The bundle is massive and contains 10 courses. Each course has been designed by an expert with years of relevant industry experience. The bundle includes 72 hours of content on digital marketing including but not limited to TikTok, Instagram, Google Ads, and Facebook. Here are highlights of what the 2021 Premium Digital Marketing for Entrepreneurs Certification Bundle has in store for you:

• Digital Marketing Master Class
  Grow Your Business with Content, Social Media, Email, Paid Marketing, & More
• Instagram Marketing: Secrets to Growth & Engagement
• Beginner TikTok Marketing: TikTok For Day & Week 1
  Learn What to Do on Day 1 & Ho to Gain TikTok Followers and Start to Become TikTok Famous
• Ultimate Google Ads Training 2021: Profit with Pay Per Click
  Increase Your Pay Per Click Profitability on the World’s Most Popular Advertising Platform
• Email Marketing Mastery
  Build Effective Campaigns Along with Sending the Right Emails to the Right People
• Content Marketing
  The Ultimate Guide for Beginner’s to Start Creating Content That Engages Audiences & Sells
• YouTube Marketing
• The Podcast Master Class
  Get Your Podcast Off the Ground with Expert Tips on Getting Set up, Editing & More
• Community from Scratch: Build an Engaged Online Community for Your Brand
  Know the Best Platforms, Practices, & Techniques to Build a Sustainable Online Community
• Facebook Ads: The Complete Course
  Learn How to Advertise on Facebook’s 2020/2021 New Look Version

Original Price 2021 Premium Digital Marketing for Entrepreneurs Certification Bundle: $2,000
Wccftech Discount Price 2021 Premium Digital Marketing for Entrepreneurs Certification Bundle: $34.99

Originally Appeared Here

Do you want to become a YouTube star or influencer? Or maybe you just want to share your passion with the world, whether that’s in food videography, streaming video games on Twitch, creating music, or anything at all. One of the best platforms to do that is YouTube and the first thing you will need to get people to view your videos is your own channel. This guide will show you how to start a YouTube channel in just a few simple steps.

Don’t worry if it all looks too overwhelming at first glance. This article will guide you through everything you need to do from setting it up to making it a success!

 

 

What Is a YouTube Channel?

Photo from WallpaperSafari

A YouTube channel is a virtual space dedicated to your video content. As the name suggests, people can find your channel from YouTube’s listings or by searching for it, and they can tune in to watch your YouTube videos. It’s a place where you can share a series of videos, create a playlist for your viewers, and even broadcast a live stream. People have the option to subscribe to your channel and get updates on new content by turning on their notifications.

Your subscribers don’t have to pay to see your channel but you can later create content that’s exclusive only to paying members, discussed in the latter part of this guide. So, how do you get started?

 

How to Start a YouTube Channel for Beginners

YouTube is an online video-sharing platform so needless to say, you would need a decent internet connection. It works similarly to social media sites so you would also need to create an account. Since the company was bought by Google in 2006, you would be using a Google account to log in and create a channel. You can jump to the section about setting up your channel at any time.

However, it would be beneficial for you to take note of these tips before you begin.

 

Learn How YouTube Works

Photo by freestocks.org from Pexels

YouTube, for viewers, is pretty straightforward; you browse or search for a video to watch, play it, and give it a thumbs up or down. As for creators, however, you would need to learn just a few tricks.

First, understand that YouTube follows algorithms, much like Facebook and other social media sites. So, it’s important to optimize your channel in a way that will allow your target audience to find you. This means learning search engine optimization (SEO) for your descriptions and titles and being consistent with your content. These will all be discussed below.

It will also be helpful to learn how the publishing process works before you create your YouTube channel. When you upload a video, understand that it will not just magically get lots of views. You have to strategically customize its privacy settings, adult content rating, tags, and more. These are all crucial factors to get more views for your videos. For example, if you have unintentionally restricted your video to an audience of 18 years and above, younger people will not be able to view it even if it’s safe for them to do so. If you used random tags that are not relevant to your videos, Google will “index” your content as “low authority”—this just means that your video will not be shown in search results.

