Is it effective for companies and brands to have their own channel on YouTube?
One of the misconceptions among entrepreneurs: “YouTube is too complicated. A small brand should not even start if there is no big budget for promotion.” An interesting video can be shot in your office without decorations and professional lighting.
In our practice, there are cases when the channel rose to the desired indicators in two or three months. For business, such deadlines are a success. But not always in this case, we are talking about huge coverage.
The main thing in the video is to help your client solve his pain, show the product properties, benefits and use cases. The sensory experience that is formed through video is more convincing and easier to perceive than text.
Choose a brand goal on YouTube
What are the goals to visit YouTube to improve your business performance:
If you have a new service or product
90% of the information we learn visually: the first acquaintance with the product is better done through video. This makes it easier to pass on the use cases that the user will try on themselves. For example, a video about the new delivery of household goods “Frekenbox”. You can use the same video in all your other social networks, adapting them to your target audience and channel.
Most consumers prefer to watch a video review or reviews to choose a product, for example, a robot vacuum cleaner, to form an idea of whether it is really suitable for carpets and a cat, how much better it is than a conventional vacuum cleaner, in which situations it will not work.
Do you want to create an image
Your brand understands its subject better than anyone else. You can give the latest fintech news, tell us where it is better to invest $1000, or evaluate a test drive of a sensational car brand. When you help a user solve a problem in a specialized way, show customer care, you confirm the quality of services and prove that you are ready to be useful, as Huggies does, giving expert answers to questions about what to do when a child pulls everything in his mouth.
Get sales
For the most part, this applies to ecommerce projects-online stores, consulting and coaching services. When you need site traffic, registration, and further purchase of paid content or access to other services, YouTube acts as a lead generator. For example, like Watsons, when it publishes a detailed guide about choosing Korean masks, so that the buyer does not waste time choosing in the store, but only chooses what he wants by clicking on the link under the video.
To any useful brand content, add a link in the description of the video or in the header of the channel and get click-throughs. The conversion to purchase is influenced not only by the content, but also by the ux and UI of the company’s website, so it is important to work through all the stages of the sales funnel before the direct purchase.
Retain customer after purchase
Communication with the client does not end with the sale. Communication needs to be maintained further. For example, you have a construction business. You successfully sold the apartment to the client, gave him the keys and wished him a happy housewarming. Don’t rush to say goodbye. With the help of the channel, you can share useful videos about repairs, interior design, new technologies in housing construction or simply the news of your residential complex, forming secret ambassadors of your business among customers, and maybe potential investors, as the Ukrainian company “NovaBudova” does.
Strengthen communication with other channels
The YouTube channel should be launched in parallel with other marketing tools as part of a large-scale product promotion. Your target audience consumes content from different channels. Therefore, to achieve the desired frequency of contact with the audience, it is important to communicate with them not only through traditional channels, but also through the brand’s own voice on YouTube. Like, for example, “New Mail”, which puts memorable instructions from Oksana Petrovna on how not to get caught by scammers. When you surround the consumer with care in different channels, they are more likely to choose your product or service, rather than a competitor, because your brand will no longer be a stranger to them.
Build a community
When you continuously solve user problems with the help of content on a YouTube channel, you build a loyal subscriber base. It’s not enough to just upload a video, launch a target, and wait for orders to pour in after the views. You’re building a long-term, strong relationship that you can’t rush. Over time, subscribers will give you feedback themselves and receive in-demand and useful content in response.
A dedicated community helps, even if you are not actively running the channel: the first season of the WinWin Show project has ended, and the community continues to watch content no longer within the show. Like, for example, a video about the difficulties with opening production in Ukraine.
What promotion strategy should I choose to start on YouTube?
Before creating a YouTube channel for a brand, we define the initial goal that we described above. It determines the subsequent strategy and the type of content that you will create. Among the common options are:
the channel is the company’s business card. The channel can have presentation videos — how production is organized, what is a product or service, what customer needs are covered. Such a channel does not need a large team and large budgets. It is enough to configure, properly optimize the channel and existing videos, make a banner-avatar and trailer. You can update the video every few months.
Why: increase brand credibility, promote it to the top in search results, and start testing hypotheses about your target audience on YouTube.
the conversion channel. Other activity and costs are already needed here. We are talking about regular content — weekly issues, perhaps several times a week. These can be reviews of services and products with a mandatory call to action, or a demonstration of product usage scenarios.
Why: get leads, sales, and website traffic.
image channel. The product image can be developed through collaborations with bloggers. The essence of the content depends on the chosen strategy and budget.
Why: manage your image, attract new customers, maintain audience loyalty, build a community, and grow brand ambassadors.
Launch content that will work to increase and retain the target audience in the future. Audience benefit is a key component of the video. Every viewer is your potential customer.
For some brands, the winning ticket will be viral content, for others-training videos, reviews or interviews with celebrities. After a regular period of content release and promotion, viewers start to come organically. This way of developing the channel will gradually reduce the share of advertising traffic due to organic growth.