YouTube has become an essential part of online marketing strategy – not only in the affiliate space but across other digital marketing channels to get the message across to a much bigger audience in a short amount of time.

Whenever choosing a product or service to promote – it is ideal that the brand has a video, commercial or ad available on YouTube to explain more about that specific product or service. 

The benefits

Video content has grown thanks to the improvement of technology and social media platforms and how they present content to users eg. Instagram Reels, Facebook, TikTok and particularly YouTube – which has been at the forefront of this for many years. 

Video is a great way for brands and influencers to get their message and information across to potential consumers quickly and easily, however, with these improvements in technology of course have come shorter attention spans, with consumers looking to digest information quickly and easily. People are now used to watching videos with 75% of people watching short-form video content when using social media on their mobile with closed captions being particularly important as many users watch videos with the sound off. 88% of marketers are now also saying that video is now an important part of their marketing strategy.

Source: Dash.app, 2024

YouTube is particularly beneficial as part of your online strategy, due to its appeal to a wider audience and already being a highly established brand for consuming video content. Users have already developed a level of trust with the platform.

 

The format of the platform also makes it easy for you to create and customise your own ‘Channel’ updating your bio with all the relevant links to your website and other social media channels – as well as many other tips we will include below – and can be easily managed across all devices laptop, desktop, or phone.

 

If you’re just getting started on your affiliate marketing journey and not sure where to begin, we offer 1-1 coaching to support you!

 

12 Reasons Why YouTube

 

Drawing on some of the key tips shared by Jason Miles in his book: YouTube Marketing Power: How to Use Video to Find More Prospects, Launch Your Products, and Reach a Massive Audience. The following is a list of 12 Reasons Why YouTube is a must when it comes to your Affiliate Marketing strategy:

 

1. Increased traffic to your website – People can buy products or learn more about product or your service offerings, the math is simple. 

 

2. Brand Recognition –  You have a lot of metrics on YouTube that give you all the data you need to get a sense of the success of the video. There is usually a like, and subscribe button that ensures engagement and gives you a sense of brand recognition based on how many views and conversion from views to subscriptions is a very important metric to keep track of.

3. Search Engine Optimization – Google, Bing, and Yahoo serve up content each time someone searches for something and the more platforms you are present on and already ranking highly for specific keywords related to your industry and what you want to rank for, the more likely you will appear in those search engine results.

 

4. Video Search Optimization – Internet searches aren’t as unsophisticated as they used to be. YouTube became the second most popular search engine for one simple reason. People ask themselves a question before initiating a search: Am I looking for a video or text result?

 

5. Referral Traffic from Videos – Clickable links that take people to your website or product page. While you can’t place a clickable link to an external website directly on your video, you can make a clickable link to another YouTube video. Make it your goal to ensure each video you produce has a description and a link back to your website or relevant product. TIP: Link the first item in the description so that it is permanently displayed. 

6. Referral traffic from your YouTube Channel –  Most visitors will click to your channel and check out your overall presentation. This is when your channel strategy needs to engage them. This is the moment of truth. They’ll look to see how many subscribers and videos you have and whether you have links to your website or other social media sites. 

 

7. Comments and Conversations – YouTube has an interactive area with comments that allow customers the opportunity to let the brand and other customers know what they think about that product or service – this can help – or hinder, other buyers when making their own decisions on whether to purchase with you.

 

8. Social Sharing – When people subscribe to your channel, they will see your videos in their home feeds. Also, due to the algorithm of the platform, the more subscribers you have, the more people are going to easily find your next videos as they will be even more likely to be shown in their home feeds.

 

9. Subscribers to your channel – As with every marketing strategy it is a numbers game. The number of subscribers plays a huge key role – providing social proof of respect for your brand and what you share.

 

10. Content Participation – There is also the option to create competitions that can result in even more participation on your channel. The biggest benefit of running a contest on YouTube is that your fans and followers can engage more with your brand by making a video entry.

 

11. Fan Videos – If you can cultivate your brand to the point where customers make fan videos, then you’ve done a powerful thing. A popular example of fan videos is of customers excitedly opening their Liberty Jane Clothing packages. 

 

12. Referral traffic to other Social Channels – Through being able to customise your own Channel, with a clear description of your brand and links to your website, landing page and other social networks. It creates even more trust and influence for visitors to your Channel.

Source: Jason Miles, Youtube Marketing Power, (2014)

 

More visibility and brand recognition 

 

YouTube videos are a great source of brand recognition, as well as, brand performance based on the metrics YouTube provides. The ease of access and use of YouTube makes video an essential part of any company or brand that wants to become recognized to a wider audience across all platforms, whether it’s a desktop, laptop, or mobile phone. While there is an investment to be made in terms of time, energy – and potentially finances if you need to outsource creating videos – the stats of creating video content make it clear that it will be well worth it and deliver a great return on investment in the long run.

 

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