What is it?

YouTube is the worlds largest video sharing website. It was started in 2005 and is currently owned by Google. On the site, users can upload and share videos that they create. They can also comment on other users videos, as well as like their favourite videos. Users can also subscribe to any channels of their choice.

Here are some of the reason why more and more businesses are using YouTube:

• It has lots and lots of traffic. There are currently over 1 billion users and it still continues growing year on year. YouTube is the second largest search engine, and the third most visited site online.

• It is a truly global platform. Users span across the entire globe, YouTube is currently available in 88 countries and 76 languages.

• It is a powerful video marketing tool. Having a channel on YouTube can help your website get better rankings in search engines.

• It is 100% visual. Visual content is much easier to digest than written content and gets better responses.

• It is easy to use and is free to upload videos.

How can it help?

Nowadays most businesses include digital marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. One of the tactics used in digital marketing is content marketing. This is where YoutTube can help your business.

There are many ways you can use YouTube for your content marketing, here are a few of them:

• Use it to help customers solve problems and keep them engaged. You can create tutorials and how to videos for customers.

• Use it to showcase your businesses products or services. You can show your products or services, in action, and show any testimonials from satisfied customers.

• Use it for promoting any future events or product launches. Use YouTube advertising coupled with video news releases to spread the word.

• Use it to build your brands reputation and become an influencer in your chosen market. Having a branded channel with your business logo’s and images adds credibility.

• Use it to build a community. You can interact with your target market, get to know your potential customers.

• Use it to integrate it with your other social media channels. Most of the other channels can show YouTube videos on their sites.

• Use it for conducting market research. With YouTube analytics, you can get an idea of who is watching your videos, where they are from and in what numbers

• Use it to make some extra money. YouTube will pay you advertising commission once your views get to a certain level.

Depending on your time and budget, you can choose to make the YouTube videos yourself or to outsource it to someone else. However, regardless of the videos are made, try to be consistent with regular postings. To begin with, you can post a new video at least once a week. Then as you get the hang of it you can post as often as you feel necessary. Making the videos doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. Nowadays videos can be made with smartphones and then edited on a laptop or computer, no specialist equipment is required.

For any business, YouTube represents a fairly low-risk way of reaching your target market. Video marketing is one of the fastest growing forms of online advertising, with 80% of online content to be dominated by videos in the next 2 years. So don’t be afraid to give it a try, it could open your business up to a wider audience.