By Jennifer Dawson, Special To California Business Journal.
More than 1.9 billion people, or half of the internet, visit YouTube every month. Among young people, YouTube viewership stats are even more jaw-dropping, and data from Statista reveals that 96 percent of 18 to 24-year old Americans use Youtube on a daily basis.
Internet video consumption is on the rise, and over 500 million hours of video are watched every day. Small business owners can, therefore, increase brand awareness and drive people to their websites by dedicating resources to video marketing. But merely creating a YouTube channel and posting some videos may not be enough to guarantee positive results. California businesses need to put forth an effort to get results from their YouTube channels.
One of the most affordable and effective ways to improve brand awareness is through content search engine optimization (SEO). Youtube videos are no exception, and they can be optimized to target search engines. Optimizing videos for search engines is very useful because traffic gained through SEO-optimized content is usually permanent. Such videos typically continue to attract people to the YouTube channel for years after they are published. It is worth noting that some SEO strategies for Youtube are similar to search engine optimization for text web pages. However, some SEO strategies are unique to YouTube. SEO for YouTube videos is primarily through researching keywords. You can find out keywords that are relevant to your audience by checking out Google Trends and the YouTube channels of your competition. You can also optimize your video titles descriptions, tags, thumbnail, and filenames to ensure that they are attractive, both to search engines and your audience.
Make Your Value Proposition Clear To The Audience
Before making a video, companies do well to research the needs and preferences of their customers. Companies can make engaging brand videos by clearly spelling out the company’s value proposition. This strategy proved successful in 2012, and it helped transform a little-known startup into a household name. Dollar Shave Club captured the public imagination when it released a video that went viral. The video was successful, in part, because the company took time to research their target audience, and clearly presented the relevant value proposition to that audience.
Diversifying Your Video Content
Some small business owners worry that their industry or sector might not be appealing enough for people to enjoy videos released by the company. But video-making efforts need not be limited to the company’s products or service offerings to be successful. California businesses are finding success by releasing videos about other local activities that are not directly related to the company’s core business. A video series featuring Soquel’s surfing enthusiasts went viral earlier in 2019, although it was released to market SurfCity Sandwich, a fast-casual restaurant. The restaurant saw a marked increase in sales and brand-awareness since the release of the first video.
In the coming couple of years, the video is widely expected to overtake text as the most common content type on the internet. But this content form is still underutilized by small businesses. Brands can improve their video marketing strategies by creating YouTube channels and optimizing the videos for service engines. Good results can be obtained when companies clearly explain their value propositions in brand videos and diversify their video content.
