YouTube is a powerful tool for marketing. It’s not just videos of kittens or Minecraft. It also has a massive presence of business-related content.
YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine and it’s owned by the 1st largest search engine, Google.
- 1.3 billion people use YouTube
- 5 billion videos are watched every day
- 300 hours of video uploaded every minute
- 80% of people 18-49 watch YouTube
So, when someone types in a search on Google for anything related to your business, why not use YouTube to help market your business?
Almost any type of business can benefit from having videos on YouTube, including a small local business. In fact, a local business has an advantage of being associated with its city of operation. This means that when your videos are about the work you do and doing it in the city you’re in, your ideal clients are more likely to find you.
YouTube is also free. It doesn’t cost anything to publish your videos and thus market your business. There is no other online platform that offers the same level of search traffic and broad reach for promoting your business. Not even Facebook.
So why are videos so effective to market your business?
- Video is, in most cases, easier to consume online. A 2 minute promotional video that tells a story of the business is more likely to be watched than an article is likely to be read. This is why 70% of marketers say that video is responsible for most of their conversions.
- Videos instill trust for your potential clients. Watching a video of someone talking about their business has a greater impact than reading some mission statement.
- Videos show rather than tell. They can show how people enjoy your business, how your business helps others, or any other feature that you use to market your business.
- Videos are share-able. When a video is helpful or entertaining to watch, people can easily share it to others via email or any of the social media platforms. This results in increased marketing that costs you nothing.
In the video below, I explain the 3 types of videos to market your business with YouTube.
It doesn’t cost anything to publish these videos and once they’re made, you just let them do the work for you.
Getting started with marketing through YouTube.
1. Choose your type of video
From the video above, choose one of the 3 types of videos to market your business. Often, people start with a general promo video but this does require more planning. An easier video is a testimonial video if you have a customer willing to participate.
The testimonial or review video can be easy to create: just ask your customer if they’d say something they like about your business. You’ll be surprised how many people are more than happy to do it.
The best way to do this is to make the video with your phone because it’s less likely to make the customer feel like they’re “on camera” and then be inauthentic.
If you do a promotional video, these really should be handled by a professional. It will be worth the investment because you will have this video representing your business for a long time to come. Hiring a video production company should be part of your marketing budget at least once every couple years. If you have the budget for it, get a production company on retainer and make the best use of their time and your money.
2. Audience Research
Understanding what your audience is looking for already takes care of most of the work. To do this, just type into Google what you think your ideal client would type in to find a business like yours. Or ask your current customers what they search for to find you.
These search results will give you clear hints at what your videos should be about and how they should be titled.
This will also give you many ideas for other videos topics to create later on.
3. Video SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is not just for websites, but also for videos, especially on YouTube. All that audience research you did will give you information on how to title your videos and the keywords to use that will not only help promote your video but also effectively market your business.
Some of your competitors are using poorly optimized titles like the name of the business only or something very broad like “roof repair.”
If you have a roofing business, your video could be titled with your location + keyword + company name, so an example would be “Cherry Creek Roof Repair by Smith Roofing.” This is a step in the right direction but taking it further would be to add an adjective: “Fastest Roof Repair in Cherry Creek: Smith Roofing.”
4. Share and Promote
Something we see too frequently is that when a business gets a new video, they embed it on their website and do nothing else. This is fine if your website gets enough traffic already but if you want to prove to Google and YouTube that your video is worth ranking in the search results, do everything you can to get the video viewed.
To do this, share the video as soon as it’s published. Post the YouTube link through whatever social media marketing you’re doing. Share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and all the other social media profiles you can think of. YouTube has a list available under every video in the “Share” section.
Don’t stop there though. Share the video in the comment section under relevant YouTube videos. It’s important to share it authentically though. Don’t be spammy with it. Share it in a conversational way that feels honest and legitimate.
And last, email it out to everyone on your list. When you email it, make sure to include the word “video” in your email subject. By including the word “video” in the subject line, it improves your chances of people opening the email by 19%. People love video!
So what are you waiting for?
You can make the videos yourself or have them made with a production company (like us), but the most important thing is to get started now. To rank well, especially for competitive search terms, it can take a little while, so the sooner you start the better.
And as you publish more videos, your channel gets stronger and it shows Google more reason to offer your business up for the next relevant search. Use YouTube to market your business. Take full advantage of this free resource and more than anything, don’t wait any longer.
