Let’s start with the facts:
YouTube is the third most visited site in the word, right after Google and Facebook. The site gets over a billion unique users visiting on a monthly basis, and their viewership base is helped along by the sheer number of videos they offer, with more coming in: a 100 hour’s worth every minute, according to them. If you’re a US based business, Nielsen ratings identify YouTube as reaching more US adults (18-34) than any US cable network, and you can also reach a world-wide audience easily, what with 80% of the traffic coming from outside the country. When it comes to accessibility and global reach, YouTube “is localized in 61 countries and across 61 languages.”
With millions of subscribers, it’s virtually impossible not to have a significant population of your target market included in the YouTube tribe. When you include videos in your marketing strategy, you’ll be adding an enormously powerful tool and YouTube’s brand to work in your corner. In conjunction with Google ad platforms (Google bought the company in 2006), there are thousands of channels making money for their content-creators. You won’t be limited to laptops and desktop user, since the videos are also available on mobile device platforms.
Another good thing is that you’ll have a form of copyright protection built in with YouTube’s Content ID system, which filters identical files uploaded by other members and checks them for matches.
What can you do with YouTube?
Inform, educate, respond. You can teach your customers how to get the most out of your products. If your knowledge documentation isn’t their cup of tea (TL; DR), you can offer videos to show them the actual ins and outs of using your product. You can also update them on new developments in your niche to help them plan for the mid-term and the future.
Give a human touch. Responding to viewer feedback helps you keep the lines of communication open between you and your subscribers, and helps you keep a weather eye on the pulse of the market. With a possible world-wide audience, you can be exposed to new information that can help you improve your business, even make new friends and contacts, and help you keep connected. By getting feedback,subscribers, and followers, you increase your market saturation.
Increase traffic to your website. As stated earlier, YouTube is not just limited to desktops. After refining your SEO and content strategy, you can reach people on their mobile devices, and if they want to learn more you can direct them to your site where they can sign up for newsletters or buy things right off the bat.
What you don’t need.
A big advertising budget. This isn’t TV, this is the internet. By this time you’ve probably watched enough amateur-made videos on your own to appreciate the work done behind the scenes (good lighting, clear videos, clear audio recording, no mumbling when voice-overs are used) and in the videos (pacing, logical progression, focused messages, clear, graphics and examples, engagement) to determine that it’s not the money behind them that makes videos memorable. You want to showcase your products? You want to spread your brand? You use brains, creativity, ingenuity and chutzpah as your currency.
What can you do on YouTube?
Well, aside from letting it host your videos, YouTube enables you to reach a global audience. From expanding your brand awareness outside your country, you get to bring your market closer via the internet. Online shops and digital delivery (instant downloads) make it easy to turn a profit in conjunction with sales funnels and ad revenue.
You can make your own infomercials and presentations for seminars related to your industry and products: the infomercials for education and marketing, the seminars for educational and networking purposes. With time at a premium, fewer and fewer people have enough free time or energy to go through online documentation to solve their problems. Videos can deliver information in shorter, data-intense presentations.
That being said, having established your channel will also leave you open to feedback, reactions and criticism (as well as the occasional spammer and troll.) If you have a solid code of conduct for communication you’ll know how to handle the negative aspect of the medium, and foster positive customer relations. The positive things customers say about your product, brand or company are testimonials. The negative things, grounded in reason and not just trollish attack, are opportunities for you to learn and improve, as well as show your professionalism and commitment to strong customer relationships.
YouTube is part of social media, as is Twitter and Facebook. Using your social media accounts makes for a cross-platform net that helps make you more accessible. You can reach people vie tweets to invite them to see your latest video, showcase it on your Facebook page, and draw interested viewers in via the recommendations through re-tweets and likes. People who like your videos can go visit your website via redirection options within the videos themselves. You can channel the flow of viewers and move subscribers into being customers and fans.
How to do good videos.
Fit in with the needs of the time-starved: keep things short, simple and as clear as possible. If the subject demands more time, you can always deliver your presentation in several parts, with one long version as an option for those who prefer to watch things in one go. It’s also a good thing to end videos with a call to action. If they liked it, viewers can be encouraged to like, share, subscribe or spread the word. You can ask them to check out your other videos or visit your website. 4000 watch hours on youtube