Video Wine Marketing? On YouTube? You cannot be serious! That sounds really complicated and expensive, right? Wrong!
Getting the marketing of wine right in the digital age can be very complicated! Traditional wine marketing relied on print and physical advertising. But since the year 2000 the world has gone through insane changes in the way we both create and consume content. Nearly all advertising and marketing is now done online. Print media is not quite dead, but traditional advertising channels are definitely taking a backseat compared to online wine marketing, and video wine marketing.
YouTube is one of the biggest players in social media. Yes, YouTube is social media. Users can interact with one another, like, comment, share videos and recommendations. Many people forget that YouTube is a huge social media site because it houses video content.
What is blocking Video Wine Marketing?
The two main reasons that wine marketing is not huge on YouTube right now are:
- Vineyards and Wineries do not understand that YouTube is a long game. Content you create and upload right now must be evergreen and be applicable in years to come.
- Wineries and Vineyards think that their online presence on YouTube needs to be a super-polished, high-quality professional presentation that will cost them a large amount of money.
Video for wine marketing does not need to be prohibitively expensive. There is a certain charm that comes from a video presentation that looks home-made. Viewers are more likely to feel that this style of video is ‘authentic’ and represents the brand well. Of course, you still need to compose, cut and edit your video well, have a script and enough lighting so that people can see what you are doing. But a camera phone on a tripod will work well for you to vlog about your brand.
So, once you have a wine marketing video of your brand that you are happy with, and you have uploaded it to YouTube, what do you do next?
Video Wine Marketing and how to win at YouTube
As mentioned earlier, YouTube is a long game. Content that you create and put on YouTube can take many months to pick up momentum and gain the hundreds or thousands of views that you desire. YouTube is, at the end of the day, a search engine. Hundreds of millions of people ask questions of YouTube every single day, and to win at YouTube you must ensure that your video answers their questions.
Assuming that you have made the right video, that has a reasonable quality and that you are providing a good quality answer to a question that someone in your space is asking, are there any clear strategies for what to do next?
Yes. Here is the WineScribble guide to Wine Marketing on YouTube:
Question: What is YouTube?
- YouTube is a video sharing website
- It is the world’s second biggest search engine (owned by the world’s first biggest search engine, Google)
- It is also “social media” – people can like, share, and comment on the content they discover
Question: How do people use YouTube?
They ask questions, and expect to discover video content that gives them answers
- e.g. “How do I unblock a drain?”
- or “How do I put makeup like Rihanna?”
- e.g. “What is the best Cyprus vineyard to visit?”
- even “What Cyprus wine pairs with souvlaki?”
Question: Why is video wine marketing important?
- Video displays nonverbal communication — Viewers are able to determine exactly what the speaker is trying to get across by observing body language, verbal tone and other visual cues. People trust what they see more than what they hear or what they read.
- Moving pictures engages audiences — As a matter of fact, consumers are over 27 times more likely to click on an online video advertisement than a standard banner advertisement.
- Video prompts shares — Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined. Also, video is a richer medium that is easier to relate to, compared to text.
“Just to give you an idea of the numbers we are talking about, a user’s positive experience with a video ad increases their purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139%.”
From: 11 reasons why video is better than the written word for marketing your brand
Question: A positive video about my business is on YouTube, how can I maximise this potential?
- If you know the release date of the video, you should participate in the “first week velocity” (more below)
- You should use the video URL link when communicating with potential customers — to show them what you and your business are all about, before they visit.
Actionable Tips: Video Wine Marketing
Do these things now to ensure that you maximise the benefits of your video wine marketing strategy.
- Make sure you add the video URL to your email footer.
- Add the video URL to your business website, the best location is on the “About Us” page.
- Add the video URL to your Facebook page as a “pinned post” in your timeline. Advice from Facebook: To pin a post to the top of your Page’s timeline:
- Go to the post on your Page’s timeline.
- Click in the top right of the post.
- Select Pin to Top of Page.
Question: How can I assist in the “first week velocity” of this video becoming popular on YouTube?
- The number of likes, comments and shares that a video gathers in the first 24 hours tells Google whether this video is a good quality answer to a question.
- It is very important that a new video gathers as many watch minutes, likes and comments as possible in the first 2 days — Google will see this video as a high quality presentation on the topic, and promote the video (and therefore promote the business that the video represents).
- “Shares, likes, comments, and watch time” are together called ‘engagement’ — without engagement, Google will classify the video as not worth promoting and drop the video through the search ranks. This is a very bad thing.
Question: What is “high quality engagement”?
- This is conversation. Back and forth conversation is high quality engagement.
- If you leave a comment that is just a smiley face, there is nothing that the video author can say back to you — do not do this.
- Further, if you leave a comment that says “Awesome video” — still there is nothing that the video author can say back to you apart from “thanks!” — do not do this.
- If you leave a comment that includes a question, especially a question that shows you have watched the video and actually have a question that needs answering — the author has to to answer you, and then we have a conversation. Back and forth. This is high quality engagement.
To win at Google/YouTube
- We need to make sure that there are as many “watch minutes” as possible, from as many unique phones, computers and tablets as possible. So, let the video run to the end and ask anyone you share the video with to do the same.
- Also, we need as many “thumbs up” on the video as possible — this is the primary indicator to Google that this video is useful to the viewer.
- We also need as many “shares” as possible — click on the share button, and send it to a friend. Do this as many times as you can, without making your friends crazy!
- If someone leaves you a comment you have to ‘like’ it and write something back, anything. Do this!
Conclusion
So, basically video wine marketing is all about YouTube, and YouTube is all about the “rules of YouTube” which are well known to people in the digital and social space. Vineyards and wineries are coming quite late to the online marketing party. But, we can help!
Get in contact with WineScribble right now if you need any further assistance with online wine marketing or video wine marketing.
Final Tips
- Do not be shy. Ask your friends to share this video to five of their friends. Think about it. If I ask for five shares that is five views.
- However, if I ask for five views and five shares, that is 25 views.
- If I ask for five shares, five views, and five shares of shares, that is 125 views.
- This will tell the search engine that this video is a worthy answer to a great question.