YouTube is the second largest search engine, with over 1.8 billion users monthly — so it is an undeniably powerful channel for your advertising and marketing efforts.
Nonetheless, when you do not use YouTube for your current marketing strategy, you are not alone. Actually, only 9% of U.S. small businesses use YouTube to achieve their audience.
In 2018, we did not benefit from YouTube, both. However, in the latter half of the year, the team feared the major losses in traffic they might face if they did not hop on board — so they implemented a strategy that enabled them to develop YouTube subscribers by 25% in just 2 months.
Finally, when you are ready to start utilizing YouTube to attract and convert an audience, it is critical you optimize your video descriptions for SEO. When you aren’t sure how to begin crafting compelling YouTube descriptions, keep reading — here, we will discover various ways you could employ, and provide templates to make sure you have everything you should excel on YouTube.
How to Create Compelling YouTube Descriptions
1. Explain what your video is about.
To discover the best tactics for writing YouTube descriptions, I talked to Eric Peters, a Senior Growth Marketing Manager on HubSpot’s Academy team. He told me, “[YouTube descriptions] is one of the major methods YouTube knows what your video is about. Embrace links, additional resources, links to other videos and playlists, and so on. Make certain the description box is simple to read.”
As Peters mentions, explaining your YouTube video and incorporating keywords into your description does not just help with SEO rankings — it additionally helps with accessibility for people who are deaf and hard of listening to. For that reason, including closed captions to your videos is an absolute must, too.
For example, check out one among HubSpot Academy’s YouTube video descriptions:
As you could see, a YouTube description is incredibly different from a web page meta description. In a YouTube description, you have the space to go in-depth and clarify what your entire video is about, and even link to external resources.
Peters told me, “You get 5,000 characters total, so make use of it. Lots of creators use asterisks or all-caps to differentiate titles from body copy because it is all plain text. Think about writing up a text version of the key points from the video, or even copying the transcription of the video into the description.”
2. Include a CTA.
Your YouTube description is a fantastic opportunity to ask viewers to continue to interact with your channel or find further resources that will assist them to learn more about a topic of interest.
For example, let’s say you make a brief “How to add filters to Instagram” YouTube video, however, you also have an in-depth, “How to Use Instagram for Advertising and marketing” blog post — why not link to it in the description? More than likely, anybody who’s viewing your Instagram video on YouTube would be equally grateful for the chance to learn more via a blog post.
Alternatively, maybe you simply need to ask viewers to subscribe, turn on notifications, or share your content with their networks. These are all acceptable CTA’s for your description.
Moreover, it is critical you format your description to make sure you put the most important info first — as Peters advises, “The first 200 characters are above the ‘more’ fold on the description box, so if you want your CTA/link to be seen by the most people, keep it within the first 200 characters.”
After the first 200 characters, your text shall be cut-off, and viewers will need to click on “Show more” to see the rest — so it is vital you make your first 200 characters count.
3. Add your personality.
A YouTube description needs to be fun, and show your brand’s personality or unique voice to an audience. Not like more traditional types of advertising, this is a chance for you to instill creativity and humor into your content.
Brian Dean’s YouTube channel is a good instance of this — his YouTube descriptions usually mirror the way he speaks. The descriptions are candid and casual, and he makes it feel like he is writing to a friend.
YouTube Description Templates
Now that we have covered the basics, check out a few templates you could use to craft compelling YouTube descriptions today.
Templates for Your Channel Description
You may make a playful, easy-going channel ‘About Me’ description, like this one:
Hello, I am [Name]. This is my channel about X, Y, and Z that you could use to develop your business.
If you are a marketer who desires to learn X to get [result, i.e. more traffic to your site], subscribe to my channel.
My channel uploads videos that concentrate on X, Y, and Z. If those sounds like it might be useful for you, please join me!
Alternatively, you may craft a YouTube description that describes what your company does from a third-person point of view, like this one:
Firm A is the worldwide leader in X, Y, and Z. Since 2010, Firm A has been on a mission to [insert company vision or purpose here].
To learn more about A, B, C, subscribe to our channel to stay informed.
Templates for Your Video Descriptions
When you have conducted an internal interview, you may keep your description short-and-sweet to explain your conversation and why it matters to your audience, as well as a CTA:
Hear how our CEO explains the difference between X and Y, and learn best practices for implementing your own technique.
Learn more about X and Y in our course: www.XY.com
Alternatively, if you’d like your description to help new viewers discover your various channels, attempt crafting a description like this one:
Hello there! New to [name of your channel]? If so, this is what you should know — I like [interests related to channel] a LOT, so I utilize this channel to explore X, Y, and Z, to help you [desired result for viewer].
Where else you could find me:
INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/[accountname]
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/[accountname]
LIFESTYLE CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/[accountname]
Join our rising community for new videos each Monday and Thursday!
BUSINESS INQUIRIES
Please contact [PR representative] at [email or phone number].
Lastly, if you want to concentrate on crafting a description that explains what your video is about and incorporates a keyword description, try this:
Hey there! This lesson is part of a free online course. Take the complete course here:www.firm.com/course1
Some people are not sure what X is — at its most basic, X is [brief definition of keyword]. In this video, you will discover ways to X, Y, and Z, to make sure you’re capable of developing your brand online.
Moreover, we’ll clarify how one can keep away from doing A. Typically, A is all it takes to lose a buyer.