 

Know Your Target Audience

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

Before you start creating a YouTube channel, it’s important to determine your target audience. This will help you plan your content accordingly. Are you creating videos for kids? Is your content for professionals, hobbyists, women, men, Asians, Americans, the queer community, or all of them? This is incredibly important for YouTube marketing. You also need to strike a balance between being too specific and being too general.

Once you know your target audience, it will be easier and faster to plan how to shoot your videos. If you intend to write a script—highly recommended, knowing your target audience will help you compose your verbiage. This is also where you will center your entire filming technique. If your videos are for kids, then you would know that it’s best to use colorful backgrounds; make the videos as animated as possible. Content geared toward gamers needs to have the highest quality resolution possible.

 

Find and Build Your Niche

In relation to your target audience, you also need to find and build your niche. The two sound similar but they have a few important distinctions. Your niche has more to do with your area of expertise. Narrow your topic down so that your channel becomes a trusted source of content. If your channel is about cooking tips, then people will go to you for that specific content. You can make it even more specific by setting your niche to something like “steak grilling tips” instead of general cooking tips. This will help you build authority for your YouTube channel.

In some cases, a wider scope can be successful. For example, you may want to create a YouTube channel specifically for “cute animal videos.” Then people would know that they will find any and all types of cute animal videos in your channel. However, this strategy takes more time.

The most important thing is to be consistent with your niche. It will confuse your audience if your channel is about gardening and you suddenly publish skin whitening tips. This happens sometimes, especially if it is sponsored content. It’s a sure way to lose subscribers and get thumbs down on your videos.

 

Create Quality Content

Photo by Terje Sollie from Pexels

Quality content does not only pertain to the production quality of your videos. You must ensure that you are providing value to your viewers—whether that’s information or entertainment, or both. This means doing the necessary research, preparing your script or the sequence of your shots (if there are no dialogues), and investing in quality equipment.

Of course, your viewers will not have a pleasant viewing experience if your videos are filmed in low resolution. So, try to shoot in the highest possible video quality that you can. If you cannot film in 4K or 1080p, at least make your videos available in 720p.

 

Invest in Skills and Equipment

Photo by Jessica Lewis from Pexels

Speaking of video quality, the only way you can shoot your videos in high resolution is to use a camera that supports high-definition captures. You don’t necessarily have to buy an expensive DSLR camera but at least invest in a decent vlogging camera or a point-and-shoot camera. You might also want to invest in some lighting equipment to ensure that your videos are clear and pleasant to the eyes. Consider getting a tripod, especially if you’re filming on your own.

Take some time to learn some filming tricks. You don’t have to enroll in classes if you don’t want to spend on them. There are plenty of videos that can give you shooting tips and tricks online for free! Learn how to do some basic video editing and make use of video editing apps like iMovie and VEED.

 

Setting Up Your Channel

Once you have the above set up, you can start creating your YouTube channel. The steps are simple but remember that small details can make a huge difference so pay close attention:

 

Choosing Your Channel Name and Username

It’s time to name your channel and pick a username for yourself. Your channel’s name must be unique but at the same time, informative. It must give people an idea of what your channel is about. It can be the name of your brand if your channel is for your business, it can be a category or a purely descriptive name.

Some examples of the most successful YouTube channel names are “The King of DIY,” “5-Minute Crafts,” “College Humor,” and “Dimension 20.” As you can see, these names are indicative of what you can expect from the channel. “The King of DIY” is obviously about do-it-yourself projects. “Dimension 20” may not be as obvious to the general public but fans of the game Dungeons and Dragons will immediately know that it will be about the classic tabletop RPG. Why is that? Dimension 20 is named after the famous 20-sided (icosahedron) die used in the game. This is a great strategy that you can use when you really know your niche.

As for your username, you can choose to use your own name, a stage name, or something as descriptive as your channel name.

