YouTube gets ignored by many ecommerce businesses, which is a shame, because they could be using the platform to their advantage. If your company isn't using YouTube, you should learn more about what it can do for you. By the end of this article, you'll understand just how YouTube videos can help your business succeed. You'll also learn about the first tools that you need to start creating video content that works for you.
Why You Should Use YouTube for Your Ecommerce Business
For many ecommerce businesses, YouTube doesn't seem like an obvious tool that they can use to boost sales. In reality, YouTube can increase your sales, improve recognition of your brand and position your company as a leader in your industry.
YouTube Has a Huge Base of Users
A quick look at YouTube statistics shows why you should pay attention to the platform. As of May 2018, YouTube had more than 1.8 billion users per month, which means that nearly 25 percent of the world's population uses it.
Nearly 25 percent of the world's population uses YouTube.
With 1.8 billion monthly users, YouTube is almost as big as Facebook, which has about 2 billion monthly active users. If your business dedicates time and money reaching people on Facebook, then it should also put some effort into reaching customers through YouTube.
Video Content Helps Customers Succeed
A lot of people rely on YouTube to learn how to do things; they don't just watch it for entertainment. They want to know how to replace car batteries, paint interior walls, fix clogged drains and other handy skills.
Written articles and advertisements aren't always the best way to teach people how to do things.
Written articles and advertisements aren't always the best way to teach people how to do things. Video, on the other hand, can provide step-by-step instructions to ensure the viewer's success.
Your ecommerce store can take advantage of this by:
Including your products in "how-to" videos.
Explaining how to use your products correctly.
Showing potential customers that your products work.
Enhancing your brand identity by providing useful information, talking about your company's charitable works, and reviewing products.
What Kinds of ecommerce Products Work Well with YouTube?
Practically any kind of product can work well with YouTube, as long as you approach your video in the right way. For instance, if your company sells guitars, then you could make a YouTube series that compares the features and tones of your most popular models. You could even devote a series to teach guitarists how to play songs at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.
What about products that don't require as much information? Should you forget about marketing them on YouTube just because they're not very interactive? That depends on your goals. If your company sells nails, for instance, you probably can't come with many "how to" concepts because most people already know how to drive nails. You could, however, demonstrate how well your nails work by making a video about building a playhouse.
Making a video that's not directly related to your product can help you reach a wider audience.
Making a video that's not directly related to your product can help you reach a wider audience. Few people will search for "nails," but a lot of people will search for "how to build a playhouse." Once you get the viewer to watch your video, you can highlight your product (in this case the nails) and include links where watchers can purchase your items.
Follow These Tips to Sell Products and Market Your Brand
How you use YouTube will affect whether you're able to sell more products and market your brand. Millions of YouTube channels, after all, never get much attention. Even those that get attention don't always market their products and brands well. You can make your videos more successful by following these tips:
1. Offer useful content that will solve problems viewers have.
2. Invest in professional video equipment so your brand doesn't look cheap.
3. Learn how to edit videos so they look professional and storylines flow well.
4. Always include links to your website and other platforms where you sell products.
5. Include links to your other videos.
6. Interact with viewers who comment on your videos.
7. Learn how to use YouTube's platform so you know how to boost your video's performance by including tags, keywords, transcripts and other features.
8. Post regularly so you can grow an audience that looks forward to watching your videos.
There are also things that you shouldn't do, because they will negatively affect your channel and content. For instance, it's a bad idea to:
Create extremely short content.
Make a logo that dominates the screen.
Include colors that clash with each other.
Use text as your thumbnail.
Focus too much on the sales aspect of your content. Ideally, you will make people want to purchase your products without telling them to do so.
You should expect YouTube to become an increasingly popular platform for ecommerce companies. After all, researchers expect that video will make up 80 percent of online content by 2019. If you don't follow the trend, then you'll lose opportunities to grow your business.