ImagesMagUK_September_2021

www.images-magazine.com SEPTEMBER 2021 images 37 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT ■ Transcripts If your video contains a voice-over, then adding a transcript that provides an accurate copy of what is being said is another way to SEO your content. ■ Tags While tags aren’t visible on YouTube unless you are using specific software or extensions, assigning relevant phrases and keywords using this method is another way to tell YouTube what your video is about. Pro tip: Use browser extensions to identify the tags that your competitors assign to similar videos so that you can copy them. ■ Call to action At the end of your video, always include a call to action that sends watchers to a particular place or asks them to perform a particular action, such as watching the next video or subscribing to your channel. ‘End screen’ attachments on your video is a great way to get views on previously uploaded videos. S imilar to Google, YouTube has its own algorithm to decide which videos to show when a user searches on its website. Understanding these video ranking factors is important – here are some helpful tips. ■ Keyword research The same rules apply as for regular search engines and keywords. Conducting thorough keyword research before creating your videos so you know what search terms are popular in your sector will give you an idea of what content to produce to capture the most searches. ■ Titles Ensure your video’s title is punchy and attention grabbing – don’t make it too wordy! It should be at least five words long and include the keywords you’re trying to target. ■ Thumbnails When it comes to grabbing the searcher’s attention, your video’s thumbnail is arguably more important than your title. If every aspect of your video is SEO’d but your thumbnail image isn’t the best, then no one is going to click! Pro tip: Use customised thumbnails that look professional, and make good use of graphics and text. ■ Description The description box lets you tell searchers what they’re going to see – include any text that is likely to draw them in and prompt them to watch your content. It also presents another chance to include keywords. Pro tip: Expand the information in your description with links to your website and socials, calls to action, and performer bios. SEO tips forYouTube videos F rom our experience, the amount of times someone needs to see our product, hear our news or remember our name before they make an order is seven. That is the reason for our omnipresent approach. Creating content for our business has opened up a lot of opportunities to us, and we repurpose that content for multiple different uses. Let’s find an example of what I mean. Let’s say a new pub opens in town and you want to print their merch. You can tag them in a photo of you drinking at their pub on Instagram (first touchpoint). You could be wearing your uniform from your studio (second touchpoint). You have a chat with them at the bar about how they are getting on in the town (third touchpoint). You follow their new social accounts. Later that week you embroider a jacket for another customer and make a TikTok about it. They will be more likely to be shown this content as you had a digital interaction with them recently (fourth touchpoint). You send an email campaign about your latest embroidery job and mention a blog post all about how to order merch for a team (fifth touchpoint). You leave a little freebie with them, such as a mini Squeegee keychains – they post about it on Facebook (sixth touchpoint). Finally, they keep noticing your little branded car nip around the local area (seventh touchpoint). They are essentially primed to buy from you now as they know your name, you have built a rapport, and they trust you You have to tell them seven times! have done a good job for a similar business. When I get out of my branded car, I’ll take off my embroidered jacket to reveal my screen printed shirt and give out engraved Squeegee keychains around town. It might be a bit crass, but I don’t care as our shameless advertising has resulted in a profitable and unstoppable small business with customers whom I actively seek out, instead of waiting to see who turns up at the door. And that pub? It just put in an order for 500 shirts and we were the only company they went to for a quote. Chessie Rosier-Parker is director and studio manager of Squeegee & Ink, a screen printing and embroidery studio that also provides pre-exposed screens and film to printers along with tutorial videos and resources. www.squeegeeandink.co.uk/ learn-to-screen-print Joel Dear is from ETrader, one of the industry’s leading suppliers of websites to garment decorators across the UK. www.etraderwebsites.co.uk