YouTube is the second largest search engine, with over 2 billion customers per thirty days — so it is an undeniably highly effective channel to your advertising efforts.
Nevertheless, if you happen to do not use YouTube to your present advertising technique, you are not alone. In reality, companies select Fb as a channel over YouTube, even for video content material.
In 2018, the HubSpot Academy workforce did not reap the benefits of YouTube, both. However within the latter half of the yr, the workforce feared the key losses in site visitors they might face in the event that they did not hop on board — in order that they carried out a technique that enabled them to develop YouTube subscribers by 25% in simply two months. As a result of YouTube is a search engine, a part of that technique relied on optimizing the movies to extend the possibilities of discoverability.
Probably the most necessary techniques for optimizing your YouTube channel is writing descriptive YouTube descriptions.
YouTube Description
The time period YouTube description refers back to the textual content {that a} content material creator provides to explain their content material, making it simple for YouTube to categorize and serve that content material to customers who’re looking for it. There are two sorts of YouTube descriptions: the general description of the channel and the descriptions for every video you add.
YouTube Channel Description
A YouTube channel description is just like the “About” web page of a web site. In reality, it even seems beneath the “About” tab of your channel’s YouTube web page.
The YouTube channel description is supposed to convey to potential viewers what your content material is about: the subjects you cowl, the themes you sort out, and why. You may not solely have to convey what you focus on but additionally what you deliver to the dialogue and why they need to take heed to you. The objective right here is to show a one-time viewer right into a long-term subscriber and client of your content material. You can add this when organising your YouTube channel.
Along with its major objective of turning viewers into subscribers, this textual content can be crawled by YouTube and will assist your channel get discovered by people who find themselves on the lookout for channels like yours. With that in thoughts, you should definitely use the phrases that you simply assume folks would use to seek for your content material.
YouTube Video Description
The YouTube video description will be discovered beneath the viewport of the video itself.
Whereas the YouTube channel description talks in regards to the physique of video content material that you simply add, every video may even want a novel description to extend the chance of your video getting discovered when somebody is looking for a selected matter.
On this video, the creator summarizes the query being requested and specifies the viewers that the video is supposed for. This article is going to assist audiences (and YouTube) perceive what the video is about. As well as, it is also prime actual property to incorporate contact info and calls to motion.
In the end, if you happen to’re prepared to start utilizing YouTube to draw and convert an viewers, it is important you optimize your video descriptions for search engine marketing. In the event you’re not sure begin crafting compelling YouTube descriptions, preserve studying — right here, we’ll discover numerous techniques you possibly can make use of, and supply templates to make sure you have every part it is advisable to excel on YouTube.
Learn how to Create Compelling YouTube Video Descriptions
1. Use YouTube Description Templates [Free Prompts]
HubSpot has compiled seven YouTube video description templates to assist your enterprise present context to your viewers, rank higher in search, set up your workforce, and hyperlink out to related webpages in your web site.
Obtain These Templates for Free
2. Clarify what your video is about.
To discover one of the best techniques for writing YouTube descriptions, I spoke with Eric Peters, a Senior Progress Advertising Supervisor on HubSpot’s Academy workforce. He informed me, “[YouTube descriptions] is among the major methods YouTube is aware of what your video is about. Embrace hyperlinks, extra sources, hyperlinks to different movies and playlists, and many others. Be certain that the outline field is simple to learn.”
As Peters notes, explaining your YouTube video and incorporating key phrases into your description does not simply assist with search engine marketing rankings — it additionally helps with accessibility for people who find themselves deaf and laborious of listening to. For that cause, including closed captions to your movies is an absolute should, too.
As an illustration, check out certainly one of HubSpot Academy’s YouTube video descriptions:

