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268 Part IV Promotion and Monetization

Why Use YouTube for B2B Marketing

B2C marketing involves pitching a marketing message directly at the end con-
sumer—the average folks who purchase products and services at the retail level.
B2B marketing, on the other hand, pitches a marketing message not at consumers,
but at other businesses. And marketing to businesses is a much different business
than marketing to consumers.

First off, businesses are less influenced by promotional messages than are con-
sumers; there’s less impulse buying in the B2B market. Businesses tend to be more
measured in their purchasing habits, and they certainly don’t roam the retail aisles
alongside individual consumers. Businesses are more likely to order direct from
suppliers, from catalogs and websites and salespeople. They’re also more likely to
stay with a supplier once the purchasing process has been set up; routine is impor-
tant.

As such, you’re unlikely to attract new business customers via YouTube. Not only
are businesses less apt to be looking for information about new suppliers on
YouTube, they’re also less apt to be viewing YouTube, period. In fact, many compa-
nies prohibit employees from accessing the YouTube site on company time—and
that includes employees in the purchasing department.

That said, many businesses do access YouTube, and for business purposes. Globally,
YouTube reports that there are 1.5 million business searches of its site every day,
which makes it the second-most visited destination for business-related searches.
(Google is number-one, of course.) YouTube says it reaches half of all online small
business owners; if that’s who you’re trying to reach, YouTube might be the way to
do it.

Different Ways B2B Companies Can Use YouTube

Now that we know that more businesses than you might think are accessing
YouTube, there’s the issue of how exactly you can serve these potential customers
via the YouTube platform. YouTube is primarily a consumer site, after all, and the
types of videos that consumers flock to probably won’t do much for the typical
business customer.

First things first. What do you expect to achieve with your B2B YouTube videos?

Where most B2C marketers use YouTube to attract new customers, I think that’s
probably an unrealistic goal for B2B marketers. Few businesses will be looking at
YouTube as a place to find new suppliers. Oh, a few might, but most B2B marketers
trolling YouTube for new contacts are likely to be disappointed.