Wednesday 7 May 2014

How effective is a YouTube channel as a marketing tactic?

We are all partial to watching YouTube videos now and again. Whether it be a new music video by One Direction, or a tutorial on how to bake a Victoria Sponge, or even just to entertain ourselves and laugh at other peoples misfortune, we love it. Just precisely how many of us use YouTube? Over 1 BILLION of us visit YouTube every month (YouTube, 2014). Surely, if there are that many visits per month it would be ludicrous for any business to not take up the opportunity to introduce a YouTube channel? But that just seems to easy...

The fact there is such an enormous amount of people connecting with YouTube can actually be a problem for businesses, but why? The sheer overcrowded online environment provides mass amounts of silly and pointless content, therefore it makes it extremely difficult for organisations to ensure their content will effectively reach their target audience (Udemy, 2013). 

So how our organisations effectively utilising their YouTube channels? Firstly, businesses our learning that traditional advertisements aren't successfully transcending, this competitive environment requires businesses to provide engaging, unique, and creative content. An article by Our Social Times presents 5 of the most imaginative YouTube campaigns, the one that stole my attention the most was by Metro Trains with a dark humoured video called 'Dumb Ways to Die'. Watch below guys. 




The purpose of Metro Trains campaign was to increase awareness of passenger safety however a dull, informative advertisement would be rather depressing. This campaign has managed to create awareness due to the fact its ENGAGING, you pay attention to it because its humorous, light hearted and risky. Its the song that gets me! It has been suggested by Ahuja & Medury that engagement is a strong measurement to determine whether it is likely for consumer focused initiatives (such as a YouTube campaign) to converse into sales. Somebody who comments or shares a YouTube video is at a higher level of engagement then somebody who simply watches (2010), organisations need to take this into consideration when creating their content. 

Additionally, YouTube should act as a marketing tool that is supportive of other digital marketing techniques such as social media platforms. As stated above, it is difficult for organisations to directly penetrate their target audience solely through YouTube, however social media platforms are an excellent way for organisations to leverage their YouTube content to their intended market (Udemy, 2013). An article by Jeff Bullas states that social networks have accelerated YouTube’s growth with over 500 tweets posted per minute containing YouTube video links (2012). 


For a YouTube channel to ensure they succeed they should also adopt a 'community' approach. YouTube is made up of every day people who have every day lives, businesses must be able to interact with them at a personal, humble level. Organisations are able to do this by providing relative content such as, a brand story that allows the consumer to identify with the brand, or a 'How are our products made' type video which helps to encourage consumer trust. 

A number of pro's and con's to the effectiveness of YouTube channels have been presented, see the online links below if you wish to do any further research into YouTube. 

References 
Ahuja, V. and Medury, Y. (2010) Corporate Blogs as e-CRM tools – Building consumer engagement through content management. Palgrave Journals, 17, 91-105. 

Jeff Bullas (2012) ‘YouTube Facts, Figures and statistics’. [Online] 
Our Social Times (2013) '5 of The Most Imaginative YouTube Campaigns'. [Online] http://oursocialtimes.com/5-of-the-most-imaginative-youtube-campaigns/ [Accessed: 7th May 2014] 

Udemy (2013) 'YouTube for Business: Top Ten Strategies & Best Practices'. [ Online] https://www.udemy.com/blog/youtube-for-business/ [Accessed: 7th May 2014] 

YouTube (2014) 'Statistics'. [Online] https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/en-GB/statistics.html [Accessed: 7th May 2014]



No comments:

Post a Comment