Should You Use YouTube For Small Business Marketing Videos?

Posted by vitomy on August 22, 2011 0 Comments

Man Clueless or Perplexed About Something

YouTube has huge potential for marketing. Not only is it one of the most popular websites in the world, but it’s also one where users participate. Several million people from throughout the globe visit YouTube on a daily basis to watch videos, upload their own video content, and comment on what they watch. Signing up is for free and you can upload short online videos of your choice as long as they don’t infringe upon copyright laws or show obviously inappropriate content. In other words, it’s a video marketing dream come true.

Really, what could be better for a small business than a free video platform that lets you upload tons of marketing content that can be viewed by huge numbers of people? However, before you make YouTube your one and only means of presenting your awesome marketing videos to the world, let us reflect upon such a risky, eggs in one basket strategy to see if it truly is the promised land for video marketing.

Benefits of YouTube – Ok, so it’s hard to argue with the fact that this mega website gives users the potential to connect with millions and millions of people. Upload your videos and yes, they can be found and viewed by anyone who happens to be online. This is because you don’t need to sign up for YouTube to watch videos at their site. Heck, you don’t even need to go to YouTube to search for videos. Any Google search will turn up results with video content so you can search there or at YouTube itself. This means that once you upload your online video content to YouTube, it’s easily available to the general public. Another good thing about YouTube is that people can comment on your marketing videos. This has its ups and downs but is mostly advantageous if you produce and upload quality content. Give viewers something that will entertain, amaze, astonish, or inform and they will leave positive comments. Get enough viewers and your video might even go viral.
Problems with YouTube – So here is why you can’t just rely upon YouTube for marketing with online videos. First, there is no guarantee that your video will come up in search results, especially if it deals with a common topic. Branding and adding links are also extremely limited, and when it comes down to it, YouTube is a basic, generic means of interacting with video content. With that in mind, it would be very unwise to restrict your valuable video content to YouTube.
The solution – Upload videos to YouTube, but also use a customized, branded video player on your company website. Even better, use a branded player that can work with YouTube channels. This way, you get the benefits of YouTube without the limitations because your own player will be fully customized for branding and have the links that lead to direct sales pages.

To experience the only fully customizable video player that can also work in conjunction with YouTube, sign up for a free Vitomy player now!