Understanding How to Use YouTube to Increase Exposure

When it comes to social media, most people initially think of the major players like Facebook and Instagram. YouTube often takes a backseat to some of these more prestigious social media sites but ignoring it could be costing your design business real money. This video-sharing platform is a robust means of marketing your services in the digital age.

 Marketing on YouTube is a great way to entice new clients to pay for your services. It can help you put yourself in front of a new audience and reveal your expertise when it comes to design. Interior design marketing via video is a creative way to boost your revenue and get your brand out in the world. 

Do you want to know how to get more exposure on YouTube? This handy guide will walk you through all of the ways you could get started on the social media platform. 

Benefits of Marketing for Interior Design on YouTube

Marketing for interior design is an endless chore for most solopreneurs. Even if you are lucky enough to have an in-house advertising department, it helps to keep your finger on the pulse of what is going on in your business. 

 YouTube might seem like another item to add to your to-do list but try to reframe the obligation as an excellent marketing tool. 

 What are the benefits of maximizing this social media platform for your interior design business? To start, you get the potential for some pretty heavy traffic on this giant website. People consume an average of 1 billion hours on YouTube daily, which means you are likely to find a few new clients who stumble down the rabbit hole of mindless content consumption.

 Even if you think that your clientele may not be on YouTube, having videos on the platform can boost your ranking on the search engine results pages. Videos can pop up as answers to questions, giving you a new opportunity to get your content in front of your ideal customer for the keywords you want to target. 

Other benefits of marketing on YouTube include:  

• Higher conversion rates from video watchers
• Ability to store and curate a media library that never goes away
• Ability to embed videos into your website
• Opportunity to build your email list
• Use YouTube ads to expand your audience

 The data is clear—YouTube is a social media giant where people go when they want to learn more on a specific topic. If you want to cash in on this trend, you need to start with these nine videos that you won’t want to skip!  

How Are Designers Using YouTube? 

If you want to learn how to optimize your YouTube videos, taking a look at what your competitors are doing can be helpful.  

There are endless possibilities for what you can do with your videos and content marketing. Here are just a few ideas of how interior designers have already started to capitalize on the growing trend of YouTube.  

First and foremost, YouTube can connect you with your audience on a personal level. While you may not want to share all of the details of your life with strangers, YouTube videos allow your audience to get a hint of your personality, expertise, and your brand's history.  

It also showcases work that you have already completed. Schedule a walk-through with one of your clients and do a before-and-after type of video to reveal what a dramatic difference your services can make. A before-and-after video is also a great opportunity to incorporate how-to material that your prospective clients can try out on their own at home.  

For those who have connections with other local businesses, you might interview an expert on a topic that gets lots of questions in your practice. 

Keep track of some of the most common questions clients ask and note them at the beginning of the process or toward the end. These commonly asked questions are a great way to create informative and helpful content, answer client questions, and establish yourself as an expert in this area. 

Use your creativity, and you’ll quickly see how easy it is to develop ideas for video interior design marketing! 

Embed Videos on a Website

One way to maximize the content you produce is to host the videos in more than one location. YouTube automatically stores your videos on its platform, but you can take those videos and also embed them on your website. This is particularly simple if you created your website using the WordPress platform. 

How does it work? 

 Head on over to the YouTube platform and copy the URL of the video you want to place on your website. From here, you go back to your WordPress visual editor and paste the URL in the location you want to see the video pop up. 

 WordPress should do all of the heavy lifting for you, automatically embedding it into your page in a professional and sleek way. Videos are a great way to incorporate your About Us into your website or answer those frequently asked questions more personally. 

Ideally, you could put a new and different video on each page of your website as long as they are relevant. 

Tips for Interior Design Marketing on YouTube

Creating the video might be the first step to navigating this new platform, but more goes into content creation than just filming a video with your smartphone. 

If you want to see the best return on investment for your YouTube channel, you need to follow some of these additional tips.

Write Captivating Descriptions

You already know that using keywords in your website copy is crucial for SEO so that any search engine can find and rank your page. The same concept is true for the description section found on any YouTube video. Think about what keywords or queries you want to target with your new video, and make sure to include them in the description.  

When you aren’t sure what keywords to use, consider using a tool like Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest, Answer the Public, or Google Keyword Planner. This should give you a good idea of what people are searching for before you create your first video. 

Setting Location

Let your clients know where they can find you if they are interested in hiring you for your design services. If you want to learn how to optimize your YouTube videos, start by ensuring that your settings and profile are accurate.  

Having incorrect information on your site is a quick way to lose potential business. On the other hand, including (the proper) location in your profile can be a great way of letting clients know which parts of the world you serve. 

Some designers will work virtually with clients around the globe, so you may still have requests from individual clients outside of your service area. Consider whether you would be able to take on a project like this before you start marketing on YouTube, where anyone from any region in the world can find you. 

Playlists

Playlists are a great way to link some of your content together. Group similar videos that cover a series of related topics into a playlist so that your clients can binge-watch your content. As you continue your marketing for interior design on this platform, your playlists can continue to grow.  

They may be relatively short at first if you only have a handful of videos, but this is something to consider for the long haul. 

Adding Tags

Much like adding hashtags to your other social media posts, you will want to make sure to add tags to your YouTube videos as well.  

Make each one of your tags as powerful and precise as possible because this is how YouTube understands what your video is really about. Take this opportunity to incorporate some of those keywords that you researched in an earlier step.  

Adding tags to a YouTube video is relatively easy. Log in to your YouTube Studio page. Then, add your tags under the description tab in the designated area. Find the video you want and click edit.

End Screens

At the end of your video, you have the option to create an end screen. If you are serious about your interior design marketing, this is another excellent tool to keep viewers engaged with your brand and content.  

You can put thumbnails of other related videos on the end screen that you feel would pair well with the main feature. This detail will encourage your audience to click on one of those thumbnails and consume more content.  

If you don’t have enough relevant video content to fill up your end screen, you can also use it to promote other actions, such as subscribing to the channel or viewing a business partner’s channel. The goal is to get your audience to take some kind of action after watching your video, but they should also spend time interacting with you. 

Using Cards

Cards are another unique feature of the YouTube platform that you may want to use when creating content. Like the end screen, cards aim to get viewers to interact with your content.  

However, they play out while streaming your video instead of waiting until the end of the video (which some users may not stick around for).  

These cards will pop up while they watch a video, usually in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. You can fully control when the cards appear during the video.  

What can a card do for your YouTube marketing? Here are a few ideas to get you started: 

• Promote other videos on YouTube
• Promote other channels on YouTube
• Donate to some cause or organization
• Take a poll
• Link to an approved website

You get to decide which of these types of cards to add to the video. Interior designers can use up to five cards per video, so make sure that you use yours wisely to maximize their impact. You want to use them at times that make sense, but you don’t want to overdo it if there is no natural segue to link to another video or website. 

How to Get More Exposure on YouTube

Are you convinced that utilizing YouTube as another social media outlet could be a revolutionary shift in your business? While there is a lot of competition on YouTube, it can be a great marketing tool for interior design businesses.  

People are watching billions of hours’ worth of content on the platform each week, so it makes sense that you would want to get in on the trend.  

When you’re ready to get started making videos for your business and clients, you need the "Complete Guide to Get Started Creating Video Content" from Behind the Design. Let us help you make the most impact with your videos and get started on the right foot!