6. Incorporating YouTube Videos in Your Overall Web Marketing Mix

YouTube is just one component of a well-rounded marketing plan. You need to integrate your YouTube videos with the other marketing you do, so that all your marketing activities work toward the same common goal.

That said, how exactly should you treat YouTube videos within your larger marketing mix? Web videos aren’t exactly like print ads or email newsletters, after all; it’s a unique medium that somehow needs to reflect and reinforce the other marketing you do.

Defining YouTube’s Role in Your Marketing Strategy

Some marketing activities are pretty direct such as direct mail, of course, but also email marketing, online and offline advertising, and the like. These methods are all fairly hard sell in their approach.

YouTube marketing, on the other hand, is all about subtlety. That is, people don’t watch YouTube videos that are overtly promotional in nature. For that reason, you can’t upload an existing television commercial and expect to garner an online audience; people have too many other options to watch a commercial online, on their own time.

To that end, you need to produce videos that offer true value to your intended audience. This softer sell defines YouTube’s role in your marketing strategy.

This soft sell comes in the form of the information or instruction you provide. Perhaps that’s a video newscast where you talk about industry news or technical developments; perhaps it’s a how-to video that shows people how to use your product to do something useful. In any case, viewers watch the video because it provides valuable information; what they retain is a sense of your brand or company as a source of authority on the topic at hand.

Now, you might consider this sort of subtle sell an insidious form of corporate propaganda, and you’d be right. You’re edging your way into the customer’s life, hoping he’ll associate your brand with the useful information he’s received via your videos. WidgetCo provided value to me; WidgetCo is good; I want to make my next purchase from WidgetCo. That’s much different from a paid advertisement, and ultimately more effective; you get deep into your audience’s subconscious and plant your brand message in a very subtle yet long-lasting fashion.

The key is to use YouTube videos to supplement the promotional message you impart in other online and offline media. You don’t use videos to broadcast blatant advertisements; instead, you build on your promotional message with the practical information you broadcast to the YouTube audience.

And here’s another thing. By giving a face to your company or brand, YouTube videos can help personalize your company and develop a direct connection to your customer base. It’s not an anonymous promotional message from an ad or press release, it’s John Smith talking to you in person about something that interests you. This type of personal communication is particularly effective, and needs to be a part of your web marketing mix.

Formulating Your New Marketing Mix

Given the more subtle role that YouTube plays in your marketing strategy, where exactly does YouTube fit within your overall marketing mix?

Let’s start by recognizing the obvious—the Internet has dramatically changed the way marketing works. A company’s marketing mix today looks much different from the marketing mix of a generation ago. Go back a decade or two and you had a limited number of media to use: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and direct mail. Now, all of these media are still around today, but the Internet has added a variety of new options one must consider.

What new media has the Internet added to the mix? Here’s a short list:

• Email

• Websites

• Search engines

• Blogs

• Social networks (such as Facebook and MySpace)

• Photo-sharing sites (Flickr and so on)

• Video-sharing sites

YouTube, of course, defines that last category.

You need to consider all aspects of online marketing when fitting YouTube into your marketing plans. Does your YouTube marketing stand alone, or is it part of a larger campaign that includes seeded blog postings, banner website ads, pay-per-click search engine ads, targeted email, and viral campaigns on the key social networks? You should determine all this before you script and storyboard your first video.

In addition, you should also determine YouTube’s place alongside the traditional marketing media. Do you use YouTube merely as another channel for your television commercials, or does it expand on your television advertising with additional spots, alternative takes, expanded scenarios, and the like? Does YouTube merely provide more exposure for your existing campaign, or does it change things up to fine-tune your message to the slightly younger, more interactive YouTube audience?

Answering these questions will help you determine exactly how you fit YouTube into your marketing mix.

Coordinating Your Online Marketing Activities

Whatever components you include in your marketing mix, it’s important that all these components mesh with one other. They should all carry the same message; you don’t want to present one image to YouTube viewers, another to Google and other search engines, another to customers viewing display ads, and yet another to blogs and social networks. Your message should be consistent, no matter where customers encounter that message.

