Online videos are not merely a form of entertainment anymore. Together with social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, videos have become a very important marketing tool. The most well known video platform, YouTube, is also the second largest search engine globally, right after Google. With over one billion unique users browsing through YouTube every month, watching over four billion hours of video during that time, it is easy to understand how important a source of information video platforms such as YouTube have become. However, with 72 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute of the day, it is very easy for your video to get lost in the sea of audiovisual information.
Driven by consumer demands
Looking at YouTube's exponential growth, it is evident that more and more people are using video as their preferred medium of communication. As smartphone ownership is growing and 4G technology is becoming the standard data network, the speed at which we can stream high quality videos is becoming much better. Video is entertaining, we can easily watch a few minutes of it while waiting for something or in between tasks, and it has a much more personal touch than pure text or pictures.
If you want to grow your brand on YouTube, here are some strategies that could help you.
Using YouTube as a marketing tool
Jonas Lee, contributor to marketing-tools.co, has some great tips for people who want to use YouTube as a digital marketing platform. For example:
- Create a channel for your business or product. The username is very important, as it will help users who might be interested in your brand to find you. You can use this channel to engage with your customers, and to build your online image. You have the ability to make your company look cool and tech-savvy by posting creative videos onto your channel.
- Post solutions to problems. In addition to entertainment, people search YouTube to find answers, and if you present practical solutions to common problems, more people are likely to stumble upon the videos (and hopefully subscribe to your channel!).
- Use creative flair to produce a video regarding your product or service. Make sure that you make a subtle mention of how your brand outperforms competing brands. Ask yourself: What makes my brand/business unique?
- Engage with your audience by responding to their questions. If you find that two people have been asking the same question, chances are that a hundred more people share their puzzlement. Specific interaction with your audience is essential.
- If you have a presentation or a seminar, upload parts of it onto your YouTube channel. This will give you credibility and authority, and brand you as an expert in your field.
Successful video marketing campaigns
Major brands in Brazil are using YouTube and other social media platforms very efficiently to grow their brands. One company in particular, a well-known Brazilian bank named Itau, has completely harnessed the power of social media platforms. It has a proud 35,000 followers on Twitter, where it's very active, and over four million fans on Facebook. Not bad for a bank. Part of its success is due to its creativity. On Facebook it had great competitions targeting their younger customers, giving away rock concert tickets via an interactive contest where they teamed up with Instagram. On the Facebook page itself, it has interactive games like Paperman, a Pacman-style arcade game.
Itau keeps its audience by branching out beyond the financial world. Its ‘Mais Vistos' channel on YouTube, which has over 18,000 subscribers, was only launched in early 2013, and has been growing steadily ever since. Itau teamed up with Google on a custom-view project where users could navigate through the most watched videos on Brazilian Internet by filtering out certain particulars, e.g., what country the video is from, how often the video is watched and what type of video they wanted to see.
It's impossible to ignore the importance of video when it comes to web marketing. All you need is time and a little creativity and the results will speak for themselves.
Marilu Snyders is a freelance writer working for a diverse range of clients, one of which is a digital marketing specialist. As a result, her research has led her to understand the importance of branching out when it comes to online marketing strategies to fully benefit from all media channels.
