YouTube has become the go-to platform to share video content online, which makes it more important than ever to have a YouTube marketing strategy in place if you want to get your business in front of your target audience. There are many reasons why YouTube marketing is important, and these five stand out as the most important ones of all.
Increasing Your Reach:
When you’re starting out in business, it can be very easy to want to push your brand as far and wide as possible. After all, you want everyone on earth to know about your product or service – how else will you get customers? This is where a huge number of new businesses make their first mistake: trying every marketing channel at once, instead of focusing all their efforts on one thing at a time. Think of yourself like a swan gliding elegantly across a lake with its neck stretched out in front and its legs barely moving beneath them. If you try to move too fast, or flap your wings too hard, you’ll lose balance and
fall into the water. Instead, take things slowly and steadily so that everything goes according to plan. The same principle applies when it comes to building up your online presence: if you spread yourself too thin by trying lots of different social media channels at once (especially if they are completely new to you), then there’s a good chance that none of them will work properly for your business. If there are five people working on five different social media accounts for five hours each day over five days per week, then that amounts to 25 hours per week spent managing social media alone! The second reason why using YouTube for marketing is important is because video content has become increasingly popular in recent years. According to ComScore, more than 50% of internet users watch videos online every month – including almost 40% who watch daily – and figures continue to rise year-on-year.
Building Relationships:
Using YouTube as a marketing tool provides you with an incredible opportunity to build relationships with your audience and generate leads. All of which has been proven again and again to increase sales revenue. It also gets people to know, like, and trust you – which is ultimately what any relationship is built on. Think about it: How much more likely are you going to be willing buy something from someone you’ve got a relationship with? And how many relationships do we have in our lives where we can spend a few minutes watching some engaging content? Pretty much zero. So make every relationship count by putting yourself out there on social media – even if it’s just posting clips of your great new app that no one uses yet.
Relationship building on YouTube takes place in three main ways: Commenting and subscribing to other channels allows you to show your interest in them right away – Oh hey! I watched their video. Also, since comment pages often lead to subscribers getting messages directly from broadcasters they follow, it’s a simple way to grow those connections. Retweets allow business accounts that want extra exposure or don’t want their channel name involved (maybe because they’re trying not promote themselves too aggressively) can retweet/share other videos without seeming like self-promotion. This shows up as basically another user sharing information and gives them another level of authenticity without seeming overbearing or trying too hard.
Increasing Brand Awareness:
Viral video campaigns have been known to boost brand awareness by as much as 30 percent. Thanks to its massive user base and global presence, YouTube is easily one of your best bets for marketing. It also offers brands more targeted and cost-effective ways of marketing their product than more traditional ads (see number 6). To put it simply, if you don’t have a YouTube channel and aren’t using it to market your business, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. If that sounds scary or unfamiliar, don’t worry: there are tons of resources out there—we just linked to some great ones above—and services that can help get you started in no time. For example, we recently wrote about why businesses should start making videos . We broke down why they’re an increasingly important part of most companies’ digital strategies , and even offered up a few tips on how to make them effective.
Saving You Money:
The great thing about YouTube marekting is that it’s a very affordable option. Many businesses can get started with very little capital, especially if they’re willing to forgo paid advertising. Creating a regular video series on your channel is inexpensive and allows you to build an organic audience who will likely be interested in your product or service. To get started, you only need some basic equipment—although there are always more creative ways to do things cheaply (using iPhones, GoPro cameras and even an old flip camera). Best of all, when your business grows and you decide to invest in paid advertising options like AdWords, you can transition seamlessly into using them instead.
Building Authority:
While many businesses know about and understand that YouTube can be a valuable marketing tool, most miss out on its benefits because they don’t think about creating content in ways that build authority. If you want your company to get any significant traction on YouTube, you have to produce videos that are informative and engaging, not just promotional. On YouTube, authority is everything. Focus on creating content related to your niche or industry that is as valuable as possible while still building brand awareness and name recognition. To create truly authoritative content, remember these three important factors: quality of information, production value, and frequency of publishing. For example, if you are an accounting firm trying to use YouTube to gain exposure within your industry by offering advice on small business taxes or tax planning strategies, chances are you won’t have much success.
So you must have understood why YouTube marketing is important for your business. However, it is equally important to create the right strategy to promote your YouTube channel so that it can benefit your brand.