In an era where COVID has canceled live events and conferences, digital and video marketing is more important than ever. With more companies moving in the direction of digital marketing, it will be critical to include video as “a powerful spoke in their marketing wheel”.
On September 22-23, the Gate 39 Media agency team attended INBOUND 2020, HubSpot’s annual conference which was held virtually this year.
YouTube and Video Marketing
One of the INBOUND sessions I had the pleasure of attending was the YouTube and Video Marketing session.
During this session, presenter Zachary Basner from Impact discussed the steps to creating a YouTube content strategy.
He began the session with some eye-opening stats. For example, YouTube is the second most used search engine after Google (it makes sense since Google owns YouTube, right?). Interesting, because most people probably don’t view YouTube as a search engine, however, it is — a virtual search engine, so when business owners think they do not need a YouTube presence, they’re severely limiting themselves.
Another interesting stat is that 70% of the buying decision is made before a customer even speaks with a sales rep — meaning the customer is doing their own research whether via the website, Google, or YouTube – so it’s not only important to have a YouTube presence, but also to have videos that speak directly to the customer, addressing issues important to customers in different stages of the buyer’s journey. So, videos really do support the marketing AND sales effort.
Media Marketing 101: Video & Audio Streaming
When creating marketing videos, here are 6 points to keep in mind:
- Create the Right Content – Consider FAQ videos, product-specific videos, or services overview videos.
- Branding Your Channel – Your YouTube should be consistent with your website’s branding: the same colors, imagery, tone, etc. Branding cohesion is important.
- Custom Thumbnails – Thumbnails are the first-impression image a viewer sees, so yours should stand out by including eye-catching graphics, easy-to-read titles, and your company logo.
- Buyer-Focused Titles – Your titles should be clear, concise, and attention-grabbing.
- Call-To-Actions – Specificity works. Be specific when creating your CTAs and try to avoid using generic phrases like “learn more” and “call for a quote.”
- Valuable Offers – Remember that we want to keep the buyer in mind, so the offer presented should be directly related to the topic of the video.
Zach explains these tips and more via his YouTube channel
This session resonated with me because the Gate 39 Media teams know the impact and saliency that video brings. In fact, we are in the process of expanding our agency marketing product offerings to include more video, audio, and podcasting (stay tuned for details!)
Have questions about using video and leveraging YouTube within your greater marketing strategy? Let’s talk.
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