Why does your business need to pay attention to YouTube in 2018? The emergence of Content Marketing brought on an era where more written content was being produced and distributed than ever before. Businesses scrambled to produce countless blogs or ebooks. This, in the hopes that their target customers would stumble upon those words and would be the first step towards business development.
Article updated May 4th, 2022
For many years, this worked, and in some ways it still does. However, the landscape of online user behavior has changed. Written words alone are rarely enough to win in any competitive market. More than ever, 2018 is a year in which video content is an essential component of any business’s online strategy. It consistently outperforms plain text when it comes to retaining attention and conversions.
Even giants like Facebook and Instagram grew on the back of image sharing and became fertile ground for businesses to connect with an audience. Now even those have pivoted to largely video-driven platforms. However, the true giant of online video is still YouTube.
YouTube Stats
The latest YouTube stats of 2018 from VloggingGuides demonstrate just how many people have picked up a camera and taken it to YouTube. Check out the enormous audience the platform has today.
Complementing content marketing
Some people have decided to enhance their blogs by producing vlogs as well. Others are finding greater success using video to increase conversions on product pages. Others still share messages to new prospective employees on their company website. These tactics are valuable, but the most successful organizations are tapping into every opportunity to use video. That includes their strategies on major internet platforms including YouTube itself.
One question that is often asked about video strategy is whether YouTube has the right sort of audience for businesses. While it is true that it is most heavily used by younger viewers, that doesn’t change the fact that many critical decision-makers are also using the platform – 50% of executives actually report that they use YouTube for work-related content.
This means that if you are neglecting the leading video platform, you might be missing out on quite a lot. Missing out on connecting with as many as half of your prospects, your customers, your partners, and more. Even if your audience is not specifically executives or people in a work environment, the sheer volume of people presents an opportunity for effective video advertising to drive target traffic towards your website.
While some organizations stress the challenges of video production, modern equipment and software have made the process of creating video content cheaper and more accessible than it once was. There are also scores of video agencies or independent videographers who can be hired on a project basis.
Developing great videos on a modest budget is feasible. Consider that the true value of video is not in flashy production. It lies in delivering useful content that viewers will learn from. Ignoring the vast and highly engaged audience on YouTube would be missing out on one of the most powerful channels online in 2018.