 

Creating an Account

Screenshot from YouTube

When you’ve decided on your username and channel name, you can set up your account. As mentioned in the beginning, YouTube was bought by Google in 2006 so you would be using a Google account to create a YouTube channel. It is up to you if you want to use an existing Google account or create a new one specifically for your channel. Log in to Google with your preferred account and follow these steps:

1. Go to YouTube
2. Click on your profile photo and select Settings from the dropdown
3. Select Create a New Channel
4. Enter your channel name

Create a channel now

 

Your Banner and Profile Photos

The next things you need to set up when you’re ready to start a YouTube channel are your banner photo and profile photo. These photos will help attract potential subscribers to your channel and will let them know what your videos generally look like.

Your banner photo must be a minimum of 2560 x1440 pixels. This is also called channel art. The view will be adjusted based on your viewers’ devices. There will be a desktop view, a mobile view, and a tablet view, so make sure that you follow the recommended banner size. You can upload a photo with a maximum of 6MB in size.

Your profile photo can be a headshot, your business logo, or anything at all that will help distinguish your channel from the rest. There are no restrictions on the photo size since you can adjust the thumbnail on the site.

 

To set up your profile and banner photos:

1. Go to your YouTube channel on your desktop
2. Click on the camera icon on the top right of the default or empty banner
3. Select “Change” and choose a banner image from your folders
4. Go back and click on the camera icon on the profile photo
5. Click “Change” and select a profile photo from your library

 

Creating Your Channel Trailer

Photo by Burak Kebapci from Pexels

A channel trailer will help you capture the interest of new viewers and potential subscribers. When you start a YouTube channel, it’s important to put some time into creating a trailer that is compelling and relevant to your channel. This video will be displayed on top of your page and it auto-plays for visitors who are not subscribed to your channel.

What makes a good YouTube channel trailer? It should give your viewers an introduction to what your channel or business is about and who it’s for. Include some highlight reels or “B-rolls” and make sure to mention a call-to-action (CTA) to encourage them to subscribe or become paying members of your channel. Make it short but gripping enough to get people curious to see more of your content.

 

Descriptions

Screenshot from YouTube

Descriptions play a critical role in your YouTube channel’s success. They’re not just there to fill an empty space on the page. Being strategic with your descriptions would help your channel become visible to more people and it will help people who are interested in your content find you.

These include the main description of your channel, the featured links you provide, and the descriptions of individual videos on your channel. If you are an artist, for example, make sure that you include your stage name in the description. If your channel is for your business, make sure to specify what your business is about and the name and location of your business if applicable.

To set your YouTube channel’s description, simply click on Customize Channel on your channel’s home view. You will be taken to YouTube Studio. Click on Basic Info and start typing! Make sure to type your website’s link on the URL field to drive traffic to your site.

 

Incorporating Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Applying some SEO strategies when writing your descriptions and adding tags to your videos will help your YouTube channel rank on Google’s search engine results page (SERP). It’s about using relevant keywords to help your YouTube page become more visible. If your channel is about gardening tips, wouldn’t it be nice if people who search for those keywords ended up watching your content?

SEO may seem cumbersome but the idea behind it is really simple. This has been mentioned several times in this article and it’s worth repeating: it is to help people find you. Your audience is out there. You just need to lead them to your content.

In the example above—gardening tips, use keywords such as plants, potting soil, gardening tools, and the likes in your descriptions. Google will then notice that you are providing relevant information on the topic and will index your YouTube channel higher and higher on the SERP.

 

Getting Verified

You may notice that some YouTube channels include a gray checkmark on their page and profile photo. This is somehow similar to the blue checkmark that you see on verified Facebook accounts. It means that their page is the official page of the person or business they are representing.

However, if you are just starting your YouTube channel, this may not be the easiest thing to accomplish but it will be good to know how the process works so you can later aim for it.

