See businesses using YouTube for Business marketing almost everyday? I bet you do. In May 2019 alone, there were 500 minutes of YouTube video uploaded every minute (of course, the range covers everything from “My Cute Cat” to “Reviews” to “Tutorials” and then a lot more than you can handle.
According to SEMRush’s YouTube Statistics for Marketing Strategy, here are a few things worth noting:
- As of 2020, YouTube was the fifth most used social media platform for marketers after Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
- Fashion and beauty-related content such as makeup and skincare tutorials, clothing hauls, and product recommendations are the most popular content on YouTube.
- In 2020, 62% of YouTube users in the U.S. accessed the platform daily and Users in the age group of 15-25 years old make up 77% of all YouTube users.
- YouTube is consistently popular for everyone, no matter the age group.
Further, get this:
- YouTube videos consistently generate traffic for your websites, landing pages, or anything else you can add a URL for.
- YouTube videos are the next best thing to happen to anyone watching, apart from you being there “with them”, “In person”.
- Make a video and you’ll get closer to connecting with someone. More than you can ever do with text or images.
- YouTube has the potential to generate leads & produce revenue for most businesses.
Having said all this, it’s appalling to see just how YouTube is used (or not) by most businesses. Understandably, it’s challenging enough to learn how to use YouTube for business let alone actually creating videos to upload them.
Before getting there, let’s make a few assumptions:
- You have an actual business — where you sell products or services (and you are not a YouTube Influencer, a YouTuber seeking to make money from your YouTube Channel, or someone looking to Monetize your YouTube Channel)
- You are not looking to get rich in a day.
- You are willing to put in the work that’s required (and it’s more than you think, notwithstanding several other things you can’t even share anywhere such as Imposter Syndrome, Camera Shyness, or the lack of will to do videos for a long time without seeing any real rewards (as yet).
Yet, it’s critical to get it right. Here’s the right way to use YouTube for Business marketing. Here’s the right way on How to Use YouTube For Business Marketing:
Set a Primary Purpose For Videos ( With Secondary & Tertiary Options)
You know what the primary purpose for your YouTube videos should be? Make them watch and then click. Your YouTube videos are much like blog content or podcast content and they are created so as to get your viewers’ attention. Then, your videos will make them stay hooked. Finally, you’d want them to click on the links in the YouTube video description and then go somewhere.
What should the CTA (Calls to Action) be? Make them easy, low-friction, and “I got nothing to lose” types of action that your viewers can easily take, right after watching any of your videos.
Some of the calls to action on your YouTube videos could be:
- Sign up for a lead magnet such as a free checklist, an eBook, a white paper, a report, or a handy guide that helps them get from “Point A to Point B”.
- Visit a landing page with a few options on what they could next. Use Unbounce (Get 20% Off), LeadPages, or Instapage to create fantastic, high-conversion landing pages quickly and easily. For instance, if your YouTube video was a primer or some sort, you could have viewers sign up for a complete webinar on the same topic the video was about.
- Have viewers sign up to your online course, membership site, or free access to digital products.
- Let viewers join a community that you manage.
- Allow your viewers to sign up to get more content (not just YouTube videos) from you, exclusively shared just your email marketing list.
The primary purpose of your YouTube video should never be something that induces friction, such as:
- A link to your eCommerce site, hoping they’d buy right away (Instead, look to create a sales funnel — such as one of the ways above — to absorb casual viewers into your marketing system).
- Making them “make a purchase” or “Hard sell” .
However, these are the mistakes almost everyone does with their YouTube Channels. Period.
Make Videos In Strategic Layers (& Use Them As Such)
With business blogging, the usual best practices include creating content in buckets such as:
- TOF, (Top of the funnel) : Usually general pieces of content (still relevant to the niche or the business you are in). This is created to get relevant traffic to your website or landing pages.
- MOF (Middle of the Funnel): Slightly more specific to the type of business you operate in, created to help customers edge more towards your own products or services.
