Are you a business owner who has ignored online video and youtube? Even in 2016? Continue to do so at your own peril. The top 100 global brands are testament to proving how effective and critical youtube has become in their brand marketing over the years. Many have moved beyond offline video (television style branding) to a much more socially involved, content rich, and audience engaging platforms such as youtube.
Video marketing is just as important as doing a great video. The top brands understand this. Since it’s founding in 2005 and the subsequent purchase by Google in 2006, youtube has made giant strides in establishing itself as the most effective social platform to engage brand audiences —customers, clients, prospects, partners, advocates, critics, and competitors. This article will examine marketing insights, strategies and practices the top 100 global brands have achieved using youtube as found by interbrand.com
YouTube Marketing Insights from the Top 100 Brands
More Content – More Engagement:
Since 2007 The Top 100 Global Brands have published more than a quarter million videos on youtube – More the videos in their channels more the engagement.
Social Media is KING when it comes to video marketing success:
The top 25% of the top 100 brands had higher Facebook (330 times greater) and Twitter (89 times greater) video sharing than the bottom 25%.
Different video content for different customer levels – No one likes to be sold:
The most successful of the Top 100 Global Brands understand that not everyone likes to be sold. That is why they produce a wide range of video content – Short form videos targeted consumers unfamiliar with the brand, while longer form content maintained engagement with those who already are within the “buying” circle.
Video marketing is as important as video production:
Most brands fail to effectively market the video content they produce. First they don’t understand what is video marketing. Second they fail to form a strategy as to “what” they want to achieve, and they don’t have a system to how calculate video marketing ROI.
If it worked for your competition, it should work for you too:
The top brands to use similar video marketing strategies. This is no secret. Take how Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola approach their video marketing strategies, or the top US beer brands use online video to compete with each other. Copying and emulating what your competition has done may not yield the same result but by tweaking and improving those strategies may do so in your favor.
ALL video marketing strategies DO NOT always target sales:
Traditional advertising and marketing are geared towards driving sales. The new model (especially video marketing) is geared towards targeting subscriber, and follower bases to drive. This increases the potential of the video content to be engaged (like, share, comment).
Major Findings (and Statistics) from the TOP 100 brands on Youtube
– Since Google purchased youtube back in 2007, the Top 100 Global Brands have published a total of 258,000* videos across 1,378* youtube channels, attracting over 9.5* billion total views.
– The top 100 brands have collectively invested billions of dollars in online video creation, and online video marketing.
– Since 2009, the top 100 brands have increased an average of 73%* on publishing costs on average per year. By 2017 these figure are primed for exponential increases.
– Only 1 of the Top 100 Global Brands DOES NOT* have a youtube channel.
– 56 of the Top 100 Global Brands have 10 or more youtube channels.
– Many of the Top 100 Global Brands fail to reach their audiences because they focus more on video production and less on video marketing. Over 50% of the videos produced by the Top 100 Global Brands have less than 1,000 views.
– YouTube has longer lasting marketing impact than social media for the Top 100 Global Brands. Over 30%* of the total aggregate video views occur 12 weeks after publication.
* As of 2015
TOP 10 Successful Practices for YouTube Marketing Success from The Top 100 Brands – How to Win Video Marketing with Youtube Marketing in 2017
1. Be consistent with video content
The best-performing brands publish high volume content on a regular schedule. Top aggregate brands publish 78 videos per month on an average. Leading media brands produce close to 500 videos per month.
2. Take video optimization and youtube analytics seriously
Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine next to Google. youtube SEO is very different to that of traditional SEO. Google also prioritize web pages with youtube video embeds. The top brands understand this and create video content that is SEO friendly towards ranking their web pages.
3. NOT all videos need be superbowl half time commercial quality.
The top brands have their own marketing people create video content with smart phones. Once you have a healthy follower base, even the lesser quality videos will gain traction and engagement: They are as effective as the top tear productions.
4. Amp up the videos for the “In crowd”
A successful video marketing campaign never forgets to produce video series for very limited, but
highly engaged audiences. These can include event participants who are always the “in crowd” promoting brand videos with their own friends and followers. Just like how traditional advertising results in sustainable ales growth, marketing for the in crowd will create channel growth.
5. Apply branding consistently in to all facets of the videos on youtube
Successful youtube videos are often found by keywords used by searchers to search video content. Successful youtube videos are often used outside of the context of a branded youtube channel, such as website embedding. This is why you should plan on adding consistent branding strategies to the meta data such as titles, descriptions, tags, video thumbnails and even the video file name you upload on youtube.
6. Adding more content is more important than adding more channels
Many youtube channels lose out the on the initial buzz after the channels dry out without fresh content for over 120 days. Successful marketers have youtube channels that clearly focus on specific target audiences. They provide these channels with the heavy artillery to engage the dedicated audiences. \
7. Engage your community with social signals
Facebook and Twitter are among the most important sources of traffic on youtube within the Top 100 Global Brands. Users frequently share videos on social networks, and video content is attractive for sharing and the BEST! medium to convert. Social signals massively helps video ranking too.
8. Videos designed for youtube WILL NOT yield the same results on facebook and twitter
A common mistake made by many brands. The same youtube video will not generate the same buzz on other social media platforms. Many other social platforms have their own video upload requirements. Pay attention to those and customize your videos.
9. Plan ahead – have a system to measure video marketing ROI
This is new to even the top 100 global brands. Find out how to calculate video marketing ROI and plan ahead for success.
10. Make every video an actionable video
Many of the videos created by the top brands have 3 things to ignite their audiences:
(1) Inform (2) Inspire (3) Entertain
But what good is it to do all the above and not have the audience take action at the end of the video? If you are a small to medium business owner, find out what you should include (and what not to) in The Next Big Thing (T.N.T.B.) in video marketing for 2016 or watch the video below.
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