What does that mean, in reality?

First, it means that the way you define your business has to be consistent. The keywords you choose as part of your search engine optimization should also be the keywords you purchase for your PPC advertising, should also be key words in the copy for your display ads, should also be highlighted in the promotional emails you send to customers, should also be talking points when you communicate with influential bloggers, should also be present in the electronic press releases you send to online news organizations, and should also be incorporated into the scripts of your YouTube videos. You can’t describe your business one way in press releases, another way in advertisements, and yet another way in videos; you must have a consistent message.

That extends to using themes and images from your YouTube videos on your website—especially in the landing pages you create for your YouTube campaigns. When someone clicks to your website after watching a YouTube video, they should land on a page that not only repeats the message from the video, but also mirrors the look and feel of the video. Again, consistency is the key.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t adapt the message for the medium. You need to exploit the unique nature of the YouTube community when producing your online videos; you can’t just port a print ad to YouTube and expect it to work. You have to give YouTube viewers the experience they expect, not one more suited to another marketing vehicle.

That said, your videos shouldn’t veer off into a totally different direction from the other marketing you do. You have to consider all your marketing activities in a holistic fashion; someone approaching your product or brand via YouTube should receive the same message as someone learning about you via email or blogs or social networking or radio or print. You need to send a similar message via all your marketing activities, traditional or Internet-based.

The point is, all of your marketing vehicles need to work together. They have to convey a consistent message and image, and should not send conflicting messages to your customer base. Your marketing mix should be a consistent whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Making YouTube Co-Exist with Television Marketing

If you’re a larger company, chances are you’re already doing some degree of television-based marketing. What’s the best way to make your online and broadcast videos work together?

Repurposing

When it comes to joint television/online marketing, there are several approaches you can take, the easiest of which is simple repurposing. If you have an established TV advertising campaign, you repurpose your television ads to YouTube, posting your 30-second TV commercials to the YouTube site.

This is a simple approach, and it might be a good one—if your commercials are compelling enough to attract YouTube viewers. But, let’s face it, when given the choice of watching a million other entertaining and informative videos, why would YouTube viewers choose to spend 30 seconds of their valuable time to watch the same commercial they’ve seen a dozen times on TV?

If the original commercial is compelling enough, this might work. (It certainly works for Old Spice, Snickers, Evian, and other big advertisers.) But for most advertisers repurposing, although inexpensive and easy to execute, won’t be very successful.

Extending and Expanding

A better approach might be to take your existing television commercial and expand it for the YouTube audience. Maybe offer an “uncut” or “uncensored” version or shoot a new commercial that starts up where the first one left off. If a commercial is really successful, you can create a series of videos playing off that first one. Or maybe you can use YouTube as a channel for similar executions that you didn’t use on television. Something to extend or expand your existing campaign, not just replicate it online.

You can also use your existing campaign as the jumping off point for something new and creative. For example, some companies have created an initial video, and then encouraged viewers to produce their own variations. You can even do it in the form of a contest: Make your own YouTube video promoting our product, and the winner gets a valuable prize. Use your imagination and take advantage of the user interaction that YouTube encourages.

Starting Fresh

Finally, you can move beyond your existing campaign and create something totally new for YouTube. Play to the differences inherent in the YouTube medium; create a video campaign that exploits what’s new and unique about YouTube. Just make sure your YouTube-specific activity hews to the same overall message you use in the rest of your marketing.

The Big Picture

For many businesses, YouTube can be an important component of their overall marketing mix. YouTube’s role is a more subtle one, different from the hard sell approach of advertising or direct marketing. That said, your YouTube videos should reflect the same look and feel as the rest of your marketing activities, and forward the same overall message and goals. And when it comes to coordinating your online and traditional broadcast video marketing, know that repurposing is seldom the best approach—although you can use YouTube to extend and expand successful television advertising. In most instances, however, it’s better to create something new and unique for YouTube, while working holistically with the other elements of your marketing strategy.