There are certain requirements for your YouTube channel to get verified. You would need:

• 100,000 subscribers
• Authentic and complete channel name, profile photo, banner, and description
• Your channel must be public and active

Once you meet these requirements, you can try requesting your verification badge. Here are the steps:

1. Go to the YouTube verification page.
2. You will be asked to verify your identity by providing your mobile phone number and being asked to enter a verification code sent by Google to that number.
3. Go back to your channel and select “Help” from the left menu.
4. Type “Verification Badges on Channels” on the search bar and click on it.
5. If you qualify, you will see a link or a button that will lead you to fill out the application form.
6. Wait for Google’s decision which may take several weeks.

 

How to Promote Your YouTube Channel

Now that you know how to start a YouTube channel, it’s time to learn some tips on how you can promote it. This will help you get more views and eventually reach the required amount of subscribers for you to get verified.

The first thing you need to do is to optimize your channel for SEO purposes, which we’ve already covered above. It’s really important that you use relevant keywords in your descriptions. Here are some other helpful tips.

 

Use Social Media

Photo by Tracy Le Blanc from Pexels

One of the most effective ways to promote your YouTube channel is to use social media, specifically Facebook and Twitter. If your channel is for your business, you can also use LinkedIn.

Make sure to share some of your videos, especially live streams either on your Facebook page or personal account. Share trailers of your playlists or series. This will get people curious enough to at least view your channel. As always, mention a CTA to get them to subscribe, like, and comment on your videos.

 

Embed Your Videos on Your Blog or Website

If you have a blog or a website, it’s a good strategy to embed some of your videos on your blog posts or landing pages. Several blogging platforms allow you to embed YouTube videos on posts and pages. This is an effective YouTube marketing strategy.

 

Learn Content Strategy

Your content strategy will greatly depend on your niche but here are some tips that a lot of successful brands are using.

One is to balance trending and evergreen content. You may want to post videos that are related to trending topics time and again but make sure that you have enough evergreen content on your channel so people will keep coming back to it. Evergreen is an SEO term used for content that stays relevant or “fresh” for long periods of time. It is derived from the Evergreen tree which is popular for not shedding its leaves even in the changing seasons. Some examples of evergreen content are how-to videos, walkthroughs, and other types of guides. These can stay on top of the SERP for years!

Another content strategy is to run contests on your channel. The goal is to get people to participate by being active in the comments section. You can require participants to subscribe to your channel in order to win the contest, which will get you more audience.

These are just some strategies you can apply to promote your YouTube channel.

 

Can You Make Money on Your YouTube Channel?

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

Perhaps, one of the reasons you want to start a YouTube channel is to eventually monetize it — and that’s absolutely possible! However, there is work involved and some strategies.

There are many ways to make money on your YouTube channel. One of them is to create and sell digital products, like online courses. You don’t have to teach the entire course on YouTube. It can be hosted on your website, on Coursera, or other learning platforms. What you can do is provide snippets of the course on YouTube and then include a CTA for your viewers to buy the full course. You can leave links to the course in your description.

Another way is to get fans to become paying members of your channel. YouTube’s channel membership program allows your audience to join your channel through a monthly subscription. The advantage of being a member is they can get exclusive content, badges, and emojis. However, to turn paid memberships on, you must meet some requirements. Your channel needs to have at least 1,000 subscribers and you must be enrolled in the YouTube Partner Program. This is the program that allows you to run ads on your videos.

There are plenty of other ways that you can make money on your channel but the above are what works for most.

 

Final Thoughts

Learning how to start a YouTube channel may seem like a daunting task at first and it’s not always guaranteed that your channel will become popular. But if you follow the few simple steps and tips above, you will be well on your way to having a successful YouTube channel and maybe even be able to monetize it. So, get filming and create your channel today!

Originally Appeared Here

No part of this post should be reproduced without written approval from the author.

10 ways to make money as a digital marketer in Nigeria

Virtually everyone who owns a phone or a computer with an internet connection in Nigeria has engaged in digital marketing in one way or the other. Although you are quite ignorant of this because you haven’t made any cash from it.

What then is digital marketing? In simple terms, it is the process of promoting products and services using the internet and online-based technologies. You have probably helped a friend post their products on your social media, and he got a few clients off that; well, you engaged in digital marketing!

