‘Six billion hours of video are watched every month, and 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute!” How much more of an incentive do you need? Don’t you want a share of this ever-expanding market? Of course, you do! Get started.

Okay, wait, wait, if you are a YouTube novice, here’s some info to give you more context.

Why are YouTube and visual marketing so popular?

Did you know that “One-third of total time online is spent watching videos, and YouTube has more than a billion active users? The platform is so extensive that it can be accessed in 76 different languages, accounting for 95% of the world’s population,” according to HubSpot.

People want to be entertained, educated and feel appreciated simultaneously. Enter: YouTube, the second largest search engine on the planet. This statement should already convince you to start a channel right now! Need more convincing? Look at the ‘YouTube Ecosystem’ infographic.

 

It fits in with your audiences’ schedule

Mobile devices are specifically developed to provide you with on-the-go entertainment. There’s a significant chance you watched something on YouTube yesterday: perhaps a one-minute trailer of an upcoming movie, a five-minute video about the best exercises for six-pack abs, or an hour documentary about your favourite band. The point is that all the content was created to serve a particular purpose: to fit in with your schedule. This is the main consideration when creating video content – who is your audience, and how much time do they have to consume content?

 

Mobile device, desktop and smart TV friendly

The content can be watched wherever, whenever on the audiences’ device of choice. Therefore, it’s critical that you know your audience as well as your family. The in-depth knowledge will determine the type of content you produce. Also, consider mobile devices and desktops are not mutually exclusive, so optimise all videos for both.

 

Variety

People will become bored if you post the same content continuously; your brand needs to show its versatility. Here are eight types of YouTube videos you can create.

  • Customer testimonials
  • On-demand product demonstration videos
  • Explainer and tutorial videos
  • Project reviews and case studies
  • YouTube Live
  • Thought leader interviews
  • Video blogs
  • Event videos

Each type of video opens another avenue of your business’s multi-faceted capability, enhancing credibility, which in turn fuels trust, connection and loyalty. 

 

“I’ll YouTube: ‘How to make money from YouTube’”

Type in the above sub-heading into YouTube to find out how to make money from marketing on YouTube and see what happens! Impressive, right? Well, that’s an example of the platform’s evolution and power.

 

Shopify: A successful YouTube case study

Shopify is one of the most successful eCommerce software developers in South Africa, and a large part of their accomplishments can be attributed to intelligent, customer-centric YouTube marketing.

At the beginning of its channel, a bold title banner displays its logo and tagline. A feature video that explains what the company does appears underneath and is complemented by an easy-to-read description.

Shopify’s product offering is eCommerce development software, which some people may not fully understand. To pre-empt a slew of phone calls to their helpline, the company has created a ‘Help Centre’ section consisting of various explainer videos informing and educating prospective consumers with the answers they need.

Below the ‘help centre’ section, they have a playlist titled “Starting a business…”. They’ve created a coherent narrative that mirrors the process a prospect would follow. By doing this, Shopify have almost guaranteed their intended call-to-actions as well as fulfilling essential measurement metrics such as

  • Click-through rate (CTC)
  • Average session duration
  • Average time on page
  • Conversion rate

All the videos have been produced to appeal and provide clear answers to the audience visually. Their duration is also ideal for this specific target segment (new users). A more experienced user would be happy to spend a bit more time acquiring knowledge about advanced features.

Combining these well researched and implemented elements is why Shopify had one of the best performing YouTube channels in 2020 despite the global pandemic.

 

A bit of technical information

You can have the most vivid, eye-bursting video content, but your audience must be able to see it as soon as they open the app or page. So, it’s worth leaving the technical nitty-gritty to professional marketers who know exactly how to make your video content visible. They will ensure that:

  • It’s set up correctly.
  • It’s SEO friendly.
  • It has crawler loving titles and meta descriptions.
  • It targets the correct audience.
  • It will oust the competition.

Marketing experts can also measure important metrics which can be analysed. Based on the results, recommendations can be provided and implemented to strengthen the video content’s influence.

 

YouTube essential metrics that must be measured

The Next Web explains that the following five metrics must be tracked if you want your content to remain valuable and relevant.

  • Engagement
  • Video average duration
  • Subscribers-to-view ratio
  • Suggestion referrals
  • Search referrals

At the end of the day, start-ups, SMEs and even corporates need to continually think of some fun, whacky marketing methods to reach and retain/expand their audience. YouTube is the ideal platform to test your creative ideas. YouTube has an exceptional track record (look at those numbers again) which has the potential to rocket your video content to unimaginable levels of popularity.

Upload your brand identity visually for the world to find out exactly who you are and just how damn good you are!