As you possibly can see, a YouTube description is extremely totally different from an internet web page meta description. In a YouTube description, you’ve gotten the area to go in-depth and clarify what your total video is about, and even hyperlink to exterior sources.
Peters informed me, “You get 5,000 characters whole, so make use of it. Plenty of creators use asterisks or all-caps to distinguish titles from physique copy as a result of it is all plain textual content. Contemplate writing up a textual content model of the important thing factors from the video, and even copying the transcription of the video into the outline.”
3. Embrace a CTA.
Your YouTube description is a improbable alternative to ask viewers to proceed to have interaction along with your channel or discover extra sources that can assist them study extra a couple of matter of curiosity.
As an illustration, as an instance you create a quick “Learn how to add filters to Instagram” YouTube video, however you even have an in-depth, “Learn how to Use Instagram for Advertising” weblog publish — why not hyperlink to it within the description? Greater than seemingly, anybody who’s watching your Instagram video on YouTube can be equally grateful for the chance to study extra through a weblog publish.
Alternatively, maybe you merely need to ask viewers to subscribe, activate notifications, or share your content material with their networks. These are all acceptable CTA’s to your description.
Moreover, it is important you format your description to make sure you put an important info first — as Peters advises, “The primary 200 characters are above the ‘extra’ fold on the outline field, so in order for you your CTA/hyperlink to be seen by the most individuals, preserve it inside the first 200 characters.”

After the primary 200 characters, your textual content might be cut-off, and viewers might want to click on “Present extra” to see the remainder — so it is important you make your first 200 characters rely.
4. Add your character.
A YouTube description ought to be enjoyable, and show your model’s character or distinctive voice to an viewers. Not like extra conventional types of promoting, this is a chance so that you can instill creativity and humor into your content material.
Brian Dean’s YouTube channel is a superb instance of this — his YouTube descriptions usually mirror the best way he speaks. The descriptions are candid and informal, and he makes it really feel like he is writing to a buddy.

To study extra about utilizing YouTube for advertising functions, think about trying out HubSpot Academy’s complete YouTube Advertising course.
YouTube Description Templates
Now that we have coated the fundamentals, check out a number of templates you should use to craft compelling YouTube descriptions at this time.
Templates for Your Channel Description
You would possibly create a playful, easy-going channel ‘About Me’ description, like this one:
YouTube Channel Description Instance
Hello, I am [Name]. That is my channel about X, Y, and Z that you should use to develop your enterprise.
In the event you’re a marketer who desires to study X to get [result, i.e. more traffic to your site], subscribe to my channel.
My channel publishes movies that target X, Y, and Z. If that sounds prefer it might be useful for you, please be a part of me!
Alternatively, you possibly can craft a YouTube description that describes what your organization does from a third-person perspective, like this one:
YouTube Channel Description Instance
Firm A is the worldwide chief in X, Y, and Z. Since 2010, Firm A has been on a mission to [insert company vision or purpose here].
To study extra about A, B, C, subscribe to our channel to remain knowledgeable.
Templates for Your Video Descriptions
In the event you’ve performed an inner interview, you would possibly preserve your description short-and-sweet to explain your dialog and why it issues to your viewers, in addition to a CTA:
YouTube Video Description Instance
Hear how our CEO explains the distinction between X and Y, and study finest practices for implementing your individual technique.
Be taught extra about X and Y in our course: www.XY.com
Alternatively, in order for you your description to assist new viewers discover your numerous channels, attempt crafting an outline like this one:
YouTube Video Description Instance
Hello there! New to [name of channel]? In that case, this is what it is advisable to know — I like [interests related to channel] a LOT, so I exploit this channel to discover X, Y, and Z, that can assist you [desired result for viewer].
The place else you will discover me:
INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/[accountname]
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/[accountname]
LIFESTYLE CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/[accountname]
Be a part of our rising group for brand spanking new movies each Tuesday and Friday!
BUSINESS INQUIRIES
Please contact [PR representative] at [email or phone number].
Lastly, if you wish to give attention to crafting an outline that explains what your video is about and incorporates a key phrase description, do this:
YouTube Video Description Instance
Hey there! This lesson is a part of a free on-line course. Take the complete course right here: www.firm.com/course1
Some persons are not sure what X is — at its most elementary, X is [brief definition of keyword]. On this video, you may discover ways to X, Y, and Z, to make sure you’re in a position to develop your model on-line.
Moreover, we’ll clarify how one can keep away from doing A. Generally, A is all it takes to lose a buyer.
In the end, YouTube description templates may also help you scale back the period of time it takes to add and optimize your YouTube movies, getting them out to your viewers shortly and with much less effort. Simply you should definitely customise the textual content to reinforce the studying expertise since you need to be as useful as potential to your viewers.
Editor’s word: This publish was initially revealed in March 2019 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.