In this article, I will reveal 10 ways to make money as a digital marketer in Nigeria. Believe me, they’re totally common and highly effective ways to make money with digital marketing.

Don’t believe it? Read on!

10 ways to make money as a digital marketer in Nigeria

1. Blogging
Blogging is one of the most undisputed and common ways of making money as a digital marketer in Nigeria. Most blog owners with a decent audience and page visits get to make a handsome amount of money promoting products and services off their blogs.

Brands and companies find high-traffic blogs a great medium to up their conversion rate. Hence, owning an established blog will only maximize your profitability rate as a digital marketer.

2. Make money as a content writing specialist.
As a content specialist, you are in the drivers’ seat when it comes to digital marketing. Great content is key to big sales, and more so if you can comfortably convince people to buy or patronize products or services with your impeccable writing skills.

However, in order to increase your chances of getting hired and making money, you will need to develop your skills.

To that end, an Impeccable understanding of writing, search engine optimization, keyword research, and analytics will set you above the average content specialist mark in Nigeria.

3. Affiliate marketing

Digital marketing is never complete without affiliate marketing! If a business pays you Commission for their products or services, then that is what you would call affiliate marketing. The amount of money made depends on the number of people that have purchased the product or service through your affiliate link.

In order to get started as an affiliate marketer, you will first of all need an initial investment. Don’t worry this isn’t capital intensive, and the capital will be used to set up your affiliate marketing business with the necessary tools needed for the smooth and efficient running of your affiliate marketing business.

4. Selling your own digital products.

Selling your own digital products is a great way to earn money with digital marketing. Hundreds of highly demanded products at your disposal, all you need to do is choose a niche, create digital products, and sell them off the comfort of your house. Products like eBooks, online courses, presets, icons, templates, audio, photography, etc., are called digital products.

The good thing about selling digital products is that you never have to replenish inventory, unlike physical products.

5. Provide social media managing services
Nigeria Is fast embracing technological advancements, and as such, having specific skillsets will only give you more edge when job hunting. Another way to make a decent amount of money from your skills is by offering social managing media services as a digital marketer.

Many brands, companies, and individuals require social media managing services. Your job could range from creating and posting content, updates, running social media ads to gain more leads and more! You can have a decent life with a social media managing job as a digital marketer here in Nigeria.

6. Make money as an influencer.
Welcome to Nigeria, where established social media influencers are in high demand. With a large follower base, you can make a lot of money as a digital marketer.

Why is influencer marketing effective in making money as a digital marketer? It’s simple, people believe more in words of the mouth, and this is most effective if they are from highly credible sources like celebrities.

Imagine the tons of people who will patronize a barbing salon if a top Nigerian artiste like Davido were to make a video of him having a haircut and posted it on his Instagram; such salon will definitely go viral, thereby maximizing the customer conversion rate.

That’s why you can make money as a digital marketer influencing off your social media handles.

7. Start your own digital marketing agency.
With the increasing need for digital advertising in Nigeria, there has never been the best time to start your own digital marketing business.

In order to provide digital marketing services, you will need to learn and develop a set of digital marketing skills to enable you to serve your clients efficiently and comfortably.

8. SEO
Nowadays, you cannot just create high traffic content without a good knowledge of Search Engine Optimization.

Although having to learn SEO can seem a bit technical, you can start creating high-ranking content and increase lead generation through your SEO skills with dedication and hard work. What’s more? People pay a huge amount of money for SEO experts.

To conclude, rendering SEO services is a very lucrative way to make money as a Nigerian digital marketer.

9. YouTube marketing
Have you ever wondered how much those well-established YouTube channels reel in? A whole lot if you have a large number of subscribers!

But much better, you can earn commissions from brands per advertised product sold via your YouTube channel.

Whether you choose to build a brand, advertise products and services or utilize YouTube ads, you can make money as a digital marketer.

10. Web designing
Web designing can be a bit difficult to learn, but you are set for life as a digital marketer with this skill.

