Are you planning to run YouTube creator marketing campaigns over the summer? In this blog post we cover the best practices of how to run successful campaigns over the summer months. And if not, think again. In our previous blog, we covered why not doing creator marketing over the summer is a big mistake as viewing patterns differ considerably from linear television.
Introduction
As discussed in our previous post, viewership on YouTube does not really decline during the summer. However, this does not mean there aren’t any differences in how viewers behave compared to the rest of the year.
Here are the four big things to take into account when preparing your creator campaigns for the summer.
1. Plan for Mobile First
In today’s digital landscape, mobile viewing has become increasingly dominant, and this trend intensifies during the summer. People spend more time outdoors, engaging with content on their phones.
To optimize the success of your YouTube creator sponsorships, make sure to plan for a mobile-first experience. While this is a given for app businesses, companies typically relying more heavily on desktop traffic should put further emphasis on their mobile user experience during this time.
Optimize landing pages, websites, and any promotional materials to ensure they are visually appealing and function seamlessly on mobile devices. By delivering a seamless and enjoyable mobile experience, you’ll capture the attention of viewers and enhance the impact of your sponsorship.
Not all viewers will be only on mobile the whole summer long though. Viewership will still happen on other devices such as connected TVs and computers as well.
This is why we also recommended adding QR codes in the sponsored content so people can access your promotion on mobile more easily. This is especially useful for mobile app advertisers. Matchmade can add QR codes automatically so that the code is individualized for each creator and contains all necessary tracking information.
2. Book Creators Early Enough
Summer is a popular time for vacations and travel, and YouTube creators are no exception. It’s crucial to book creators for your campaigns well in advance, taking into consideration their availability during the summer months.
By reaching out early, you can secure partnerships with the right kinds of creators and ensure that they have sufficient time to integrate your brand’s message seamlessly into their content.
If you do not already work with Matchmade, we can help you hire creators at scale in an automatic and efficient way for the summer so you don’t need to spend time on building creator lists, doing massive outreach ahead of time, etc.
3. Provide Additional Value to Viewers
During the summer months, there is often less urgency among viewers. To counter this, it’s essential to provide additional value to them so they are motivated to act.
Limited-time discount codes or exclusive deals can work extremely well in this period. This not only encourages immediate action but also creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity. By offering extra value and creating a compelling narrative, you can increase viewer engagement and the likelihood of conversions.
4. A Golden Opportunity for Gaining Market Share
Many brands (incorrectly) assume that YouTube campaigns do not make sense during the summer. This is because they think YouTube follows similar patterns compared to linear TV advertising.
This misconception means it is a perfect opportunity for you to get ahead of competitors!
Investing in creator sponsorships and YouTube ads more heavily during the summer can help you increase your share of voice massively versus the competition, and efficiently bring you more paying customers that you might have a hard time reaching in other periods due to competitors also hitting them with ads.
Enjoying Your Well-earned Vacation Shouldn’t Mean Stopping Everything
With these best practices in mind, you’re well on your way to a successful and engaging summer sponsorship campaign on YouTube. However, best practices are worth nothing if there is nobody to actually run the campaigns. So how do you deal with vacations in the best way?
Summer can be an extremely valuable period to run campaigns in, and you shouldn’t be held back by the lack of in-house resources. However, the reality is that most influencer marketering teams have limited resources.
This means that while you are away, there is little or no help available for finding new creators, outreach, reviewing content, handling payments, and more. The lack of resources can lead to creator campaigns getting halted due to vacations.
You deserve more of what’s on the left, rather than the right
This is where Matchmade can help. We can help you hire even hundreds of creators in a matter of hours, and handle the entire creator marketing workflow for you – from finding creators to pricing, contracts, briefings, content reviews, and payments. You can relax on your well-earned holiday while feeling secure your campaigns are taken care of.
If you want to see how we can help take your influencer marketing campaigns further during the summer and beyond, get in touch.