By Meenakshi July 6, 2022
No matter how great your campaign or thought is, if your collaborators aren’t able to deliver content that is up to the mark you expect, it’s going to be a disaster. Fortunately, there are a couple of steps you can take right at the beginning to ensure you have only the crème de la crème of YouTubers, ones that are aligned with your brand values, niche, and cater to similar audiences.
Now that you’ve penned an exciting campaign and made up your mind to collaborate with YouTubers, here are some things to keep in mind when shortlisting potential content creators.
This one is a no-brainer, yet surprisingly remains unchecked off to-do lists. Think about it –– would you stick around till the end of a video that was blurry, with unsteady shots, poor lighting, and/or sound? Yeah, no, thanks!
It’s important to make sure your YouTuber knows the ins and outs of how to plan, shoot, and edit their videos well. They don’t even have to be professional photographers or videographers just as long as they know how to maintain the quality of their videos.
One of the most important factors to pay close attention to when shortlisting YouTubers – engagement rate of their channel(s). The higher the engagement rate (in percentage), wider the reach of their content, which you can leverage if you decide to collaborate with them.
Anything between the range of 3.5% & 6% is considered a good engagement rate.
Considering YouTube is a platform that relies more on visual cues than text, it is important for your ideal YouTuber to have a strong aesthetic sense that is prominent on their channel. Consistency in colors, designs, patterns is something to look out for. Depending on your requirement, you’d want clean, classy visuals or young, quirky designs.
The YouTubers you select must absolutely belong to a niche industry or category, one that is parallel to your own. Sometimes, you might find that a YouTuber with relatively fewer followers brings better results than one with a much larger follower-reach. This may be due to the former having carved out a niche for themselves in the industry, which may have earned them a majority of the followers which, in turn, belong to said industry or share similar interests. The other YouTuber, with more subscribers, may be entertaining a broader spectrum of interests, and can lead to dilution of your communication.
Original content – one of the reasons that will lure in viewers every time a YouTuber uploads a new video. In order for your collaboration to be successful, the YouTubers you select must have originality of thought, which may be reflected in their content, the shooting / representation of said content, in editing, and more.
When selecting potential collaboration partners, pay close attention to the consistency with which they upload new content. Once a week is a good starting point, and ensures the sustenance of a healthy engagement rate.
