The previous blog discusses the use of video in content marketing and benefits of incorporating it to your digital marketing strategies and also some of the costs involved. This blog post will focus on YouTube and why YouTube is considered the ideal platform for video marketing.
According to Alexa (2015), YouTube is the 3rd most visited website in the world and also YouTube has over 1 billion users everyday. No wonder why it’s becoming more and more popular as a marketing tool by brands. YouTube makes it easy for content producers to release videos, and communicate with their viewers through the commenting system. Also it is integrated with other social media sites, which makes communication between the content producer and viewers even easier. It not only makes it easier for companies/content producers but for consumers as they can share and like videos and subscribe to channels so they know when new videos are uploaded.
People are now spending more time on YouTube than any other social network sites. Companies should capitalise on this and use YouTube as a part of their digital marketing strategies. However companies should not just focus on views, if their marketing objectives where to be successful they should focus on building and maintaining audiences.
(Econsultancy, 2014)
Companies can use YouTube in a variety of ways. They can quite simply post their adverts and promotional videos for people to see. Or they can engage with their audience by making different types of videos such as ‘how to’ videos. YouTube makes it very easy to measure the success of their videos as they offer a free, self-service viewership and reporting tool called YouTube analytics (Shandrow, 2013). This enables companies to see how many people are viewing their video, for how long and how often. There are also many other metrics are measured which will enable companies to see if their videos are a success or failure.
How Asda succeeded with YouTube.
One of the many brands that have had success with YouTube is Asda. They launched their channel in March 2014 and currently have over 140k subscribers. The first thought that comes to mind is, how would Asda actually use YouTube? Asda’s senior director of marketing innovation even wasn’t sure if it would work when the idea first occurred. But you can see that it’s a huge success. There are a few things that attribute to the success. Firstly Asda removed the name of their brand from the name of the YouTube channel. As they knew people would not want to subscribe specifically to a supermarket. Instead they developed a channel that is ‘brought to you by Asda’ called ‘Mums eye view’.
They narrowed their targeted market and decided to focus on their key market segment, which is focusing on females aged between 25-45 with young families (Faul, 2014). This is something that creating a YouTube channel allows, for companies to tailor their videos to their target markets. Asda really listened to what their main customers would want and released videos based on customer feedback left in the comment section and other social media websites. Their videos consist of food content and how to videos using Asda products to fashion and beauty content. This is an effective way for companies to promote their products in a way, which customers enjoy and it is not just pure advertising. To grow the channel and gain subscribers and viewers, Asda fed content from and worked in conjunction with a variety of existing well established YouTube content creators such as Zoella. Additionally videos are uploaded fairly consistently on a weekly basis, this keeps viewers engaged. A recent study by Pixability shows that the most successful brands produce 50% more videos than the least successful ones (Atkinson, 2013).
Limitations of YouTube
Asda is one of many examples of companies incorporating YouTube as a part of the marketing strategies. When using YouTube brands need to make sure that they add entertainment rather than interrupt it (Benady, 2014). People visit YouTube to indulge their passions and not to spend time with brands. There’s the risk that the videos will be more like adverts rather than entertaining videos. Asda make sure their videos are entertaining which made it so popular. There is also the risk that video content will not relate to the company. If brands focus on pure entertainment they may not showcase their products or service and the videos will lose focus on the brand. There needs to be a balance of both. The cost of creating a YouTube channel is free. However for good quality videos, good quality equipment will be required which can be very costly. Think about all the equipment that will be required such as a good quality camera, lighting, editing software and a microphone to name a few. Also when you create a YouTube channel you have to be committed to putting out content regularly to keep the viewers engaged. Therefor a lot of time is consumed and for companies that means taking on staff for managing video production and editing. A studio may also be required for filming, especially if it is regular which also adds to the costs. Whatever the cost, the popularity and growth of online video will continue to grow and it is something that companies cant simply ignore. If done right it can be a very worthy investment.
References:
Alexa (2015). Alexa to 500 global sites. [online] available at: http://www.alexa.com/topsites. Last accessed: 30 April 2015
Atkinson, C. (2013). How the top 100 brands use YouTube for marketing. [Online] available at: http://www.reelseo.com/top-100-brands-youtube/. Last accessed: 22 April 2015.
Benady, D. (2014). Youtube for marketing: how do you make it work? [online] available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/08/youtube-for-marketing-how-do-you-make-it-work. Last accessed: 22 April 2015.
Faull, J. (2014). Asda’s YouTube gamble pays off as Mum’s Eye View reaches 2m views and P&G eyes commercial opportunities. Available: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/09/24/asda-s-youtube-gamble-pays-mums-eye-view-reaches-2m-views-and-pg-eyes-commercial. Last accessed 22/03/2015.
Ratcliff, C. (2014). How Asda succeeded on YouTube with Mum’s Eye View. Available: https://econsultancy.com/blog/65765-how-asda-succeeded-on-youtube-with-mum-s-eye-view. Last accessed 22/03/2015.
Ratcliff, C. (2015). YouTube strategy for brands: 10 of the best. [online] Econsultancy. Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/63832-youtube-strategy-for-brands-10-of-the-best/ [Accessed 30 Apr. 2015].
Shandrow, K. (2013). 10 questions to ask when creating a youtube channel. [online] Available at :http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226148. Last accessed: 22 April 2015.