Where do I promote - YouTube

YouTube - the heart of modern video-marketing and a potential big-earner for many companies. Is it right for your business, though?

Chances are Youtube can provide you with a big following that differentiates you from the rest of the pack. While 60% of businesses use Youtube to distribute content, few actively leverage the channel, as it requires time and resources that might feel better spent using Instagram, where they can target similar younger demographics, or Facebook, where they can target anyone. But the truth is much better than the expectation. While the patterns of the different demographics on YouTube vary, they’re all there, actively using the platform.

In fact, YouTube is the second biggest search engine and website in the world. Only beaten by Google, beating giants like Amazon and Facebook. YouTube is actually more used among US adults than Facebook, with 2 billion active monthly users. Its popularity and usage are growing by the month, where engagements keep improving. Since 2018, when the average time on site was 8 minutes and 41 seconds, the engagement has nearly doubled to 16 minutes and 36 seconds in November 2020. With 500 hours of content being created every minute, the amount of content to experience is nearly never-ending.

YouTube is responsible for 37% of ALL mobile internet traffic. Source: Statista

So YouTube is undoubtedly a channel of marketing worth using, but it can be hard to navigate, and you have to be loved by the algorithms. 70% of all videos plaid is based on YouTube’s own recommendation. When it comes to Ads, the super-objective study made by Google said that the recommended media spend on YouTube should be doubled, providing a higher ROI than ordinary TV in 77% of cases. And, Like most other things today, a small portion of 10% of the videos accounts for 79% of views.

How people use YouTube

YouTube is used for several different purposes, allowing businesses and private people to target different psychographics and needs to be based on the problem they try to solve and the brand they wish to create. It is the second most preferred channel to watch on TV, only beaten by Netflix, especially the active demographic among millennials. Best of all is that YouTube is growing as a research channel with watch time for “what to buy”-videos drastically increasing, showing the value YouTube can provide for your business in creating leads.

However, the thing that makes YouTube especially attractive for new businesses is the prioritization among the audience. The video’s relation to a person’s interest is 3x more important for the viewer than a famous actor. This seems to differ from channels like Instagram and Facebook. Also, relevance to personal interest is 1,6x more important than actual production value. That means that you don’t need the biggest budget to win.

Conclusion

What does all this tell you? It tells you that knowing your audience and what he/she values is more important than how perfect your video is. Those who have pinpointed their audience’s need benefit above those who attempt to dazzle their audience with nice effects and celebrity guest stars. If you are late to the YouTube-party, there is an opportunity to create a successful business-channel if you provide your audience with the content he or she wants without having to splash out a huge sum of money for every piece of content you create.

Not sure what type of content you should create and how you should create it? I will be covering YouTube’s own framework for content creation: Hero, Hub, and Hygiene.