Think of it this way, Virtually every business needs a good-looking website and as such will pay handsomely to recruit such service experts.

Conclusion
Digital marketing skills are in high demand, and there are several ways to make money as a digital marketer in Nigeria.

With the right skill set and level of expertise, you too can be making huge amounts of cash every month as a digital marketer.

Source: https://www.nopremiumtears.com.ng/2021/07/10-ways-to-make-money-as-digital.html

Did you find this article helpful? Leave us a comment below!

Originally Appeared Here

In a world of growing expenses, many of us have considered a side hustle to help make ends meets. While there are hundreds of different options, video making is a quick way to earn some extra bucks. In today’s times’ video is the most preferred form of digital content and several brands are keen on video marketing. Influencers and celebrities are leveraging video to connect with their target group.

In such a situation, knowing how to create videos is an important life skill and a quick way to make money. These days most smartphones film high-quality videos. If you have a basic understanding of the concepts of light and shadows, you can create stellar videos even with free editing tools. In this article, we will discuss five ways by which you can leverage your imaginative power and knowledge of video editing to make money.

Establish a YouTube Presence

The first step to making money off your videos is to get popular on YouTube. YouTube is the largest video-sharing platform and the second most popular search engine. To establish a YouTube presence, create a channel on the platform. Then, plan your video content such that your followers get to see regular videos.

Understand that consistency is the key to satisfied followers and the best way to attract subscribers. As more and more people start following your channel for valuable content, you can look for ways to monetize your content. While YouTube pays for videos with more than 1000 views, other ways involve allowing YouTube to display ads on your content. That way, as your followers view or click on those ads, you will be paid money.

While the top paid YouTubers earn millions of dollars on YouTube, you need to understand that patience is the key to success. Do not expect to make money from day 1 and try to maintain diversity in your posts.

SEO optimize your content for maximum reach. For example, try to identify keywords that are relevant to your video and add them to the title and description. Add subtitles and closed captioning to the video to improve its YouTube visibility. Come up with a visually appealing thumbnail so that people are tempted into clicking on it.

Offer Video-Related Service

As the popularity of video marketing touches new ceilings, understand that not every small business can afford to have an in-house video creation team. Such businesses look for freelancers who can create high-quality videos for their projects. Many people are keen on uploading high-quality videos to social media but are incapable of video editing. They look to outsource their travel or personal video editing jobs to freelancers.

When you work as a freelance video editor, you get to choose the type of orders that you will work on. With the easy availability of free online video editor tools, there is a minimal financial investment involved in taking up such projects. Local business promotional videos, business conference videos, or video production for personal events such as a wedding or baby shower are some of the most common types of freelance projects.

The pay associated with such video-related services depends on your editing expertise, experience, area of operation, and several other factors. As your take up more work, the editing will speak for itself, and word-of-mouth recommendation will help you get popular.

Create Video Lessons

When you create subject matter videos on your industry niche, you establish your presence as a veteran. This helps people gain respect for you and come to you to gain knowledge. For instance, if you own a bakery, you can create tutorial videos. Topics of the videos can range from how to frost your cake to tips on cleaning the baking tools. The tutorial videos have a high chance of getting popular and you will gain good digital visibility.

Such video lessons can be shared from your social media handle, brand website, or video-sharing platforms. By giving your audience valuable content, you earn their loyalty. Over time, you can offer then subscription-based video services. That way, the interested viewers will pay-per-view or go for a monthly or annual subscription of what you have to offer.

As a content creator, you can share such paid footage as a bundle that can be downloaded. The better the quality of your videos, the better is the associated money-making potential.

Sell Your Stock Footage

If you have video footage that you are not using in your commercial videos, you can post them as stock footage. Other video creators often need such b-roll clips to complete their videos and would gladly pay for what you are offering.

There are multiple stock footage websites that let you sell footage and get paid immediately. In such cases, the revenue will be split between you and the website that hosts the stock footage. As you gain popularity, you can start selling your footage directly from your website and maximize your profits.

