16 Pros and Cons of Youtube for Business

The Pros and Cons of YouTube For Business

The popularity of YouTube continues to rise in leaps and bounds. If you’re using YouTube for Business, then you have access to potential customers on a wide variety of platforms. It’s not just the PC or laptop any more. Users are accessing YouTube on tablets, smartphones, and even their gaming consoles or smart TVs today. Billions of people can be reached with this medium and this is by far it’s most enticing advantage. The disadvantage? Your work might not ever get seen with the millions of hours of videos that are available.

Should you be getting involved with this program? Then here are some of the other key points to consider when evaluating the pros and cons of YouTube for Business.

Here Are the 8 Pros of YouTube For Business

1. There are no out-of-pocket expenses required to get involved with this program.
You’ll have expenses in the creation and marketing of your videos, of course, but YouTube doesn’t charge you to participate in their business program. The fees are paid by advertisers who want to have access to the platform. That’s why small businesses in particular can benefit from this program.

2. YouTube is widely accepted around the world with high brand saturation rates.
There’s no denying the impact of YouTube around the world. Just about anyone who has access to the internet knows about the platform. When you create a video, you can then post it on YouTube and embed it onto your site with YouTube’s logo, which naturally transfers some of that brand recognition over to your business even if the video doesn’t get watched from your site.

3. Sharing YouTube videos is so simple and easy that toddlers can do it.
All someone has to do is access the share and embed tabs underneath your video [if you’ve authorized them] to share them on Facebook, Twitter, or their other preferred sites. Embedding the videos gives people the opportunity to copy/paste code from your video to their website so your message can spread even faster. It really only takes a couple clicks of the mouse to make this happen, which is why many business owners feel like they don’t have much to lose.

4. The length of your videos isn’t capped.
You can upload a video of any size or length to YouTube and have it help you promote your business. Most businesses see the greatest amount of success with videos that are 2 minutes or less in length, but you’ll find other businesses uploading videos of seminars, speaking engagements, or overviews of their manufacturing process for research purposes and having success with them as well. As long as the video is engaging, it is going to be able to keep drawing viewers.

5. You can create your own channel that promotes your business.
Today’s customers want more than just a look at the pros and cons of doing business with you. They want ongoing values that prove you’re committed to forming a long-term relationship with them. By creating a YouTube for Business channel and allowing subscribers, you can give people the chance to access information that is important to them. In return, your brand gets to stay at the top of their mind and that gives you a priority position when they have a need to purchase something.

6. There is very little censorship over the content you post.
You can be as creative as you want with your business videos that get posted to YouTube. Most of the things that are banned in posted videos aren’t things you’d want to put in the average business video anyway, so this frees up your marketing department [even if that is just yourself] to engage your targeted demographics in a potentially memorable way.

7. It’s one of the few places where people congregate on the internet on a regular basis.
More than 50% of total internet consumer traffic went through YouTube in 2014. This means if you take out the video component of the platform, YouTube is also one of the most popular search engines that is used right now. As long as you get your tags properly sorted, you’ll be able to potentially be found through organic searches by customers who want what you’ve got. As an extra benefit, YouTube videos that are keyword associated also rank highly on Google searches.

8. You can place links on your YouTube video that act as a natural backlink.
Google has cracked down on paid backlinks for better ranking. Organic results provide a value emphasis. When you place a link to your business from your YouTube account, you’re going to get a backlink boost that can provide your SEO efforts with a boost. It also lets prospects who are interested in what you’ve got the chance to purchase it directly from you.

Here Are the 8 Cons of Using YouTube For Business

1. You have very little control over the actual presentation of your videos.
Because YouTube is free, there isn’t much control provided over the presentation of your videos if you make them open to the public. Even if you’re embedding the video onto your site, the link to access YouTube’s site is literally just one click away. That’s a lot of risk to take considering the need to invest into a high quality production video to attract customers.

2. The different branding can actually confuse customers.
People are pretty smart, but sometimes that intelligence takes awhile to make itself known. When some people see your brand on your website, then see YouTube’s branding, they’ll be confused by the dual branding. What happens when a potential customer is confused? They’re not going to purchase your product. Sometimes it may be better to keep your videos hosted locally instead of through the YouTube For Business platform.

3. Related videos that have the same tags as your own aren’t always content related.
There are a lot of videos on YouTube that don’t appeal to a potential customer’s individual morality. The problem is that you have no control over what related videos are displayed on the right side of the screen when someone pulls up your video. Like it or not, whatever YouTube decides to display here is based on tags and if that content is unappealing to your prospect, your brand is toast.

4. It is easier to lose prospects to your competition.
Speaking of the related content tags that get used, there’s a good chance that if your competitor is using YouTube for Business, they’ll be using the same tags you’re using. This means you’ll be giving your competition exposure when prospects access your video. This makes it a lot easier for a potential prospect to like your competitor’s value proposition more than your own. You get this in return as a potential advantage, but stealing prospects is a less reliable revenue source than developing your own.

5. You’ve got to market your videos in order for them to be seen.
YouTube isn’t just going to promote your videos on your behalf. You’re going to need to market them in some way. This might involve paying for YouTube marketing on specific tags or it might involve launching a marketing campaign that links to your videos. Stumbling onto a video happens only rarely as specific search results are typically needed. If you don’t get word out, your video is going to sit empty of views.

6. There’s never a guarantee.
You could invest $10k into the production of your business video and wind up having 172 views. Not everyone has the success of the Gummy Bear Song which as of August 2015 has over 600 million views and counting since being uploaded in 2007. You can do everything right to create a viral video and upload it to YouTube and never see a customer come from it. That’s why risk evaluation must be part of the process.

7. Negative reviews can damage a business reputation.
Online reputation is critically important to the modern business relationship. About 8 out of 10 people who are active on the internet on a regular basis treat online reviews in the same perspective as a personal recommendation from their family or a close friend. Negative comments or reviews on a YouTube video can damage the online reputation a business has and since YouTube and Google are one and the same, this can affect your search rankings at the same time.

8. Customers can like your video, but reject your value proposition.
Just because a video is entertaining doesn’t mean it will create a sale. It can be fun to be popular on YouTube, but it is better to be profitable.

The pros and cons of YouTube for Business show that the risk/reward decision must be carefully thought out before proceeding. Just throwing up a video on YouTube and calling it good isn’t good enough. Evaluate each key point mentioned here and you’ll be able to get a clearer picture of whether or not this platform is right for your brand.