YOUTUBE MARKETING TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS

YOUTUBE MARKETING TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS

We've all heard about how important it is to optimize your marketing strategy on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, but there's one website out there that doesn't get as much attention: YouTube.

YouTube is an incredible resource that is genuinely underutilized, but with the proper marketing strategy, you can use this lack of competition to your advantage.

 Now is a great time to start a YouTube marketing strategy.

Video Marketing is the perfect way to capture an audience, specifically on mobile platforms. Videos provide a more engaging way to tell your brand story and connect with your audience.

Utilizing YouTube to promote your business comes with tons of benefits.

You're likely to reach new audiences, and since the service is free, it's a budget-friendly way to expand your reach. Since Google owns YouTube, YouTube videos rank high in search results, so you'll likely see a significant boost in your SEO results.

Your community will become more engaged, and it's easy to get inspiration from others in your industry.

Here are 7 Reasons to Market Your Business on YouTube

1. Make Your Business Reach to A New Audience

If you don’t currently have a YouTube channel, you will be tapping into an entirely new audience by getting one. Billions of people use the site for all kinds of purposes, and while some of your customers may prefer their information in written form, there will be others partial to a video or two.

It’s also free to upload videos to YouTube, which means you can be broadcasting to that potential audience of billions without paying a dime for the privilege.

2. Boost Your SEO

As noted earlier, because Google owns the platform, YouTube gets preferential treatment when it comes to the search engine’s ranking system. Many use YouTube as another way of really asserting themselves on the first page of Google - a key aim for musicians and public figures, as well as companies that attract a fair amount of direct traffic.

YouTube is a search engine itself, and a pretty good one at that. In fact, its market share quadruples that of its four biggest competitors’ combined.

Use tags when uploading videos to help you rank better for desired terms and see your views grow.

3. It’s Made For Specific Content

People take to videos because they want a specific query answered in a particular way.

Let’s take the example of someone who went to a concert two years ago and wants to relive that incredible night. Are they more likely to find what they’re after in an online review of the performance, or do you think they’d be more interested in seeing a recorded video of the concert?

YouTube and video help tell your brand’s story.

Even B2B companies should understand the benefits of assets like product demos, explainer videos, and “how-to” type content.

4. Video Marketing Is Big Business

Creating a video that attracts thousands of viewers every week might seem like an ambitious goal for businesses that don’t think their products or services are exciting enough to rack up a lot of views.

The truth is, any YouTuber can drive traffic to their channel, provided they’re solving a specific issue.

Craig Heffernan of Heffernan Construction in Erie, Pennsylvania probably didn’t have his eye on worldwide acclaim when he first uploaded a tutorial on “How to Build a Ground Level Deck” in 2013. His video is okay - the music isn’t great, and the shots could be better. An example of the editing at play is present in the opening frame:

Despite its flaws, the video imparts some excellent advice on the topic at hand.

The result?

YouTube rewards relevant content with high rankings and Craig’s reasonably unassuming clip has nearly three million views to date. He monetizes the clip even further by promoting coupons for home improvement giant, Lowes.

Whether Craig had “video marketing” in mind before shooting this one is unclear.

One thing we can be sure of is that companies can generate a generous amount of awareness for their brand without spending any money. Remember to always have your customer in mind before creating your video. 

5. Great Community Engagement

The chance to build a following on YouTube is the chance to build a community. If people like what you publish, they’ll subscribe to your channel to keep track of the latest videos. That breeds an online community, which represents a swell of people that like what you do.

To engage a community is to build trust, advocacy, credibility and loyalty around your brand. YouTube has made stars out of so many people by giving them a platform to showcase why they’re worthy of someone’s attention.

From there, a brand is constructed.

A good way of getting things started with community engagement would be to circulate a survey around your most popular channel of communication (a big email list, a social media page or even in your store) to see what things people might want from your channel. You can then encourage the audience to send in their questions at the end of your videos and use these to build follow-up pieces.

6. It Converts

One thing we can’t sidestep is the cost associated with producing videos on a regular basis, combined with the likelihood of ROI from that investment. Some people will tell you YouTube isn’t worth the effort, yet many pieces of research outline some good will come of marketing products with the right approach.

YouTube converted more than Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Facebook led the pack at a rate of 1.85% (the rate at which a social referral converted), but YouTube converted leads at a rate of 1.16%.

For converting YouTube business and building your channel, here are five things worth noting:

• Solve people’s problems - Be like Craig Heffernan and focus on content that solves people’s issues. You will naturally attract an audience.
• Focus on building a community - Use your audience to get inspiration for new videos. This will allow you to build a following while ensuring your content calendar is full of ideas.
• Measure your investment - Keep an eye on your subscribers or views, but also on your site analytics to see how many referrals YouTube is providing. Compile weekly reports to keep track of your progress.
• Don’t invest too much - Some brands will never go back to YouTube after spending thousands of dollars on a trial run. Try to keep things cost-effective in the short term to avoid unnecessary pressure while you’re trying things out.
• Create a pathway - Don’t expect any site traffic or conversions to come from your videos unless you’ve included information that allows people to act on what you’re saying. Links in your video descriptions will help, along with mentions of products or services in your clips.

Hopefully now you are convinced by the potential power of YouTube marketing.