Sell Product Placements

A relatively new way to make money off your videos is by affiliate advertising. Here, you first create or acquire the rights to viral videos. The videos are usually short and have inspiring, funny, or controversial subjects. Emotional videos have a high chance of being shared and getting viral. Once you have viral videos in your kitty, you can sell product placements in the subsequent videos.

The only challenge here is the fact that you cannot guarantee a viral video. All you can do is create a video on a popular topic that has a high chance of being shared. Encouraging your friends and social media followers to engage with the video will go a long way in making it viral. When videos with affiliate advertisements get viral, you can expect good money.

The secret to making money off your videos is to be persistent in your efforts. You should be ready to walk the extra mile and create exemplary content. In the initial days, you may have to create videos for free to build your digital presence. However, with proper strategizing and due efforts, the world of videos will give you immense money-making opportunities.

Originally Appeared Here

In recent years, the popularity of YouTube marketing has rapidly increased because of its ability to engage more customers than marketing on other platforms. This has resulted in higher competition for channels to gain customers’ time and attention. Millions of videos get posted on the platform every day, and each of them is fighting to come to the trending list and gain more views on youtube. 

But the question is, “Do all videos succeed?” Well, the answer is no. YouTube is a large space and the videos having the potential to engage more audiences, succeed.

It is quite difficult to increase engagement on YouTube if you don’t know the right strategy. That’s why we have brought you 7 hacks to boost your YouTube engagement rate.

Shorter videos get the most views

A question might be arising in your mind, “does video length really determine its engagement rate?” Well, yes, it is true. 

According to a recent YouTube analysis, videos having a length between 16 to 120 seconds, get almost 50% of all YouTube views. Videos shorter than 2 minutes are outperforming longer videos.

In this modern world, it is easier to convince users to watch shorter videos than longer ones. People need a concise piece of content that contains all the information about a specific topic. So, the next time you create a YouTube video, try to limit it to a couple of minutes. This will increase its chances of getting viewed. In marketing, gaining more youtube views is the initial step of gaining more engagement.

Employ basic SEO on YouTube

The first step of marketing includes learning SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It is the ability to increase the traffic’s quality and quantity to any site through organic search traffic. In the case of YouTube, SEO makes it easier for users to locate your videos in YouTube search, and increase their discoverability.

Though the application of SEO changes from one platform to another, the basic principles that guide SEO remain the same. Their tactical application simply changes as different marketing channels have their own requirements and rules.

Three SEO strategies that you can use to increase engagement of your videos-

• Keyword optimization- Before posting any video, invest some time in keyword research and use the relevant ones in your video’s title, description, and captions.
• Extend video descriptions- Since YouTube can’t listen to your videos, it understands your content through the description and captions. That is why use long-tail keywords in your video description to increase engagement on YouTube.
• Promote tirelessly- To get an ample amount of real youtube views and engagement, you need to actively promote your content on YouTube. Using other marketing channels such as Instagram, emails, Facebook, and Twitter to promote your videos will help a lot in increasing your engagement.

Encourage your viewers to like, comment, and share your videos

Engagement is a two-way path that requires input from you as well as your audience. Given that likes, shares, and comments are some important metrics used to measure YouTube engagement rate, you have to do whatever it takes in order to encourage your viewers to take these actions.

Given the fact that viewers tend to move on to other videos right after finishing one video, you need to make sure they don’t leave without taking any action. Most YouTubers, in the first and last few seconds of their videos, ask their viewers to like, comment, and share their videos.

Respond to viewer behavior in a timely manner

Your viewers feel valued when they are recognized and appreciated for their actions. Always remember that whenever a user views, likes, comments, and shares your YouTube videos, or subscribes to your channel, they are doing an effort that wasn’t required. Make it a practice to reward those efforts. Maybe not all, but always appreciate your audience who engage actively with your content.

