They are almost certainly missing out on information that is important to you to deliver to them.
It isn’t nearly as common for someone to skim a YouTube video.
Once you’ve learned how to capture and keep their attention, they will listen to what you have to say.
What does the data have to say about this?
Our team’s first inclination was to compare the on-time engagement of articles before and after we added videos.
(This article is more about generating fresh content from video, not retrofitting existing blogs with video content, but it is usually the first step we take when transitioning to a video-first strategy.)
The problem with this method is that it does not count for visitors who clicked on the video and viewed the content on YouTube.
We want people to do this since it will increase the likelihood of them subscribing or having us show up on their “For you” page, but it will skew your average visit duration in GA4.
Our second inclination was to compare the duration of the visits to traffic that came from YouTube to organic search traffic.
Essentially, we are viewing the behavior of someone who has spent 2 to 20 minutes viewing videos on YouTube and seeing how they interacted with the rest of the content on our website.
This is that report from our company’s GA4:
As you can see, the average visit from YouTube lasts almost twice as long as a visit from organic search.
My conversations with leads confirm this. Prospects who have viewed video content completely differ from those who have simply visited service pages and blogs.
What does our experience with customers have to say about this?
“It’s so weird to be actually talking to you right now, I was just watching you on my screen six hours ago.”
“I already know what you guys do and I love it. How much does it cost and if we do work with you, when can we get started?”
“I’ve always seen SEOs and the crypto bros of marketing, but I could tell you’re a straight-shooting Jersey guy that I can trust.”
I can probably give you two dozen quotes from discovery calls over the last two years.
This never happened during calls with people who discovered us through our blog.
Essentially, the undercurrent of “Are you a scammer or someone that has no idea what they’re doing?” dissipates after they’ve spent 25 minutes watching your YouTube videos.
I’ve also seen our pipeline lighten during periods when our video output stopped for one reason or another.
Videos can be more easily repurposed than blogs
I’m putting content repurposing last for a reason: while most marketers consider it the top benefit of this strategy, it’s not as straightforward as it seems.
It’s not easy to get engagement on a video posted to LinkedIn or Instagram Reels that is meant to be discovered through organic search on Google or YouTube.
It is possible to find nuggets from your long-form video content that work as standalone short-form content, but the temptation to get lazy and not properly tailor it to the platform is big.
If you will try to repurpose this video for other platforms, great.
But be sure you know what you’re doing. If you do it wrong, you might annoy your audience and hurt the rest of your social media efforts.
Dig deeper: A guide to creating social media videos (for search and beyond)
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