Out of various social media platforms out there, YouTube has emerged as a powerful platform for all kinds of businesses and content creators. Many social media consultants say that you should be on every relevant platform for maximum reach. That simply isn’t realistic for the majority of small business owners. Using YouTube in 2022 means you’re using a platform that has consistently provided support to organically gain traction for businesses and creators.
In this post, we will go through the latest marketing strategies for YouTube and outline the platform’s pros and cons. It will help you decide how to invest your time, effort, and attention to get the best return for your business through video marketing.
Table of Contents
Pros of Using YouTube in 2022
YouTube offers the longest content lifespan of any social media platform. Content on YouTube can be found by the audience years after you made it. Many businesses are leveraging the fact that you can make a video today, and it can still be bringing in money and clients years down the line.
The second benefit is that YouTube is a true search engine that results in higher intent levels for all the traffic that finds your videos. It is a huge bonus when someone finds your video by actively searching for it. They’re far more engaged and potentially qualified leads as they were actively looking for your content rather than finding it from suggestions.
The third advantage of using YouTube in 2022 is that there is still a great deal of organic reach available to leverage if you know how to use the platform prudently. This means that you don’t have to pay for people to find your videos as long as you’re making great content. If you don’t have the first clue about creating content, you should consult a social media agency for small businesses.
Lastly, you can use your creativity to build an audience for your business on YouTube. A recent example is a hair specialist by the name of Brad Mondo, who creates reaction-style videos where he shares his thoughts on celebrity hairstyles. This allowed him to leverage these celebrities’ popularity and fan-bases to drive traffic to his videos and business. That’s just one example of how people are doing amazingly creative work with YouTube content to drive viewers and traffic to their businesses.
Cons of Using YouTube in 2022
The main drawback to YouTube is that there can be a lot of upfront work and costs. For starters, the average video quality on YouTube is so high you will probably need a professional team to plan, produce and finish videos. Since success on YouTube comes from consistent efforts, producing video isn’t a one-time thing. There’s far more upfront investment which translates to a higher barrier to entry than the other platforms.
The second knock on YouTube is its slow initial growth rate. You might have heard about tons of quick Youtube success stories, but they are usually outliers. Everyone’s case is different and you need to pave your way to success through millions of competing channels. It can take quite a bit of time to test out your videos in front of different audiences to find what works and what doesn’t. So if you are looking to leverage YouTube, creativity and patience are essential.
Video Marketing for Businesses
When it comes to social media marketing, many people try to show up everywhere by repurposing content across every platform. Naturally, such content won’t do well if it isn’t optimized for where it will be consumed.
It is better to focus on one or two platforms, getting the culture down, and creating platform-specific content that allows you to stand out in the crowd. This will earn you more revenue, allowing you to reinvest in hiring talent or a social media agency that will enable you to show up on the other platforms when it makes sense.
Never forget to direct all of this attention to the platforms you own, like an email list or landing page. You shouldn’t be totally reliant on a social media platform to keep your business going.
Conclusion
YouTube continues to serve as an open stage for creators and businesses to showcase their talent, product or services. It will reward you if you’re ready to consistent time and effort into the platform.
Many business owners and marketers try to take on almost every social media platform at the same time to try and maximize their reach. Instead, start by focusing on one or two platforms and try to do them right. Social media marketing works best when you dedicate your time, effort, and resources to creating content specifically for the platform your target audience is most active on.
