What Is YouTube?

YouTube is a media platform that allows registered users to upload originally created videos to channels, which collate in one place all of the uploads credited to one user. Although you must be registered to upload a video, anyone can watch them. People can then comment on and share videos, and embed them on websites, blogs and in social media streams.

How Does Marketing on YouTube Work for Local Business?

People go to YouTube for one main reason, whether local or global: to find and watch videos. Although YouTube is used for a massive variety of reasons, the two main ones are to entertain and to inform viewers. As a small business, your videos should reflect at least one of these goals with every post (and ideally both), while at the same time adding to your expertise and convincing viewers they need your product or service. You can accomplish these goals with a wide variety of videos.

A How To, for instance, can educate viewers on a certain skill or action, in the process helping them understand why they need your products or services. A storyline might be entertaining, and could point to your business as the solution to a posed problem or the provider of a similar “storyline” for them (for instance, a local event you could help them plan). You can post content that positions you as an expert, drawing viewers into your brand and converting them on your website or blog. There are many other types of video, of course; these examples are just highlights.

What Are the Benefits of Marketing on YouTube?

YouTube has many benefits. For one thing, it integrates with other social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and Google+, which means that you can embed videos that your local followers or fans can watch, while keeping them on your platform.

For another, YouTube can help with your SEO. By posting relevant material and using good keywords (especially location-specific ones), you can bring people to your YouTube channel, where their comments and link-backs raise the caliber of your channel in the search engines’ eyes. You can also embed videos on your page, again encouraging others to reference and link to this material, driving up traffic to your website and increasing its search ranking as well.

Why Should You Care about Marketing on YouTube?

You should care about YouTube because it can dramatically raise your level of exposure and because, with quality content, it can position you as an expert in your local niche. All clients and customers are looking for one thing: a solution to a problem. Become a local expert, and you prove you can provide that solution. That in turn will raise your exposure, which will allow you to show even more people that you are an expert. It is a profitable cycle that ends with you having all the clients and customers you need.

If you’re starting to see the full picture of all that marketing your local business on YouTube can do for your bottom line, give MarketBlazer a call.