- BOF (Bottom Of the Funnel): Very specific content written with the specific purpose of “converting” casual readers of your blog into email subscribers, free trial users, or to make them take a specific action that’s profitable for your business.
When you create videos for your YouTube Channel, it helps to think in those lines (as in funnel stages) so that your videos match viewer intent.
Make some videos to dispense general information, insights, tips, and advice. Make a few other videos “comparing your products to competition” or create “reviews” to help make your viewers better choices. Finally, create YouTube videos that directly push your viewers to take action (such as any of the above ways for them to click and go to a landing page to sign up).
Build an Audience & Connect (Don’t Always Sell)
Some of the best videos on YouTube (or anywhere else) “Don’t Sell”. There’s never a push. There’s no wailing cries to make you buy anything. There’s no pressure.
Yet, there are millions of subscribers for such channels. Some channels boast of millions of views per month.
Why?
No pressure.
Like the video or subscribe to the channel based on the merit of the video content.
Entertainment? Check
Inspiration? Check
Information? Check.
Insights? Check.
Value? Absolutely check.
Although your main intent is to sell products or services, the videos are meant to help you build an audience, to grow a community, and to develop an audience base who loves you for who you are or the value you provide.
In the world of YouTube (and content marketing), it’s this “Value” that contributes to your growth. Sadly, it’s underrated. It’s the community or the audience that becomes a captive consumer base for you. This is, in effect, the pipeline for:
- Business branding
- To sell products and services ( including online courses, digital products, and memberships)
- Beta users, free trials, or even a consistent MRR for your SaaS product
- A hungry potential customer pool for your Subscription business
- A steady stream of visitors for your blog, your online publication, or maybe just your website.
Read:
Small Business Video Marketing A-Z: The Complete Guide
Fantastic Video Tools For Your Business
How exactly are you using YouTube videos for marketing? How do you use YouTube for Business Marketing? Tell me all about it.
Hey Lisa,
Feels so good to see you here 👋
Your videos had more than 10,000+ views and 100+ comments? Do you realize that you belong to that privileged (but elusive) club of the 1% of the 1% of people who actually create content?
I already know the effort you put into your videos, the SEO part (your TubeBuddy review, remember?), and more.
Branding yes, just off the top of my head: Do you do the following (just off the top of my head)?
— Include links in descriptions (leading viewers to where you want them to go?)
— Did you link your website to YouTube (I think there’s a prerequisite to that)?
— Do you “ask” people — inside the videos — to click on links in the description?
On another note, I don’t see too many of your videos while you write your blog posts. You should consider doing that? Great for SEO and also brings in more traction for your videos themselves?
Love it when I hear from you 😁
Ash
Hi Ash, love your tips here for YouTube. I’d been noticing I don’t generate traffic from YouTube to my blog and was wondering the value of it. And some of my videos had over 10,000 views and 100+ comments.
But now after reading this, I’m thinking it may be a branding effort. I do offer advice in my videos and often share them with clients when questions come up. I really do the videos for that most of the time. Saves me time on the phone 🙂
Hey Ryan,
It’s always awesome to hear from you 👋
It’s so true about everything you’ve pointed out about censoring, and accounts getting banned. Further, there’s also this thing that it takes serious work to get those videos going not to mention the ever-so-long wait to get any decent traction at all.
Businesses are truly leaving a lot on the table by not taking advantage of the views, exposure, the chance to create a community, and potential business profits, like you said.
There’s also the aspect of “Who’ll do these videos, anyway?”. Many business owners and startup founders rarely do anything close to a video. Even if they want to, there’s the “They’ll judge me” or “I am camera Shy” [ Which I still am…😀]
I am going to check out your Youtube Channel today. Will subscribe as well.
Ash
Great post Ash. I think too many bloggers turned their back on YouTube when the site began censoring or even banning accounts. Even though they have every right to do it because they set the rules, people are leaving lots of YouTube views and potential business profits on the table by allowing their bias to move them away to other video sharing platforms. But it is the Google of video and just a monstrous search engine. I still use it and slowly gain traction through the volume of videos I’ve published over there.
Ryan