Content Triumphs over Ads, YouTube Just Keeps Growing
It’s that time again, the moment where we share our favorite Content Marketing reads. Two up this month: It’s time to Stop Making Ads and Start Making Content + The Importance of Leveraging YouTube. Both are terrific reads. Feel free to read the articles in their entirety or just the important nuggets coupled with our opinion.
Stop making Ads, start making Content
Takeaway and Source:
"Today’s audience is smarter than the creative we’re trying to deliver to them. Few will respond to invasive ‘Buy Now’ messaging, and fewer still will watch your short-film-length commercials.”
SING IT. We absolutely have to stop thinking our audience will consume one of our clever Ads, click ‘buy’, and move on. That’s just not how it works. We must communicate with our audience, not demand their attention in an attempt to solicit a transaction. Almost every Brand we work with seeks to accomplish a few overalapping goals with their Marketing Strategy:
Build Brand awareness with those who do not yet know our organization…for the right reasons
Over a series of touch-points, they should know who we are, what we do, how we do it, what makes us different, and what motivates us to serve our audience
Strengthen the relationship we have with our existing audience
This helps instill confidence with our audience that they made the right choice by selecting our Brand
By creating Content (and not just Ads) we are able to accomplish those goals. By focusing on Brand, Marketing ultimately supports Business Development (if you are business) or Fundraising (if you are a non-profit) to support tangible ROI priorities. Most notably, it goes ‘beyond the transaction’ (see below)…
“It may seem naive or pollyannaish to recommend simply bringing branding and media teams together, but it works. The old-school hand-off approach has been made antiquated by advances in media technology and in a more complicated audience journey. Working together, teams can go beyond antiquated approaches to craft stories that build loyalty and affinity that goes beyond a singular transactional moment in time.”
Importance of YouTube’s Place In Your Integrated Marketing Plan
Takeaway and Source:
Credibility is being built on YouTube and odds are if your Brand doesn’t have a presence, your competitors either already do or will in the near-term. Think about your own behavior:
You discover a Brand and you are conducting a ‘pre-interview’ for their services
You watch one of their videos on their Website or Social and it happens to be hosted on YouTube
Next, you explore their library of videos and ideally you come away impressed with what they had to say
When you are ready to inquire, you have a terrific understanding of their processes, what they stand for, and what ultimately motivates them as an organization
That’s a successful journey. Step one can also be ‘searched for a specific service on Google and because the descriptions were built-out properly, the video appeared as an answer to my question’, but the next steps all look the same. Speaking of optimizing descriptions…
“Produce high-quality videos that captivate your target audience, address their needs, and offer solutions to their problems. Additionally, optimize video titles, descriptions and thumbnails while incorporating relevant keywords.
This combination not only attracts viewers but also improves ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs), leading to increased brand visibility and higher conversion rates for small businesses.”
There are some components to this article I’m not 100% in agreement with such as the monetization angle. I do not see a successful independent Brand leveraging YouTube’s monetization abilities - that’s a recipe for Brand dilution. Your Brand stands on its own, not propped up by others.
