YouTube has become synonymous with video content. Users spend hours watching YouTube videos every day. Over 30,000 hours of content is uploaded on the platform every hour.
If a business has a video marketing strategy, it’s bound to have a YouTube channel. This statement shouldn’t come as a surprise. With over 2.2 billion users, YouTube is a fertile ground for you to promote your business.
As I just said, YouTube is teeming with businesses trying to create brand awareness, convert, sell, and do everything possible to achieve their marketing goals. That said YouTube is a tough place to market if you don’t already have a considerable subscriber base and solid presence.
Apart from the conventional YouTube marketing tactics, there are other techniques to promote your YouTube content.
How about borrowing thousands or even millions of views from Instagram?
Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform and it’s already a household name. It has a monthly active user base of over a billion.
Instagram is the ideal platform to promote your YouTube videos. How, you ask? There are 10 incredibly easy and simple ideas. Let’s look at them.
1. Post Preview of YouTube Videos on Instagram
Share a glimpse of the YouTube content that’s waiting for Instagram users.
Make the video irresistible by using Premiere Pro templates to create teasers of the YouTube videos. You can reach the audience organically or through video ads.
Traditionally, teaser content is meant to generate hype about an event, product, or service. It could be easily used to promote your YouTube videos on other platforms, including Instagram.
Most people visit Instagram to consume micro-content. Preview or teaser videos can be used to grab attention, generate buzz, and persuade Instagram users to watch long-form videos on YouTube.
2. Promote YouTube Videos on Direct Message Groups
Not long ago, Instagram introduced a new feature that allowed users to search and join niche groups.
The Instagram ‘Direct Message’ groups feature is a lot similar to Facebook groups. The process of joining these DM groups is no different from joining a Facebook group.
Click the ‘message’ icon and type the hobby/niche. You’ll see a list of DM groups related to the search term. Select an option on the list and message them a brief introduction of yourself, what you do, why you want to join the group, etc.
On joining the Instagram DM group, you can post videos or other forms of content and request others in the group to like, comment, and share your content.
A speedy way to market YouTube videos would be to identify top influencers in the group and request their comment on your video.
You could also look for favourite influencers in your niche and ask them to join your direct message group. Both these tactics must be part of your social media influencer marketing strategy.
3. Add YouTube Videos in IGTV
To generate interest in YouTube long-form videos, content that’s longer than an hour, you need to go beyond 10-15 second teaser videos.
If your promotional video is longer than a minute, you have no option but to post them on Instagram TV (IGTV). This isn’t a bad thing.
On Instagram, any video that’s longer than a minute is automatically posted on IGTV. Users can watch IGTV videos on the standalone app or the main Instagram app.
Users will see the IGTV icon on top of the video. Apart from the preview of the YouTube video, you could add related videos such as bloopers, behind-the-scenes content, etc.
4. Use Instagram Stories to Promote IGTV and YouTube Videos
Instagram Story is one of the best features of the platform. Users can upload images or videos (less than 15 seconds) on Stories.
Your content stays online for 24 hours, after which it’s archived. That’s not the end of it. You could repost the achieved videos as Stories or highlight them on your profile.
The Story need not contain a clipping of the YouTube video. An entertaining short clip containing a link to your YouTube video could work equally well in driving more visitors to your YouTube channel.
Bear in mind, you need to have at least 10K followers and a verified account to add video links to Instagram Stories.
To make your Stories captivating and to expand their reach, add stickers and hashtags. If the Story is promoting products, use poll or question stickers to boost engagement.
You can also market your brand by using stickers that promote offers that are only open for 24 hours.
5. Make Use of Hashtags
Using Hashtags is one way to get your YouTube videos in from millions of Instagram users. It’s a brilliant strategy if used right.
Similar to the saying: Too much of anything is good for nothing, adding a lot of hashtags can make your efforts appear spammy.
Only use hashtags that are closely related and relevant to your niche. Plus, follow what top marketing experts recommend; add no more than 2-3 hashtags to your post.
Naturally, you might be wondering, how to choose relevant hashtags for your YouTube videos. Identify the top Instagrammers in your niche and analyse their hashtag usage.
Alternatively, on the search bar, type your niche or topic and click the ‘tags’ option. Then you can pick from the most relevant hashtags that appear on the screen.
6. Tag Like-minded Instagrammers to Promote Your Videos
This YouTube video promotion strategy is bound to produce good results. The strategy relies on mutualism between like-minded Instagrammers.
One of your best chances of expanding your reach is to find other Instagrammers in the same niche or those who post content closely related to yours.
Find them and tag them when promoting your YouTube videos. You can tag several accounts to expand the reach.
Highly targeted messages will produce better results than tagging anyone and everyone related to your niche.
7. Involve Instagram Fans in YouTube Decision Making
With this strategy, you’re cultivating fans for life. Give Instagram followers the power to decide what you create and post on Instagram or YouTube.
You can do this by creating a simple poll, with no more than two options to choose from.
For example, your poll question can be: What video do you like to see next on my YouTube channel? GoPro Slow Motion or GoPro Time Lapse.
Urge your Instagram followers to subscribe to your YouTube channel to see your next video release.
Allowing the audience to make decisions for you will build trust between the two. Your audience will realize that you care for them; they’ll feel appreciated. This trust will convert into more interaction and engagement.
8. Promote YouTube Channel on Instagram
Isn’t this the same we are trying to do so far? Well, this is a simple, but overlooked strategy.
Your Instagram followers or any Instagram user interested in your content needs to know you have a YouTube channel.
Convert your Instagram profile into a billboard and display the link to your YouTube channel on the profile. Once you decide to display the YouTube link, you have two options.
v Add the link to the Instagram Bio or place it next to the ‘website’ field.
v An even better strategy is to display in two places. The link to the YouTube Channel in the Bio and link to a specific video in the website field.
9. Use Cross-Platform Influencers
The use of Influencers is a must for robust marketing and SEO strategy for small-budget businesses. Now talking about small budget marketing, there are ways you can achieve more with less.
An ideal strategy is to rope in influencers with a substantial following on both Instagram and YouTube. One overlooked benefit of hiring influencers is that they understand their audience and bring more creativity and authenticity into the content mix.
To boost their earning, influencers are creating a niche for themselves on multiple platforms. By collaborating with these influencers, you can reach and engage with their large followers.
The influencers can be used to promote your YouTube content to their Instagram followers. Another strategy is to use these influencers to create platform-neutral videos.
10. Announce Instagram Giveaway to Boost YouTube Followers
Giveaway posts would do wonders to attract more followers to Instagram and YouTube. A giveaway is an excellent strategy to reward the audience.
Plus, this doesn’t involve an investment of resources. There are plenty of plugins online that allow users to create captivating and engaging giveaway posts.
You can announce an Instagram giveaway to achieve multiple marketing goals. You can use this strategy to promote your webinar, a published YouTube video or a live streaming event to take place in the future.
Nowadays, anyone can create live streaming videos. There is a ton of software out there that facilitates live streaming.
To make your job easier, choose any of the streaming platforms and shoot YouTube videos in no time.
Final Thoughts
I sensed a widening smile after each point. These 10 ideas aren’t just easy to implement, they are effective too. They allow you to leverage the power of a growing platform with billions of users.
With these 10 ideas, you’re allowing your videos to reach a new audience and gather new followers. In the process, you may even get more Instagram followers.
Author Bio
Cristian Stanciu is a freelance video editor, owner and post-production coordinator of Veedyou Media – a company offering video editing services to videographers, marketing agencies, video production studios or brands all over the globe. I can catch up with him on his blog or on LinkedIn.
