Everyone knows about YouTube, it is the second most popular social media platform, ranking just behind Facebook, and yet many businesses don’t consider it as part of their marketing strategy. Social media can be overwhelming, costing time and potentially money, but can be a valuable tool to drive traffic to your website and converting traffic when you get it. YouTube can increase brand awareness to your target audience or sell products/services to a specific demographic.

Consistency is crucial

Posting consistently is one of the most important things you should take away from this. However, you must not sacrifice quality just for the sake of posting often. Anything you post is a reflection on your business so make sure the quality remains high.

Analyse the results

YouTube provides statistics on each of your videos which will show you various demographics such as nationalities, age groups, gender and many more stats about who watches your videos. Even if you’re only posting a one-off video every now and then, you can find out lots of useful information on your marketplace.

Using videos on your website

You can either link from your website to your YouTube videos or embed them directly into your site. It is worth bearing in mind that if you have a lot of videos, linking to them uses YouTube’s servers rather than yours so takes pressure off of your own web server and thus saves costs.

YouTube is just a beginning

A well-rounded marketing strategy will incorporate a number of different social media channels and you will gradually see which ones are working for you the best but ultimately, using different platforms will increase your reach and bring you more traffic. It is even possible to earn money from YouTube itself, although this is going to require a LOT of effort. For example, Red Bull TV which is behind things like the soap box races, earns £3,000-£7,000 from every video it releases on YouTube.

The golden rule of YouTube ‘advertising’

Too many small businesses fall into this trap - YouTube isn’t only about advertising. Four fifths of your content should be fun, interesting and educational, whilst the other fifth should be your marketing and advertising. This will help retain an audience and gives a tool for things like feedback and engaging with your audience. Try using polls and ways for them to interact with the business.

YouTube Shorts is just like TikTok

Both YouTube Shorts and TikTok are tremendously powerful ways to advertise products and services. While people are scrolling, not knowing what the next video is, they can’t help viewing your advertisement. But, just as quickly as they come, they can leave, so make a point of having an engaging beginning such as starting off with an interesting question or fact. Equally this market is becoming a bit saturated, so don’t shy away from full length videos. Anywhere from 5-10 minutes is a good place to start, just do some research and find out what works for you.

In conclusion

Be open to all forms of social media and do your research. I’ve focused mostly on YouTube in this article, but it is worth finding social media platforms that are not too oversaturated for your industry and that have a style of content that suits you and your business. Don’t be afraid to try something new but analyse the results and formulate a strategy to focus on what works best for your business.