Most of our chemistry jokes get no reaction anyways… 😏
Starting a Saturday morning with science puns can only mean one thing: it’s time for our next Brand Breakdown with KiwiCo! 🔬
Today, we’re taking a detailed look at their YouTube channel—a virtual playground for kids, full of videos about how to make magnetic slime, frog tongue fun facts, and where balloons go.
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 Brand Breakdown Part 3: KiwiCo (Organic YouTube)
📦 Creating ad campaigns like the pre-iOS 14.5 days with Black Crow AI
📦 Making the best content from the best creators with minisocial
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
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KiwiCo’s not just making awesome science vids. 👩🔬
They’re also doing a lot of technical things right when it comes to optimizing their YT channel for success! 👇
✅ A variety of on-brand video content
One of the first things KiwiCo gets right with their YouTube channel is publishing a wide variety of content that appeals to their core audience: science-curious kids and their parents.
They have videos about everything from:
Plus, all their content is on-brand and created with their audience in mind.
Every video involves other kids, and most are around 5-8 minutes, which is probably about right for the average 7-year-old’s attention span (and hey, probably an adult’s, too). 👌
Overall, we love seeing that KiwiCo puts out a balance of purely value-driven videos AND content that features the products they sell.
By focusing on providing value, education, and entertainment (and not just trying to sell something in every video) they’re not only winning over the eyeballs of curious kiddos but also the hearts of their parents.
✅ Regular posting
Another major key to growth on YouTube is publishing consistently. Putting out killer content regularly is one of the biggest factors that will make someone hit that holy “Subscribe” button. 👍
KiwiCo seems to do a pretty good job of this. They post videos about every 1-2 weeks or a few times per month. That may be enough to keep their specific audience engaged (most kids are probably not bingeing hours of YouTube videos every day, but…you never know these days 🤷).
However, mileage may vary for every brand in terms of what kind of regularity your audience wants to see.
✅ Engaging thumbnails
Thumbnails are the first thing viewers see when deciding whether or not to watch your video, so they can literally make or break a vid’s success.
The keys to a good YouTube thumbnail are:
You can see how KiwiCo really nails all three aspects in their recent thumbnails. 👀
It’s also interesting to look at some of KiwiCo’s older thumbnails that aren’t as optimized and see what a difference it makes! Which ones would you click on??
Keep reading to learn how KiwiCo is optimized for SEO and native search and how they promote across channels. 👇
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✅ Optimized for SEO and native YouTube search
No matter how good your videos are, your YouTube channel won’t grow to its full potential unless people can find it.
Search optimization is just as important for videos as it is for your web pages and blog posts – in fact, maybe even more so…
Turns out, Google really likes YouTube videos. They show up in 70% of the top 100 Google search results . YouTube has also become its own search engine of sorts, and its algorithm also favors content that’s optimized for keywords. 🤷♀️
KiwiCo has its head in the search game, as most of its (recent) YouTube content is fairly optimized.
🔎 Let’s look at an example. With this video, we could assume KiwiCo is probably targeting the keyword “how to make dinosaur soap” (which is quite a niche, we must say).
Based on YT best practices for SEO…
Titles should include your target keyword and be no more than 100 characters. ✔️
Video descriptions should include:
KiwiCo only has one hashtag in their description. However, since relevant tagging can improve rankings in YouTube and Google search, and can also help content show up in suggested videos, they may want to incorporate a more robust tagging strategy.
Some tagging tips:
For example, depending on their keyword targeting, KiwiCo’s tagging strategy for this vid could look something like…
#howtomakedinosaursoap #KiwiCo #homemadesoap #oneingredientsoap, #kidssoaptutorial #glycerinsoap #allnaturalsoap #scienceexperimentforkids
✅ Promotion across channels
KiwiCo also does something else really well: they cross-promote their YouTube content on their website and other channels (especially in blog posts).
For example, in a blog post, “15 Activities to Fill Summer Downtime with Discovery,” KiwiCo features several YouTube videos on the list that give tutorials on how to do each activity.
This is a fantastic way to drive traffic to their YT from other channels, and also strategically repurpose content that’s already been created! 🙌
💡 Further observations and suggestions
It’s clear KiwiCo is doing a lot of things right with their YouTube channel. They’re creating engaging content for their unique audience that’s also optimized for clicks and views. Just watch one of their videos and try not to smile, we dare ya.
However, we did find one (potential) area of improvement…
👉 Videos are lacking engagement. Comments are turned off for KiwiCo’s videos. This could definitely be a strategic brand play to protect the integrity of the videos for the kiddos watching. But for other brands that aren’t so concerned about keepin’ it PG, engagement is something to optimize because YouTube uses likes, comments, and replies to help determine where videos rank in its search results.
We hope you enjoyed this deep dive into KiwiCo’s YouTube channel. Now excuse us while we go launch some pumpkins…
We hope you’ve enjoyed our KiwiCo Brand Breakdown! Do you know a brand you think deserves the spotlight? Reply to this email with your ideas! 👋
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DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight, Jordan Gillis, and Kelsey Hess. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.
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