If you work in marketing then you've no doubt heard these lyrics sung to many a tune: 'increase spend on video marketing', 'create more videos', 'videos, videos, did we mention videos?'

Great. Videos are in. As with any trending technique though, video in itself will not magically solve all of your issues, it has to align with your business's values and objectives. Below are a few approaches adopted by top software companies for their YouTube channels, which you might want to adopt.

1. Sort out the basics first

Creating a video and uploading it to YouTube is all very well if it’s a one-off. However, if video is a large part of your marketing strategy then it’s in your best interests to optimise your channel by organizing your videos into themed playlists and creating a landing page for your channel that makes it easy for your customers and prospects to understand you.

Let’s take Workday’s YouTube channel as an example of a software company which is doing this effectively. As you can see in the GIF above, they’ve created a great landing page for their channel:

• They have uploaded a branded header which neatly summarizes what they do. All too often with software companies, taglines can be incredibly vague and high-end, but here you know straight away that they deal with finance and HR.
• They’ve put their best foot forward by featuring a witty advert as their landing video (this is the video that autoplays when somebody arrives on their YouTube landing page). Their video shows a number of people practicing breaking up with their current finance and HR system in favour of Workday. It gives a good idea straightaway of Workday’s sense of humour and it’s not too heavy on the selling front either. It also neatly ties in with their channel’s header making their brand’s message consistent.
• Workday have numerous playlists each with their own clear identities. For instance: Work Talk is a channel for roundtable-type discussions on business matters, Product Spotlight is the playlist used to give a sneak peek into upcoming Workday releases, Work Day Life showcases their company culture, and so on.  To take those three playlists as examples (there are more on their channel!), you can easily see Work Talk being used to attract new clients, Product Spotlight as a piece of added value for their existing clients, and Work Day as a way to give potential employees an idea of the culture.

2. Focus on a niche topic and own that space

SAS is another company that uses playlists effectively. Their most successful playlist, with one video raking over 15,000 views, is focused on the question “What is the Internet of Things?”. Each video highlights a different aspect of the Internet of Things, such a smart cities, manufacturers, autonomous vehicles, and so forth, and how SAS’ analytics software fits into it. The Internet of Things is a hot topic at the moment. By creating a playlist around it SAS are positioning themselves as experts in the field – a cunning move indeed!

3. Make it a learning resource 

One of the great uses for video is as a learning tool. With software, nothing really beats a visual presentation to understand how to make the best of it. Concur is a great example for this: their tutorials and demos are slick and engaging and make you want to try out their invoicing software, which is no mean feat!

4. Show off your lighter side!

Solarwinds, an IT Management Software company, has an entire playlist dedicated to ‘fun’ videos. These include an action figure IT trailer and a homage to Stranger Things (see video below). These kinds of videos will perform particularly well on social media and are a great way to differentiate you from your competition with a splash of personality.

5. Integrate digital and physical marketing

Events and video go hand in hand: you can use video to promote events, engage with attendees, and extend your reach beyond the event by sharing your recordings. Epicor for example, clearly value this approach as their channel is almost solely dedicated to events.

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