YouTube Marketing is still one of the best places to market your business online despite what you might hear as of late.
If you haven’t heard, many advertisers are boycotting YouTube as an advertising platform because their ads are appearing next to videos with malicious intent. These extremist and downright awful videos are sometimes geared towards children and are being placed to air next to these videos because of YouTube’s algorithm.
Despite YouTube’s response to delete 150,000 “inappropriate” videos many brands have pulled their YouTube marketing strategies and found replacement platforms. The reasoning for the boycott is warranted but the platform itself will not struggle at all in my opinion because of the way people are consuming information today.
Many businesses are marketing strategies centered around YouTube advertising so it’s not going away any time soon. However, there are many people that believe without a major change in the vetting process of YouTube, many advertisers will stray away from the platform in the future. I am not one of those people, and I believe that YouTube will stay one of the strongest ad platforms for some time.
Addressing the Pink Elephant in the Room
Cleaning up YouTube marketing and some of the content has been something that has needed to be discussed for a long time now. Unfortunately, what to remove becomes part of a much larger debate that will no doubt leave many to feel their rights are being infringed upon.
How does one group of people have the right to say what is ok material and what is not? The big issues like terrorist agendas, pornography, etc are easy to get the majority’s opinion. However, how about deciding what is considered spam?
There are certain places in the world that believe spam should be illegal and others that do not. If you let people decide on what is spam and what is not, most people would say all advertising is spam. However, when those same people are advertising their business, they would no doubt have a contrary opinion. This is where the dilemma appears.
The Future Of YouTube Marketing
Instead of thinking as many do at the end of an age of YouTube marketing and the beginning of something much different let’s understand that the power of YouTube goes way beyond its marketing potential.
It’s the 2nd most used search engine on the planet next to Google, and if you didn’t know, Google owns YouTube. YouTube is where most people watch everything they want to see. It’s taking over the cable industry because it offers something cable companies will never understand. Options.
I’m talking about the option to watch virtually whatever you want to watch, whenever you want it, for free.
YouTube Marketing Recommendations
If you’re considering adding YouTube Marketing to your campaign you should because simply put, it works. If your customers are using YouTube consistently then missing out on this opportunity could be the mistake that sets your company back for the rest of this decade.
Of course, do your due diligence and try to recognize if there is an opportunity to be profitable. If not, don’t do it, but I wouldn’t swear off a possible opportunity because of this boycott.
Did YouTube need to make changes in their algorithm to protect against malicious video content? Absolutely they will and the platform will be better because of it. Now is the time to take advantage when others will not. Despite this recommendation, many companies will not use YouTube marketing to deliver content anymore for political reasons. Some companies will delete their accounts. Those are both bad moves and they will pay for it in cash.
What Makes a Great YouTube Channel?
If you decide to make YouTube marketing part of your business strategy then focus on these key parts to ensure you’re creating the best content. Think about why people are turning to visual content like YouTube and other networks like it to get their entertainment.
Cable television is not cutting it for a lot of people and most people will sift through the poor quality content in search of the answers they’re looking for. It appears that people are really taking to reality television programs. They look for something with substance rather than programs with pure entertainment.
The thought is why waste your time watching actors when you can learn from the best of the best in business, arts, and the world when it is convenient for you. Networks all over the world should look at the followings that people create. On YouTube, it’s not very difficult to create a great channel if people want to watch what you have to say.
Here are some of the key psychological principles that govern what people really want to view when to sit down to consume information. If you implement these principles into each and every video you create, you’ll have success on YouTube and create a perfect place to support your ad campaigns.
Honesty
Honesty, or at least the appearance of honesty, goes very far in the online world. Take a look at this channel on woodworking. Yes, I know it’s shocking, but there are plenty of people out there that want to watch woodworking videos. Apparently, there are almost 500,000 people that like to watch this channel alone.
All these qualities add to the honesty factor…
- The lack of perfection in the video, audio, and lighting
- It’s lightly scripted
- You have the ability to leave a comment and converse with the creator of the channel directly
Authenticity
People have a desire to learn and become more than they are. By sharing their personal experiences, people are more drawn to the content
The simplicity of why this platform is so successful is easy to understand and sometimes difficult for companies to understand how to monetize. My suggestion is to look at the accounts that have over 100,000 subscribers and their videos get a ton of comments from people that put a lot of thought into what they do.
Another indicator of a great YouTube channel are the ones where people are stating in the comments that the suggestions they provide actually created a huge benefit for themselves and their families. People like Tom Bilyeu, the creator of Quest Nutrition created this channel, not for the fame of being a YouTube star. He did it because we wanted to help people. This is the right reason to start a YouTube channel and is usually an indicator of a successful venture.
Consistency
Whether you’re producing content once a day or once a month, your consistency will go a long way. My recommendations for creating content are at least once a week, but the best channels create high-quality content every day.
How do they do that? They create most of their content in advance. If it takes you 1-2 hours to shoot your video, 3-4 hours to edit it and 1 hour to upload it, then that’s an entire day. It’s not easy to produce content every day by yourself, but with a team behind you, it will be.
Understanding what makes video marketing great takes practice and the knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. Click the link in the previous to understand more about how to make your videos even better using these principles.
Are YouTube Ads Right For Your Business?
This is a question you should ask yourself and then test it with data. Without a true answer, your business could waste an enormous amount of money, but also gain a ton if you truly understand your market.
Here is a video ad done almost a decade ago. This is one of the most successful ads ever on YouTube. If you understand the principles behind it and implement them into your ad campaigns, explained in this article, your ads will be received much better in the long-run.
Here are some questions you need to ask yourself before you invest in YouTube marketing…
- Is my business better explained through video?
- Will exposing our business to the masses help or hurt us?
- Is being authentic a good thing for our business?
- Do our “haters” use social media?
- Does our marketing budget allow for us to advertise at a loss until we figure out what works?
- Have we set the stage properly for our ad viewers to look us up after the ad is over?
- Are we prepared to show the inner workings of our company to the world?
Exposing your business to the masses in such a real way will only give your business more problems if you’re not running things with the utmost level of integrity. Don’t think of YouTube ads as a way to make a quick buck, because if you’re cutting corners or are in an industry that has a lot of “haters” then you might want to steer clear of this platform.
Putting It All Together
All three of these qualities of honesty, authenticity, and consistency set the stage for your company to embrace YouTube Marketing. It’s important to realize that without properly warming up your clients, you should expect a lower ROI.
Shoppers do a good amount of research before they buy. If they see your ad and you only have a website to prove who you are, your viewers will be less inclined to buy your product. Creating a valuable channel with lots of content will show your customers you are real and going to stick around for a while.
It’s trust that your customers are looking for most of all. If they feel they can trust you, your products will obviously sell more than your competition. You just have to do a good job of setting that stage and you’ll succeed.
If you’re looking for more ways to enhance your social media marketing and prepare yourself for doing ads online, click the link in this sentence to go to the next article.
