Tips to make the most from YouTube for your business

When formulating social media strategies for our clients, one of the first areas we evaluate is their participation on YouTube.  Typically most companies will upload videos for imbedding into blogs or other multimedia and archived afterward.  But YouTube is a phenomenal social media opportunity that can be used creatively to promote your business or product.  You can build both niche authority and digital community by sharing and participating actively on YouTube.

It is a formidable network.  YouTube statistics released by Google this year revealed that more than sixty hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.  Four billion videos are viewed daily and over three billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube.  If you need more evidence of the audience size of YouTube and marketing potential, Google confirmed that in 2011 there were more than one trillion views. From a social media standpoint, YouTube is an infinite audience with a large level of user engagement and one that should not be ignored.

Few companies know how to make their YouTube channel part of their strategic marketing, but recognise its importance and potential. New changes also allow businesses to sell through their YouTube account, which is an excellent opportunity for sales or free incentive downloads such as whitepapers or informative podcasts.   It simply takes some creative thinking to revision your presence on YouTube to maximise your promotional benefit.

Customise Your Background

It is true that “what’s on the inside” matters. But in marketing, what is on the outside also matters equally.  Consistency in branding is fundamentally important.  You are building imagery that will convey a professional image if your brand is consistent across all channels including your website, social media profiles and advertising.  YouTube makes it easy to upload a custom image background which should feature your logo and contact information if it is to be effective.

Customise your YouTube background or theme in five steps.

1)     Click on your profile name

2)     Edit channel

3)     Channel settings

4)     Appearance

5)     Background (browse to upload file)

While this may seem like a small change it is one that leaves a very positive impression for all visitors to your YouTube channel.  And since you are going to be using it with more frequency, looks do matter.

Selling on YouTube

Did you realise that you can sell your products or services through YouTube? While there is no cart feature directly in YouTube, there is a nice business build-in that allows you to link to products or services that are featured on other commerce or online stores. If you have a product that you wish to promote, create an informative video or presentation and provide a direct link to the item via the YouTube store. This is an underutilised function that more businesses should explore to drive sales on Amazon, Café Press and Topspin.

Frequently Asked Questions

Look at the YouTube channel as an opportunity to communicate directly with existing clients and new customers.  If you are comfortable creating videos, consider introducing a staff member to address some frequently asked questions regarding your products or services.  The user comments will generate additional feedback from your customers and encourage sharing.  Don’t forget that relevant information provided on YouTube can be archived for future use, including imbedding in blogs or referenced in other social media feeds such as Facebook or Twitter to enhance content. As long as the content remains relevant it has intrinsic value for the long term as a reliable and reusable information resource, and is well worth the investment.

Contests and Promotions

Tap into the potential of viral video. Customers are likely to share a link on YouTube that provides information regarding a promotional incentive or contest.  If you are planning a campaign to provide free content or promotional items, consider the creation of a video to communicate the contest terms as well as draw viewership and participants.

An example of this is the videos we created for motors.co.uk. These videos were used as part of an integrated marketing strategy, using videos to drive engagement via their Facebook Page.

Always ensure that your YouTube posts are keyword and SEO tooled to refer traffic back to your website and other social media feeds. Working in conjunction with other social media measures, the YouTube channel can support your informatics, brand communication, customer service and promotion.

Did you know that Generate UK can provide quality videography for custom projects and campaigns? Check out our YouTube! channel for examples of our work.

About Mike

Hello, thanks for visiting our blog. I spend far too much time online, messing around with Twitter, LinkedIn, Empire Avenue and pretty much any other platform that takes my attention. My role is to work with our customers to ensure they have a joined up objective based digital marketing strategy… No digital marketing strategy? Let’s talk…

Comments

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments

About Mike

Hello, thanks for visiting our blog. I spend far too much time online, messing around with Twitter, LinkedIn, Empire Avenue and pretty much any other platform that takes my attention. My role is to work with our customers to ensure they have a joined up objective based digital marketing strategy... No digital marketing strategy? Let's talk...