Watching online videos already accounts for one-third of all internet activity.
Video content is most definitely one of the most prominent online marketing trends out there right now. And it’s no wonder: Videos receive a 157% increase in organic traffic from search engines. Videos are a powerful marketing tool — even more so when they are posted on YouTube. Google seems to prefer YouTube videos over any other platform when filtering search results.
When YouTube was created in 2005, surely no one could have imagined just how important the video-sharing platform would become to marketers around the world. Just behind Google, YouTube is one of the world’s largest and most important search engines. This means a great video can not only attract new customers but also boost your SEO ranking as well as general online presence and prominence.
At BusySeed, we use YouTube as part of many of our clients’ social media marketing strategies. We love to use YouTube for clients that have products or services that can easily be incorporated into a storyline. When we are not helping clients to create their own videos to share on YouTube, we often use influencer marketing to raise hype around a product or service.
Although YouTube may not be the first social network that comes to mind when considering a social media marketing strategy, it is just as important as Facebook or Instagram. The video-sharing platform hosts over a billion users and should be especially attractive for businesses looking to reach a younger, hipper consumer base since YouTube reaches more people between the ages of 18 to 49 than any U.S. cable network.
While the statistics are convincing, actually developing and implementing a social media marketing strategy on the platform can seem overwhelming. The general idea may seem simple: create quality videos, post them on a regular basis and grow a larger consumer base. But 400 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute of every day. It can be difficult to stand out from your competition, but there are steps that even small businesses can take. In my opinion, one of the easiest things you can do as a small business to effectively partake in advertising on YouTube is to partner with an influencer.
Influencer Marketing
Before making a purchase, only 33% of individuals do not research online. A lot of this research takes the form of watching videos like testimonials, reviews or product demos. On YouTube, a lot of this type of content is produced by online influencers.
There are a number of different platforms to help facilitate working relationships with companies and individual influencers. When trying to find the perfect influencer for advertising on YouTube, there are a few different things to consider. First of all, find an influencer that shows interest in your industry. For example, wellness brands will probably have a better match and see more results from a fitness blogger than a gaming channel would.
Before committing to one influencer, take a look at their content. Do they post regularly? How much interaction do they receive on their videos? How is their like-dislike ratio? If possible, take a look at one of their previously sponsored videos and see how their viewer base reacted.
Younger generations greatly prefer online social influencers over the traditional celebrity you may see on TV doing testimonials. Of teenage YouTube users, 40% say digital influencers know them better than their friends. And 60% of the same group reported that influencers have an influence on their purchasing decisions. Not to mention, more than 80% of people trust reviews online as much as personal recommendations.
If you do decide to partner with an influencer, there are a lot of different types of videos you can create to help increase awareness about your business as well as its products. Unboxing videos are certainly a craze on YouTube. These videos highlight influencers opening different packages and showing what’s inside while saying a few words about each product. There are currently more than 70 million that appear on YouTube when you search “unboxing.”
These videos are great for raising awareness about your brand and especially for boosting product sales. If your main priority doesn’t revolve around product sales but rather the general perception of your brand, consider featuring interviews with industry leaders, behind-the-scenes content or customer testimonials.
YouTube Ads
Businesses are also able to create normal advertisements that appear in search results as well as before and during YouTube videos. There are currently four main types of ads available for businesses on YouTube: TrueView, pre-roll, bumpers and display ads.
TrueView ads are skippable and pay-per-view. Pre-roll ads are non-skippable, pay-per-click videos placed before a regular YouTube video. And bumpers are non-skippable, pay-per-view ads placed before a YouTube video.
In addition to these ads, there are less common formats like overlay ads, which are semi-transparent overlay still ads that appear near the bottom of a video. Sponsored cards are the last option marketers have for ads on YouTube. Viewers are shown the card for a few seconds and have the option to click an icon in the right corner of a video to browse all cards.
Video ads are best for storytelling marketing geared toward generating more interest in your company. Still ads, like overlay ads or sponsored cards, are best if your business is focusing on increasing sales for a specific product or sharing a specific brand message.
Currently, only 9% of American small businesses have a YouTube presence. Get involved now, and stay ahead of all of your peers.
From: Forbes
