If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video may be worth a thousand consumers. This powerful marketing tool can be used by almost any business to expand its audience and increase its website conversation rate from visitors to leads.
Main Features of YouTube for Your Business
YouTube is the largest, most popular video-sharing website, reaching millions of viewers. Anyone can set up a YouTube account (channel) and post videos for free. Of course, certain businesses, such as the fire- and water-damage cleaning and restoration industry, won’t benefit as much from videos in reaching emergency customers, who will more go to Google or another search engine first. However, social media marketing can benefit most businesses.
YouTube, along with other social media, is about building a multi-platform online presence over time. By creating and sharing high-quality content, you can increase visibility and gain credibility, driving traffic to your website and generating leads.
In creating video content for your business, you have many possibilities. While YouTube is typically associated with entertainment, it has just as much power to educate.
3 Ways to Use YouTube
- Inform potential customers with a video about the service you provide and why they should use it.
- Document the progress of current projects, using “before,” “during,” and “after” video clips to show the level of quality and thoroughness you offer.
- Help consumers with “DIY” (do-it-yourself) projects by producing videos about basic home maintenance and improvement.
The video content on your YouTube channel can then be linked to your other Internet platforms—Facebook page, Twitter feed, LinkedIn profile, and more. Interested followers will recommend and even share a video that provides helpful information—or even repost it on their own sites.
To further expand your video’s exposure, you can utilize search engine optimization (SEO) techniques within the descriptors. Place prominent keywords in the video’s title, description box, and tags so it will rank high in search results. Keep in mind, however, that top-performing keywords on Google may not be the same as those on YouTube. Both sites offer tools to help you select the best keywords for your needs through their respective paid advertising options.
Although one of the appeals of social media is that it is free, paying for advertising on YouTube and other sites offers the advantage of targeting your content to specific demographics, helping put your content in front of the people most likely to watch and respond to it. Whether you pay for ads or use the free version, YouTube is a valuable tool for expanding your Internet presence.
