YouTube for eCommerce: How to Sell Without Selling

How ecstatic and amazed you will be, if anyone happens to inform you that you have unlimited access to a proven eCommerce marketing platform. Moreover, it is all free to use?

You do. And it is known as YouTube!

Started as a small video sharing platform, the growth story of YouTube is nothing less than phenomenal. Within a year since it was launched, YouTube had million views everyday and more than 65000 videos were uploaded in early 2006. Within a year of its launch, it was acquired by Google for a whopping $1.65 million. Ever since its acquisition, YouTube’s growth has been staggering and it has opened up a new avenue of sharing content, media and news.

YouTube is considered as the perfect platform for creating brand awareness and building a loyal array of followers. Can it be really possible? It is very much possible because YouTube visitors watch almost 5 billion videos on a daily basis. Amongst those videos, 100 viewers or more can watch your brand promotion video.

But its popularity is a double-edged sword.

Billions of visitors draw lots of content creators. It is hard to cut through the clutter and stand out not only from your competitors but also from the flock of content creator. With right strategies in place, you can rise above the throngs of eager YouTubers to drive revenue.

Because you definitely want to take advantage of YouTube’s selling potential.

It is, after all, the third most visited website in the world. YouTube is one of the most effective social media marketing strategies.

What Makes YouTube Such An Effective Selling Tool?

In business, it is mandatory to show instead of telling. It is essential to be on the right social media platforms in order to drive more traffic and business.

YouTube is the best platform to represent your brand image to a large audience so that they remember you at the time of making a purchase.

63% of marketers say that their biggest challenge is to generate leads while 43% customers want to see more video content. In such a situation, a video platform like YouTube is the perfect way to connect to the needs of the customers and demands of the marketers.

The problem here is that YouTube is popular and saturated with channels and content creators that it becomes a challenge to get your videos in front of the right and targeted audience.

Here with saturated it means, there are somewhere 50 million active references in the YouTube database. This means that your message is competing with over 50 million other unique videos for attention.

The good news is that there are over a billion active YouTube users, watching a billion hours of content each day.

Audience is there. It is YOU, who have to reach out to them!

Tips To Make YouTube – The Effective Selling Tool For Your Business

Stay True To Your Brand – Your YouTube channel is an extension of your website and should look the same. This is so that your potential customers immediately recognize you, no matter where they find you.

Be consistent both on your website as well as social or video platforms.

You need to create 5-7 brand impressions prior someone remembers you. For a visitor to make a visual imprint of your brand and remember you in the future, they need to see your story at least five times. That is why it is crucial to look like the same company on every single platform.

This in turn creates a cohesive story, which makes a cognitive link between you and your reader. Good stories simply don’t just connect customers, instead they connect with customers.

Same look and feel should be kept in the YouTube channel as in your website, so that the searchers recognize you in an instant. YouTube makes it easy to brand your channel with logos, images and design elements that are there on your website.

Simply don’t ignore the importance of using keywords. For it supercharge your brand identity. The right keywords reinforce your brand and help the right customers find you on video channels like YouTube.

Find Your Content Cadence – Make sure that you have to post it on a regular basis. If you don’t post often enough or are too erratic with posts, keep in mind that your audience will soon lose interest and might unsubscribe you.

Firstly, determine your content marketing goals. Identify your top two or three objectives to help hone the right strategy. Maximum of the content creators credit content strategy development as a key factor in their organization’s overall success.

Next step is to identify the biggest challenges especially those that are holding you back from content marketing. Some of the top challenges faced by the content marketers include creating engaging content, producing content consistently, measuring content effectives and ROI, and producing a variety of content.

 

Don’t panic! Simply address one challenge at a time. Recognizing the loopholes is half the battle won.

Once the challenges have been addressed and acknowledged, its time to get back to business. When you have a back up of great content along with right keywords – when is the best time to post the content so that it does not fall back into a hole?

To address the same, consider your audience. When they will be most likely free and will be able to watch your content. Use tools like YouTube Analytics to know when is the best time to post for your brand.

Build a Following – Your ultimate goal is to generate traffic that will convert to more sales, but this isn’t possible without an audience.

The more subscribers you have, the more views and shares your content will get. The bigger the audience, the more credibility and brand awareness.

You need to understand the persona of YouTube when you’re trying to reach. Instead of blindly throwing a dart at the entire YouTube viewing universe, connect with the right audience, right off the bat.

Subscriber numbers will naturally follow.

The need is to create an authentic connection with viewers who are experiencing the problem and looking out for the reliable solution. Once you’ve built a following, your next task is to keep them hooked on your brand.

Create How To Videos – Do “how to videos” really help in generating revenue?

Half of the subscribers aged between 18-34 are of the views that they stop doing anything or everything just to watch new video from one of their favorite channels or brands.

But how you will capitalize in the eCommerce world? Its simple, teach other people how to use your product and the results will speak themselves. Up to 85% of consumers are more likely to buy a product after watching a product video. And up to 58% of consumers say that companies with product videos can be trusted over those without videos.

“How to videos” are also known as “explainer videos” because they explain what your brand stands for or how to use your product. These videos promote you as an expert with tons of great content and makes the user experience amazing for the viewers. As your brand grows, you can make use of videos that you didn’t even create to drive consumers to your eCommerce site.

Promote Your Content – Don’t depend on prospective customers to find channel on their own. When you have strive hard creating content and refining your channel, its time to blow your content horn.

One easy way to broaden your reach is by promoting your YouTube channel in other mediums. Try embedding a link to your channel in an email, or including a link to a YouTube video in your latest blog post.

You are your own best brand advocate. Use your content to your advantage. Come out with campaigns that integrate four or more digital channels that outperforms single or dual channel campaigns by 300%.

If you want to test the waters with a couple of channels, pick one and track your progress. Start including some YouTube links in your email newsletters and then check your subscriber and viewer rates to see how you’re performing. After you’ve mastered the email/YouTube combo, pick another channel and start the promotion process again.

Conclusion

YouTube is one of the most powerful social media platforms in existence. It helps you to reach out to audiences worldwide and is accessible to any organization, regardless of the industry vertical.

If you haven’t made your place amongst one billion YouTube users, you’re missing out. Its true that YouTube is heavily saturated with content creators and channels, it is very difficult to reach out to the right audience if you haven’t published unique and creative content. If you want to lead the eCommerce marketplace like Amazon, incorporate YouTube and other social media platforms in your digital marketing strategy.

Leverage the tools that YouTube makes available to you for free. Start customizing your channel to create lasting brand impressions. Once you’ve created compelling content, make sure to get it in front of the right audience through explainer videos, product reviews, and smart cross-promotion.

Partner with a professional social media marketing company and incorporate right branding, compelling calls to action and a consistent flow of content for your YouTube channel to start seeing revenue-generating leads for your eCommerce site.

To know how Source Soft can help your business grow!