Written content is being sidelined slowly by visual content. A modern-day consumer prefers to watch a 2 min video rather than reading a 2 min blog. While the content world is shifting from words to frames, it’s high time marketers (from B2C and B2B) start implementing their marketing on a video-sharing platform such as YouTube.
Using videos in your marketing strategy can be vital because the information presented in a graphical format is much easier and fun to consume. You must have heard the proverb – “A picture says a thousand words.” When a picture can speak a thousand words, imagine what a video is capable of.
In this article, we shall be discussing YouTube Marketing for B2B. But, before we dive in, check out these astonishing facts about YouTube, which might give you a glimpse of YouTube’s potential.
Cool Trivia:
YouTube has recorded more than 2 billion logged-in monthly users. (Hootsuite)
YouTube was initially designed to be a dating platform. (BroadbandSearch)
YouTube is popular than most of the major search engines like yahoo!, Bing, and Ask. (Alexa)
There is literally 57,000 years’ worth of content on YouTube (BroadbandSearch)
The world watches about a billion hours of videos every day (Hootsuite)
How Does YouTube Video Marketing Benefit Your Business?
It Expedites Your Search Engine Visibility
Posting YouTube videos around your targeted keywords allows you to rank better on search engines like google. You must have come across a video suggestion on Google’s SERP directly from YouTube on searching for something. Well, that’s your cue. You can get the chance to rank better on google when you optimize your title tags and description.
Helps your Potential Customers Discover you
As mentioned above, YouTube has clocked a staggering 2 billion logged-in users in 2021. It has become the second-largest search engine on the internet currently. With such a vast user base, it is foolish not using it to our advantage. With proper tags, keywords, title optimization, you can tap into YouTube’s enormous user base when they come seeking answers, entertainment, and information.
YouTube’s In-Platform Analytics are Quite Helpful in Tracking Your Marketing Efforts
YouTube offers a very easy-to-use analytics platform to video creators. Using this, you can track the performance of your marketing campaign on YouTube. Monitoring your channel’s metrics like impressions, views, and impression CTR will allow you to determine what kind of content your audience likes.
Customization and Usage is Super Easy
You know how easy it is to use YouTube, probably one of the best things about YouTube. Not just for viewers, YouTube is a piece of cake for video creators as well. You can easily set your brand logo in the profile picture, add a description, add a customized cover photo to complete your channel setup. With just a few clicks, your YouTube channel will be up and running. Also, YouTube allows you to customize your channel to make it resonate with your brand image.
Now that we have understood how YouTube can be beneficial for B2B businesses let us discuss the best practices of utilizing YouTube for B2B marketing.
#1 Create Useful Content
Do you know what makes your users come back for more? The content you publish on your channel! Even the mightiest marketing strategies fail just because of a lack of good content. Good content is something that is easy to understand and provides helpful information.
If you are wondering what types of content you can create to publish on YouTube. These are few suggestions that might help you kickstart your channel with a bang.
Vlog:
You know what a blog is, right? Well, meet his cousin – Vlog. A Vlog is nothing but a blog published in video format. A vlog also gives the same information as a blog, but only in a more appealing, graphical, and visual form, making consuming content much easier and more enjoyable.
Product Demo:
Give your audience a demo of your product through videos. Often, written product demos are dull and uninteresting. To make it livelier and interesting, you can create videos with excellent graphics and audio – background music or voice-over (or both). As a matter of fact, research suggests, 43% of B2B buyers prefer to look up the product/service on YouTube. (TubularInsights)
Brand Story:
When I say brand story, it is not limited to the history of your company. It is basically about everything your company stands for, your products, work ethics, philosophy, and more. Brand storytelling eventually has become a necessity in the B2B environment. The videos don’t need to be lengthy and full of information. Create short videos that exhibit your company’s persona.
#2 Curate your Channel
Your YouTube channel requires the same kind of attention to detail as your website. Do not think of it as a mere collection of videos. It is just like any other social media platform where you can augment brand awareness, promote your products, and generate leads that convert.
Make sure to pay close attention to the following elements while building your YouTube channel:
- Banners and icons
- Channel description
- Playlists
#3 Maintain consistency in posting videos
Often businesses make the mistake of publishing videos inconsistently. Avoid it if you are looking to grow your audience on the video-sharing platform. Just like you schedule blogs, articles, or any other written form content, free up a slot for creating and publishing videos.
#4 Interact with Other Accounts
Like any other social media platforms, YouTube is also an online community where being active fetches your brand awareness amongst active YouTube users. One way of being busy on YouTube is by engaging with influencers, thought leaders, and relevant accounts. Like, comment, and share the videos that relate to your brand. This way, you will get recognized among people from your niche.
#5 Tracking the Performance of Your Channel (Most Important)
The analytics platform provided by YouTube allows you to track the performance of your marketing campaign. Following the campaign’s performance is the most important thing, as it will enable you to determine what your users like to watch and what they don’t. Using these analytics, you will be able to tweak your campaign regularly for best results in the long run.
Conclusion
YouTube is a rapidly growing platform with a humongous user base. Not just for entertainment or educational purposes, YouTube can be actively used for the advantage of B2B businesses. It has the potential of putting you in touch with your target audience. You can construct a community around your brand and reach out to an entirely new customer base.
