Weekly News: YouTube Marketing
YouTube is currently the second most-widely used search engine in the world.
We have mentioned in one of our marketing articles that video marketing is one of the hottest methods to communicate brand messages to the audience. Furthermore, one of the most popular channels for sharing video content is YouTube.
Undeniably, YouTube has experienced explosive growth since it was founded in 2005. Since then, the channel has opened up avenues for brands to advertise on their videos and, in turn, let content creators earn a living just by making videos. Currently, YouTube has over 1.9 billion monthly active logged-in users.
With the overwhelming number of accounts and video content being distributed in the particular platform, brands are getting more creative in their approach to stand out from their competitors.
Forbes compiled 11 innovative ways that brands can leverage YouTube in their marketing campaign. Here are some of our favorites!
Share customer stories
There are a lot of reasons why customer stories are such powerful video content for your business, but here are the primary reasons: credibility, visualization, and loyalty.
It’s no secret that when it comes to purchasing decision, customers needs to know that the others trust you before they jump into your bandwagon. Customer stories highlight what your loyal customers do with your brands and love it, which serves as the ultimate social proof.
We know that humans are visual creatures. This is the reason why visual platform such as Instagram is insanely popular. Customer stories help you to resonate with every potential customer. How? By sharing stories of customers with different backgrounds, challenges, needs, or demographics, your prospects can visualize exactly how they might benefit from your brands.
Everyone loves when their stories are heard and shared, including your customers. Sharing their stories not only shows that you care about their opinions, but also appreciates them as part of your brand community. This is an incredible method to build a strong relationship with them which will lead to higher customer lifetime value and more referrals.
Example: Airbnb’s “Stories from the Airbnb Community”. Letting the customer be the brand is essential to the Airbnb philosophy.
How-to videos
The do-it-yourself culture has been thriving for a long time and continues growing. Over the years, more and more people go to YouTube looking for help hooking up their cables, transforming old clothes, or cooking gourmet dishes. It makes sense. Tutorial videos that are human, entertaining, and break down complex tasks into something that’s easy to pick up and understand can become pillars of your marketing strategy.
The three keys of great tutorial videos are: preparation, purpose, and personality.
Preparation is always the main drive to make successful videos. Take the time to outline everything that’s going to happen in your video from beginning to end, both in terms of shots you’ll use and dialogue you’ll speak.
The success of a business video has to do with more than just the script or the quality of the production. Business video is there to do work on your website, hence, it needs to have a clear purpose. You need to take into account: where you posted the video, how complex your product is, what your customers already know, and what information you should share so it makes sense for your audience.
Videos have the ability to convey personality and there’s no reason that you can’t be human and engaging in a tutorial video. The key is to get creative and have fun! Remember, one video can speak to thousands of customers.
Example: Absolut has a broad range of clear and well-produced video tutorials that show you how to mix your favorite drinks by using a number of common bartender tools.
Showcase employee’s expertise
Produce your own videos by using employees as talent. Employees are often perceived as “people like me” by your customers. That’s why when you showcase employees as your advocates, the company receives more recognition online. Employees reap the benefit of their voices being publicized, paving the way for more referrals, leads and sales.
You can start by asking them to speak about specific areas that they are experts in and offer advice and tips for businesses. For example, you can encourage them to share reviews of travel destinations while using your products or the perks of working with your company. These personalized features will grab the attention of consumers while also featuring the expertise of your staff and your overall company culture.
Here are some points to remember to build an effective employee-oriented campaign: clearly define your brand values to your employees, highlight their areas of expertise and give necessary training if you need to, and don’t forget to give them rewards for their participation to promote positive company culture.
Example: Heineken successfully presents their brand portfolio, without being too over-the-top, all while sending a clear message that they want their employees to: “Learn a craft, a trade, there’s a journey to be made.”
Check out Forbes’ other YouTube video content ideas that you can utilize!
