As YouTube™ has gained overwhelming popularity as a video sharing platform for consumers, businesses have been quick to recognize the marketing potential. Reaching nearly 500 million users worldwide each month in 2011, YouTube now sees over 3 billion page views per day on their site alone; with hundreds of millions more videos watched on mobile devices and embedded in other websites.

As the third most visited website in the world, YouTube offers banks and credit unions valuable exposure that can dramatically increase brand awareness.

Furthermore, financial services organizations can leverage YouTube’s social network of viewer comments and link sharing to track public perceptions of a bank’s video content, to ensure they are delivering the most relevant and compelling visual messages to attract new business and meet customer needs.

Using YouTube to achieve key business objectives

YouTube can be a highly effective business tool for financial services, providing an entertaining medium to demonstrate expertise, share knowledge, solve problems, and promote products. In addition to marketing, the viral nature of this video platform makes it a powerful channel for meeting important business goals, such as:

  • Customer acquisition: Promoting the brand by showcasing benefits, products, and member testimonials.
  • Community engagement: Generating buzz for local events and highlighting loyal customers.
  • Customer service: Proactively supporting customers with how-to videos that address common concerns.

How to increase customer acquisition using YouTube

YouTube enables your organization to increase market exposure with targeted content.

  • Wells Fargo reposts TV ads such as their “Owning a Home” commercial to reach out to people needing a mortgage. YouTube enables the bank to maximize the value of marketing media to attract new customers.
  • DATCU Credit Union posts news clips from reputable sites such as ABC News, which discuss rising bank fees and low interest rates as evidence to support a switch to their credit union.

How YouTube helps you build community engagement

YouTube allows you to highlight local sponsorships and relevant news to motivate engagement.

  • Bank of America posts stories about their charitable efforts in local communities, along with related news and interviews that can be shared across social networks.
  • Michigan Credit Union League engages with members by posting clips of events such as their annual convention.

How to leverage YouTube to improve customer service

YouTube delivers insights on customer concerns so you can react quickly to preserve your brand.

  • Chase tracks complaints posted in video and engages customers to resolve the issues. The video stories, and related viewer comments, also provide valuable insight into areas for service improvement.
  • California Coast Credit Union shares entertaining clips from members that help celebrate the brand and generate enthusiasm with young audiences.

Improving customer experience with YouTube

While YouTube offers a compelling and cost-effective channel for promoting your business, as a social media network, it’s also a critically important tool for tracking public sentiment about your customers’ experience. You can also take advantage of the wealth of content and comments on YouTube to gain insight on consumer perceptions and competing organizations, to strengthen your own customer experience strategy. With visual messaging targeted to meet a range of needs, you can enhance customer support and attract new business.