Consumer research has shown that customers won’t buy from people they don’t find trustworthy. In other words, trust and credibility influence sales and marketing. Doing business on the web presents unique challenges not faced by brick-and-mortar businesses. Business owners looking to show they know what they’re talking about and that they’re credible may be surprised to learn how easy it is to build credibility with YouTube.
“In the end, you make your reputation and you have your success based upon your credibility and being able to provide people who are really hungry for information what they want.” ~ Brit Hume, Emmy award-winning journalist
Why Use Video?
As you may have noticed, there is more video content on the web now than ever before. In fact, Cisco reports that Business Internet video traffic grew 52% in 2012 and projects that video will account for 58% of all business Internet traffic in 2017, up from 31% in 2012.
Consider this:
1. Your customers watch video – According to Forbes magazine, 75% of business executives watch video on a business website every week and 65% of them later visit the vendor’s site.
2. Your customers trust video – Video drives sales. Product demos have been found to boost sales 20%-40%.
It’s clear that people like, want, and seek out video content.
And that doesn’t take into account the fact that video content is 53X more likely to appear organically in searches compared to other kinds of content.
Before we go any further, I want to set something straight. You can’t just slap together any old video and put it on the web. I’m talking about quality video. Take the time to invest in a few simple tools to make sure your video content sends your audience the right message.
Why Use YouTube?
With all of the talk about various social networks sometimes we can lose perspective. Here’s an illuminating statistic: More than 80 million unique viewers watch over 4 billion hours of video on YouTube every month. Many of these viewers do more than watch. They also rate, comment, and share while on the site. That means, in essence, YouTube is the 3rd largest social media channel (Facebook is first and YouTube and Google+ are neck-in-neck).
When someone “Likes” your YouTube video, or shares it with their friends they are in effect giving you an endorsement. A 3rd-party endorsement is more credible than your claims because it means that someone else has recommended you.
Do you think it’s wise to ignore the 3rd largest social media channel when formulating your digital marketing strategy?
A little-known fact about YouTube is that it’s actually the 2nd-largest search engine on the web. That means when your customers are searching for an answer to their problem, if you don’t have content on YouTube, you’re leaving money on the table.
1. Use YouTube to showcase your expertise – If you have video content that solves problems, you can establish yourself as a useful, expert resource.
2. Use YouTube to build a connection – The internet is largely anonymous, you can buy and sell on eBay and other sites and never know who you are doing business with. By recording YouTube videos, you can let people hear and see you, which helps you establish a connection.
3. Use YouTube to rank better with Google – I mentioned earlier that YouTube is the 2nd-largest search engine. If you start to rank well with your video content, you’ll have an advantage over your competition. Plus, it’s been proven that video search results have a 41% higher click through rate.
We know that video content is an important part of any successful digital marketing strategy. We also know that YouTube is the video site to use. Now, how exactly does YouTube build credibility?
How exactly does YouTube build credibility?
What does all this mean to you?
The answer is simple. What this all boils down to is: Video presentations can help you build expert status and social influence.
Nobody will buy from you if they don’t believe that you know what you’re talking about and that you’ll do what you say you will. If you want a simple way to overcome the natural barriers and resistance human beings have to anyone and anything unfamiliar you should be using video.
Which is more credible: your claim that your business will deliver, or a YouTube video testimonial from a satisfied customer?
Who would you be more likely to buy from: some faceless website that promises a good price or the subject matter expert that has a library of YouTube videos with helpful demonstrations?
And remember, with credibility being such an important part of the buying process it all comes down to this: Can you really afford not to be using YouTube to build credibility through effective video presentations?
To learn more about using video presentations to establish expert status click here.
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Videos are an important tool for B2B organizations. A lot of B2B companies offer niche products or services, many of which are fairly complex. Using YouTube to broadcast product demos or tutorials are a great way to bring in more traffic and make the product or service more appealing by explaining it with audio and visual assistance.
That’s right on, Nick. Unfortunately, when most business people think of video they think “inside the box” of Talking Heads, which equates public speaking to them. You know how the statistical saying goes, “People dread public speaking over death.” However, as you rightly mentioned, there are myriads of video application in business.