Mary Meeker’s 2016’s report on internet trends revealed that video will take 74 percent of all online traffic by 2017.
YouTube is ready for the challenge, with 300 hours of content uploaded every minute. However, the platform isn’t for everyone.
Should you use YouTube to embrace video this year in your content marketing strategy? Consider these pros and cons that can help you decide if the platform is right for you:
The pros of YouTube marketing
1. Viral effect
YouTube is the top platform for online videos, and the worldwide popularity of the platform boasts its prowess, but it can be difficult for marketers to outpace popular content, such as the 1 billion views on Adele’s “Hello” music video.
Another challenge brand managers should prepare for is viewers’ short attention spans. Research published in The New York Times reports that 44.1 percent of viewers abandon a video after 60 seconds of watching. That means you must deliver clickable and shareable content. Here are a few ways you can do to boost your content’s virality:
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- Short and sweet. Your video should run anywhere between 1 minute and 2.5 minutes and contain an easy-to-digest message. Nike’s commercial comes in at 1:19, and its characters are as sweet as can be:
- Emotional and touching. Place a compelling story behind your video so that viewers don’t have a chance to do anything but watch until the very end:
- Inspirational and encouraging. Challenge viewers to have the same experience:
2. Better SEO rankings
Sharing your videos on YouTube can positively affect your organization’s search rankings. Not only will YouTube’s video content get better treatment by its parent company, Google, the platform is the second-largest search engine, providing traffic-boosting opportunities to many organizations.
Using embedded videos on your website can improve bounce rates and increase visitors’ time on your pages, too. Here are several secrets on how to drive organic traffic to your videos on YouTube and rank higher in a search results:
- Craft compelling videos with catchy thumbnails that can boost your videos’ view-time.
- Optimize your video title, description, file name and closed captioning to make keywords friendly for search engines. For example, if “educational videos” is a key phrase of yours, include in your description, file name and auto-complete feature.
- Write specific keywords first and general and matching keywords second. This will help you stand out on search engines.
3. Free uploading and creation app
Unlike Vimeo and its subscription plans, YouTube a free video-hosting platform. Not only can you upload videos for free, YouTube partners can also earn money from ad-revenue sharing.
YouTube also entices marketers with the free ads for the first 5 seconds a viewer watches it, helping to provide you with free placing. YouTube’s video creation app, YouTube director, also helps low-budget marketers and business owners create high-quality ads with easy-to-use tools.
The cons of YouTube marketing
4. Annoying advertising
If you’re against promotional content being placed on your videos, YouTube isn’t the right platform for you.
The free cost of an uploaded video has its dark side in ads that you can’t eliminate, except by upgrading your subscription plan. These ads can disrupt the message of your video, such as this ad for online press releases, paired with Imany’s heart-breaking performance of “T’es Beau":
A competitor’s ad with a huge discount offer that’s placed on your video can also lead a potential customer to your rival’s website.
2. Poor customization and usability
Your organization’s website design and branding won’t be reflected on your YouTube page. YouTube doesn’t support the incorporation of your logo or CTA button into a video player, and the platform offers a few design templates you can use to stand out among other organizations.
If you aim to reach an exclusive B2B audience, it’s better to choose another video hosting platform. Other marketers can have issues finding and using usability features, such as Creator Studio. It can take you several minutes to access the most prominent features to manage your channel.
1. Low security and high wait time
YouTube can’t safeguard you against illegal downloading of your video If someone steals your content, posting it as his or her own, it could affect the number of views and your website’s SEO rankings. I found six YouTube downloaders in less than a few minutes, including this tool:
Lack of security isn’t the only downfall for your content. YouTube viewers can incur long wait times during high-traffic bursts, so it’s not surprising that they stop viewing your video after it buffers for more than 10-20 seconds.
Uploading a video can also be a time-consuming process. It can take up to an hour to upload a 15-minute video, adding to marketers’ packed schedules and tasks.
What additional pros and cons would you add to the list?
Veronica Hunt is the content marketing manager at Comcast Corporation.
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