Influencer marketing has been around since the dawn of social media, and it is one of the most effective forms of online marketing for all types of businesses. Influencer marketing combines the concept of celebrity endorsements that have been around for decades with the online reach today’s influencers have.
Besides choosing the right influencer for your brands and products, choosing the right channels for your influencer marketing campaigns is very important. YouTube has emerged in recent years as one of the best platforms for influencer marketing. In this article, we will explore why it might be the best one for you.
What Makes YouTube a Dominant Marketing Channel?
The main reason YouTube is a dominant marketing channel is the number of people it can bring in. The platform has over 2.1 billion monthly active users. While other social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have seen slow growth or even a decline in user numbers, YouTube continues to grow. Various research bodies have even concluded that the number of its active monthly users will continue growing in the foreseeable future.
YouTube is a Video-sharing Platform
While that is an obvious statement, it has a significant bearing on why YouTube is the perfect platform for influencer marketing. Over the past few years, there has been a significant shift in how people consume online content.
We have long moved from when people read content on web pages to when they prefer video content. According to several studies, the amount of time people spend watching videos online has doubled in the past decade, and a significant amount of that time is spent on YouTube.
For this reason, working with a YouTube influencer who discusses your product or services increases the chance of your messaging reaching someone who will be interested in it. The video-centric nature of YouTube also means you will be able to capture and maintain the target audience’s attention if you work with the right influencer and use the right video formats.
Diverse User Base
The massive number of active monthly users and the over 120 million people who visit the platform every day means there is a diverse user base your business can reach. Suppose you are launching a massive campaign to reach as many people as possible. In that case, you can work with influencers who each have their own audience segments to ensure this.
For targeted campaigns, you will need influencers catering to the exact audiences you are looking for. Each influencer on the platform appeals to a specific segment of the total number of YouTuber users, meaning you can find an influencer who will reach the perfect demographic for your business and its products or services.
Additionally, YouTube’s massive user base is segmented enough that you can find multiple influencers who target the same audiences. By working with multiple influencers doing this, you ensure a much wider reach within that segment or niche.
Freedom for Different Content Formats
One of the reasons why video is often the best digital marketing channel is because of the number of formats that you and the influencers you work with can use to reach, engage with and persuade audiences.
An influencer can post an unboxing video that captures the audience’s attention and then a demonstration video to show off the product, its features and benefits. Doing so has a massive persuasive effect on the right audience. They can also create walk-throughs, tutorials, showcases and demonstrations that work well to ensure a high return on your marketing investment.
Videos Have Longevity
A common problem that businesses and marketers have to grapple with when they work with social media influencers is how long their posts will be available for the audience to view.
Because of how much content people post on social media, a post will have high impressions and click-through rates for about 24 hours before the algorithm buries it under other pieces of content. The people you were targeting will only see that post again if they specifically look for it.
YouTube is different because of its recommendation algorithm. YouTube can recommend a video from years ago if the algorithm deems the user interested in its content. If you work with the right influencers, YouTube can ensure that people will continue seeing your marketing messaging for years because of the platform’s recommendation engine.
YouTube Has Highly Engaged Audiences
The biggest names on YouTube have spent years carefully captivating audiences and fan bases. The people in the groups trust these influencers and content creators immensely, which makes them highly engaged with everything the influencers do.
This engagement also comes from a sense of community and a feeling that the audience knows the influencer personally. Influencers can engage with their audience through comments and community posts. The audience, in turn, will watch everything the content creator or influencer posts within a day and will also be more likely to take action if an influencer endorses a product or service.
Cross-promotion and Collaboration
Influencers can also work together on a marketing campaign for your products or their own products. By doing so, they put your business in front of new audiences that you would not have reached otherwise. This increases your reach and exposure, allowing you to increase your influence on YouTube and see a better marketing return on investment.
Monetization Opportunities for Influencers
While businesses can work with influencers on YouTube, these influencers can also use influencer marketing to sell various products and services to their audiences. We have already seen this with large YouTube influencers who have launched highly successful products. The benefits of using YouTube for influencer marketing apply to influencers too. However, there are additional benefits for the latter.
YouTube has numerous monetization options for influencers. These influencers can work directly with businesses for sponsorships and endorsements, monetize their views and earn through merchandising and direct fan support.
YouTube provides many excellent opportunities for businesses to work with influencers on marketing campaigns. In addition, it is an ideal platform for influencers who want to do their own marketing, with these influencers also seeing the same benefits as businesses who use the platform for their marketing. Businesses can also use YouTube alongside other platforms for additional benefits.