3 Reasons Why YouTube Is A Must For Your Small Business
As millennials have supplanted Baby Boomers and Generation X-ers as America's largest consumer demographic, it's critical for small business owners to tailor their marketing efforts to that market segment. While marketing to millennials is harder than with earlier generations due to their resistance to traditional types of advertising, it is possible to break through and form long-term meaningful connections with this group through the use of thoughtfully crafted YouTube videos. Here are three reasons why creating content for the popular video sharing site should be a cornerstone of your online marketing strategy.
YouTube content is highly shareable
As this Forbes article explains, millennials have a pronounced distaste for traditional advertising. However, as digital natives, millennials are much more receptive to online ads, and have been proven to have a strong sense of brand loyalty to companies that they interact with on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. YouTube videos have built-in buttons that make sharing content on those platforms a cinch. With that feature, it's easy for your most dedicated customers to become de facto brand ambassadors. Seeing as millennials are 59 percent more likely to try products recommended by one of their friends through social media, there's a significant upside to creating content that is tailor-made for that marketing channel.
YouTube has a killer conversion rate
Since most small business owners tend not to have a lot of money to spend on their marketing efforts, it should be noted that YouTube videos have an extremely high conversion rate. According to Venture Beat, YouTube is more efficient at introducing consumers to new products and driving them to close the sale in the last stage of the purchasing decision than Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Researchers believe YouTube's conversion strength is due to the high ranking its videos receive on Google's search results and the added level of purchasing confidence that comes with seeing a product in action.
YouTube is a mobile powerhouse
As 85 percent of millennials are on a smartphones, it's no surprise that 67 percent of that generation's consumers use their mobile devices to conduct research before making a purchase. They also do 50 percent of their YouTube video watching on a mobile device. Additionally, 64 percent of millennials use their smartphones to search for coupons or discounts or products. If you create a locally targeted YouTube video detailing your company's loyalty discount program and your latest big sale, you make it painless for millennial consumers to get a great visual introduction to your products, and to make a fast purchase via an embedded link to your web store.
This article was written by Mario McKellop of Examiner.com for CBS Small Business Pulse.