Marketing with YouTube
YouTube is so much more than a place to post your videos. It has grown to be a powerful place to market your brand and your expertise. Marketing with YouTube is important for B2B as well as B2C brands.
Some fun facts:
- YouTube is larger than Facebook in terms of active users
- YouTube has the second largest volume of daily searches next to Google
As with every social channel, YouTube is not the right place for every brand. Not everyone has the budget or know-how to create effective video, and not every brand message translates well to video.
I recently asked my network if YouTube works for them as a marketing tool, and comments like this were common: “I post video content to YouTube and have picked up comments and subscribers from outside of my network.”
So, YouTube is a place with lots of active viewers where you have a good chance of expanding your reach. Like any marketing channel, it’s not as easy as just posting video.
The Downside of YouTube
500 hours of new content is uploaded on YouTube every hour. You’ve got a lot of competition. Your video has to be worthy of attention.
Start by understanding the types of videos that are most popular. When I surveyed my network about their YouTube use, it was clear that most people are looking for video that is a worthwhile investment of the time to watch.
What Gets Watched
Research shows these are the most popular types of YouTube videos:
- Tutorials/How-To/Educational/Explainer
- Ask Me Anything (AMA)
- Product Reviews
- Whiteboard Videos
- Listicle/X Best…
- Challenge/Contest Videos
- Unboxing an item/exploring product contents
- Product demo
- Behind the scenes
- Program/event teasers
- Meet the team
- Q&A
- Video blogs (Vlogs)
- Video Podcasts
Of course, what works best is interesting, unique and compelling content.
Marketing with YouTube
Successful marketing with YouTube requires that you consider the channel as a worthy destination. It’s more than your video library.
Take time to set up your YouTube channels as a worthy destination. Be sure to complete your channel profile with keywords and messaging that helps the right people find you there. As with all your marketing, make this channel consistent with the look and feel of your brand online.
As you post videos, complete the information for each that will help people discover your content. Knowing your keywords is as important on YouTube as it is for your website.
Take time to add a video thumbnail that will attract viewers to your content. Leverage YouTube’s built in tools to connect viewers of a video to more of your content.
Be sure to cross promote your video content. Embed your best videos at your website. Promote your channel as well as your content across all of your marketing channels.
