How important is YouTube for brand marketing in 2020?
Will your message be able to stand out in a saturated content environment? Here’s why the popular video platform is still an excellent investment.
Regardless of what your business is, a YouTube channel can be massively beneficial if used correctly.
YouTube has grown explosively over the years. It is the most used video platform in the world with over 2 billion monthly active users, a number continues to grow with each passing year.
Net advertising revenues have grown to unprecedented levels:
In addition to being the leader in video streaming, YouTube is the third most popular social network (after Google and Facebook). This means you have the ability to reach a worldwide audience of billions of active users.
Is YouTube too saturated to start a channel in 2020?
There are tens of millions of content creators on YouTube, which may lead some to believe that it’s too late, or that it’s not worth it to create your own channel at this point.
But, as with all things social media, it’s never too late to start building your brand and growing your audience on this video sharing site.
Here are a few reasons why your brand needs a YouTube channel:
1. Build an email list.
YouTube is the perfect platform to boost your list building efforts. You can use lead magnets in your YouTube videos to help you gather emails from your viewers.
A lead magnet is any type of valuable incentive you can offer to your audience for free in exchange for their contact information. This can be anything, such as:
- A premium video
- An e-book
- A short report
- A PDF checklist
- A free trial
Make sure your lead magnet is something that your audience will find extremely valuable and useful. A tool such as a pop-up or chatbot can offer your lead magnet to visitors landing on your page.
Your magnet can be as simple as condensing your YouTube video into its main points and offering them as a downloadable PDF. Conversely, you can expand on the points in your videos and then offer your YouTube audience an in-depth e-book, case study or report on your topic.
I’ve personally had success in using a PDF as a lead magnet to point my email subscribers to a funnel which ultimately gets them to purchase a course I’ve created. If you spend time to find the right platform to create courses, and create something great for your followers, it’s one of the most lucrative ways to monetize both a website and YouTube channel.
2. Improve your SEO efforts.
Posting YouTube videos with strong keywords is beneficial to search rankings and will help you maximize your online presence as much as possible. Since Google owns YouTube, the search giant often displays videos from YouTube in its search results. This means that a well-ranked video has the potential to impact your search engine optimization and drive massive amounts of traffic to your site.
The more engaged users who click on your video to get to your brand’s website, the higher your site rankings will be. You can also embed videos on your blogs or webpages to boost your website metrics for the Google search algorithm.
3. Bring qualified traffic to your website.
Not everyone that you market to is going to be interested in buying your products or services. That’s why it’s important to acquire qualified traffic.
These are users that have already shown some interest in your products or services, and therefore are considered to be potential leads or customers. Your YouTube channel is a great source of qualified traffic that’s meaningful to your brand because the search engine shows your videos to people that are interested in products or services like yours.
This makes it easier for you to capture their attention so you can turn them into subscribers or paying customers.
As an example, if you’ve started a lifestyle blog and you’re ultimately trying to get your YouTube subscribers to visit your site, you wouldn’t want to create content focused on home improvement unless it was a core focus of your lifestyle blog.
The reason is simple. Getting the wrong traffic to your blog or YouTube channel isn’t beneficial in the long run. It’s much better to focus on an engaged community focused on topics you’re actively engaging in.
4. Video CTAs speak louder.
Research shows that calls to action in videos are more likely to get people to engage. Having a call to action together with the video equates to more than 380% more clicks compared to a regular CTA.
This is one of the main reasons why video is better than most other marketing mediums. It’s a powerful tool that will help you create measurable change in your brand’s online presence.
YouTube is the best video marketing platform to use for effective video CTAs, regardless of the types of goals you want to accomplish for your brand. This includes goals like getting viewers to:
- Visit your blog
- Sign up for your business’s newsletter
- Like your social media pages
- Join your rewards program
- And more.
A simple and concise call to action, along with your YouTube video, is one of the most effective ways to get your audience to take the desired action.
Ron Stefanski is an online entrepreneur and college professor who has a passion for helping people create and market online businesses. You can learn more from him by visiting OneHourProfessor.com
