Let’s start with the most basic strategic issues for any marketing professional: What is the purpose of your YouTube videos? What is your goal? Why do you want to market via YouTube? The wrong answer to the last question is “because everyone’s doing it.” Equally wrong are “because it’s the latest thing,”“because my competitors are doing it,” and “because it’s neat.”

As a marketing professional, you can’t base your marketing strategy on the latest trends and technologies or on the behaviors of other marketers. You have to pick and choose the media you use based on their strategic importance to your company and brand; you have to pick media that serves your purpose and achieves your stated results.

It’s possible that there is no strategic reason for you to market on YouTube. Perhaps you run a local contracting business and you have a very loyal and satisfied customer base, enough to fill your schedule for years to come. In this instance, you might have nothing to gain by putting up a video on YouTube. On the other hand, maybe you do have something to gain from producing a series of YouTube videos. Even if you don’t want or need to attract new customers, you might be able to serve your existing customers better by incorporating YouTube into your media mix.

Perhaps you can create a video demonstrating some of the options you have available for your customers, using YouTube as a kind of extended video catalog. Or maybe you can reinforce your new customers’ choices by uploading testimonials from customers who have been pleased with your company. Possibly you can use YouTube as after-sale support by showing customers how to maintain the work you create for them.

The point is that you need to determine up front what you want to achieve and how YouTube can help you achieve that. Don’t automatically assume that YouTube is just for attracting new customers or selling individual products—there are a number of ways that you can use YouTube for both pre-sale promotion and aftersale support. Figure out your goals ahead of time, and then build your plan around those goals.

Last Thoughts:

And, as I said, if YouTube doesn’t help you achieve those goals, that’s okay; you should never shoehorn a particular medium into your plans just because everybody else thinks you ought to. Who Is Your Customer? Another factor in determining how YouTube fits into your plans is the customers you’re trying to reach. Just who do you sell to—and why?

This is Marketing 101 stuff, so forgive me if I’m stating the obvious. But many marketers, especially those working online, either don’t know the basics or somehow 22 P