It’s never been easy to own and successfully run a small business. However, in the wake of the pandemic small businesses seem to be struggling more than ever. Even if your small business has been a pure brick-and-mortar, mom-and-pop shop for generations, you might now be considering pursuing online marketing in order to meet new market demands.
One digital platform that has played an outsized role in helping small businesses grow these past few years is YouTube. While there are business models for directly monetizing videos on the platform, you may find that even free, organic video creation and promotion on YouTube can significantly improve your small business’s bottom line.
Here are 4 ways you can use YouTube to promote your brand and ultimately drive sales for your small business.
1 – Showcasing Authenticity
People like to buy from people. As businesses, we’re well aware of the know, like, and trust factor that is crucial to developing long-lasting, positive customer relationships. Posting videos to YouTube is an effective way to showcase your authenticity and humanize your brand.
Your business may offer an amazing product that could change people’s lives, or at least significantly improve their days, but your ideal customers are more likely to engage by connecting with another human being first, then your product second. Whether it’s sharing the stories of your company’s founders, employees, or loyal customers, you can use video to create an emotional bond that can then be leveraged to bring awareness to your products.
Even if your business has traditionally put the human element first – for example, a local store with deep ties to the community – video can help you reach a wider audience. You can give audiences a behind-the-scenes glimpse to make them all the more eager to show up and visit your store in person.
2 – Sharing Value
Video can also be a valuable tool to share value in order to build relationships with future customers.
During the pandemic, several small businesses that had always operated on a wholesale model quickly pivoted to selling directly to customers. In order to rapidly and effectively build connection with their audiences, video content was key.
For example, one business in the food industry started uploading tutorials to YouTube that helped people stuck at home learn how to make delicious recipes. This particular company focused on artisanal products that required customers to be educated in order to make the best use of the products. Short, helpful YouTube videos allowed the company to answer frequent questions and provide hands-on demonstrations so their customers could be confident.
If your customers often ask how-to questions, video content can be the perfect way to show and explain everything they need to know. In addition, consider all the ways your customers might use your products and services, and create helpful videos that will empower them to achieve their goals.
3 – Demonstrating Authority
Video content can help build your credibility in the minds of your target audience. One useful strategy is to showcase testimonial videos from actual customers.
You might even provide incentives for past happy customers to send you quick videos. For example, a special coupon in exchange for a video testimonial could drive repeat sales while also providing content to attract new customers.
Another effective strategy is to have a company representative conduct an interview with a past client. This is especially useful if you offer in-depth, long-term services where your potential new clients might have questions about the whole process of your offer.
By demonstrating the real-life results of your product or service, you can both tell and show why future customers should trust your claims.
4 – Building Community
YouTube can also be an effective tool for building community, especially if you host livestreams. An engaged community can become your best brand ambassadors to help you drive your business growth.
Many content creators on YouTube will use the comments section below each video to determine how the audience is responding. You might even ask specific questions during your video and request that your viewers leave an answer. Sometimes a community can start to form in an active comments section as different viewers start to interact with each other.
Livestreaming, however, is the most powerful tool you can use on YouTube to build an engaged community. By coming together in real time, your livestream participants will be able to connect with you and with each other and share in a community experience. If you hold regular livestreams at a certain time every week or month, that community can form genuine bonds as people start to get to know each other, even at a distance.
Ultimately, your business can even combine virtual with in-person experiences to strengthen the community ties and build goodwill (and more sales) for your brand.