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Fifi Arisandi
World Traveller Wannabe | A Product of Grace

5 Signs You Shouldn’t Use YouTube to Market Your Brand

PHOTO CREDIT: Free Image/CANVA

If you search the internet you will find a lot of content related to YouTube marketing. Many posts suggest you to market your brand on YouTube. Some talk about how to put your brand on YouTube and killing it. Others give step-by-step ways to promote your YouTube channel and gain as many subscribers as you can. But still, you found yourself asking this question: “Do I really need to use YouTube to market my brand?”

Well, you’re in the right place. This post will not give you information similar to the others on the internet that you may have already read. This post will provide you with insight to help you decide on whether or not you need to use YouTube to market your brand.

YouTube undeniably has many benefits for businesses. A research about human attention span even recommended video as one of the most effective marketing strategies to be used by today’s marketer. Still, YouTube is not for every company. YouTube is not for every brand. But many brands nail their YouTube marketing strategy. That’s probably the one thing that pops into your mind. That’s true, but that doesn’t mean your brand will.

PHOTO CREDIT: William Iven/Unsplash

Here are 5 signs you shouldn’t use YouTube to market your brand:

  1. If you are unable to create creative video content 
    Creative videos attract viewers. People love creative content. What big brands that succeed in YouTube, like GoPro, Marvel and Disney, have in common is they create creative content. And by creative, I mean unique, entertaining, engaging and informative. Your video content must not always talk about your products/services. It can be in the form life-hack tutorials or a customer’s testimonial or a sneak peek of how your company runs daily. It doesn’t have to be prime-time quality video. Lesser quality video works well too. 
    The hint is not to focus too much on video production and how to create viral videos. Instead, focus on your audience and how to relate to them through your videos.
  2. If you are unable to promote it effectively on the social media
    YouTube views mostly don’t happen on channel page, they happen somewhere else. The majority of the viewers will access a video through a link on social media. Facebook and Twitter are among the most important sources of traffic on YouTube. 
    The trick is to be intentional about driving them to your YouTube channel so they can subscribe. Subscribers are the precious ones, not views or likes.
  3. If you are unwilling to learn and master Youtube SEO
    YouTube is the world’s second biggest search engine. With more than a billion users, it gets over 30 million visitors per day. For you, it means the platform is both a challenge and an opportunity. Nailing YouTube SEO is crucial if you plan to successfully market your brand on this platform. The thing is YouTube SEO follows different rules compared to traditional SEO. But the good news is you can find many resources on the internet on this topic. 
    The tip is to be willing to intentionally spare time to learn.
  4. If you are unable to create content on a regular basis and post consistently
    Consistency is one of the key differentiators of those who succeed on YouTube and those who do not. The most successful brands publish 50% more videos than the least successful ones. They post on a regular basis. YouTube personality Michelle Phan gains over 8 million subscribers and beats big cosmetics brands on YouTube from her consistency in posting videos on her channel. 
    The trick is to produce the videos in one batch but to post them based on a strategic posting schedule. It can save your budget a big time.

5. If you are unwilling to communicate with your subscribers
The comments section on YouTube has been created for good reasons. One of them is for the video posters to be able to communicate with the viewers. One of the main goals of the whole YouTube marketing strategy is to gain engagement. When you get one comment, respond to it, don’t ignore it. Your viewers will appreciate it more than you may imagine. 
The tip is to set clear boundaries on the comments. Harassing comments are intolerable and should be deleted. Negative comments in the form of criticism or disagreement are inevitable and must be respected and addressed.

As a conclusion, you should use YouTube to market your brand. It’s indeed a good addition to your marketing strategy. And it’s way too precious to be overlooked. But don’t do it for the sake of following the trend. Make sure you’ll be able to execute the above 5 points when you finally decide to use YouTube to market your brand. Who knows, you could be the next YouTube success story.