As a new or established business owner do you believe you need video marketing in 2018 in order to survive?
When I meet entrepreneurs who are not using video marketing in their business, the most frequent response I hear is ‘I don’t know if I need to use video marketing or YouTube for my business?’
Whether you’re a solopreneur just starting out, or an established marketing executive at a Fortune 1000 company, you need videos.
It’s 2018, and the time to debate on the impact that video may or may not have on your business is long gone. Having an effective video marketing plan is no longer useful to a business but MANDATORY.
How do I know what platform should I use for video marketing in 2018?
This is an important question that needs to be answered before choosing any marketing platform.
In today’s landscape there are just so many to choose from that sometimes it’s difficult deciding how and where to expand your marketing efforts.
When choosing the best social media platform to use for marketing your business it’s easy to become overwhelmed by not only your choices Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, or Pinterest but also by the sheer number of gurus and experts touting how much money they made using any one of these platforms.
Well, guess what, you can use videos on each and every one of those platforms.
Even so, the question you’re probably asking yourself right now is ‘how the hell am I supposed to choose which one is best for me or worse do them all?’
Before diving in head first with a new platform, it’s important to know if this platform will be worth your time.
Of course, it’s best that you know this before you get neck deep into learning that platform whether self-taught or paid, creating content for it and investing your valuable time on it.
So let me address the first and most important question.
Is video right for my business?
The short answer is YES.
The long answer is video is important because it puts a face, a voice, an impression, gives an understanding of who you are, what you’re like, whether you can be trusted, whether you’re knowledgeable which will help your viewers determine whether they’ll subscribe to your channel, subscribe to your newsletter, watch your videos, engage with your content and eventually work with you.
This process is accomplished faster than if you just created written content on your website, posted text and image posts on social media.
Important Video Trends
I took the liberty of researching some recent stats put together by Wyzowl that focused on the state of video marketing in 2018. Part of their report focused on some emerging trends which I felt was important for me to share with you.
YouTube Video
87% of marketers have published video content on YouTube. Out of those, 90% found it to be an effective strategy. 87% of marketers say they plan to use it in 2018.
Facebook Video
68% of marketers have published video content on Facebook. Out of those, 87% found it to be an effective strategy. 70% of marketers plan to use Facebook Video in 2018.
Instagram Video
41% of marketers have used Instagram video. Of those who used it, 78% found it to be an effective strategy. 44% say they plan to use Instagram video in 2018
Twitter Video
39% of marketers have published video content on Twitter. Out of those, 70% found it to be an effective strategy. 40% plan to use Twitter video in 2018.
Linkedin Video
38% of marketers have published video content on LinkedIn. Of those who used it, 75% found it to be an effective strategy. 55% plan to use LinkedIn video in 2018.
Hopefully, these trends will give you some clarity not only on how vital video can be but the best platforms you can use it on for your specific business.
The biggest takeaway from this is to try all the platforms where your ideal audience is likely to be and see what happens.
My Facebook Experiment
I know this to be true because a number of years ago I did a little experiment. I was obsessed with gaining visibility using Facebook and I used to endlessly post text and image status updates on my page, in my group, and in other peoples groups. I would as they say spray and pray for comments and engagement and for the opportunity to find potential clients.
I’m not saying this doesn’t work at all but it took a lot of my time and energy and the results were dismal.
So one day I decided to replace my text and image posts with the very same videos that I was creating for my YouTube channel and I uploaded them natively to Facebook and saw a dramatic increase in my engagement and comments.
Because viewers saw what I did, and learned about my skills it led them to inquire about my services, ask me questions and send referrals to me.
For me, this wasn’t enough and I later decided to focus the majority of my energy on YouTube only which had already proven to me that it was a great source for discovery calls and clients so I really didn’t need to spend all my time over on Facebook.
The benefits of using YouTube and video marketing in 2018
Using video marketing helps your ideal audience to get to know like and trust:
- Your work,
- Your videos,
- Your content,
- and in essence you.
Using YouTube benefits you because it can deliver your video to the widest possible audience and for as long as your videos are on YouTube or until the day, God forbid YouTube goes belly up.
In other words, when you post a video on YouTube today, it can get seen today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, or next five years from now.
Right now there’s no other social media platform that can do that so that’s why YouTube is so vitally important to your business’ video marketing plan.
But in order for that to happen, it’s not as simple as you just slapping a video up on YouTube and walking away and thinking that that’s all that you need to do.
There is a learning curve in terms of learning and understanding what you need to do in order to achieve the results of your videos being found by your prospects.
By creating video content that your ideal audience wants and needs and to be able to deliver that content which answers their questions, solves their problems will result in them
- Watching your videos,
- Engaging with your videos,
- Subscribing to your channel,
- Joining your email list,
- and then finally buying from you.
So are you ready for you and your business to get found and seen by your ideal audience and increase your brand awareness for your business using YouTube and video marketing in 2018, get started NOW!
Not sure how to get started?
Let me help! Learn more about my Video Marketing and YouTube services here.
