3 Reasons Your Business Needs to be on YouTube

By: Samantha Holt, Market Developer

You’d be surprised how many people turn to YouTube for both learning and entertainment. This platform offers so much more than cute cat videos and product reviews. If you’re unfamiliar with the platform, then YouTube can be best described as a video library. People create ‘channels’ and upload their videos to the channel. Think of ‘channel’ as another way of saying ‘profile’.

But, why get your business on YouTube? It’s where all the people are! Viewers spend more time on YouTube compared to all other platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Netflix. With a whopping 30 million daily viewers worldwide, getting a YouTube channel for your business is a no-brainer. Still not convinced? Here are three reasons you need to create a channel:

1.  Branding

Only 9% of small businesses are found on YouTube. Set yourself apart from the rest of your industry and get behind the camera. When it comes to your brand, you want to maintain full control of its perception. YouTube allows you to create a visual, moving expression of your brand. When people can see and hear you, they remember you. Offering a variety of educational and valuable content about your industry helps build your brand. When viewers flip through your social media, they need to feel the consistency across each platform.

2. Build credibility for yourself.

In your industry’s sphere, you should aim to position yourself as a thought-leader. Even if you don’t have a solution for a problem in your industry, just discussing it and providing your opinion can go a long way for your audience. This shows that you are passionate enough about your industry to bring issues to the forefront of the audience’s mind.

Additionally, providing your audience with information and knowledge enforces your credibility as an expert in your field. YouTube is an excellent platform for organizing your content for viewers. Through the use of playlists, you can take your audience on a journey through a subject you are well-versed in so that they can gain a full understanding of that subject.

3. Audience Engagement

Previous eras yielded little voice for customers and clients to express their questions, comments, and concerns. The days of relying on billboards and mass-produced commercials are over as we immerse ourselves in ‘likes’ and ad campaigns. With the advent of the Internet, the microphone has been passed back to the audience. Businesses, both big and small, have to now manage their online presence in order to keep up with their customers and continue growing their business.

When it comes to audience engagement, YouTubers take the gold. In your videos, you have the opportunity to ask for their engagement. If you’ve ever watched a YouTuber’s videos, you’ll notice how engaged they are with their virtual audience. Thanking your audience for watching and encouraging them to like, comment, and share your videos sweetens your channel for your subscribers. Like we say at Cook and James, you catch more flies with honey.

Is the fear of being behind the camera stopping you from diving into YouTube? Understandable. If this is the case, start experimenting with Facebook Lives and doing test recordings. The more you do it and the more you practice, the better and more comfortable you will be when filming time comes.

Cook and James offers YouTube marketing consultations with its Growth team. Growth is made up of highly trained professionals that love what they do and are excited to teach you how to grow your business. Contact us today to find out more!