How to Leverage YouTube for Retail Businesses

Social Media can work wonders for your e-commerce business if leveraged the right way. Among the available social channels, YouTube happens to be the second-largest search engine and the third most-visited site on the web. Importantly, YouTube can help you sell your products without actually spending a lot of money. According to a study by Oberlo, 62 percent of businesses use YouTube as a channel to post video content.

If your retail brand has a strong YouTube presence, viewers will gravitate towards it and become your subscribers. If the viewers connect with your product, they are likely to share the video and market your product on their own. Here’s why you must establish a presence on the video platform right away.

Benefits of YouTube marketing for retail businesses

Video content is naturally more engaging as compared to a page full of text. From product launches to customer reviews, from product explanations to problem solutions, everything is possible through simple, creative, and short videos.

Increase brand awareness

YouTube is used by 2.527 Billion people, according to a study conducted by The Balance Small Business. The platform offers a great opportunity for you to reach new customers. With engaging content, people who have no idea about your brand can discover, use, and become loyal customers in no time at all. Oberlo’s study states that 90 percent of people say they discover new brands or products on YouTube. Through videos, your business can reach brand recognition quickly by being creative with the way you present your products to the audience.

Connect with your target customers

5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day, according to The Balance Small Business. You can use various promotional tools offered by the platform, along with a strong content and marketing strategy, to specifically target e-commerce customers who may like your products and services.

This easy access to so many potential customers is what makes YouTube an effective marketing tool for your retail business. But how exactly can you achieve a strong YouTube brand presence?

Leveraging YouTube to Generate Brand Recognition and Revenue

Invest in the right gear

As YouTube is a visual platform, the content you share must be of high quality. Especially businesses into food, fashion, beauty, etc. need to be more particular about this aspect. If the viewers don’t find your content engaging, they will simply not return. Investing in editing software, recording gear, and proper lighting will bring in more viewers and help you establish a strong and appealing presence on YouTube.

Be consistent

Consistency is the key. You don’t need to have a dedicated Social Media Management team in place, all you need is to make sure you are committed to the project. Even though the nature of YouTube is not formal, it is important to be consistent. Viewers are looking for new, engaging content so as a retail brand, it won’t help if there is one video posted on Day 1 and absolutely no activity for another month.

Keep experimenting

The best way to find what type of videos work with your customers is to experiment. Find creative ways to showcase your product. For example, there are various types of videos that a fashion brand can produce – an outfit inspiration video, mix-and-match guide, customer reviews, etc. When you experiment, you will eventually figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Focus on SEO

After Google, YouTube is the second-most used search engine. People have started using the platform to look for information by directly searching for it on YouTube. When producing content on YouTube, focus on SEO Strategy and utilize the keywords that work for your brand to drive in e-commerce traffic.

Once you do that, make sure your website is easy to use and navigate for your customers. You can ensure this by keeping the theme simple, warm, and inviting.

Need a theme for your commerce site? Check out the WordPress marketplace theme by Wbcom Designs.

Repurpose and plan the content

Videos are an efficient way to communicate with customers, old and new, and tell them about everything that is happening with your retail business. By having a proper posting schedule and content plan in place, you can ensure that you never miss a deadline, post regularly, come up with unique ideas, and generate shareable content. You can use the same plans for other channels as well.

Embrace influencer marketing

When it comes to Social Media, people follow people. If your retail brand is trying to reach new audiences, Influencers are extremely crucial. There are thousands of YouTube stars with subscribers that go in the millions.

Viewers tend to search for genuine product reviews from Influencers. In fact, a study by Google observes that the watch time has grown 10x for ‘Shop with me’ videos on mobile, 12x for ‘Does it work’ videos, and 2x for ‘Everything you need to know’ videos on mobile. So, if an influencer uses your product and provides similar content, it will have a positive impact on your brand’s reach and awareness and thus on your revenue and e-commerce sales as well.

If you directly work with Influencers, you can create more engaging content and reach out to the influencers’ audiences. By working with a variety of influencers, you can have different types of content through such collaborations. This adds versatility to your product and also gives you access to customers with varied interests.

Simplify shopping

As a retail business that is actively present on YouTube, it is important to make sure customers not only like your content but are able to easily shop the product being featured in the video. You can use features such as the description box to ensure that relevant links are provided right there to people who are interested in shopping for the said products.

Videos are one of the most popular forms of content consumed by people today. YouTube offers you the opportunity to publish authentic, transparent, and engaging videos. According to the Guardian, by 2025, YouTube will become smarter in recognizing the preferences of the viewers and suggesting curated viewing lists.

This highlights how the platform itself can help you reach more viewers if you create content that your target audience finds helpful. The key is to ensure a strong presence on YouTube while helping your viewers gain better access to your product in all ways possible and then to be ready for large order volumes.