February 18th, 2019
Believe it or not, YouTube is actually the second largest search engine on the Internet. YouTube has over a billion users. The only search engine bigger is Google, which owns YouTube. This means that YouTube is a prime digital marketing platform. More than 44% of online shoppers begin their search using a search engine. YouTube is a video hosting platform, which, currently, is free to use and is a great place to host videos for either your individual or business website to link. Providing videos on products or services or even your blog topics will help boost your authority on the web. So why and how should you be using this vital resource?
History, Statistics, And Popularity
2005: YouTube is officially launched.
2006: Google purchases YouTube for $1.65 billion.
2015: YouTube Kids launched
2015: YouTube Premium launched - YouTube Red.
As of 2017, over 180 million people in the U.S. watch YouTube. Over 90 Countries have YouTube users. There are more than 46,000 years worth of content on YouTube. In 2017, the percentage of YouTube traffic was 70 percent. As of 2018, there are over 5 billion YouTube Application installs from the Google Play Store. In 2017, the average video content watched daily was 1 billion hours per day, with the average playtime being at least 40 minutes per session. In 2017, 400 hours worth of content was uploaded to YouTube every minute, with 576,000 hours worth uploaded daily.
As you can clearly see by the statistics, YouTube is not only extremely popular but huge. YouTube is a far more powerful marketing vehicle than you might have realized.
Value
More than 44% of online shoppers first start with a search engine. The average buyer consults about 10 consumer reviews before they make a purchase. In other words, reviews are authoritative, and brands should embrace them as another extension to their digital marketing strategy. Any digital marketing agency and trusted hosting provider will tell you to incorporate YouTube into your social media marketing strategy because it is one of the most cost-efficient ways to reach your audience. According to Forrester Research, the value of one minute of video is equal to 1.8 million words of online content. This is approximately 3,600 average web pages. If you were to write one web page an hour, it would take you 150 days of writing just to get the value of one minute of video.
Goal
What is the end goal of your video marketing? Search engine optimization (SEO)? Are you trying to promote your products and services? Are you promoting an event? Are you doing a movie review? The subject matter of video hosting can be endless.
The most important thing for your business when creating video content is not selling, but product or service awareness. It is also essential to ensure that you do not cram everything into a single video. Each product or service provided should be separate. The more content you have, the larger your authority and presence. All of this will create a more substantial following.
You can throw in comedy or theatrics to lighten the mood if applicable but always remain on topic. Most importantly, act professionally no matter what the video is about. Also, do not drag the video out. You will lose your viewers if the video becomes boring. You should always ensure that you seem like you are engaging your viewers, your video is useful, and you go over every possible need or want of your viewers. All of this will boost your authority and reputation with regards to your product or service, and your viewers will appreciate your knowledge, wisdom, and expertise.
Links
Now that you have your video content, you can place a link to your blogs or your website to your YouTube video. Most importantly is that you can place links on YouTube, pointing to your website and blog. Not only will this help SEO, but you are now pointing your YouTube viewers to your site. You can email your subscriber base with links to your video. You can ask subscribers to share. You can even pay to advertise your video and your YouTube channel. All of this is cross-promoting your personal or business website.
Conclusion
Being the second largest search engine (and owned by the largest search engine, Google), YouTube is a crucial marketing source that either your individual or business website should be using. YouTube helps to cross-promote your site, and it allows you to reach all your viewer base on a more personal level, providing knowledge and expertise to either your product, service, and brand, or offer videos to your individual site’s topics. Do not overlook this resource. Utilize YouTube today!
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.