YouTube marketing for small businesses

As one of the world’s largest video platforms, YouTube is used by millions of consumers, making it a valuable marketing channel for small businesses, self-employed professionals and freelancers to build visibility and demonstrate their expertise. 

Our article below explains how YouTube marketing works, the benefits for small businesses, and practical steps to get started.

What is YouTube marketing?

YouTube marketing involves creating and sharing video content on YouTube to promote a brand, product, or service. This can include:

• Educational videos
• Product demos and comparisons
• Tutorials and how-to guides
• Industry insights
• Behind-the-scenes content
• Customer testimonials and case studies
• Q&A sessions
• Live broadcasts

Businesses can use a mix of organic content and paid ads, such as collaborations with social media influencers.

YouTube is highly competitive, with more than 20 million videos uploaded to the platform every day, so understanding how to optimise content for the algorithm is key to ranking in search results and gaining viewers.

What are the benefits of YouTube marketing?

There are several benefits to using YouTube for small business marketing:

Accessible for all businesses

The platform is free to use, with businesses typically requiring only a smartphone and good lighting to get started. This provides equal opportunities for all size businesses, especially smaller businesses who are trying to compete with larger companies.

Reaching a large and engaged audience

YouTube has a large user base, with viewers in more than 100 countries around the world and content available in 80 languages. It is the largest search engine after Google, with most Google search results pages now showing a short list of related YouTube videos. Businesses that publish popular content can reach a significant, international audience from both websites.

Increasing long-term brand visibility

Well-optimised videos can rank near the top of results for relevant search terms on YouTube, introducing a business to potential customers. For example, a local tradesperson could create videos explaining and resolving common issues, helping homeowners to find them when searching for a contractor. 

Unlike posts on other social media platforms, YouTube videos are searchable and can continue generating views for months and even years after they are uploaded, allowing brands to build and maintain visibility over the long term. 

Building customer trust and credibility

Video allows businesses to demonstrate expertise in a more effective way than text or photography alone. For example, explaining how a product or service works and how it can solve problems can build confidence and familiarity. 

For self-employed professionals and freelancers, video content such as brand storytelling, product demos, reviews, and customer testimonials can showcase skills and experience, making it easier for potential customers to decide whether they want to support the business.

Supporting other marketing channels

Posting videos on YouTube can help businesses to improve search engine optimisation, especially by linking to their website from YouTube video descriptions. YouTube content can also be repurposed for websites, blog posts, newsletters, and other social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

Driving traffic and generating sales leads

YouTube marketing can help to generate leads by including calls to action within a video or in a video description, such as directing buyers to an online product page, booking calendar, or contact form, and can build email lists to nurture leads over the long term outside of the platform. 

YouTube also offers shopping features for ecommerce businesses, such as tagged products and in-app checkout, allowing customers to make purchases directly and increasing conversion rates. The YouTube Shopping affiliate programme allows other creators to tag products, which can help drive traffic to small businesses. 

Increasing revenue through channel monetisation

Businesses can earn additional revenue from YouTube by displaying advertising on their channels through Google AdSense, posting sponsored content from brand partnerships, and promoting affiliate products to earn commission.

How to get started with YouTube marketing

Small businesses can successfully use YouTube for marketing at low cost by following the simple steps below.

Create a channel

Sign up for a Google account and set up a YouTube channel as a Brand Account. Customise the channel with professional branding and details about the business, including keywords in the channel description to make it discoverable.

Define the objectives and audience

Before creating videos, it is important to have clear goals for the content, such as driving website traffic, generating leads, building brand awareness or generating expertise to help to shape the strategy.

Conduct market research to understand what would engage views and interactions from the target audience to meet the goals. You can also use social media and analytics to look at the types of videos the audience is already watching and define the kinds of videos that would address common concerns or problems to help create relevant content.

Research competitors

Learn about content that works well and what may fail by analysing competitors’ YouTube videos and explore how you could improve and look at their subscriber counts, views, likes and comments to understand how potential customers are engaging with the content. Observing the type of content they publish and what attracts viewers to their most popular videos can help to identify gaps in content that competitors may be missing.

Create and optimise videos

With millions of videos uploaded to YouTube every day, it is important to optimize content to stand out. 

Identify keywords and topics that potential customers are looking for to create relevant videos, and optimise videos for search results with engaging titles and descriptions, thumbnails, captions, and tags. You can also create templates to keep the style consistent with the brand across all videos.

Cross-promote videos using links, post links on social media to increase visibility,  and encourage viewers to like, comment, and subscribe.

Maintain a regular posting schedule

Uploading videos regularly builds a sense of reliability with customers and is typically rewarded by the YouTube algorithm as it shows the channel remains active. Self-employed professionals and small business teams that may be short on time should consider setting realistic schedules and posting content in advance. 

Consistency, whether daily, weekly, or monthly, helps to build awareness and gain attention as viewers know when to expect new content.

Engage with viewers

You can build an engaged community of subscribers, who may become customers, by responding to comments and asking questions. Interactive content such as live Q&A streams and webinars can also help to attract loyal viewers. 

Use YouTube advertising

Running paid video ads on YouTube that display on other channels can help to build awareness and bring target audiences to a small business’s channel. Businesses can also target paid ads to reach specific audiences based on location or search behaviour.

Campaigns tend to be most effective when the channel has already posted several videos so that new viewers can get a sense of the business and whether it aligns with their interests.

Monitor YouTube analytics

Analytics data in YouTube Studio can provide insights into how well a video performs, looking at views, likes, comments, retention time and click-through rates, and the factors that can affect performance. Businesses can use these statistics to focus on producing videos that perform well and adjust their content strategies to address weaknesses.

Common challenges of YouTube marketing

While YouTube marketing offers small businesses opportunities to boost sales, it requires consistent time and effort, supported by careful planning.

Standing out on a saturated platform and building an audience can take time, and creating consistent content during that time requires commitment which may not see immediate results.

Poor audio or video quality, or unclear messaging can damage a business’s credibility, and negative comments from viewers can cause reputational risk. However, responding to feedback professionally and moderating comments in a timely way can help to mitigate the impact of negative feedback.

Publishing videos publicly makes a business more visible to a broader audience, therefore it is important to ensure that content respects copyright rules, represents products and services accurately, and protects customer privacy.

FAQs

Is YouTube marketing effective for small businesses?

Yes, consistent YouTube marketing can help small businesses increase visibility and attract new customers.

What is the difference between YouTube ads and organic marketing?

Organic videos uploaded to a business’s YouTube channel can be a cost-effective way to help build long-term growth, while paid ads can help increase visibility quickly.

How long does it take to see results from YouTube marketing?

Building an audience on YouTube that converts to a growing customer base typically takes upwards of months. Publishing videos on YouTube can be an effective long-term marketing approach for small businesses as opposed to a source of immediate sales.

Small business owners using online marketing channels may want to consider protection against professional risks, reputational challenges, and cyber incidents. Learn more about our small business insurance or cyber insurance.

Please note: This article provides guidance for information purposes only. It should not be relied upon wholly when making or taking important business decisions – always seek the services of an appropriately qualified professional. The views expressed by websites referred to are limited to those of the websites, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Markel Direct. Markel Direct is not affiliated with any of the brands, companies or websites mentioned in this article.