SPONSORED: How YouTube can drive your customers away

Sponsored Post

28th Jun 2016

The inevitable question facing many digital marketers when designing a content strategy is: “Should I build on an existing video platform such as YouTube, or build my own branded content hub?”. Free video platforms can be a great way to host videos and share your content organically. But is YouTube truly effective at increasing engagement from your prospective customers, and converting them to an actual customer?

To find out, Brightcove commissioned qualitative eye-tracking research from Objective Experience tracking how consumers act when confronted with two types of retail content marketing strategies:

• A well-designed website with its own branded content hub
• Or YouTube to store and display videos to customers

The results were enlightening: consumers were twice as likely to buy products after watching videos integrated into the purchasing process, when compared to users watching videos on a branded YouTube channel. They were also three times as likely to take additional, brand-focused steps — such as downloading a step-by-step guide, viewing detailed product information or looking at related products — after viewing an onsite video with relevant calls to action, when compared to the same branded YouTube channel.

An even more insightful finding was around video search:

• When searching for a video on the brand’s website, 67 per cent of people found the relevant video
• When searching for a video on branded YouTube channels, only 13 per cent of those were able to find the correct video, from the same brand

While YouTube is a fantastic way to share videos quickly, a strategy that relies solely on free platforms for its branded content strategy is unlikely to see much in the way of converted customers.

At the same time, simply uploading video content to your website isn’t enough to improve those conversions. An effective video content marketing strategy should aim to provide a well-designed user experience with relevant calls to action that drive prospective customers back to your website, or to other sections of your site. That way, you can ensure any customer that has begun its buying journey with you, doesn’t end it upon searching for another video.

To get further insights and relevant key takeaways around what makes for an effective retailer’s online video strategy, and how to successfully engage customers and influence their journey online, download the report “Tale of Two Stores: How Video Can Make Or Break Your Customer Journey”.