If a user tweets your YouTube video, appreciate them by retweeting their effort and thanking them. If a viewer asks a question, try to answer as soon as possible. If they are dissatisfied with your content or leave suggestions for improvement, acknowledge them by thanking them in another comment and always ensure responding in a way that encourages conversation instead of ending it.

Be consistent

Your channel is not going to do you any good if it does not have ample content for the audience to engage with. Just like content marketers produce quality content on a regular basis, YouTubers also need to post new videos regularly in order to keep their audiences engaged.

Long periods of silence will kill your YouTube channel’s engagement. If you want to become a famous YouTuber, do not stop at posting frequently. Maintaining consistency while posting content on your YouTube channel is extremely important.

You should always keep the quality of your content on the top of your priority list as quality always outweighs quantity on social media. Maintaining consistency in the quality of your posts will also engage more viewers. People generally skip low-quality videos that are badly edited or shot.

Utilize Annotations and CTAs

Encouraging your users to like, comment, and share your videos will probably increase engagement, but it is not enough to reap all the benefits of YouTube marketing.

Calls-to-Action (CTAs) and Annotations are other effective ways to get your audience to engage with your videos and channel in general. Annotations are small icons and boxes that pop up on the screen when a video is playing. You can direct the viewers to your other videos or ask them to subscribe.

To make your annotations more effective, couple them with irresistible CTAs that direct them towards a desirable behavior.

Use YouTube analytics

Through YouTube analytics, the platform provides a lot of useful data regarding the performance of your videos and your channel.

You do not need any external software to know more about the engagement rate of your channel. YouTube analytics will help you with that. It will give you a wealth of data such as-

• The average time your videos are watched
• Your traffic sources such as YouTube search, channel pages, YouTube ads, etc.
• The demographics of your viewers such as the device they use, their age, geography, etc
• Audience retention and subscriber rates

Using this information you will be able to understand what works for your channel and what doesn’t. You can also know what type of videos are driving the highest engagement so that you can produce similar videos in the future.

Conclusion

These hacks are proven to bring more engagement to your YouTube channel. Try them once and you will thank us in the future.

Originally Appeared Here

Client YouTube TV/Google Susan Wojcicki, CEO, YouTube; Lorraine Twohill, SVP, global marketing, Google; Danielle Tiedt, VP, YouTube; Jodi Ropert, VP, YouTube Marketing; Barry Ames, director, YouTube Subscriptions Marketing, YouTube TV; Nicola Young, Laura McNair, product marketing manager, YouTube TV; Christian Haas, executive creative director, YouTube Brand Creative Studio; Matt Ross, global head of creative strategy, YouTube Brand Creative; Michelle Crossman, account lead, YouTube Brand Creative Studio; Chloe Gettinger, creative strategist, YouTube Brand Creative Studio. Agency Cartwright Keith Cartwright, founder & chief creative officer; Beth Fuijiura, art director; Casey Hall, Brigg Bloomquist, copywriters; Paul Roberts, art director; Andrew Loevenguth, head of integrated production; Marie Massat, head of brand; John Graham, head of strategy. Production MJZ Fredrik Bond, director; David Zander, president; Kate Leahy, exec producer; Janet Nowased, head of production; Youree Henley, line producer; Roman Vasyanov, DP; Chelsea Oliver, production designer; Natasha Newman Thomas, costume designer. Editorial Rock Paper Scissors Haines Hall, editor; Shada Shariatzdeh, exec producer; Kevin Gotltieb, producer; Michael Shugarman, assistant editor. Color The Mill Paul Yacono, colorist; Denise Brown, sr. producer. Postproduction The Mill Anastasia von Rahl, managing director; Jennie Fischer, head of production; Derek Tekus, sr. producer; Francesca Moran, producer; Roxy Zuckerman, VFX lead; R. Edward Black, Michael Miller, compositors; Greg Rubner, animator. Audio Post Lime Studios Loren Silber, mixer; Topher Wright, assistant mixer; Susie Boyajan, exec producer. Music “Wonderful Woodland Racoon” Stephen Davies, composer.

Originally Appeared Here