Inbound 2020 Takeaways - Zach Basner’s Creating A World-Class Business YouTube Channel
While looking through the Inbound 2020 agenda, I found myself most excited about Zach Basner's session Creating A World-Class Business YouTube Channel (And Actually Generating Leads). Many businesses have a YouTube channel, but many of them use it as little more than a glorified video hosting platform. Which seems like a lot of wasted potential.
My hopes for this session was that I would get takeaways on:
- Why YouTube channel optimization is important
- Simple steps on how to optimize your channel and video
And Zach did not disappoint!
Takeaway 1: YouTube Is The Most Popular Visual Educator In Its Space
Understanding how to use YouTube for business starts with two simple points that most people know, but bears repeating:
- YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine (behind Google)
- YouTube is the 2nd largest social media platform (behind Facebook)
These two points are enough reason alone to be on YouTube, but are YouTube videos themselves effective sales tools? He then presented the following stats:
*The above stat comes from a sample size of over 20,000 internet users. That’s a lot of people discovering new brands on the regular!
So clearly, copious amounts of buyers are getting advice on what to buy from YouTube. Your buyers are there looking for answers on YouTube; the trick is now making your channel and videos educational, appealing and trustworthy.
Takeaway 2: Optimize Your YouTube Channel To Be Buyer Friendly
Unlike many YouTubers, as a business channel, your number one goal is sales. Not the views.
“Focus on the viewer, not the views. A million views doesn’t mean anything if they don’t become buyers.” - Zach Basner
There are six straightforward steps your business can take now to optimize your channel to be buyer friendly.
1. Have The Right Content
What is it that your buyer would want to know? What fears or concerns does a potential customer have when considering your product?
For more specific examples, Zach suggests reviewing The Selling 7: Sales and Marketing Videos Guaranteed to Get Results.
2. Brand Your Channel
One very important note made about branding your channel was to do everything you can to have it look like a helpful resource and not like a bunch of video commercials.
3. Use Custom Thumbnails
A simple step in the grand scheme of video production, but a very important one! Custom thumbnails are important for good first impressions, and if they are consistent across all your videos it will help viewers know which videos are yours and keep them from clicking a suggested video on accident.
4. Write Buyer Focused Titles
Buyer focused titles are an important part of on-page SEO. Try to title videos using words your buyer would, and avoid sounding like elaborate click bait.
5. Always Include Calls-To-Action
When you make your call-to-action, Zach suggests that you don’t make it “sound like homework.” Your call-to-action should be clean and direct, and not an elaborate set of directions. It should also be both seen and heard in your video.
6. Have Valuable Offers
Step 6 is sort of piggybacking off of Step 5. Essentially taking your call-to-action one step further and providing a valuable offer which brings viewers off of YouTube, which is “rented land”, and back to your website. Something as simple as “visit our website” is a bit vague, so try to tempt them with a valuable and specific resource instead.
Takeaway 3: Yes, YouTube Is A Good Sales Tool For B2B
Before diving into why YouTube is a good sales tool for B2B, Zach first referenced research collected by Forrester. The highlights of this research are as follows:
- 92% of B2B purchases start with search.
- 68% of B2B buyers prefer to research online on their own, up from 53% in 2015.
- 60% of B2B buyers prefer not to interact with a sales rep as the primary source of information.
- 75% of B2B buyers use social networks to learn about different vendors.
- 62% of B2B buyers say they can now develop selection criteria or finalize a vendor list — based solely on digital content.
A B2B buyer is a person not the whole business, and you can use video to talk directly to them as you would with B2C. A B2B buyer still has specific questions and concerns and is regularly doing research to find answers, this is where your videos come in!
So there you have it! My top three takeaways from Zach Basner’s session. You can learn more about him, and see more content he’s produced here. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Looking for more video content ideas? Check out these 50+ Content Ideas and Examples. Or take a quick look at these Expert Tips and Tricks on Video Marketing.
Did you attend Inbound 2020? Tell us about your favorite sessions below!
