Susan Boyle & 14 Reasons to Use YouTube Videos for Marketing

Tadaaa, here it is: more than 120 million views on YouTube have turned Scottish singer Susan Boyle’s debut on the “Britain’s Got Talent” stage into last year’s most popular video on You Tube. The unemployed Scot who admitted she had “never been kissed” astonished the audience and the show’s hard-to-please judges with her version of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables,” which resulted in mass applause and standing ovations from the audience immediately following her performance. Duplicating last year’s winner’s Paul Potts‘ characteristics, Susan Boyle’s achievement showcases that uniqueness, sympathy, true emotion and finally a big kick off audience seem to be some of the keys to success on YouTube. It also emphasises the platform’s power comparing 11.5 million Britons who have watched the live show on TV to its global online success. This fact has been motivation enough to think again about online video’s power for marketing:

14 Reasons to Use Online Video for Marketing

1. Perception: Media consumption behaviour has been changing radically. While TV has still been remaining the most important media channel the number of people having watched online videos has witnessed growth by nearly 70% in 2009, while time spent on online videos has increased by 46% on average (US, Nielsen 3 Screen Report 2009).

2. Accessibility: The medium is easily accessible, wherever users have a computer or smart phone (and internet connection). Wifi and broadband access is spreading quickly.

3. Durability: Online videos extend the time of content’s media presence and accessibility like a global hard disk.

4. Range: It stretches the range of your content massively, transforming a regional audience into a global one (compared to TV).

5. Customer Segmentation: Although the general popularity of online video is growing, certain age groups view online videos more often than others. 18-24 year old adults have consumed it 5 times more than the 65+ year olds (US, Nielsen 3 Screen Report 2009); this fact allows addressing different target groups with customised media strategies for each channel. Furthermore, online’s lower public visibility offers you to be more “experimental”:

6. Viral Power: Users can share content easily. Your message might be forwarded by one of the most trusted channels people can have: their friends. This means more attention and a less sceptical reception of your message.

7. Measurability: View counters and user comments offer you direct measures of success, even though you still have to capitalise on your attention.

8. Market Research: Visitor comments provide direct feedback and worthy ideas for your future efforts. Moreover, it allows you to stay up-to-date easily with trends and inspiration; which user generated content is hot right now? Which are the most popular videos?

9. Connection: Another plus – you can easily connect or lead over to some other online sources (websites, blogs, social networks).

10. SEO: High popularity of You Tube videos will result in better Google rankings, which enlarges your general online visibility.

11. Motivation: Users are encouraged to produce their own related video answers (which grows identification and enlarges the channel’s range even more).

12. Customer Loyalty: Regular publishing may result in people subscribing to your channel. You can also send newsletters to those subscribers on YouTube.

13. Search Engine: Many people use You Tube for a) researching products and services, b) viewing product demonstrations and b) finding information for work purposes. It’s about more than pure entertainment!

14. Price: Last but definitely not least – it’s free!

Images by dullhunk.

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