Brands with YouTube success: What can SMEs learn?

As the popularity of online video services continues to increase, low-cost opportunities for brands to capture the attention of a global user-base begins to emerge. Global and nationally reaching companies have led the way in creative marketing campaigns through YouTube, this is no more apparent than companies such as Nike appearing in the most watched videos on YouTube in 2016.

Investing in content on a social network such as YouTube has proven results. Social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk says that due to the advancements in competition on social media every successful company must now also be a media company which means that companies are now spending more time and money to put out great content in their feeds.

With the cost effectiveness of utilising the video platform and social media for promotion, smaller brands are beginning to get in on the act and boost their brand awareness through effective leveraging of content channels to effectively drive organic traffic to their website.

How have they done so?

Rokenbok - Appeal to your core demographic

Rokenbok Education are a US based company which competes within the largely competitive toy market that has been saturated by large players such as Lego, Hasbro & others. The question for Rokenbok is how to stand out from the crowd on social and in turn appeal successfully to their key demographic. To achieve this, Rokenbok produced a series of short videos with their products in role-playing scenes which appeal to their younger audience who are prevalent on social media.

Rokenbok also utilise social media as a PR method to change consumer opinion. In their ‘Don’t try this with Lego’ series, Rokenbok aggressively targets their competitors’ products and points out benefits their products have over Lego.

Capturing the attention of their target market over their social channel helped to position the brand besides other brands within a competitive business environment.

Populating your YouTube channel with content is key to building your viewer base and subscriber numbers. Video marketing success through YouTube is rarely achieved after one or two videos, but will take time for an SME to start being noticed online.

Lagavulin Whisky - Create a branded experience

A video that is creative in its simplicity, Lagavulin whisky enrolled the help of Nick Offerman to promote the brand on social media over the busy Christmas season.

Customers will always want a brand that is on the same page and not faceless; whether with humour, social news, or popular opinions. This highly simple yet effective video produced for Lagavulin’s YouTube channel benefits from the use of a well-known comedy personality to create positive brand associations with their audience.

Lagavulin gained some popularity due to references in comedy show Parks & Recreation where the product is associated with the traditionally masculine character ‘Ron Swanson’. The promotional video with Nick Offerman serves as a prime example of jumping on the back of an opportunity to create sharable content for the brands PR efforts.

Vape Club - Proactively answer customer questions and capture search results

As a relatively new product that has garnered a lot of media attention, there is growing curiosity from consumers regarding e-liquids and vaporizer as well as an ever-growing list of questions from new starters.

With their YouTube channel as the medium, Vape Club set out to answer these questions and be the natural expert in their area of business. For an SME to emulate this, finding the common questions that are being asked online can be as simple as using a free tool. Search engine research tool Answer the Public allows the user to find the core questions being asked by consumers and use this information to form the basis of their video content.

Vape Club reacted fast, and after finalising their consumer research they went on to create the first video guide on YouTube for e-liquid users, titled ‘A Beginners Guide to Vaping’. This video, despite its simple production levels has seen success because of its high relevancy. It directly answers the key questions that users are looking for in a useful & easy to digest way.

At time of writing, this video alone has had over one million views and has directed over 2,200 customers directly to the VapeClub.co.uk webstore according to Ahref data. This goes to show that by doing a little research and by acting fast a small business can get noticed.

GoPro - Create content that demonstrates what your product can do

When it comes to creating original and engaging content, the YouTube channel for GoPro stands out as one of the best examples of a brand using YouTube. Boasting a following of over 2 million, the GoPro channel was one of the original success stories of making use of user submitted content.

Due to the nature of the product, it makes replenishing the channel with fresh, regular content incredibly easy. As GoPro’s product naturally produces exciting or emotional material, it makes for prime material to engage and grab the attention of their audience.

An SME can look to this for inspiration – perhaps your product or service itself is the aspect that will prove to be the most effective use of a YouTube channel? The appeal of the simple is exemplified perfectly through the Hydraulic Press Channel on YouTube. Videos of a hydraulic press crushing everyday objects has managed to generate 1.6 million subscribers – simple, yet effective!

The way to market for an SME brand looking to build and capitalise on YouTube presence will depend on where their market and demographic for their product or service lies. As demonstrated by VapeClub.co.uk, research into the questions being asked online is a great way to pinpoint topics to create content around.

It is important to be aware of current trends, popular public figures and upcoming events that are being discussed online, as trending topics often create the perfect opportunity to generate buzz and attention for your brand using YouTube.