Why YouTube Should Be Part of Your Marketing Strategy

This June, over 70,000 people descended upon the Anaheim Convention Center in California for VidCon, an annual conference for fans and creators of online video, as well as industry professionals.

Swarms of screaming teens are a common sight at VidCon, where YouTube’s biggest stars like Liza Koshy, Joey Graceffa and Patrick Starrr make appearances. If you’re not familiar with these names, it’s time to get familiar. These creators have a combined 40 million YouTube subscribers, and they’re just three examples among hundreds of ‘YouTubers’ that have enormous audiences.

Their influence is proving more powerful than traditional celebrities. In a campaign last year with Beats by Dre, Koshy’s digital ads for the brand received four times more clicks than similar ads with traditional celebrities like Tom Brady.

Is a YouTube strategy right for your business? Here are some things to consider.

Where’s Your Audience?

It’s no secret that YouTube commands attention — one billion hours of video are watched every day on the platform. In a recent Pew Research Center survey, teens aged 13-17 listed YouTube as their top internet platform ahead of Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook.

Is your target audience spending more time on YouTube than any other platform?

If YouTube is a key platform for your business, you’ll want to consider whether you want to own a channel or partner with YouTube creators who can carry your message. Starting a channel and producing consistent content is an investment. But, if you’re able to create videos that truly engage your audience, you’ll have built an effective platform for sharing product news, gathering feedback, keeping your brand on people’s minds, and getting discovered.

Beardbrand, a company that sells men’s grooming products, has been creating content on YouTube since 2012. Each week they release videos on beard maintenance, hair tutorials, and barbershop videos in order to help men around the world with their daily grooming. This strategy has helped them build a loyal community of close to 800,000 subscribers who are all within target audience for their line of products.

Instead of owning a channel, you might decide to leverage an existing YouTube community that aligns with your brand. Revolve Clothing, a popular online women’s retailer, partners with high profile YouTubers such as Jenn Im and Jackie Aina — they’re modern day spokespeople who not only wear Revolve’s clothes but share their behind-the-scenes experiences at Revolve’s sponsored events and trips. Im and Aina’s channels both boast over 2 million subscribers, who anxiously seek recommendations on what to where, where to shop, and what to buy.

Are You Partnering with the Right Influencers?

Influencer marketing might already be part of your marketing strategy, but does your roster consist of only bloggers or Instagrammers?

One of the benefits of partnering with YouTubers is that videos are evergreen. If you partner with a YouTuber and have your product or brand featured in a video, that video is easily accessible via search or within their channel. A partnership with an Instagrammer may have a much shorter lifespan. Each Instagram story post lasts only 24 hours, while a photo on the Instagram feed quickly falls off the main gallery and is rarely found through search.

When creating your influencer marketing lineup, consider how your audience prefers their content. Are they reading blogs, or do they prefer watching a 3-5 minute YouTube video?

Also, think about which platform best showcases your brand or product. Unboxing videos are a popular genre on YouTube, where creators show off and commentate on the latest tech gadgets, like a smartphone. Video is an ideal medium for showing off products like this; it’s much easier to help audiences visualize a smartphone’s functionality in a video than it is through a written blog with static photos.

Creating Quality Videos is More Accessible than Ever

Creating a video in the past may have seemed like a daunting task, however, making videos has become more accessible than ever. You can gather quality footage with an entry-level DSLR or the camera on your smartphone. Free and affordable editing software, along with step-by-step video tutorials on YouTube and sites like Udemy, make editing accessible too. Most of today’s top YouTubers started off working alone with a simple set-up. Making videos for YouTube no longer has a high barrier to entry.

Will you be incorporating YouTube into your upcoming marketing strategy?

—

We hope you enjoyed this promoted piece from filmora.io as much as we did!